By next Thursday (Assignment!!!)

Hi All,

So.  No class tomorrow (day 6).

You WILL have class on Monday.  Brandon will be with you; you will be doing a writing exercise.

You WILL NOT have class on Tuesday.

You WILL have class on Wednesday.  Brandon will be with you; you will continue the writing exercise.

You have TWO THINGS YOU MUST DO FOR HOMEWORK between now and next Thursday (when I return):

1) Please READ AND ANNOTATE Hamlet, Act Two Scene Two

2) Please choose an adaptation of Hamlet you'd like to study for your final assignment.

You will be asked to consider whether the "adaptation" IS a true adaptation, whether it is faithful, and whether it is successful.

Note: no more than three of you can choose the same version to discuss.

Here are a few you might consider:

FEATURE FILMS CALLED HAMLET

Franco Zepherelli’s 1990 Hamlet, with Mel Gibson in the lead role

Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 Hamlet, with himself in the lead role

Michael Almereyda’s 2000 Hamlet, with Ethan Hawke in the lead role

MADE-FOR-TELEVISION FILMS (year, star provided)

Christopher Plummer (1964)

Richard Chamberlain (1970)

Derek Jacobi (1980)

Kevin Kline (1990)

Campbell Scott (2000)

David Tennant (2010)

BY ANY OTHER NAME

Der Rest ist Schweigen (The Rest is Silence), dir Helmut Kautner

Warui Yatsu Hodo Noku Nemuru (The Bad Sleep Well) dir. Akira Kurosawa

Ophelia, dir Claude Chabrol (France, 1962)

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, by Tom Stoppard (read with “No Exit”) (film and/or stageplay)

Hamlet/Machine by Heiner Muller

Strange Brew, 1983, dirs. Bob and Doug Mackenzie

The Lion King (Disney Movie or Disney Stage Musical)

Fortinbras by playwright Lee Blessing

Dead Fathers Club by novelist Matt Haig

Hamlet II: Ophelia’s Revenge by novelist David Bergantino

Too Too Solid Flesh by science fiction novelist Nick O’Donahoe

Ophelia, written by playwright Dustin Wills

Twelve Ophelias: A Play with Broken Songs by playwright Caridad Svich

Gertrude and Claudius by novelist John Updike