A director’s approach to Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville : a Sherlock Holmes mystery.

Abstract

This thesis documents the production process and the directorial approach to Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery performed at Baylor University in the spring of 2021. The work explores Ken Ludwig’s biography, how his writings are inspired by the comedies in the Great Tradition, and an analysis of the play. As subgenre of comedy, mysteries share many of the same qualities as comedies in the Great Tradition. Ludwig’s adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles shares a pedigree with the greatest mysteries ever written, wrapped in a comic guise influenced by the works of Shakespeare, Sheridan, and Goldsmith. Additionally, this thesis explores the challenges that arose in the design and rehearsals processes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.