Final Blogging

And so another semester comes to a close. I've really enjoyed everything that we were able to put together over the course of the semester. So, to wrap things up, I've prepared one final blog post.

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.

Intro To King Lear

I completely forgot about needing to blog today. Usually I try to write my posts the night before, but I was so excited about my last post (of which there will be more similar posts), that I forgot.

King Lear. I have not had the best of experiences with King Lear. I once saw a live production of King Lear in Cedar City. My mom and I had driven up from Phoenix, which is about an eight hour drive. That part was fine. I like roadtrips and my mom and I have gone on several together throughout the course of my time living with her. We saw several other plays before we saw King Lear (my favorite being Bernard Shaw's Candida. Love the Shaw).

Anyway. King Lear. It was in an amphitheater, which, under normal circumstances is fine. Unfortunately, in this case it was raining pretty heavily. It was also extremely cold. I also had to pee really, really badly, and I couldn't go anywhere until intermission, which they saved until after Act III. It. Was. Awful. But almost none of my bad experiences were the fault of the production. The actors were fine, as I recall. Lear was suitably senile, which is a quality I like in my Lears. I mean, he does so many asinine things throughout the course of the play that it's hard for me to imagine him not completely senile. He's like somebody's great-grandpa who isn't allowed to drive or use the toilet by himself, but for some reason, he's been tasked with running a kingdom. Questions all around.

The Magical Qualities of Music

We spent a good deal of class discussing the role music plays in a staged production. I didn't see The Winter's Tale this weekend, so I can't say whether that particular production used music well. I can, however, cite an example of music NOT being used well.

I once saw a high school production of Romeo and Juliet. They decided to modernize it, which is fine. I think they were going for a Leo Dicaprio/ Claire Danes kind of vibe, and it didn't quite get there. I mean, everyone on stage was like sixteen and had no idea what they were saying. They used music pretty extensively throughout the show, which, in theory, is fine. Unfortunately, they only used one song.

This was the ONLY song they used. Literally the only one. Capulet's Party? Crawling. Marriage scene? Crawling. Mercutio got killed? Crawling. They also played it over their horribly long scene changes, and it was almost never appropriate for what was happening.

I love ambient music for a stage play, and I think it can add a lot. Unfortunately, it can also be terribly, terribly distracting if not done well.

Elements of Production

I was a little torn about what to blog about today. I think I want to focus on aspects of production - what I would do with The Winter's Tale if I were the director. I'll happily admit that The Winter's Tale wouldn't be my first choice, but I like to think that I could be creative. 

I'm aware that this is an image from Spamalot,
but that's more or less where this is going.

The first aspect to consider is, of course, the setting. I don't think The Winter's Tale lends itself to interesting adaptations as much as some of Shakespeare's other plays, but I think I would go with an Arthurian England motif. Not quite on the nose, but not so far removed that things wouldn't make sense. I love the idea of green, rolling hills and thatched cottages. It might be hard to execute, but we're just brainstorming.

The second thing I thought about was costuming. Actually, to be honest, I thought about costumes first because, in my opinion, the costumes are the best thing about any show. For a long time, I dreamed of becoming a professional costume designer for stage and film, so it's something I've spent a lot of time thinking about.

In an ideal world, I would have sat down and drawn out all of my costume ideas for the major characters, but unfortunately, this isn't my only class. So, instead, for the men's costumes I will point you toward the picture above, and I've found a Butterick pattern that more or less exemplifies what I would do for the ladies. I was originally thinking that I wanted Perdita in kind of a German Oktoberfest kind of dress with tons of cleavage, but I don't know if that fits the setting. But in my mind, shepherdesses are all dressed like they've come from Oktoberfest.

The third thing I considered was the lighting, but that's too boring and technical for me to want to discuss here. In a nutshell, darker lighting when things are going bad, and brighter lighting when things are going good. The first three acts would be pretty dark, and then the lights would come up slowly as Time gives his/her big speech.

I really love Time as a character, even though his/her part is so brief. I think, in my own production, I would try to expand Time's role somewhat and try to make the impression that Time is present for everything that's happening. I don't know how I would do that without it being hokey, but it's something I would try to work out. I think, perhaps, I would cast Time as a woman and have her in the background in as many scenes as I could sneak her into. I don't want her to be overt, I just want her to be there.