Processing the Plays
You are asked to process Kaufman and Hart's’ You Can't Take it With You and Arthur Miller's All My Sons. This should be a personal learning experience. You will direct your own learning and tackle a project that interests you. You must articulate what you want to learn and how you will pursue it. The exciting aspect of this is that you can define what success is and you can pursue something that interests you. The drawback is that it is less structured than some might be comfortable with. Making a collage would be a poor choice. I don’t know how that would bring a deeper understanding of either play. A deep exploration of the play or plays would not be met by making a collage.
You need to begin this process by identifying what you would like to learn. This topic needs to be approved by me before you begin work.
I’ve included some essay prompts if you would like to address them. You do not need to use these writing prompts, but they might focus you. You can also depart from this writing prompt and come up with one of your own.
You could explore costume design (at least one for every character), set design (this must result in a model set in ¼ inch scale) or some other production aspect of the physical production of a show. You will be asked to support the choice of that interpretation. You will be asked to share your research. Each costume sketch should be presented on its own piece of unlined paper. You will not be graded on the quality of your drawing, but on your artistic interpretation and how that supports the theme of the play as you understand it. You will present you product (costume or set design) to the class and share your reasons for your choices.
Think outside the box. Rarely will you be able to structure something yourself. Exploit this opportunity and challenge yourself to find out something new about these works. If you are interested in processing the plays in another way, please talk to me about it. In the past, students have been very creative. Be sure your original idea is approved by me. I am all for individual initiative, but I need to know about it and approve it. Sometimes it takes some simple tweaking to make it a solid academic experience.
This project will result in a class presentation that demonstrates you knowledge to the rest of the class.