Embedded Files
In the fall of 2011, my classes had two original student written & student produced plays shown in the La Jolla Playhouse. As a humanities class, we took on all of the roles, jobs and responsibilities of a professional theater company, from writing two original scripts, casting the actors, building the sets, and so on, until we had our shows ready for primetime. Click below to purchase the book that documents it all, including the scripts, playbills, and students' literary criticisms of their own original theatrical productions.
Can we write, produce, direct, act in, market, and show our own play? And, while we do it, can we analyze our writing, learn from the best examples out there, and create a play that is steeped in literary history, yet still our own original work? Can we document the whole process in multiple forms so that others can see the play, read the play, and understand the path from our first ideas to our final product?
Example plays
For the whole class:
Hamlet
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
* Examples for Honors students and for Challenge assignments are available on the "Reading" page.
Individual Theater Jobs
Theater jobs for the morning class are here.
Theater jobs for the afternoon class are here.
Hamlet Assignments
1. Choose a specific Act and Scene and produce a multimedia-based live act.
2. Write and perform an original scene involving you and at least one other character from Hamlet. You must use at least one line that is spoken in Shakespeare's version of the play. You should title your scene according to the original Act and Scene that provides it's context. For example, you might create Act 2 Scene 1.5, which takes place in between Scenes 1 and 2 of Act 2.
3. Create a digital play that shows one scene in Hamlet. Your digital play must showcase your individual Theater Job—actors must "act" in some capacity, Scenic Designers must create "sets", etc.
4. Create a "digital essay" that answers one or more of the following (the number of questions will be determined per group). Each digital essay must answer the question, incorporate direct evidence, and function as a cohesive and engaging piece of multimedia. Your group will work together to create an organizing principle that guides the digital essay.
The Questions
1. To what extent is Hamlet pretending to be mad, and to what extent has he actually slipped into madness throughout the play? How do you know?
2. What do Hamlet's seven major soliloquies reveal about his character?
3. Is Hamlet a sensitive, romantic idealist or tragically flawed and unable to act? How do you know?
4. How much is the play Hamlet determined by the revenge plot versus the character Hamlet's actual traits—is Hamlet trapped in the play or is the play trapped by Hamlet? How do you know?
5. What do character foils reveal about Hamlet?
6. What significance is Ophelia to Hamlet... and to Hamlet?
7. Explain the roles of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Hamlet—pay careful attention to their placement in and around key scenes.
8. Explain Hamlet's conflicted feelings about suicide.
9. Show how external and internal conflicts interact in Hamlet.
10. Show how relationships between various characters create tension throughout Hamlet (you choose the characters).
11. How does Hamlet interact with (and help create) our concept of theater?
12. Explain the treatment of women in Hamlet and it's effect on the play.
13. Explain the significance of the concept of "reality" in Hamlet.
Tests & Quizzes
Hamlet Quiz #1 covers Acts 1 & 2. You may take your quiz anytime during reasonable school hours between 8:30 am on Wednesday, September 28 and 3:30 pm on Friday, September 30.
Hamlet Quiz #2 covers the whole play and will be taken after we are done reading.
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
Questions.
Choose five of the following and answer them with a combination of your own original analysis and the thoughtful use of direct evidence.
1. How do the characters Rosencrantz & Guildenstern develop as characters throughout the play?
2. Explain how dramatic irony functions in at least one specific part or aspect of R & G Are Dead.
3. Explain the role of the Player in R & G Are Dead.
4. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are simultaneously unable to understand basic aspects of their lives, but they also come close to articulating deep insights into their world. Explain the result of this balance.
5. Explain what the Player means by “We’re actors—we’re the opposite of people!”
6. Explain what the Player means when he says, “we are tied down to a language which makes up in obscurity what it lacks in style.”
7. Is Guildenstern right when he says, “There must have been a moment, at the beginning, where we could have said—no”?
8. What significance does the audience hold for the Player—and how does this viewpoint extend beyond theater and into other aspects of human existence?
9. Choose one particular "joke" within R & G Are Dead and explain what makes it work (note: the jokes are not necessarily traditional call and response jokes or riddles or even one-liners).
Essay Topics.
Choose one of the following and develop it into a full and complete essay that features your original analysis supported by the thoughtful and thorough incorporation of direct evidence.
1. What is the significance of death, as it is explored on multiple levels, in the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead?
2. Compare and contrast Hamlet, as he appears in Hamlet versus Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
3. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was written by a theater critic. What criticism of theater, or wisdom, or insight, does it offer?
4. Explain the significance of the line “we are tied down to a language which makes up in obscurity what it lacks in style,” as it relates to the play as a whole.
5. Explain the significance of the concept of home—as well as exile (or lack of a home)—as it is explored on multiple levels, in the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
6. What significance does the audience hold for the Player—and how does this viewpoint extend beyond theater and into other aspects of human existence?
7. Explain the role of the Player in R & G Are Dead.
Page updated
Report abuse