Paper #2 Assignment: due this Friday

NOTE: The questions for Crusoe are in the post below this one

Paper #2: “These antique fables [and] fairy toys”: Staging the Dream

For your second paper (if you choose to accept it), I want you to focus on ONE character in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and discuss how he/she should be interpreted/understood by a potential actor.  Imagine that you are a dramaturg (someone hired by a theater company to offer historical/contextual details to a performance) and your insight is crucial for the actor to understand his or her place in the overall ‘dream.’  Discuss several passages in the play where you would help the actor interpret his/her lines and understand how this moment relates to the play as a whole, as well as to the underlying historical details that only a literature/theater scholar would know. 

Consider this a kind of guide for future performance, and you can have as much—or as little—fun with this as you like.  For example, you could write to a specific actor (Robert Pattinson as Puck?), or you could merely offer general notes to a potential performance.  ALSO, consider what happens when the character isn’t speaking.  If a character is on-stage without dialogue, is something important happening?  What does Hermia do at the end of Act 4?  Or Hippolyta in Act 1?  Help us see the performance we can’t see until opening night. 

To help you do this, I want you to use at least TWO sources from the Contextual Documents in the back of the book (either sources we read and discussed in class, or other selections that we haven’t).  These materials can help you discuss what Shakespeare might have intended with this character, and how this character would be perceived by his original audience—which, in turn, can help the actor understand who he/she really is in the play.  You can also use other sources—articles from JSTOR, etc.—but don’t use these instead of the documents in our book. 

REQUIREMENTS

·        At least 4-5 pages, double spaced

·        Focus on only ONE character; don’t jump around and juggle multiple characters in your analysis (you can mention other characters, but focus primarily on your character)

·        Close readings: don’t summarize what happens (or summarize the plot); focus on specific moments in the play and examine the dialogue

·        At least 2 sources from the Contextual Documents in our book, though you can use other as well (but not instead of); you can use the film we watched as an additional (3^rd) source, too. 

·        Cite all quotations according to MLA guidelines and include a Works Cited with each source documented.

Due Friday, October 24^th by 5pm