Shakespeare: From Stage to Page
WHAT?
The Topic
How can print books become as captivating and compelling to Toronto high school students as a theatrical production, film or digital media?
There is a decline in the reading of traditional texts, which is attributed to the increased use of the internet and digital media (Thompson and McIlnay). This challenges teens' interest for and attention to physical books. This project seeks to transform the text-only Shakespearean scripts often seen by adolescents as boring, dated or challenging into something lively, modern, digestible and exciting (Why it is important to teach Shakespeare in schools, Gulens).
HOW?
The Three Books
Three books were created as deliverables for this project, spanning three different genres of Shakespeare's work: tragedy, romance, and comedy. The books are not comics, scripts, storyboards or novels, but are a combination that stay true to Shakespeare's original language while adding visuals, interactivity and emotion to aid comprehension. The project takes inspiration from the entrancing experience of theatre, applying tropes and devices seen in stage production and Shakespeare's original scripts to the printed page. Workbooks and exercise pages were also designed with the intention of allowing the readers to fully understand and reflect on the material and stories.
WHO?
About Me
My name is Fiona Barnes-Brisley, and I am an OCAD University Graphic Design graduate as of 2021.
This project was created for GradEx 106 through a year-long cumulative workshop class.
With my passion for editorial design and love of typography, this project aimed to create three books for high schoolers that could transform the prolific, powerful stories of Shakespeare into a new, accessible and immersive delivery.
WHY?
Motivation
The ultimate goal of this project is to make the tangible act of reading print books captivating to young audiences whose interest in them may be declining in light of the expansion and development of digital media (Thompson and McIlnay, Sliwa). Using visuals and interactive elements, the project hopes to immerse adolescents into a story’s world, connecting with their emotions and senses to elevate the story’s bond with the reader. The project takes inspiration from the entrancing experience of theatre, applying tropes and devices seen in stage production (for example; echoes and curtains).
Understanding how a print-located text can be enhanced to captivate digital natives is a key challenge the project presents. Creating a stimulating and exciting take on a Shakespearean script that opposes the common preconception of his texts as being boring, or complex can serve as a stepping stone into learning the beauty of Shakespeare’s language and becoming more interested in reading. Emotion is a driving force in humans, and it is what makes Shakespeare’s texts resonate with so many (Teen opinion: Why Reading Shakespeare Should be Fun). This is why the project also seeks to visualize emotions through typography, imagery, scale, and treatment.
The Three Books
These three books were designed with careful attention to an established system of art direction created to maintain consistency and associations. While they follow the system's guidelines, each book also visualizes its genre's atmosphere through differing strategies.
Hamlet
Act one scene one of this tragic play is explored in this book. The eerie scene plays out the watchguards' encounter with a ghost figure.
Romeo & Juliet
Act two scene two of this romantic tragedy is visualized in this second book. This is the infamous balcony scene where passions are high.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Act two scene two of the comedic play is displayed in this final book. The chaotic, emotional hilarity that occurs when Puck accidentally uses his love potion on the wrong person play out.
Art Direction
To read about specific design decision reasoning and the system created and used across all three books, click here.
Process
To take a peek backstage and learn about my year-long iterative process, click here.
Bibliography
To take a look at the many resources encountered throughout the process of research, click here.
*To navigate through all of the pages of this project, use the menu at the top of the website titled "thesis project".*
Works Cited on this Page
Gulens, Austra. Interviewing a high school teacher [Telephone interview]. 2020.
Sliwa, Jim. “Teens Today Spend More Time on Digital Media, Less Time Reading.” American Psychological Association, 20 August 2018, https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2018/08/teenagers-read-book.
“Teen opinion: why reading Shakespeare should be fun.” The Guardian, 26 April 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/apr/26/teen-opinion-why-reading-shakespeare-should-be-fun.
Thompson, Riki, and Matthew McIlnay. “Nobody Wants to Read Anymore.” CLELEjournal, vol. 7, no. 1, 2019, pp. 61-73. CleleJournal, https://clelejournal.org/article-4-nobody-wants-read-anymore/.
“Why it is important to teach Shakespeare in schools.” IvyPanda, 22 March 2020, https://ivypanda.com/essays/why-it-is-important-to-teach-shakespeare-in-schools/.
Video Excerpts and Imagery:
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 Choral in D minor, Op. 125. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xyl5UaB2SU&ab_channel=Prueb270891
Luhrmann, B. William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, 2006. Milano. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcSwBHs1uD4&ab_channel=Movieclips
Portrait of William Shakespeare. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/place/United-Kingdom/Elizabethan-societyReinhardt, M., & Dieterle, W., 1935.
A Midsummer nights dream. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ6t_-wKImw&ab_channel=MovieclipsZeffirelli, F., 1990. Hamlet . Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbxMhvcxJJc&ab_channel=MovieclipsZeffirelli, F., 1967.
Romeo and Juliet. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZLVlajiihI&ab_channel=Movieclips.
For full bibliography, click here.