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FIG: Shakespeare's Stage Research Guide

This is a guide to the library and research materials you may find useful to accomplish the objectives of ENG 199--Shakespeare's Stage (FIG).

Your assignment:


You are an actor and have just been given a part in A Midsummer Night's Dream. The director wants to set the play sometime in the 20th century, but is still undecided about which period would be most appropriate to highlight the themes in the play. What would you recommend?

In your group and using the sources below, prepare a recommendation that you will share with the rest of the class. Your recommendation should include the following elements:

  1. the decade or period in the 20th century
  2. why the period is appropriate for the play
  3. what aspects of the play would be emphasized as a result of the time period
  4. as an actor, what special preparations would you need to do to make your role convincing if the play is set during this time?
  5. the sources you consulted to inform your recommendation

If you prefer, you may choose to use one of the other plays that you are reading in the class.

Background Information


Oxford Companion to Shakespeare
"From the conjectured identity of the Dark Lady of the Sonnets to the misprints in the First Folio, from Shakespeare's favorite figures of speech to the staging of Othello in South Africa, a team of scholars provides a lucid, stimulating, and authoritative guide to Shakespeare's plays and poems, and their interpretation around the world over the last four centuries." --title page description

Books


UO Library Catalog
Search the online catalog to find books owned by the UO Libraries. For more help, see the Library Catalog Tutorial: Finding Books.

Summit Catalog
Summit is a consortium of regional libraries that more than doubles our collection. You can borrow books not owned by the UO Library by selecting the Request Item option.

Articles & Literary Criticism


Academic Search Premier
Indexes more than 8,000 publications, with full text for approximately 4,600. ASP focuses on academic, social sciences, humanities, general science, education and multi-cultural journals, with over 3,500 peer-reviewed titles. Full text coverage goes as far back as 1965.

MLA International Bibliography
The essential index for critical materials about all literatures (except classical Greek and Roman), languages, folklore and film. The database provides access to over 1.3 million entries gleaned from essay collections, dissertations, monographs and over 6,000 journals. Covers 1926-present.

SEARCH TIP: Use FindTextto locate complete articles in databases.

Maintained by: Elizabeth Peterson, emp@uoregon.edu
Last Modified: 10/14/2008