Interview techniquesHow to ask the right questions

The basics explainedWhen conducting an interview

with some one, usually the one conducting the interview takes the time to find out as much as they can about the person being interviewed.

CharacterSince you will be interviewing

characters from the play, Macbeth, you need to know as much as you can about each one. You do this by reading about their physical traits, how they react to others, what others think about them and what they think about and do.

Plot questionsOnce you have explored their

characteristics, you will need to decide what part of the plot you wish to question the characters about.

Some possible scenarios:Would you like to find out why

the witches wanted to tempt Macbeth?

Perhaps you want to know what caused Lady Macbeth to want to rush her husband into his predicted role as king instead of being patient.

Use quotationsYour character interview is not

complete without using quotations from the play itself. As you can see in the examples, the interviewer is knowledgeable not only about the events, and the characters, he is knowledgeable about what the characters have said regarding the situation you are learning more about.

The intervieweeThe character (s) who is/are

being interviewed must also know the character from the play very well. This calls for analysis of each character’s personality based on the information provided through characterization.

The QuestionsThe interviewer for this project will

supply a list of questions for the characters being interviewed and they will practice the interview until it is ready to be filmed. At that time, the characters must meet with the interviewer to complete the assignment. If it is impossible to do so, recordings using the I-Pod, MP3 players or Audacity will be accepted.

Once the interview is completeWhen you have completed the

interview process, you are to write a reflection on the entire process. What worked? What didn’t work?

Did you learn more about the character and situation from this exercise? If so, what helped you the most?

SubmitBoth the interview and the

reflection will count toward the final project grade.