Engaging Shakespeare
I thought the event was very successful. I wasn't able to stay the entire time, but between rehearsals and everything, I was able to see all of the projects. I was really impressed both by how much time my classmates were willing to devote, and how much talent they were willing to share. I think the whole came thing together really well, especially given the amount of time the class had to put it together.
I feel like an audio-recording is not necessarily the most presentational final project, but I was glad that the audience was into it enough to ask questions about it. I think that, as far as presentations go, the play, the music video, and the art groups were a lot more engaging than we were able to be, simply because of the nature of our project. I'm not maligning our project (I actually think the final product turned out really well, so shout out to Amy and her willingness to be our sound-editor), but I think that it would have worked better under different circumstances.
How have I gained Shakespeare literacy?
I think making the audio recording of Hamlet helped me to really understand the play in a way I hadn't before. We really had to decide what the essential themes and ideas were, and how to effectively convey them in a very short period of time. I also reached a deeper understanding of the characters. Well, no. With Hamlet, that might not be quite accurate. It's more accurate to say that I am now able to look at the characters through multiple different lenses. I don't think a single one of them has a concrete motivation, and in doing multiple close readings of the script, I was able to consider who these people really were. I know that they're fictional, but that doesn't mean that they're one-dimensional. Even characters like Claudius, who seem really one-note and token, have the capacity to be extremely complex.
Because of my acting background, I was very eager to get into the character's heads. Initially, it was just Polonius, because he is the character I voiced. But as I read the script over and over and over, I found myself trying to understand all of the characters we worked with, even the ones with fewer lines and apparently more direct motivation. I found that I could imagine scenarios in which Claudius is the hero and the Ghost is the villain. I could imagine scenarios in which Hamlet was the villain. I could imagine scenarios in which Gertrude was a tragically sympathetic character. I don't think any of these ideas are wrong, because so little in the text is explicit.
The most important thing that I learned was that these characters didn't live in a vacuum. They had whole lives before the play started, and just because they weren't laid out doesn't mean they aren't important. Trying to figure out these character's lives and who they really are has proved endlessly fascinating, and it makes me appreciate Shakespeare's genius so much more than I did.
How have I analyzed Shakespeare critically?
Although we haven't read a ton of new material since the midterm, I tried to be on the lookout for opportunities to analyze Shakespeare in interesting ways. I think my favorite post was about eye-gouging as an appropriate punishment for treason. In that post, I tracked down a book about treason laws and punishments during Shakespeare's time, and I found that eye-gouging was actually fairly tame, compared to what could have happened. I also did a textual analysis of Edmund's Bastard speech from King Lear.
How have I engaged Shakespeare creatively?
I put a lot of focus on engaging Shakespeare creatively since the midterm. I wrote two posts on costuming, the first about The Taming of the Shrew and The Winter's Tale, and the second about Hamlet. These were the blog posts I had the most fun coming up with, because they tied into something that's interesting for me. I like to look at the ways that costumes are used in movies and TV shows and onstage. Very rarely does someone say "Yeah, just wear that, whatever." Clothes are used to make statements about characters, and it was fun to explore how I would do that.
How have I shared Shakespeare meaningfully?
I focused a lot on global sharing, because I fundamentally don't really get it. I haven't received much feedback (except from my husband, but I wouldn't call that global), but it was an interesting experiment. I wrote an online review for King Lear, as well as a review for Hamlet. I think that the Engaging Shakespeare event was also a very good way to share Shakespeare. An audio recording isn't necessarily the most presentational project in the world, but we've also put our audio recording on YouTube. At least theoretically, people from all over the world could listen to it. It currently has three whole views, so that's exciting.
Overall, I tried to be very cognizant of reaching the learning outcomes. Blogging twice a week for six weeks doesn't leave a lot of space to get really in-depth, but I think that in the time I had, I was able to do a lot. I was able to learn a lot. I have to say a big thank you to both of my groups (blogging and final), because this never would have worked without them.
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