Week Thirteen - Week Fourteen

Week Thirteen

3 November, 2005

'That Morag bitch reminds me of Lady MacBeth, always convincing people to bust a cap for her, do your own dirty work you whore-bag. The show is the shiz niz because it pits tragedy with romance, good vs. evil and it even surpasses some of my work because it has hot women. I could only dream of having thy noble wench Bec Cartwright in my plays, but then Lleyton Hewitt ruined that dream, what a tool'. [41]  

As we enter the final rehearsal week before our performance, I feel it is important to justify some of my final choices for characterisation, presentation and overall role development. For the multiple characters I present, I believe I have created a variety of roles that are severely set apart from each other. At the same time, however, I have not spent a lot of time this semester detailing my character development to the depth that I normally, and ‘anally’, work towards. As it is a Shakespearean classroom perspective that I have been focused upon, I feel it is time now to correct this imbalance, if only slightly. With that in mind, a great activity that Jenny asks each student to complete is a commentary on their character’s development and choices in the creation of their roles.

This activity is useful as it asks students to think beyond the physical presentation of their character, and somehow write their character’s presence in textual form. For myself, I have only really discussed, so far, the development of my characters in the parody during my entry in Week Nine. My characterisations have not changed that much for each role of the coarse actor, and each character itself was primarily guided to appear to be different from the others. In this example, each character was presented over-the-top (i.e. coarse acting-style), yet with minor differences from each other.

Publius, in Titus Andronicus, is essentially presented as a bodyguard. His presence is strong, and his voice is harsh. Although a very minor role, Publius’ strong presence allows Titus to, laughingly, ‘parade’ around Chiron and Demetrius. I believe my presented strength provides Titus with the power that he mentally needs to bate the Empress’ sons and to appear to verbally justify his thoughts. In addition, the strength of this scene is also displayed through the mirroring of the gangster-style mob hit. As previously mentioned last week, the characters are a representation of established gangster narratives and symbolism. The strength of my character’s presentation will be in the ability of the audience to identify the iconic mobster-style being presented.

The final, and most complicated character was that of Benedick. Although this scene is essentially a reversal of the box hedge scene from last year, Benedick’s youth (compared to Malvolio), I believe, sees him ‘fall in love’ more quickly. There are so many facets that I have developed into this character that I can hardly remember what is ‘him’ and what is me. As this is essentially the first time I have discussed any such characterisation of Benedick, I will probably forget some obvious traits and character development. As a point of, perhaps, putting myself down, I have focused way too much on the classroom application of Shakespeare and forgot to discuss the weekly progress of my role. Not to discuss the classroom again, but… to avoid such a mistake in a student’s journal, I think it would be necessary to highlight (every fortnight or so) a section devoted to the student’s character progress. A section such a ‘How have I improved my character this week?’ could encourage students to not loose sight of their textual justification of their character’s progress and development.

As for Benedick, the way I have finally decided on presenting him was guided by the way the scene begins and ends. Like Malvolio, Benedick begins the scene arrogant and ends love sick, by how have I presented this differently? I guess the major difference is that Malvolio craved such a love, and Benedick never wanted, or believed he could, fall in love. It is, however, important to note that ‘Shakespeare’s characters reveal themselves through their speech. In Shakespeare, language always reflects a character’s true nature’ (Davis & Salomone (eds), 1993:9). As a means to present Benedick, I created two polar characters. One arrogant, pig-headed and smutty character was polarised by a drooling, giddy, lovesick puppy. To present these polar examples, I focused very heavily upon the physical and vocal presentation of this character.

As mentioned in ‘How to Study a Shakespeare play’ (Peck & Coyle, 1985:109), Much Ado About Nothing is directed ‘towards a greater emphasis on mean and cruel instincts in mankind’. The arrogant Benedick, therefore, is presented as a mean, malicious, ‘know-it-all’ bachelor. I presented his voice reflective of a strong educated English man, and his gestures and posture that of a (supposed) fearless individual. The constant positioning of his hands on his hips, I believe, connotes not only his perceived arrogance, but also his belief in his constant ability to maintain control over his situation. He is well dressed to connote his falseness, as ‘the symbolism of costume is often used in its most traditional way by Shakespeare to represent a false appearance’ (Charney, 1971:26). This is also communicated in his use of the pencil and paper, as they act as a clear and formal representation of Benedick’s thoughts in a tangible form. The polar example of arrogant Benedick is seen through a loss of all of his ‘crux’s’.

Benedick, at the end of the scene, has lost all aspects of his arrogance due to the ‘consequent difficulties that stand in the way of love’ (Mulryne, 1965:14). His strong English voice, ‘know-it-all’ approach and fearlessness have been substituted for polar extremes. His voice is erratic, bending from high pitch, crackly to low, yet consistently unsure, as, in this scene, ‘love creates discord in society’ (Peck & Coyle, 1985:110). His quick-witted banter with Beatrice, or ‘preliminary flirtation’ (Mulryne, 1965:16), is exchanged with long, uneasy pauses of confusion and thought ‘because his wit is that degree less caustic’ (Mulryne, 1965:29). Benedick’s stance is now bent over and loose as opposed to the straight and defiant posture. Probably most importantly, his formal thoughts transcribed on paper, are now reliant on his free-flowing mind. His ability to not transcribe tangible thoughts results in a speech that is vague, non sequitur and fragile. As a strange rule of thumb, everything I used in the first scene was off limits on the balcony. I believe the strength of this character comes from the presentation of, seemingly, two different characters.

On a completely different train of thought, I would like to present my last lesson plan for the semester. I think one of the strengths of eduction is its’ ability to mould itself into all facets of many subjects, and Shakespeare is no exception. Shakespeare is not just confined to English and Drama; I believe Shakespeare can be discussed in all subjects. In fact, subjects like Science can discuss the Bard’s ‘branding’ of the moons of Uranus; specifically the ‘names of Shakespeare characters ranging from Juliet and Ophelia to Oberon and Puck’ (McQuain & Malless, 1998:vii). In addition, the same class could discuss the fact that Galileo’s life span (1564 – 1642) and Shakespeare’s (1564 - 1616) cross over in time periods.[42]  With all of this in mind, I would like to discuss a crossover lesson plan that looks at Shakespeare in the media.

Shakespeare TV is a lesson plan designed to venture into my other educational major… media. Such an approach would see the class produce, write, and film an Elizabethan-style media network. This includes the reporting of important news articles such as the shipwreck in The Tempest, or the marriages in A Mid Summer Night’s Dream. The Anchors and News Reporters can take on Shakespearean roles, thus communicating a connection to the time period. I believe the strength of this activity, in relation to my ISC, is the ability to use modern artefacts to report on an unknown time. Like researching for a current news story, students would have to present and research characters and stories of Shakespeare’s time to create a ‘factual news story’. The activity could be fun, factual, entertaining and relevant.

Week Fourteen (a.k.a. Study Week)

10 November, 2005

'Shakespeare's play [MacBeth] may be a wonderful blood thirsty story, but at the end of the day it's just a piece of entertainment'. [43]

What a way to finish the semester, today was great. Let’s start at the very beginning… a very good place to start. This morning saw us present the twenty-minute parody to an audience of year 10 drama students. This very receptive and open crowd was also asked to participate in a proceeding twenty-minute question and answer session. It was great to hear, and talk, about the pathway through university, as I was able to reflect on my own journey. If I was able to get into university after high school (that is if they accepted double digits on my TEE score) I would not have survived. Some people were born to study, I was not… and have therefore had to work tremendously hard to get where I am today.

In my own classroom, I would like to carry out similar discussions on a regular basis, as I believe such conversations help to elevate fears, anxieties and dismiss confusion. Of course the students today, I assume, were exceptions as they volunteered to be here and appeared to be genuinely interested. As a result, the subsequent group activities where fantastic as each group consisted of committed and experienced students willing to have a go.

In our group, consisting of Ilona, Nicole and myself, we carried out the ‘Swearing Shakespeare’ activity. This activity had fantastic results for a number of reasons. To begin with, it was nice to see one of these lesson plans actually being used as apposed to just being discussed. It also worked well as it captured the instant attention of the students as something different, yet didn’t scare them away because it was Shakespearean. It was a great blend of Shakespeare, popular culture and perhaps something I had never previously thought of… FUN!!!

I also came up with two new activities while conducting each group’s lesson. As one group had finished so early, I needed to fill the last two minutes. As a means of purposefully using this time, I pointed out to the group the importance of the ‘fool’ within Shakespearean theatre. From there, I asked the students (when pointed at) to yell their Shakespearean quote as a means to heckle and diminish the presentation of myself as the ‘fool’. I conducted this to verbally, and physically, point out that the characters in Shakespeare’s plays have societal as well as entertainment purposes. Just like the theatre of the cruelty, Shakespeare’s play’s had a clear purpose.

I also thought of another, rather quick, activity to help with the understanding of a Shakespearean play. An activity called ‘Finish off this scene’ would see a group of students read only half of a scene from Shakespeare, and then complete the remainder of the scene through improvisation. As a result the second half would not only demonstrate their understanding of the scene, but also connote the students’ perceived relevance with their society and time. This activity would be great as it would be the students who decide on the scene’s relevance and purpose, and in turn how it affects them within their culture.

I am so happy to have completed this unit again as it has given me the opportunity to think about, and construct mental and tangible approaches for Shakespeare in the classroom. Such pedagogies, I believe, will be invaluable as my whole approach to teaching is based on being fully prepared. Having a variety of approaches, activities and acting experiences will, I hope, provide the basis for a strong teaching platform. As I complete this unit again, I feel less anxiety towards the concept of the Bard, yet still unsure of many of his works. I know I have lots of private research ahead of me, yet it is something that I am becoming less sacred of everyday; however don’t get me wrong… I am still petrified about teaching in general.