New Year, New Term

And we're back! The producers' course kicked into second term this past week. It was lovely to see every one again after a month off. We wasted no time jumping into the work. Two of our days brought us together with the other MA/MFA courses to guide us through the requirements and procedures for our research thesis. Course tutors and PhD candidates presented an assortment of research samples and methods. A great deal of our work on this group thesis project will take place during this term and the presentation of our results will take up the first week of third term. I did say group thesis, yes. It may seem a little odd but collaboration is a major part of working in the arts and entertainment industry so I understand why they ask us to work this way. We can choose our own group of students up to six and our own topic for research.

I have joined some classmates to explore questions about gender and character. We will look specifically at the character of Watson from the Sherlock Holmes stories and compare television adaptations of the stories where Watson is maintained as a male character to productions where Watson's character has been changed to a female and how that effects the development and marketing of the work.

The world of Sherlock will be an education for me as I am aware of the stories but have never spent much time reading or viewing them. Field trips to the Sherlock Holmes museum will no doubt be on the agenda. As will, viewing parties to watch the various series that will feature in our research.

This topic will play nicely into our producing course as gender blind casting and the reworking of source materials continue to gain momentum in the industry. An obvious comparison is Shakespeare which is often cast with females playing male parts. In the six Shakespeare characters I played during my RSAMD course, only two were written as females. You can also find modern writers including a line or two in their text about the flexibility of gender in the case of certain characters. A smart move considering the available females actors most often outnumber the available male actors. With all this in mind, we aim to look at it from a producer's point of view and how it may effect the choices.

Tomorrow we dive head first into our placements (internships if you're American). I'm off to work with an organization that develops new musicals. I'll let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, it's cold outside, so it's the perfect time of year to go see some theatre. Check out what's on stage near you!

Take care!
-m