So in deciding that my theme was how SOUND FOCUSES TEXT, I just jumped right in and started doing applications and analyses instead of doing research. Silly me. So I've decided to take a step back and finish what I started the RIGHT way. Here is a list of where I am going.
1. How does the pronunciation of a word change meanings?
I will be looking into the front of our class text The Necessary Shakespeare, which has a fascinating section on just this. I will also be looking a little bit into the Great Vowel Shift, which my classmate David pointed out to me in his comment on a previous post.
2. How do performance aspects influence how the sounds focus the text?
I want to look at different productions, and see if plays versus movies make a large difference in the sound. What about a live outdoor performance? What about a lavish silver screen production?
3. How do individual performances bring out different aspects of the text and/or define characters?
This is one that I'm really interested in. I have a book, Author's Pen and Actor's Voice: Playing and Writing in Shakespeare's Theater, Robert Weimann, (I mentioned it in that same post that David commented on) that has to do with this very aspect. It's also what I looked at when I was comparing and contrasting performances, as in my post on A Winter's Tale, and my post on The Taming of the Shrew and Much Ado About Nothing.
These are what I am going to be focusing on, breaking them down into weeks and days. I'm making a schedule of when I'm posting/focusing on each topic, but I know that my next post will be on the first item. I noticed while making my sources page that I need to actually get sources that apply to my topic! So here I go, off into the world to get cracking on the research part of this research blog!
