Shakespeare Research Projects

Shakespeare Projects:

Options and Guidelines

Stage History| Film History| Director's Notebook

Textual Variances| Lesson Plans| Recent Criticism|

The Oxfordian Controversy| The Master Peter Controversy

You will take on one of these semester projects as a self-selected partnership consisting of 2-3 people. Your partnership is expected to work planfully on this project during the semester and to make good use of the computer lab and/or library during the class time set aside for synchronous group work. Group members can also communicate via the class listserv (shakespeare@lists.snu.edu).

Please notify me ASAP at ghackler@snu.edu if you encounter problems with any of the links below.

STAGE HISTORY

Research the stage history of one play, focusing either on performance production or actors playing a particular character or characters.

Resources that may be of use to you are these:

Bradley S. Berens' "Shakespearean Stage History from 1660 Onwards"

The "Shakespeare in Performance" section in Bevington's (our textbook's) appendix identifies major productions and provides a general context for performance history.

Shakespeare in Performance (Parsons and Mason, 1995) contains photos and commentary [library reserve]

Terry Gray's Festivals and Theatre Companies

The Shakespeare in Performance Data-Base (helpful in understanding how staging is dependent on theatre design)

Shakespeare Festivals

Search the production history of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.

Ludweb's section on Companies and section on Festivals

See festival listings under "Performance" on Michael Best's Shakespeare on the Internet site

This index of performance reviews includes some Shakespeare plays

Stage history in Hamlet

List of HAMLET productions

An annual review of major Shakespeare performances appears in the back of Shakespeare Survey volumes [library reference]

An annual review of major Shakespeare performances appears in Shakespeare Quarterly [ProQuest CD in library, 1988- ]

FILM HISTORY

Research the film history of one play, focusing either on performance production or actors playing a particular character or characters.

Resources that may be of use to you are these:

The "Shakespeare in Performance" section in Bevington's (our textbook's) appendix identifies major productions and provides a general context for performance history.

Shakespeare in Performance (Parsons and Mason, 1995) contains photos and commentary [library reserve] Internet Movie Database

Internet Movie Database

A Short Bibliography of Shakespeare and Film

Try the American Film Institue Webpage

Poor Yorick CD and Video Emporium (a catalog of Shakespeare on film) American Film Institute's search engine for play titles.

List of HAMLET productions

Hamlets: National Film Theatre, January 1997

Richard III: Onstage and Off (extensive performance history from the Richard III Society)

Primary Texts and Secondary Sources On-line (more performance reviews included in this list from the Richard III Society)

DIRECTOR'S NOTEBOOK

Write complete instructions for the performance of at least one key act of a given play.

Resources that may be of use to you are these:

The Director's Notebook (assignment with many suggestions and helps)

Guide to Internet Resources in Theatre and Performance Studies

Get ideas from other play performances by searching out some of the resources in Stage History above

Terry Gray's links on Elizabethan theatre

Synopses that note entrances and exits for scenes in particular plays

Production Resources at the Whitefriars Playhouse, 1609-1612 (by Jean MacIntyre, University of Alberta; from EMLS)

Elizabethan Costuming Homepage

Elizabethan Era Costume links under "History" (from "The Costume Page")

TEXTUAL VARIANCES

Research the textual history of a single play that has at least 2 variant texts. Look for specific areas in the text that differ from version to version (passages omitted, speeches phrased differently, etc.), and point out the differing interpretations of the play that might result.

WWW sites that may be of use to you are these:

The information our Bevington textbook will assist you:

- the "Editions and Editors of Shakespeare" introductory section will give you general background on the printing history of Shakespeare's works

- the "Canon, Dates, and Early Text" appendix will give you background on the printing history of a particular play

- the "Textual Notes" appendix will give you some feel for the number and range of textual variants in a given play

Set of Hamlet texts from the University of Virginia:

- Hamlet 1603 Quarto

- Hamlet 1604 Quarto

- Hamlet 1623 Folio

Set of Hamlet texts from The University of Victoria, Canada, including

- Quarto 1: The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke (1603)

- Quarto 2: The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke (1604)

- First Folio: The Tragedie Of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke (1623)

Set of Lear texts from the Shakespeare Text Project at the University of Pennsylvania, including

- King Lear (1619), facsimile of the Second Quarto [Q2]

- King Lear (1681), facsimile of N. Tate's version, The History of King Lear

- King Lear (1723), fascimile of King Lear edited by A. Pope

Set of Lear texts from The University of Victoria, Canada, including

- Quarto 1: The True Chronicle Historie of the life and death of King Lear (1608)

- First Folio: The Tragedie of King Lear (1623)

Set of Romeo and Juliet texts from The Internet Shakespeare Editions, including

- Quarto 2: The Most Excellent and lamentable Tragedie of Romeo and Iuliet.

Newly corrected, augmented, and amended (1599)

- First Folio: The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet (1623)

Line comparison of three different versions of Romeo and Juliet

Electronic text search and retrieval

Compositor Determination and other Problems in Shakespearian Texts (by Alice Walker, Studies in Bibliography 7:3)

LESSON PLANS

Prepare a set of lesson plans on commonly taught Shakespeare plays. (Recommended for Education majors.)

Resources that may be of use to you are these:

The NEH/Folger 1995-96 Shakespeare Institute: "Shakespeare Examined Through Performance"

(a massive set of classroom exercises!)

The Shakespeare Magazine Teaching Resource

Teaching Shakespeare in the High School (Bertrand Evans, 1966), old but still useful [library]

Some articles on teaching Shakespeare:
- Peggy O'Brien, "'And Gladly Teach': Books, Articles, and a Bibliography on the Teaching of Shakespeare" (plus several articles on classroom methods with specific plays) in Shakespeare Quarterly 46:2 (summer 1995) [via electronic means in library]
- Shakespeare's Language-Problems and Opportunities (by Bob Lane)
- Teaching Shakespeare Against the Grain (by Ron Strickland)

Some examples of teaching particular plays:
- Shakespeare Sonnet Quiz
- Pursuing the White Boar: Approaches to Teaching Richard III (by Richard Oberdorfer)
- Moors, Jews, and the Performance of Cultural Identity: Teaching Othello and Merchant of Venice in the Diverse Urban Classroom(by Miranda Johnson-Haddad and Caroline McManus)

- Twelfth Night: Two Writing Assignments (by Cezarija Abartis)
- Thought Topics/Study Question links
A sample set of a former student's lesson plans is available from the professor

RECENT CRITICISM

Review, summarize, and analyze trends in recent (1985-) critical writings on Shakespeare. (Recommended for English majors who have completed Literary Criticism.)
Resources that may be of use to you are these:

The information our Bevington textbook will assist you:
- the "Shakespeare Criticism" introductory section will give you a birdseye view of both the history of Shakespeare criticism and recent trends
- the "Suggestions for Reading and Research" bibliography of criticism in the back of our textbook lists recent books and articles of importance about certain genres, on particular plays, and in relation to Shakespeare studies generally (you should identify some of the most important books and articles and access them through ProQuest or order them through Interlibrary Loan if necessary)
Some Theoretical Books on Shakespeare (http://felix.vcu.edu/~phadorn/res4.html)
Shakespeare criticism links from Terry Gray
The special order class text, Shakespeare: A Research Guide, ed. Bergeron and De Sousa, reviews recent criticism
The journal Shakespeare Survey [SNU library reference] includes an annual summary of that year's Shakespeare study
The chapter "Present Tense" in Reinventing Shakespeare (Gary Taylor, 1989) would help you get a grasp recent critical trends

THE OXFORDIAN CONTROVERSY

Review, summarize, and state a reasoned, informed opinion on the debate over the authorship of Shakespeare's plays.
Resources that may be of use to you are these:

Be sure to consult Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life (Sam Schoenbaum) [library reserve]
Many of the documents included in Schoenbaum's book (and some additional ones) can be viewed in larger scale in The Shakespeare Documents (2 vols.) [library reference]
Shakespeare Oxford Society Home Page
Shake-n-Bacon Site
The Shakespeare Authorship Page
Terry Gray's list of other Shakespeare authorship sites
Ludweb's section on Authorship
Terry Gray's section on primary documents
Sam Schoenbaum's Shakespeare: A Documentary Life (Dr. Hackler's personal copy)
"The Shakespeare Mystery" Frontline episode on this controversy (there's also a web site on which the debate continues!) [SNU Media Center)
Consult an historian (Dr. Dennis Williams, perhaps) about the kinds of documentary records that are typical for early Modern England.

THE MASTER PETER CONTROVERSY

Review, summarize, and state a reasoned, informed opinion on the debate over the authorship of the recently discovered funeral elegy by W.S.
Resources that may be of use to you are these:

"A Funeral Elegy for Master William Peter," (London: G.Eld for T.Thorpe, 1612) (normalized text edited by Donald Foster)
The Shakespeare Mystery from PBS
The Heart of Mystery (PBS Newshour segment transcript for January 15, 1995)
Check electronic periodical resources, Reader's Guide, Humanities Index, and other periodical indices in the library to locate newspaper and magazine articles

THEATRE ARCHAELOGY

Research and summarize archaelogical findings of the past century that have revised scholars' understanding of the physical layout of the Elizabethan theatre.
Must-sees for this project are
Globe Theatre
Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre from the University of Reading
Andrew Gurr's books on the Elizabethan theatre

Rose Theatre
The Rose Theatre Exhibition

Consider showing the class part of a virtual tour of the Elizabethan theatre. There are multiple sites along these lines, such as VR GLobe Theater from Clemson University
See also Terry Gray's links on Shakespeare's Theatre.

CONTEMPORARY PLAY

Read and analyze the similarities between a well-known play by one of Shakespeare's fellow playwrights in the Elizabethan theater, indicating whether this play is thought to have any direct influence on a particular Shakespeare play.
Good candidates for this study are
John Lyly's ENDYMION, 1591 - romantic comedy - A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
Thomas Kyd's THE SPANISH TRAGEDY - (revenge tragedy) - HAMLET
Christopher Marlowe's THE JEW OF MALTA - Jewish stereotyping - THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
Christopher Marlowe's EDWARD THE SECOND - (history play) - RICHARD III
Thomas Heywood's A WOMAN KILLED WITH KINDNESS - (domestic tragedy) - OTHELLO
Beaumont and Fletcher's PHILASTER, 1610 - (romance tragicomedy) - THE TEMPEST or any other Shakespeare romance

Resources that may be of use to you are these:
John Lyly from Luminarium
Thomas Kyd, including synopsis and critical article on 'Perverse Justice'
Christopher Marlowe from Luminarium, and his complete works online from The Perseus Project at Tufts University
Thomas Heywood, courtesy of San Antonio College LitWeb
Beaumont & Fletcher
Check the article abstracts at Early Modern Literary Studies (EMLS) for some commentary on these playwrights.
I have a drama textbook containing these plays; most are also available in the library.