Márton Nagy: A Struggle for the Audience: Theatre vs. Hollywood

The world of theatre has changed enormously since the age of Shakespeare. Being an actor used to be a local phenomenon; the actors were relatively unknown outside their company back in the day. However, the age of the motion picture changed everything, and introduced a milestone in the world of art: international stardom.

Stemming from a neighbourhood in central Los Angeles, the dawn of the cinema of the United States brought a completely new kind of recognition for the actors. Since the 30’s and 40’s, the success of a performer is perceived in a whole new way, and, as the target audience is not a small group of theatre attendees anymore, those who were at the right place at the right time, earn not only unbelievable amounts of money, but may also become internationally known idols.

The question arises: in a world, where success is measured according to blockbusters and top billings, how would you familiarise a young audience with a classical play like Much Ado About Nothing, and, more importantly, with the theatre itself? The answer is evident: cast internationally known stars in the lead roles. This is the reason why Josie Rourke cast David Tennant and Catherine Tate in his 2011 adaptation. Moreover, he also modernised the entire setting of the play: instead of the late medieval Italy, we see the 80’s Gibraltar, which is, again, more easily acceptable by a non-theatre-going audience.

Probably there were many people, not just among the theatre-snobs, who, after a glimpse at a theatre poster, cynically exclaim that “yes, the filthy Hollywood has crept into the theatre once again”. They would even mention examples – as they are undoubtedly numerous - , when the international stardom of a Hollywood actor or actress had in fact only been an empty shell, completely devoid of any talent. Some people still draw parallels between being a renowned face on screen, and being only a celebrity. Well, this adaptation is definitely not for them. As it is similarly not for those who formulate their review of a play before they even see it.

In the case of Tate and Tennant, this Hollywood celebrity stereotype is obviously nonsense, not only because this is not the first stage appearance for either of them. The other reason is that they perform in such a unique way, that they blend the traditional wit and characteristics of Shakespeare with the sometimes controversial modernity. And we all have to admit, that theatre has to change. Because a teenager, who, for instance, spends his free time watching episodes of Doctor Who, is more likely to get his interest in Shakespeare aroused by someone who is familiar from the screen, than by another actor in a traditional setting, who is completely unknown to him. Whether we acknowledge it or not, the theatre has to strive for the same audience as Hollywood. And its victory is everyone’s interest.

Szenczi Bianka: Project MUSE

The aim of my project was to examine and introduce an online database, Project MUSE. I have also observed the usefulness of this database in our group’s research and compared the search results in the different online databases.

Firstly, Project MUSE is an online database of academic journals and electronic books. The aim of this database is to provide reliable and high quality content for the users. Although, subscription is needed for the database, currently about 2500 libraries worldwide subscribe to it. Moreover, at present, there are thousands of scholarly books and journals available through the database.

The usage of Project MUSE is not complicated because it provides a friendly platform that is easy to use. Different access is provided for librarians and publishers to make their research easier. Furthermore, users can choose from quick or advanced search. The advanced search option enables the users to directly search for content, title, author or publisher. This function helps to reach the desired content as soon as possible.

Secondly, there are different options to narrow down the results and find the suitable content the fastest way possible. For instance, by simply ticking the “only content I have full access to” option, all the irrelevant materials can be sorted out. The content can be narrowed down by choosing from Content type (journals, articles, review or books), Research Area, Author, Publisher, Journal name, Language or Publication year. The database has further options as well. It is a significant advantage that the results can be sorted by relevance or by the newest or oldest publication. Under each journal, there is a possibility to download the text in PDF or HTML format to make the usage of the different texts more convenient. The citation management tool enables the users to save citations that can be easily found later when they need them on the website. A clear explanation is also given next to all articles which show whether the article is available for us or not. These functions make the user’s work easier. Unfortunately, despite these functions, Project MUSE was not a suitable database for our group’s research. By using the keywords “Much Ado About Nothing”, “gender” and “Shakespeare,” I examined the results provided by Project MUSE.

However, the results were often improper or recurring. Most of the articles do not mention Much Ado About Nothing at all and they are not even about the play. For example, if we use the keywords “Much Ado” and “Shakespeare,” Project MUSE shows 38 results. The newest journal is connected to More’s Utopia that was not even written by Shakespeare. The oldest result was published in 1993 and it is connected to the topic of The Two Gentlemen of Verona. However, these results do not provide material in connection with Much Ado About Nothing. It is mentioned only twice in the latest publication but the main theme of the journal is about a completely different play. By contrast, if we search based on all of the keywords, we have only 16 results. If we sort them by relevance the first one is “Shakespeare’s Jestbook: Wit, Print Performance” from Spring 2004. This match was the closest to our topic. The oldest research remains the same journal in this case as well. Furthermore, most of the results are theatre reviews by different authors and there are some reviews that mention Much Ado About Nothing only in the Works Cited section as a secondary source for the article.

In conclusion, despite the fact that I used various keywords and narrowed down the results in different ways, the records were not accurate. Although, the usage of Project MUSE was quite easy and clear, the results were not suitable for our research.

Gelóczi Eszter: Google Scholar

Digital media earned an indispensable role in our lives since the modernisation of the world mainly covers the improvement of online surfaces and programs, along with the production of electronic devices which are the tools to reach digital media. Digital media can be created, distributed, downloaded or modified because it concerns images, videos, sounds, web pages, e-books and journals and so on. The aim of our project was to explore the differences between online databases and find out which leads us to the most relevant results when searching in a certain topic. My search engine was Google Scholar and I would like to give some information about its features as it can appeal to those who are about to write home assignments or their thesis.

First of all, it is important to mention that it is very user-friendly and easy to understand its options. It is possible to search for only „Abstracts” or to access „Everything” that are full texts. We can sort the results by a chosen year or type a time interval in which we are interested in. It will sort the hits from the latest to the oldest ones but my problem was that I was not able to find the oldest of all as there is no such option on the website. I just tried to figure it out by going through all the pages of results but when there are thousands of results it is impossible to get to the end. We can also search „Everything” by relevance which turned out to be much better, even if we get thousands of results not only a couple. Sorting them by relevance means that the program sorts the results by their citation numbers which show how many times it was cited. The bigger the number is, the more relevant the source might be and these appear at the beginning of the list. This search option was much more accurate than searching abstracts by dates. The program also has an Advanced Search option where we can add the author whose works we are interested in and add expressions or words that we would like to appear in the title of the document or anywhere in the text. We can also add words we would like to avoid or give a book in which the article was released. This detailed search speeds up the process of research to find the most proper sources. What is more, that it is possible to search documents in various languages. You can choose whether you are searching in only one or more languages. It is perfect when you are searching sources for your Spanish or even Japanese paper because you will definitely find something that helps you.

In conclusion, I would highly recommend Google Scholar to anyone especially to students who ran out of time and are looking for a good site to save some time. The results that the site offers are quite reliable as they are based on librarian catalogues just like the Hungarian MOKKA , thus it only contains peer-reviewed documents. Of course, it is not a perfect site as it will also offer documents that are not accurate at all but by searching by relevance offers quality sources which will perfectly cover your topic. 

Rónyai Kitty: Theatre is the best

I was in the theatre group in our class because I firmly believe that that is the best medium to experience a play. In this blog postI am going to list a few arguments to show my reasons and will mention why some of the counterarguments are irrelevant. Starting by stating that plays were written to be performed would lead us nowhere. I will ignore this obvious fact because based on this we could hardly argue. Instead let me compare the medium with the others.

The theatre is closest to the film therefore I would like to start with that. Through technological advancement the film may have the advantage because it allows for tricks that could never happen in a theatre. However these do not amount to the actual presence of the actors. When on stage, their whole body is always visible and they can never be out of shot. Seeing the characters on stage even when they do not have lines or action and also seeing them fully all the time not from shot to shot adds a dimension of reality to the characters. Thus the experience can help the viewer in their suspension of disbelief in a way that a film never could.

However its means of making the audience realise that what they are seeing is not real and is just a play are also more powerful. Breaking of the fourth wall can happen in a film but in a theatre the actor has the freedom the react to the audience’s reaction. That way the viewer breaks out of the world of the play and notices the reality around them. The theatre offers the possibility of these two opposing methods in much more powerful ways than a film could.

I will not compare the theatre as a medium with the book and the digital database separately because what matters for our present purposes is its differences with a written text. Although this is very subjective, it has to be said that reading is altogether a duller experience than viewing. It is impossible to experience the glamour of theatre. Comprehension is another issue where there can be no final answer in deciding which is better. Both reading and watching can be hard to understand but while in a book we get careful explanations, in a theatre the words are supported by actions.

However a typical argument against theatre is usually that it is just one possible interpretation of the lines, of character or scenes. This is undeniable. The issue arises from the relatively little stage directions which allows for countless interpretations. Seeing just one of these does not equal the full experience. Reading the play in theory should mean that we can imagine all the possibilities. Unfortunately, in my experience, this requires the kind of close reading that few actually practice when reading. Also, there is a relatively easy way to overcome this possible defect of the theatre. We simply have to watch more than one production.

These are of course only my arguments and I acknowledge the subjectivity of the topic. Therefore I am looking forward to your arguments to disagree with me, in the comments!

Sources of pictures:

http://lorannah.blogspot.hu/2011/07/83-much-ado-about-nothing-globe.html

https://www.oldhallhotelbuxton.co.uk/offers/theatre-breaks-at-the-old-hall-hotel-2/