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4/21/2010 19:57:58   
Postmaster General
Member

In case you are not aware, this Friday, April 23rd, is Talk like Shakespeare day!
(Reportedly) the holiday on Shakespeare's birthday.

What better time of year is there to discuss the genius behind the....quill?

I invite you to share your favorite things about 'Billy Shakes' as well as discuss. What is your favorite element, character, play, or quote of Shakespeare's?

As for plays, I love Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, and Julius Caesar. I feel smarter just for reading his work!

My favorite characters are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Dogberry, Benedict, Casca, and Seyton.

And quotes:

quote:

'Et tu, Brute?'

quote:

'What's in a name? A rose by any other name is just as sweet!'

quote:

'To be, or not to be? That is the question!'


Also, It may sometimes be difficult to read and understand, but I bring a solution!
Here is Sparknotes' No Fear Shakespeare. This is a series of helpful guides to reading and understanding Shakespeare. They are very helpful and also available in print! I own Much Ado About Nothing, and Julius Caesar!

And before I forget, Happy TLS Day!

< Message edited by Sheriff Duncan -- 4/23/2010 11:22:32 >
AQ DF MQ AQW Epic  Post #: 1
4/21/2010 21:21:14   
alexmacf
Member

Shakespeare was dirty. Very dirty.
The school board doesn't get that, the students do.

Cue major lulz when doing various Shakespearean plays. It was hard to keep a straight face saying a lot of them, because I got it. And that's just reading them in class; I could barely handle it when I was playing Mercutio (we didn't have any guys who wanted the part, all right?) in R&J for English. Our English teacher got it too, and said it was A-OK to skip lines or to start laughing in the middle of it, but I've got a reputation to cultivate!
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 2
4/21/2010 23:30:05   
horusmaster9
Member

Talk of maidenheads and beds and old bawds. Oh that silly Shakespeare.

But...
"Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?"
"No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I do bite my thumb."
Best. Part. Ever.

But Mercutio has to be my favorite character. He is the awesome of R&J. It really is a shame that he gets killed in the middle. T.T
Post #: 3
4/22/2010 12:08:57   
Postmaster General
Member

It is true, Shakespeare does have a certain amount of content that requires maturity.

And it is funny that teachers make us read these parts in class. But no one can deny the scholastic value of Shakespeare.
AQ DF MQ AQW Epic  Post #: 4
4/22/2010 14:46:27   
Eukara Vox
Legendary AdventureGuide!


 In the upcoming school year, I am teaching a lit course using The Tempest. So, I am looking forward to it. I haven't taught anything aside from his sonnets to students, so this should be interesting.
AQ DF MQ AQW Epic  Post #: 5
4/22/2010 14:51:24   
Postmaster General
Member

Good luck! Depending on the age, you may consider using the Sparknotes version to supplement. Or provide it to your students for use when they read independently.

Shakespeare is a daunting read if you aren't prepared.
AQ DF MQ AQW Epic  Post #: 6
4/22/2010 17:49:23   
horusmaster9
Member

Shakespeare is indeed difficult for a person not usually associated with his works to understand. I, myself, had a hard time reading R&J without the side notes that my book most graciously provided, but I did get the general gist of things. Otherwise, I would not have known the pure awesomeness that is Shakespeare. :D
Post #: 7
4/22/2010 20:18:44   
Postmaster General
Member

This is true.

Many adolescents don't really understand just how epic he was. They count him out as something that only the 'drama club kids' would be in to.

In all reality, he is one of the greatest writers of all time!
AQ DF MQ AQW Epic  Post #: 8
4/23/2010 0:13:23   
Wildroses
A beautiful Rose,
always and forever


 I sort of have a love-hate relationship with Shakespeare after studying a unit on him in University. I've seen a lot of nice versions of Much Ado About Nothing (I wrote my essay/review on it), and I love A Midsummer Nights Dream.

I'll always have strong associations with Twelfth Night because of this unit. It was marketed as a crossover unit between Literature and Drama, and last semester you could chose the strand you went into. Then on the first minute of the first lecture announced: "Usually only 22 people enrol internally in this unit, but for some reason this semester 58 people have, so we are going to put on a production of Twelfth Night which will run in the week before exams". All the literature students had panic attacks on the spot. Luckily they let us put together booklets and help backstage instead of acting. On performance nights my main duties consisted of putting a table, chair and sundial on and off stage.

I did learn a lot about Shakespeare having to help perform it though. It really gave me an understanding that Shakespeare's plays were meant to be performed, not read. You can miss a lot of subtities if you just read the plays, and a slight change in how an actor or director portrays a character or even says a line can radically impact on how the audience will respond to a character. This unit, however, also taught me that actors are the most aggravating people to be trapped in a small room with. I'd have rather not learnt this.

I read a few of the less well known plays for this unit. The lecturer avoids the more popular ones because she finds a lot of her students have been permanently scarred by poor high school teaching. This is certainly the case with me and Romeo and Juliet. I had to study it three times in high school. I made a reputation for myself by insisting it was a tale of True Lust and people that stupid were doing us a favour eliminating their defective genes from the gene pool.

Antony and Cleopatra was both hilarious and dull. I have read of it fairly described as a play with alot of talking about little action. Skip all the war and battle scenes, and just read the ones with Cleopatra. She has some of the funniest lines I've ever read. And this is supposed to be a tragedy. Of course, she does die at the end, so that was tragic.

But I cannot call Shakespeare a great writer after this unit. I had to read Titus Andronicus. Oh...My...God... Easily the stupidest thing I have ever read. What was Shakespeare thinking? Apart from you can't have too much murder, dismemberment and rape in one play, obviously. By writing this, in my eyes Shakespeare has blighted his entire reputation and had to give up claims as being one of the greatest writers ever. I simply cannot give such honour to someone responsible for Titus Andronicus, even though he went on to produce some very fine work I greatly enjoy later in his career. Of course, I am probably a minority in this. But anyone who wants to argue with me, I insist you read the plot synopsis of Titus Andronicus first: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titus_Andronicus#Synopsis
AQ DF MQ AQW  Post #: 9
4/23/2010 0:26:54   
The Extinguisher
Member

I don't find Shakespeare hard to read at all. A lot you can find through context, and most editions will have a sort of translator for anything weird. As long as you don't interrupt the flow of the text by looking something up, it's easy to read.
Post #: 10
4/23/2010 9:41:50   
Postmaster General
Member

Alas! The morn has come!

Mayst though verily enjoy the coming day!

Make sure to wish everyone a happy Talk like Shakespeare day, and impress them with your knowledge of all things Shakespeare!
AQ DF MQ AQW Epic  Post #: 11
4/23/2010 11:23:27   
Eukara Vox
Legendary AdventureGuide!
quote:

Good luck! Depending on the age, you may consider using the Sparknotes version to supplement. Or provide it to your students for use when they read independently.

Shakespeare is a daunting read if you aren't prepared.

I happen to be a very good teacher, I have an entire semester to dedicate to one play and these kids will already be studying Shakespeare in an over-arcing comprehensive class. This is one of the plays they HAVE to read as part of the unit. I am simply taking it and giving them enough time to read it slowly and appreciate it.

And I do not use Sparknotes. And I do not encourage the use of Sparknotes. I know my students very very well. They are perfectly capable of reading, understanding and appreciating Shakespeare. I know how to teach them. I have had this core group for two years.


Anyway, I saw The Tempest on stage and loved it. Before that, I had never read it, as it isn't one of the more "mainstream" plays. I was, at the time, quite tired of Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and MacBeth. After attending The Tempest, I went to the bookstore and bought Shakespeare's complete works and read The Tempest, Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Measure for Measure and then eventually everything else over a two year period.

Some of his plays, meh, not so thrilled about. Some, I can't get enough of. I use his poetry when I teach poetry class, which coincides with the Shakespeare class this year. Shakespeare has value, I just wish people understood that.

I blame how entertainment has evolved.

< Message edited by Eukara Vox -- 4/23/2010 11:28:48 >
AQ DF MQ AQW Epic  Post #: 12
4/23/2010 12:45:07   
Postmaster General
Member

quote:

I happen to be a very good teacher, I have an entire semester to dedicate to one play and these kids will already be studying Shakespeare in an over-arcing comprehensive class. This is one of the plays they HAVE to read as part of the unit. I am simply taking it and giving them enough time to read it slowly and appreciate it.

And I do not use Sparknotes. And I do not encourage the use of Sparknotes. I know my students very very well. They are perfectly capable of reading, understanding and appreciating Shakespeare. I know how to teach them. I have had this core group for two years.


Please do not misunderstand, I was not implying that your teaching was sub-par. I am sure you are an excellent teacher!

I was only saying that I found the Sparknotes versions helpful, and that I wished to share that helpfulness.

The print-versions had been translated into modern english, along with side notes to help explain references and backstories. These were features I thought very essential to getting the most out of Shakespeare.

I agree, some of his work was rather discouraging. Once you finally get through the long piece, you realize it wasn't as good as you'd imagine it would be. But I think that his good work out vastly overshadows the bad.
AQ DF MQ AQW Epic  Post #: 13
4/23/2010 13:03:07   
Ganden
Member

The single greatest contribution Shakespeare made to my writing career has been to inform me that, contrary to what some might try to say, English is a language, not a formula, and is quite flexible, not so brittle as to break at the slightest wrong.

That, and to show that there may be a direct correlation between how many useful words an author makes up and how successful they are. Making up words is fun. :D

-Tolan

_____________________________

We have enough people who tell it like it is;
we need more people who tell it like it should be.
--My motto for life.
MQ  Post #: 14
4/23/2010 14:52:31   
superjars
Member

I have enjoyed Shakespeare for many years. My favorite play of his is The Taming of the Shrew. I love the whit and humor that is rampant in it, and it's especially dear to me because I had the honor of playing Petruchio in high school, who happens to also be my favorite character.

I am a big fan of the film adaptations of Shakespeare with Kenneth Branagh, especially his Hamlet and Much Ado about Nothing.

I think the best thing about Shakespeare's works are their timelessness. Even though they are written in Old English and the originals can be hard to understand, they carry with them themes and ideas which apply to us as much today as they did to their original audience in Victorian England.
AQ DF MQ AQW Epic  Post #: 15
4/25/2010 16:10:14   
alexmacf
Member

quote:

This unit, however, also taught me that actors are the most aggravating people to be trapped in a small room with.
.... Sorry.

superjars: I actually disliked some of The Taming of the Shrew, due to my ultra-feministic viewpoints. I kept wanting poor Katrina to somehow find a way to ditch Petruchio. Actually performing the play was *fun*, though. I was Vincentio (odd as that may sound; I am not easily mistaken for a man, forget an old one) and I loved completely freaking out every scene I was in.
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 16
4/26/2010 9:20:25   
Xirminator
Member

I can't say I read Shakespeare very much. I find him difficult to understand, but that's probably just me.

I like some of his plays, like Romeo and Juliet, King Lear and the Merchant of Venice, but I just can't get into the plays we're doing at school now. One of them is Tempest, actually, but I haven't started reading it yet.
AQ DF  Post #: 17
4/26/2010 22:47:26   
alexmacf
Member

Merchant of Venice was *So! Much! Fun!* Since I was the eldest kid there (it was for middle schoolers and underclassmen, I'm an underclasswoman), I played Portia. One of the guys dressed in drag to be Nerissa (sp?) and I almost doubled up with laughter trying to talk to him. It didn't help that we're both named Alex and look somewhat similar; our director kept getting us confused!
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 18
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