Theater Studies Assignment | Custom Assignment Help

Please be careful about Spelling and Punctuation. Also, focusing on the reaction is important

THRT 001 REVISED PLAY/FILM CRITIQUE GUIDELINES
Professor Massie, M.A., M.A., M.F.A.
1. Your critique should be 1 1/2 – 2 pages, typed, double spaced, and should include:
– The name of the play or film version of the play, and playwright, or screenwriter
– The name of the director if it is listed online
– The date you saw the online version of the play or film, and the online link to the
version you saw, whether it was youtube, or the name of the theater company
such as “The Old Globe” where we watched clips from The Winter’s Tale
2. Any additional notes you want to add about the playwright from the notes I gave
you
3. Genre/Style of the Play, or Film version of the play, or Film – Examples are
Realism, Symbolism, Expressionism, Surrealism, Absurdism, Musical Theater,
Musical Comedy, Tragedy, Drama
4. Themes in the play – what was the main message of the play if you had to
summarize what the play meant to you?
5. Do not summarize the plot- I have discussed the plot in your notes, only because I
wasn’t sure if everyone understood the play. I am more interested in your reactions to
the story, emotionally, psychologically, and emotionally, and how the play affected
you.
6. Set Design – comments about the set, or various sets if you are comparing one video
clip to another (include the link so I can watch it) colors, levels, specific set pieces
that stood out to you
7. Costume Design – style, colors, time period of the play (or film)
8. Lighting Design – colors, specific stage areas lit, whatever you can detect watching
online. Was the play performed indoors or outdoors? (For example, Shakespeare by
the Sea’s version of The Winter’s Tale was performed outdoors, but during the day for
Part I, at night for Part II)
9. Staging and blocking – what was visually interesting if anything? Levels, amount
of movement on stage, rhythm, pacing, technical specificity if there are a lot of people
onstage at the same time
10. Acting – What characters did you relate to the most? What characters did you
believe the most? Which characters did you not believe or relate to? If you were
cast in this play or film , which character would you want to play and why?
11. Directing – were the scene transitions smooth? Did you feel involved in the story?
Did you go on the character’s journey while watching it?
THRT 001 REVISED PLAY/FILM CRITIQUE GUIDELINES
Professor Massie, M.A., M.A., M.F.A.
12. Other questions to consider:
a. How did the play or film make you feel? Were you moved, surprised, sad, bored,
confused, entertained, scared? What specifically affected you – even if it was
only film clips? (Acting and Design elements)
13. Spelling and punctuation are important and will affect your grade.
The first play critique is due April 23 on Assassins, The Winter’s Tale, or Alice in
Wonderland. Please email me your play critique unless I give you different
instructions.
The second play critique is due May 21 submitted online and can be on Hamlet (in
place of Once on this Island), Sweeney Todd, or one of the earlier plays.
All play critiques are due according to the dates on the syllabus unless we change
that date, and 2 weeks before the end of the semester. However, points will be taken
off for handing in late play critiques. You can also submit the play critiques early!

Hamlet YouTube links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqS7VyuD_Mg&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PcUQyXNYe0&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0rOoq1Tzd4&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrfUawdF2Co&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g05x9X7mpcY&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfcsP-eKJF8&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay502y7aspo&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTLdy1n-DME&feature=youtu.be

THRT 001 NOTES ON HAMLET –
Professor Massie M.A., M.A., M.F.A.
1. About the playwright, William Shakespeare and the English Renaissance:
(approximately 1550 – 1642)
a. William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) is considered by most scholars to be the
most eloquent and comprehensive playwright of any era, and the greatest
dramatist of all time. He could write in any genre, ranging from tragedy to
history to comedies and romance. He was sympathetic and empathetic towards
all of his characters, at a time when most playwrights were writing morality
plays, where characters were judged as either good or evil, and the play had to
teach a moral lesson. Shakespeare was a rebel playwright because he did not
follow the Neoclassical rules of the period for writing plays: rules such as all
plays had to be 5 acts, poetry and prose could not be mixed, all hero’s were
royalty, and comic characters were servants. Instead, Shakespeare defied these
rules, and created 3 dimensional characters who had depth, psychological
turmoil, and struggled with moral dilemmas. He was also considered the most
eloquent poet of the period, and perhaps any dramatist throughout time.
b. In 1574 Queen Elizabeth banned all religious plays and demanded that actors
form their own companies, become professionals, and write only secular
(nonreligious) material. Shakespeare started as an actor between 1585 – 1592,
joined an acting company called The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, and became a
shareholder in the company. Queen Elizabeth was the company’s most
prominent benefactor He started writing plays in 1579 because the Queen
wanted to see 6 plays a week, and would not allow plays to be performed
twice until after a fortnight (approx. 17 days). Because of the Queen’s edict
that all actors and acting companies had to become professional, the English
Renaissance was the age of the playwright and the age of the actor. The
English Renaissance was the Golden Age of theater, and changed the art form
for all time.
2. Some Information from scholars about Hamlet:
a. Scholars argue that William Shakespeare’s Hamlet was written and first
performed between 1600-1601 during the English Renaissance. It is believed to
be based on the death of Shakespeare’s son Hammet, and is the story of a
grieving son for the loss of his dead father. The news of his father’s death and
the appearance of his father’s ghost throws Hamlet into a state of perplexity
throughout the play. Some scholars have suggested that the character Hamlet
is not so much perplexed as that the audience enters into a state of perplexity
when they see the play Hamlet performed. Hamlet’s personality is full of
anomalies, and his moods range from antics to madness to wild passion, and
melancholia. Shakespeare creates a world of confusion, suspicion, and
violence, and the audience is drawn into that atmosphere.
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3. Genre or Style of the Play/Film:
a. Shakespearean Tragedy – Hamlet was considered Europe’s first great tragedy
in over 2,000 years since the Greeks. It is an archetype of an earlier Spanish
play called The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd during the Spanish
Renaissance, which followed a classic theatrical revenge plot, and is known as a
Revenge Tragedy. In this genre, the revenger is condemned and is doomed to
die, making Hamlet a dead man from the beginning of the play. The opening of
the play when the ghost appears can be seen as a metaphor for the spiritual
state of Denmark more than its’ political state, where the ghost “bodes some
strange eruption to our state.” Normally Shakespeare opens the play with the
most important plot and thematic material, but here the opening scene sets the
atmosphere of suspicion and fear that pervades the entire play. Hamlet doesn’t
meet the ghost until later, where he swears instant revenge, and is thrown into a
complex emotional state of distraction and passion. The mood of the play
becomes violent after Hamlet swears revenge to the ghost of his father, and is
pivotal to the plot and the style of Revenge Tragedy.
4. Themes of the play:
a. The play has many complex themes, one of which is constant theorizing,
guessing, waiting, delaying, testing, and constant doubting. The audience’s
attention is drawn to constant questions: “Can the ghost be believed?” “Can
Hamlet commit the murder?” “Can justice be achieved?” Not only does Hamlet
feel stuck, the audience is drawn into a tense world of doubt and suspicion
where no one is safe. Other themes such as the nature of madness are
explored -Is Hamlet mad or only acting mad for show? Can grief drive a person
to madness? What is the root cause of Opheiia’s madness?
b. The nature of action is a theme in the play. Hamlet writes his play, The
Mousetrap to be performed by the players because he still doubts the ghost,
and cannot take action against Claudius until he sees his uncle’s reaction to his
play. One reason Shakespeare creates “the play within the play” is to explore
the dilemma of taking action, when morality demands that you do not act.
Hamlet’s very nature is that of a soldier, courtier, and scholar, not that of a
murderer or criminal. He is caught in a moral imperative between being true to
his own nature. or being true to his vow to avenge his father’s death. Because
of this moral imperative he cannot act, until circumstances force him to kill
Claudius at the end of the play.
c. The nature of evil, guilt, corrruption and disease are all themes in the play.
Claudius is evil because he murders his brother, and usurps the throne. By
poisoning the old king, he poisons the “body politic” of the state. His “crime is
the crime that sets crime in motion,” a quote from the Greek tragedian,
Aeschylus. Claudius is tortured by guilt and tries to pray for forgiveness but
cannot. However, this very act stops Hamlet from stabbing him, as Hamlet
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cannot kill the king while he is praying. Corruption and disease are constantly
mentioned throughout the play. Claudius’ crime is “the undivulged disease,”
and is referred to as an ulcer in the play.
d. The nature of Power is a theme – Claudius is a tyrant, and usurps the crown
that should have been Hamlet’s as next in line to be king. Polonius is also a
tyrant to Ophelia by forcing her to give back the love letters to Hamlet, leading
to her eventual madness and death.
e. Retribution is a theme – Hamlet calls himself both “scourge and minister” (Act
III, sc. IV, line 175). By having bloody thoughts of wanting to kill Claudius he is a
scourge, but by committing revenge he also delivers the state from evil. Hamlet
justifies his actions when he says “”there’s a divinity that shapes our ends,
rough-hew them how we will” (Act V, Sc. 11, Lines 10-11.). Hamlet’s random
acts make him a minister of good and retribution, he dies a soldier by
committing the noble act of killing Claudius.
f. Betrayal is a theme – All of the characters either betray someone or are
betrayed. Hamlet is betrayed by his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, by
Claudius, Gertrude, and Ophelia. Opheila is betrayed by her father, she
betrays herself when she is forced to give back the love letters, and she betrays
Hamlet. Gertrude betrays Hamlet, her former husband, and Claudius by
pretending to love him in order to maintain the crown. Claudius betrays
everyone. The only person who doesn’t betray anyone is Horatio, Hamlet’s best
friend, although he is betrayed by Claudius and being trapped in a corrupt
world. Shakespeare reveals the consequences of betrayal in every scene of the
play to build the tension, the plot, the climaxes, and the complexity of the
characters.
5. Cast of Characters:
a. Claudius – King of Denmark
b. Hamlet – son to the late King Hamlet, nephew to Claudius
c. Polonius – Laertes and Ophelia’s father
d. Horatio – Hamlet’s friend
e. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Osric – courtiers
f. Marcellus, Barnardo, Francisco – officers and soldiers
g. Reynaldo – Polonius’ servant
h. Fortinbras – Price of Norway
i. Players
j. Two clowns – grave-diggers
k. Gertrude – Queen of Denmark, Hamlet’s mother, marries Claudius after the
murder of the late King Hamlet
l. Ophelia – Polonius’ daughter, Laertes sister
m. Laertes – Polonius’ son, Ophelia’s brother
n. Ghost of Hamlet’s father
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6. There are multiple versions of Hamlet. The video clips I sent you are from Kenneth
Branagh’s, David Tenant’s, and Mel Gibson’s film versions of Hamlet.
Set, Costumes, Lights: Watch video clips
a. Film with Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet: Set in the 1800’s, sometimes
described as the “white” Hamlet, because it takes place during the winter in
Denmark where everything is covered in snow and ice
b. Film with David Tenant as Hamlet: contemporary time period
c. Film with Mel Gibson as Hamlet: takes place in the Middle Ages
7. Works cited: The Riverside Shakespeare, 2nd edition, The Complete Works,
Hamlet. Houghton Miflin Company, Boston & New York,1997