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STYLE ANALYSIS After thorough readings and analysis of the play, carefully consider how to best express the play through visual terms. The style analysis will be used as a springboard for period and place research and for evolving a concept for creating the environment. Your style analysis should be written in paragraph form so that you may clearly explain your choices. WHO, WHEN, WHERE: Date of play's composition Date of play's action - period in which it is to be set The present time - what relevance does play have to our audience? Geographical location - specific place and locale Whose space is this? EVOLVING THE CONCEPT: What should the setting contribute to this play? What intellectual, emotional,and thematic information should it provide to reinforce or supplement that contained in the script or to add new insight into the script? What is the most important visual contribution to an effective production of the play: mood, symbol, environment, period, or simple physical space? Of what importance is spectacle to the play/production? Should the spectacle be achieved through costume, scenery, set props or lighting? What degree of realism/naturalism versus stylization is present in the play? Is the action as well as the characterization realistic/naturalistic or has it been moved away through the use of exaggeration, simplification, or distortion? Is the dialogue colloquial and everyday or is it lofty, poetic, and full of imagery and, if so, what images dominate? MOOD: Describe the overall mood of the play: happy or sad, pleasant or unpleasant, light or dark, bright or dim/dull, smooth/slick or rough/coarse, straight or curved? Make a list of mood adjectives for each of the senses: touch, taste, smell, hearing, seeing ( color, size, shape, line). What design element most strongly expresses the mood of the play: line, shape, color, texture, mass, space? Select a mood image for the play/production. Your mood image should be a specific object, animate or inanimate, which is strong in visual connotations. Should the scenery integrate with or serve as counterpoint to the style/mood of the play? Why?   SELECTIVITY - WHAT'S MOST IMPORTANT? By single items, list in order of decreasing importance the physical elements of the setting. What is the fewest selection of items with which the scene could effectively be played? What is absolutely necessary? Is there a scenic element, set property, or ornamental motif that is most important to the play? Why? What purpose does it serve physically, dramatically, emotionally, or thematically?   VISUAL STYLE: What degree of realism is necessary to the play? What best fits the stylistic form of the play? If stylization is the most appropriate form for the scenery, how might it best be achieved: exaggeration of elements, reduction and simplification of elements, or distortion of elements? What elements will be exaggerated, simplified, or distorted? Why? FEW:cf June 1999