Finding what's most important can be challenging sometimes. To find the meaning of something at its core can be difficult and I've been trying to do this with seven other classmates as we attempt to perform Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" in Twelve Minutes, an infamous project at my school.
A Shakespearean comedy, this play satirizes marriages of the time through superficial weddings and rather dark humor. Naturally, this five act play is rather lengthy with numerous dirty jokes and enjoyable scenes. But in doing this project, the group has realized that we have to make some important decisions regarding what content we may keep. Ideally, we would be able to perform the play in its entirety but such a situation is not possible. To put it into perspective, each act should be designated just over two minutes to fit into the allotted twelve minute period. Interpreting the meaning of dialogue and some simple lines or descriptions is difficult when eight different people confer. More often than not, everybody agrees on what to cut but we all are reluctant to take out certain jokes or lines that amuse us. A balance is needed between the necessary and the embellishment.
In the spirit of concise literature, this post will be brief. But I have one last question. For the sake of being "efficient," how do we determine what's necessary or a priority to us and what is superfluous?
