12/9/05: First post: project description
I'm going to use this site to record sabbatical activities (Dec '05-August '06). Here's a description of what I want to do that I wrote almost nine months ago. It keeps changing, though...
--------------------------
Thumbnail description of Graham Paul's (revised) sabbatical project (January through August, 2006):
I propose to study selected American approaches to producing Shakespeare, focusing on the relationship of production to the text within the context of American culture; I hope to observe how cultural attitudes and circumstances may affect specific production choices. I plan to observe a wide range of approaches, to observe rehearsals and pre-production meetings as well as performances, to interview directors and others directly involved in Shakespearean production, and eventually to arrive at a sense of some of the different attitudes that inform American directors’ approaches to this kind of work. I’m particularly interested in the question of constraint. In essence: What determines why a specific director in a specific situation makes one choice rather than another, and what choices are rejected out of hand? What constraints is a director conscious of (and what constraints might she or he be unconscious of)? What is a director’s sense of obligation to the immediate audience? To the text? To the culture?
These questions are of particular interest to me because I choose to direct Shakespeare in a small American college, and I am acutely conscious of my own constraints in relation to the material. I think that the most immediate and long-lasting effects of my study will be on my own work as a director, as a teacher, and as the head of a theatre program that places Shakespeare at its center, and I will direct a Shakespeare production immediately after my sabbatical as one means of testing as well as sharing what I have learned. Because I also think that the search for answers such as those I have posed may be of interest to others in my position in academic as well as professional theatre, I also intend to submit results of my performance-based research to various theatre-related journals.
--------------------------
Thumbnail description of Graham Paul's (revised) sabbatical project (January through August, 2006):
I propose to study selected American approaches to producing Shakespeare, focusing on the relationship of production to the text within the context of American culture; I hope to observe how cultural attitudes and circumstances may affect specific production choices. I plan to observe a wide range of approaches, to observe rehearsals and pre-production meetings as well as performances, to interview directors and others directly involved in Shakespearean production, and eventually to arrive at a sense of some of the different attitudes that inform American directors’ approaches to this kind of work. I’m particularly interested in the question of constraint. In essence: What determines why a specific director in a specific situation makes one choice rather than another, and what choices are rejected out of hand? What constraints is a director conscious of (and what constraints might she or he be unconscious of)? What is a director’s sense of obligation to the immediate audience? To the text? To the culture?
These questions are of particular interest to me because I choose to direct Shakespeare in a small American college, and I am acutely conscious of my own constraints in relation to the material. I think that the most immediate and long-lasting effects of my study will be on my own work as a director, as a teacher, and as the head of a theatre program that places Shakespeare at its center, and I will direct a Shakespeare production immediately after my sabbatical as one means of testing as well as sharing what I have learned. Because I also think that the search for answers such as those I have posed may be of interest to others in my position in academic as well as professional theatre, I also intend to submit results of my performance-based research to various theatre-related journals.
posted by Graham at 6:33 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home