Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Shakespeare for the Sneaky 4
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Shakespeare for the Sneaky 3
Shakespeare for the Switcher of Sex
Boyet--a woman? Or two? Moth in love with Don Adriano de Armado? What? Dang, I really wish that I had written this closer to when I watched Love's Labor's Lost--I'm having a hard time remembering all my thoughts now...but I went with my sister to see the play, and like Sarah, I found that knowing the plot was super helpful understanding what was going on, and being able to explain that to my sister was a good exercise for me. And, like a lot of people said, watching it made me be able to relate to the play a lot more, and caused me to like it a lot more too.
Since a lot of people have commented on the setting already (which I though was terribly clever and very well adapted), I thought I'd mainly focus on other things. I thought the gender switching was interesting how in both this play and the Merchant of Venice. In Shakespeare's day, as we've discussed, the actors were all male and the female roles were played by men and boys dressed as women. Then of course there was the additional layer of disguise when a character cross dressed in the plays. In both of the plays we watched, the characters themselves were changed from male to female characters. In the Merchant of Venice, I thought perhaps it was to avoid the whole homosexual thing. But perhaps the motivation was the guy-to-girl ratio of the actors? They had the opposite problem as Shakespeare--more female than male actors. But rather than maintaining the gender of the character and having the actor play accordingly, they simply switched the gender of the characters. Or, did they do that in Love's Labor's Lost in order to allow for even more matchmaking and love potential (as if there wasn't enough already)? Or was it to match the setting by having certain characters fulfill certain social roles? I couldn't decide. But here are some of the gender switches I can remember from the play. (There might have been another 1 or 2 I forgot. Please make note of them if I did.)
Boyet--In the Shakespeare original, a man. In this play: 2 woman. This is one switch I could see being motivated by the social role thing--the setting for the Princess of France and her attendants to plan, plot, and discuss is a dressing room. Very appropriate and believable setting too, in my opinion. For Boyet to be a part of those discussions, would only make sense for him to be female. There is a definite divide between the men and the women in the 1940s setting, which parallels the divide between France and England in the original, and making Boyet a woman (or 2) certainly fits this. Another note on this--all the women are dressed in very bright and vibrant colors--the woman representing the princess is dressed in red--indicative of power, or at least social prominence? The exception is the two women playing Boyet--they were both dressed in blue--the archetypal male color.
Moth--Again, this could be a setting-motivated switch also. It makes more sense for the radio host's foil to be a woman. This, of course, led to obvious match and romantic potential in the relationship, which changed the feel of that relationship. And did it seem to anyone else like Moth had feelings for Don Armado that led to disappointed love in the end, when he ended up with Jaquenetta?
Holofernes--Call me slow but I didn't get this role at all in the 1940s version. But, it did lead to some more romantic potential, and she ended up with someone in the end, didn't she? Was it Nathanial? There were so many matches it was tough to keep them all straight.
So maybe all this gender switching was motivated by the setting. Afterall, if it really was just a lack of male actors, couldn't they just dress the women up as men like they did the men as women in Shakespeare's day?
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Shakespeare for the Surprised
Shakespeare for the Sneaky 2
- plot pitch (10-20 sec)
- monologues
- other play dialogue
- controversial material that might have caused the play to be censored--remember what our guest speaker said in this regard--there are two reasons that things might be censored:
- overtly religious
- political
- personal, explicit references to the current monarchy or Church of England in a demeaning way.
Shakespeare for the Scholarly
Knowledge vs. Love? Those were the closing words of Nixon's post about Love's Labor Lost. That certainly is the dichotomy presented in this Shakespeare play. Or is it? It's certainly very silly, mocking just about everything under the sun; is it mocking this mindset as well? I'm not sure; to be honest I was struggling just to follow the plot and dialogue; perhaps further study of this play would reveal whether this was what Shakespeare intended or not. But Nixon's post, pointing out this mindset, as well as the discussion we had in class the other day, and Sarah's post about how society sometimes views love in the way it is mockingly portrayed in Love's Labor Lost made me start thinking about this mindset as well. In the play, the king and his buds all swear off women and make all kinds of strict vows including to fast once a week in order to become "scholarly" Act 4, Scene 3 really epitomizes this mindset: There's Beroune with his humorous internal struggle: "I will not love; if I do, hang me; i' faith, I will not. O! but her eye, — by this light, but for her eye, I would not love her; yes, for her two eyes. " And the King, with his misery loves company: "sweet fellowship in shame!" after each struggles with the temptation of women, and seeks to rationalize or find company in this "vice" they find out that each of the others has done the same. Then when they realize they are each in love, Beroune argues that experience is the best way to learn, or in other words, looking at a woman is the best way to learn beauty, and that their oath was inhibiting rather than complimenting their scholarship, and they go on to woo the women. But how often do people today have that same mindset? "My grades are bad because I'm in love." "I don't have time to date and be social." Academic and social endeavors are often set up as being exclusive. Maybe this is a idealistic view of the world and love, but I believe love and scholarship ought to be complimentary. When a balance exists between social and academic pursuits, they are mutually beneficial. Placing an extreme emphasis on either one certainly would lead to the detriment and eventual exclusion of the other, but if there is moderation diligent scholarship aids in the development of relationships worth perusing, and a relationship worth perusing would lead to increased motivation and focus on scholarship. I often hear of stories where people's grades improve after getting married. That is the kind of relationship look for and seek to develop: one where we help each other to become better and achieve our goals, rather than bringing each other down.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Shakespeare for the Suppressed
Shakespeare for the Speaker Clever
Monday, March 12, 2012
Shakespeare for the Sneaky
- The First Folio is the collection of Shakespeare's plays
- Published in 1623, 7 years after Shakespeare's death
- Compiled by his friens John Heminge and Henry Condell, who had access to hand manuscript and stage prompt notes, making this by far the most legit version of any of Shakespeare's works.
- Published by Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount.
- Definition of a Folio--a leaf of a book or in the printing industry, a standard piece of paper folded in half to make 4 pages.
- Back in the day, books were printed and stitched together but not bound--the purchaser could then pay additional money to have them bound according to their preference.
- The quantity of quality rag paper for the book was imported from France.
- Around 750 copies of the First Folio were printed and 228 are reported still in existence.
- 5 Compositors involved, as shown below--E was a not expert apprentice, John Leason, who had the most difficulty.
Comedies | Histories | Tragedies | Total pages | |
---|---|---|---|---|
"A" | 74 | 80 | 40 | 194 |
"B" | 143 | 89 | 213 | 445 |
"C" | 79 | 22 | 19 | 120 |
"D" | 35½ | 0 | 0 | 35½ |
"E" | 0 | 0 | 71½ | 71½ |
Monday, March 5, 2012
Shakespeare for the Saintly Sister
So I mentioned a while ago that I really wanted to do a parody of the St. Crispin's Day Speech Relief Society style, so I decided to work on it this week. In light of how we are developing material for our final project, I think this is quite appropriate--though we likely will not use this exact speech, I think a pump up speech of sorts is a must for whatever play we end up doing, and analyzing this one for themes and applying them to Relief Society in preparation for that seems like a productive exercise. I'm going to draw off some of the themes Austen talked about in his analysis of pump up speeches. I’ve also tried to maintain the iambic pentameter, but I’m really new to such a thing so it’s kind of rough. Assistance would be appreciated, if there are any experts in the realm, at least to point out where it’s lacking that special speech rhythm.
FIRST COUNSELOR
O that we now had here
But one ten tenth of those sisters in Utah,
That make no visits to-day!
RELIEF SOCIETY PRESIDENT
What's she that wishes so?
If we are mark'd to fail, we are enow
To do the kingdom loss; and if to serve,
The fewer serve, the greater share of blessings.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one sister more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if Facebook posts are made;
Such earthly things dwell not in my desires:
But if it be a sin to covet blessings,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, wish not a sister from Utah:
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one sister more, methinks, would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it to'th Society,
That she which hath no spirit for service,
Let her depart; her route shall not be made
She can Facebook posts put on her wall:
We would not serve in that girl's company
That fears her fellowship to serve with us.
This time is called the time of Sisterhood:
She that serves well this day, and reports back,
Will stand a tip-toe when report is made,
And rouse her at the name of Sisterhood.
She that visits this month, and then the next,
Will oft think on her visits to sisters,
And say ‘I loved those girls so very much!'
Then will she think of friendships dear to her.
And say 'These bonds were formed from visits made.'
Humans forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But she'll remember with fond gratitude
What love she showed that day: then shall the names.
Familiar in her mouth as household words
Sister of the Green Jell-O, the Quilter,
Maker of the Great Funeral Potatoe,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the mother teach her dau’ter;
And vis’ting month shall never yet go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But visits to all shall be remember-ed;
We few, we happy few, we band of sisters;
For she to-day that lives this life with me
Shall be my sister; be she e'er so lost,
This day shall gentle her confusion:
And sisters back in Utah at the mall
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their friendship cheap whiles any speaks
That served with us in Sisterhood.
This is still in rough draft form (that’s appropriate for a blog, right?)—I welcome any comments or suggestions for improvement.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Shakespeare for the Source Seeker
- Sources of Plots:
- --old stories (Hamlet and Pericles)
- --relatively recent Italian writers (Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado about Nothing, Othello)
- --popular prose fiction(As you Like It, The Winter's Tale)
- Even historical plays needed some source to tell him the history:
- --for Roman historical plays, Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans
- --For the English historical plays, chronicles of Edward Hall and Holinshed for the plays based upon English history.
- Some of the historical plays had been done before by other people, like King Lear and Henry V.
- Many of his plays have been lost (as mentioned in class)Shakespeare was a genius and likely had access to lots of books. He was obviously well read and used bits and pieces of lots of works, and made reference to lots in his works (like the Illiad, Montaigne, and many others contemporary and more ancient), including the Bible. (So the whole Job thing from Andrew's post would work)
- Even though he got the basic plot or idea from these many sources, he took plenty of literary licence and got rid of things that weren't dramatic enough and developed characters from "brief suggestions" from his source invented totally new characters to support the story as needed. He totally rearranged the plot for "more-effective contrasts of character, climaxes, and conclusions".