Having narrowed your topic, seek out relevant stage background data--sources--for comparison purposes. Remember to take notes! You may seek:

• Other recorded performances of your chosen script

• Collections of images of other performances

• Reviews of performances (cited in most modern single play editions)

• Books about a play’s performance history, such as the “Masks” series by Marvin Rosenberg or the Manchester University series of Shakespeare in Performance

Think about what effect your data would have on an audience for your selected script, and how it judges the play.

For example: if you took The Taming of the Shrew and the scene when Katherine and Petruchio first meet: is it set in the past, with male domination stressed by Petruchio’s carrying a whip, and physically threatening her, or does she strike him, or do they both involuntarily stare at each other as in Zeffirelli’s film, suggesting instinctive mutual attraction?