Final Projects Blend Shakespeare and Creative Media

Shakespeare and Film, Fall 2017

Senior Austin Marquez choreographed Puck’s final soliloquy from A Midsummer Night’s Dream into a ballet piece for his final project. In using the words, meter, capitalization, and punctuations, Austin described, “every moment had a deep intention and was confined to a strict rhythm and pattern.” Check out his work here. 

Seniors Kristen Delahanty and Andrew O’Loughlin directed and edited a film adaption of a scene from one of Shakespeare’s “problem plays,” Measure for Measure. In the original story, a novice nun named Isabella pleads to a strict judge, Angelo, for mercy on her brother. Over the course of two scenes between them, it becomes clear that Angelo lusts after her, and he eventually offers her a deal to spare her brother’s life in exchange for her virginity. You can view Andrew and Kristen’s scene  here.

Joshua Miccio translated the third scene of Act Four from Julius Caesar, one of Shakespeare’s tragedies. In this scene, Brutus and Cassius discuss the murder of Caesar and argue on dishonor, greed, friendship, and business. 

Eric Bermudez and Andie learner translated Romeo and Juliet’s Act 3, Scene 5 into two separate shorts; one as a romantic comedy and the other as a documentary. In this famous scene, the young lovers resist the coming dawn that heralds Romeo’s forced departure to Mantua. 

Heather Olsen filmed Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night Act 2 Scene IV. Her project used the 2006 film She’s the Man, loosely based on Shakespeare’s 17th century play, as a means of comparison and discussion on homoerotic themes in the play. 

In Ean Schultz’s multi-media project, he discusses author Christopher Booker’s argument that there are only seven basic plots across writing. And while some may feel that there is death to originality because of that, Ean argues that there is merit still to be found in today’s storytelling landscape. Ean compares three of Shakespeare’s classic works with three contemporary, seemingly-unrelated works; The Tempest and Inception, Hamlet and Batman, and Macbeth and The Wolf of Wall Street. 

And lastly, Kyle Fleig used Instagram to compare and contrast Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, as set in 14th Century Verona, Italy and in the United States during the late 1960s. Production research includes 60s Italian and Couture fashion; 14th Century Italian architecture, artwork, and fashion; Anti-War protests and urban decay of the 1960s; and 1960s American fashion.

Published: December 21, 2017