For this assignment you will need to read the script of Macbeth by William Shakespeare.After reading Shakespeare’s Macbeth, devise a concept for a production of Macbeth that you would like to see. The idea is as if you were directing/designing a producti
For this assignment you will need to read the script of Macbeth by William Shakespeare. It can be accessed for free online: https://www.folgerdigitaltexts.org/html/Mac.html
Fully answer 3 of 3 questions/prompts below
Macbeth Design Concept description:
After reading Shakespeare’s Macbeth, devise a concept for a production of Macbeth that you would like to see.
The idea is as if you were directing/designing a production of this play, at a local theatre perhaps, and want to bring in your own unique way of communicating the work through interpretation of time and place. So the script/words would stay exactly the same, but the setting, including place, costumes, etc. would be dictated by your design concept.
For instance, one of my favorite productions of Shakespeare’s “Merry Wives of Windsor” took place in a 1960’s trailer park. The “wives” wore polyester pant suits (with extra thigh padding), and often talked while holding coffee cups in front of their trailers. Again, lines exactly as written, but the theme/plot/message of the play (as the producing company had determined) was clearly communicated using this time and place.
So Macbeth is written as taking place in Scotland, 1600’s, but you might choose to update it and do it in modern times; Washington D.C., or New York-Wall Street for instance, or at a high school, or perhaps set it in Chicago in the 1940’s, etc, etc. Maybe there is a place and/or time in history (or present) that you are particularly interested in, and you can see a similarity to this story and characters, and see this story taking place there.
Prompts:
1.Choose a time and place for the production. (Not the theatre it is playing at, but the setting and action of the play.) Be specific. 18th century France is not specific enough. July 14th 1784, the streets of Paris, France is. You may choose any location or time between 1606 when the play was first performed and today. Describe why you have chosen this, including what is significant about this choice in relationship to the play.
2.Brief (one or two short paragraphs) of the themes and ideas in the play that you want to emphasize, including one or more “active verbs” that will drive your concept. (for instance: “ambition”, “manipulate”, “power-hungry”)
3.Choose one or more design elements on which to focus: scenery, lighting, costumes, props, hair/makeup.
–Assemble the following: historical research for your design element(s) in the chosen time period: images, either found or created that show your vision of the design element and statement of how the choices you are making in your area support the overall concept.
–Images may be from any sources EXCEPT actual designs for other productions of Macbeth. You may create original drawings, sketches or artwork of any kind and submit photos of it.
