COLLABORATION:

1. Collaborative work is strongly encouraged.

2. Collaborative groups may have 2 or 3 people in them, no more. Larger groups become too unwieldy.

3. Please try to keep your collaborative efforts down to a reasonable number of working minutes/hours. Working time for a production analysis will probably include: approximately 2 hours to view a play on-stage or film of a play or video of a play, an hour to talk over the one aspect that you plan to analyze, and 20-30 minutes to draft your first draft. Then put it away for a while. When you revise and rewrite, your working time should be about 30-60 minutes at most.

4. Please form groups at the beginning of each production analysis assignment. That is, there should be no implicit or explicit commitment to keep working together beyond each individual assignment.

5. In writing production analyses, the 2 or 3 members of your group must all work on each draft. Please do not divide up the workload and make individuals responsible for parts or sections of the assignment.

6. Please note: the assignment to write a production analysis does not allow you to select any film. The filmed version must be of a play. This assignment also does not allow you to write about the original screenplay of an original movie/film. Thus, you could write a production analysis on Shakespeare's play, Henry the Fifth as reconceived by Kenneth Branagh but not about the screenplay or film, Fight Club.

7. If you are registered in English 3000, 3563, or 3573, you must write production commentaries on plays by Shakespeare, not on adaptations. Adaptations are works which might use Shakespeare's plots and some of his characters, but they do not use his language.
   

   Here are some adaptations that are not appropriate as subjects of production commentaries for courses in Shakespeare. West Side Story and Mississippi Masala, both based on Romeo and Juliet. Kurosawa's Throne of Blood, based on Macbeth. Kurosawa's Ran, based on King Lear. Kurosawa's Kagemusha, based on Shakespeare's history plays. Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho, based the Henry plays by Shakespeare. 10 Things I Hate about You, based on Taming of the Shrew. Peter Fonda's The Tempest, which has little Shakespearean language in it.

   If you are in doubt about whether a video or film is a suitable subject for a production analysis, please ask Professor Widmann before sending your work in.

8. When you are engaged in analysis in writing production analyses, you need to use specific detail from the work you are studying. Offering your unsubstantiated opinion is not equivalent to analysis.

CONTENT:

1. As you watch a production of a drama or play, (whether on video or as live theatre), consider which aspects are bringing it to life for you. (Or, as sometimes happens, think about those aspects which are truly dreadful and are making you sorry you are watching this particular production.)

2. Choose ONE aspect only of the production for analysis:
3. You might want to write on ONE of these aspects:

   • quality of performance by one actor
   • choices that the director has made
   • costuming
   • faithfulness of this production to the printed text
   • lighting
   • blocking
   • set design
   • appropriateness of casting
   • sound effects
   • consequences of cuts in the playwright's text
   • stage properties

   If you are working on a Shakespeare play, you might like to take two different versions of the same scene and compare/contrast one aspect in the two interpretations you are viewing.

4. Any aspect you think extremely good or definitely in need of improvement makes an excellent topic. You will probably find it more illuminating and also more amusing to write on the whats and whys and hows of that which pleased you as a critic and student of drama.

5. Your task, in writing a production analysis, is to analyze what is going on on the stage or on the screen and to bring your critical insights to bear. You should try to make your reader see with your eyes, understand what you have seen and how you are interpreting the images you see. That is, avoid literary analysis and engage the issues that become apparent in production.

FORMAT:

1. Be sure that your production analysis has a footnote or endnote, indicating when and where you saw the production. Were you watching a stage production? a film version? a video? Which day/evening did you see the work?

2. Your production analysis should be about 300-600 words long in a Maymester class (i.e., one to two typed pages) or 500-750 words long in a fall or spring semester class, (i.e., about the equivalent of two to three typed pages).

3. Before you email your final copy, be sure to spellcheck it. Please note that 5 or more spelling/typographical errors will result in an F on your production commentary.

4. When emailing your copy to Professor Widmann, be sure to sent it "in clear," that is, send as text. Please do not send it as attachments as most of my machines cannot read attachments.

TYPE OF PRODUCTION TO ANALYZE:

1. Your production analysis may be written on any performance you have seen recently on stage, on t.v., on video, or in a movie theatre. ("Recently" means within the last 365 days.) It often helps to have a printed text of the play handy when you are viewing the show.

2. You are probably more likely to enjoy writing about a good production rather than a poor one.

THE WRITING PROCESS AND YOUR STYLE:

1. Decide on which ONE aspect of the production you will analyze. Draft your production analysis. Put it away for a while, at least overnight.

2. When you return to it, add interesting adjectives and adverbs and revise your nouns and verbs so that your writing style intrigues your reader. Let your style make your reader jump out of the chair and run to view the production or allow your reader to sink into somnolence, a soft chair, and thankfulness that she's missed this turkey. Convey the flavor--good or ill--of what you saw.

3. In working on your rewrite, use humor and wit to beguile your reader. Amusing your reader is always good.

4. Title: Devise a catchy title that will make your reader want to see what you saw. Sustain that interest with a zinger in your first sentence.

5. Use specific and pointed details to illustrate your analysis. Let your reader know how you made your critical judgements; let your reader see with your eyes.

TRANSMISSION BY EMAIL:

1. When collaborative work is sent by email, be sure that one author is the sender and that all other authors receive a copy by entering their email addresses in the CC: line. (Please do *not use the BCC: line in webmail.) Then a graded copy can be easily returned to each author. If an email address for an author appears only in the text of the message, you will not get credit for the assignment.

2. If you have tried to send your work by email on time and there are transmission difficulties beyond your control, the work will be accepted.

3. Please ask for acknowledgement of receipt of your work by putting a brief note at the end of your text.
   

Thanks to Scott Rice for suggestions on wording in this version of these Guidelines. 20 April 2001. rlw.