[SOLVED] Royal Tylers The Contrast
Your second full-length essay (1,000 words minimum, typed, double-spaced, WORD Count included at end, submitted through Blackboard) will be over the following topic: Assume you are the Producer/Designer for a planned revival of Royall Tylers The Contrast, as either stage play or film. How would go about adapting the piece for a 21st century audience? Social types and manners have changed since 1787, but some are still with us in evolved ways. What sort of characters from the contemporary gallery of types and stereotypes would you have play the different roles? What actors would you cast? How would you costume and design the piece? Think about the issues the play of dealing with and how these have come down to us: imitation vs. originality/authenticity; the serious/gravitas vs. the frivolous/trivial; natural vs. artificial; hierarchies of rank vs. the ideal of a level playing field, an equal opportunity, etc. Remember, while Tyler and other writers of the Early Republic were concerned with sharpening and defining the contrast between the United States and Great Britain, they were also exploring divisions, stresses, factions, within the young country. And while we no longer measure ourselves against Great Britain, those factions/divisions within the United States have grown exponentially over the last 232 years. So, you have a much more diversified cultural landscape from which to draw.