Project Assignment/Description
These are the titles from which four of the five assignments will be chosen:
Strindberg, August. The Father.
Apollinaire, Guillaume. The Breasts of Tiresias.
Cocteau, Jean. The Eiffel Tower Wedding Party.
Lorca, Federico Garcia. Blood Wedding.
O'Neill, Eugene. Long Day's Journer into Night.
Bartok, Bela (Text by Bela Balazs). Bluebeard's Castle. (One Act Opera.)
Mascagni, Pietro (Text by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti). Cavalleria Rusticana. (One Act Opera.)
Strauss, Richard (Text by Hugo von Hofmannsthal). Die Frau Ohne Schatten. (Act One of the Opera only.)
The fifth title, serving as the course's final project, will be chosen by the student in collaboration with the Instructor, and is not limited to the list above.
Each assigned play is to be read in depth with extensive notes taken concerning the mood, setting of the play as written, physical requirements of the action and theme. In a paper, each student will present his or her concept on how to realize the play on stage, explaining and defending all choices made, whether a totally traditional recreation of the author's directions or a contemporary retelling employing updating, transfer of the location of the action, etc. Each project then proceeds through five class sessions, involving extensive discussion, revision and final presentation of a completed design. The Final Project, will be presented and defended at the last regular class session.