Project by: Zoe Karp (11th Grade), Leilani Wizner (11th Grade)
Project Advisor: Anna Gonzales
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): Kelly and Charlene
Description of the Project:
After examining Twelfth Night and As You Like It through the lens of gender and sexuality in our first trimester English class, we wanted to continue exploring the topic, although more broadly than just through the lens of gender. For this project, we want to analyze how complex issues like gender and race are portrayed and discussed in different filmed/staged interpretations of Shakespeare’s plays. We aren’t completely sure which plays we’re going to focus on, but we think we want to look at some scenes from Twelfth Night because we are already familiar with the play, so we can draw upon our class discussions to analyze the various interpretations. In addition to Twelfth Night, we want to learn about a play we aren’t as familiar with, maybe The Merchant of Venice, so we can explore different themes, like race and anti-semitism. Either way, we will pick a few scenes from each play we’re focusing on and find different versions of the scenes, which we will use to compare and analyze the director’s interpretation as opposed to Shakespeare’s assumed intent.
Final Product:
Loading...
Reload document 
Open in new tab Update on Progress from Weeks 1-3 (include any photos or video if relevant):
We went through the play and looked for a few specific scenes that we thought connected to the idea of gender, sexuality, class, and social norms. There is definitely a lot to choose from in Twelfth Night, so we tried to pick ones that we knew had equivalent scenes in the remake we’re planning on watching, She’s The Man. Eventually, we picked Act 1 Scene 4, Act 1 Scene 5, and Act 5 Scene 1. We think these scenes all illustrate the relationships between the characters and the ways that our themes, especially sexuality, play into them. Our plan is to watch the scenes over the next week and take notes, as well as responding to the questions Anna is going to give us. From there, we’re going to start doing the actual analysis writing!
Update on Progress from Weeks 4-6 (include any photos or video if relevant):
We watched the scenes we picked and noted what we found interesting and in contrast with each other. Then, we spoke with Anna, which really helped to guide our thinking and what we wanted to write about. After our discussion, we began to write our final piece. So far, we’ve written most of it, but it’s definitely in a rough first draft stage. Anna is helping us edit, which will definitely help to give it more of a focus, and then we’ll continue writing and polish it.
Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9 (include any photos or video if relevant):
We pretty much finished our essay! We made all the edits that Anna suggested, and polished everything up, especially the conclusion. The link to our final piece is here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hzYdPrVMhkUTzAeUckLOzUaDdUd1zGSqSfHLuqgvOa8/edit
