Hamlet Response Assignment
Honors English 4/Peters
DESIGN A PLAYBILL
This assignment is an optional bonus opportunity. You will design a playbill for Shakespeare’s Hamlet,
including a cited line from your assigned act and selected imagery as the basis for your illustration. Your
illustration may include a combination of photographs and artwork. Creativity is welcomed; see sample
playbills for ideas.
Size: 8” by 10” sheet of paper.
Due date: ________________________ /5 points
WRITTEN COMPONENT
This assignment is a mandatory classwork/homework assignment. Choose one topic from the list below.
Length: At least one full, typed and double-spaced page.
Due date: ________________________/20 points
1.
Product Endorsement
Have a character from the play endorse a product. Compose the script for a TV commercial (or
infomercial) in which the character talks about the product and explains why the product is one that
readers should buy. Be careful. The product has to be one that the character might actually endorse. Also,
the product has to "fit" the character. That is, choose a product that somehow represents the character's
personality. In your paper, have the character talk about the product in such a way that we readers get a
sense of who the character really is.
2.
Newspaper Report
Pretend you are a newspaper reporter and write a modern-day newspaper article about one of the events
in the play. Imagine that the reporter was there to witness the event and/or that the reporter has
interviewed several characters about their differing perspectives on the event. In preparation for this
assignment, you might want to do a close analysis of some “longish” newspaper articles to see (1) how
they are structured, (2) how they present all sides of a story in a (hopefully) unbiased manner, and (3)
how they "sound."
3.
Advice Column
Have one of the characters from the play write a letter to an advice columnist. Then, pretend you are that
advice columnist and write the column that appears in response to the character's letter. You might want
to study some advice columns to get a sense for how they are usually written.
4. Missing Scene
Choose a scene that isn't included in the play and write your version of the events that might happen.
You might focus on events that are referred to but not shown, or you could fill in a "gap in time" that the
original author leaves out. Try to maintain the same writing style as in the original text.
5. Job Application
Read the help wanted ads in your local newspaper. Find a job for which you think one of the characters
from the play would be qualified. Pretend you are that character and design a resume and write a letter
of application in which you argue that you are the best candidate for the job. This will require some
careful analysis on your part; think about all the skills that this character has and draw on that as you
write your argument. Remember that when writing a letter of application, one tries to emphasize those
aspects of ones experiences that best support the claim that the applicant is right for the job.
6. Secret Confession
Imagine that one of the characters from the play has a secret to confess but is afraid to confess it. Which
character would it be? What could the secret possibly be, given what you know about the character's
personality and experiences? It could be something from their childhood or something they've done that
would surprise people who know them. (Let's keep it clean, please.) Write the journal entries that your
character would write as she or he thinks about the secret, why it needs to be confessed, who will be
affected if the secret gets out, and explains why she or he is afraid to confess.
7. Obituary
An obituary is sort of the "final word" on a person. It summarizes the person's experiences and
accomplishments and tells the reader what's worth remembering about the person. Bear in mind,
however, that two writers might write very different obituaries for the same person; therefore, an
obituary might tell us as much about the writer as the person being memorialized.
Write the obituary of one of the characters we've studied. You might choose a character who is already
dead. Or you might imagine the future of a character who is still alive at the end of the story and then
write his/her obituary. Study some obituaries in the newspaper to get a feel for how they are normally
written; usually, The New York Times has rather long obituaries for famous people. What aspects of the
character's life will you emphasize? Who was this person, finally?