words words review

I saw the mask club "words words words" on thursday. A student-run, student-directed, black-box show, taking three shakespeare plays, and cutting across several scenes of each...

 It was basically a 30 minute version of our show with some VERY distinct and important differences. 

1) the three shows were Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and Much ado about Nothing. 

for obvious reasons that's different. (ours is R+J, Hamlet, and Love's Labour's)


2) their theme was not examining what shakespeare thought of love, but was examining communication.


while I understood their attempt, I did not understand the followthrough. What I got was a series of stories involving a serious lack-of-communication. 


3) their couples were in grey, white and black, which echoed the feeling of their show, I guess.


our color scheme (red, yellow, and blue) is much more fun, and well... colorful. which hopefully sets the tone for our more upbeat production.


4) their show was intended for serious drama, and to evoke intense emotion... i think...


ours is to laugh at ourselves, the ways love can go wrong, and hopefully add enough of a modern twist to shakespeare that people who wouldn't normally think to look at shakespeare, might think again. We want to bring Shakespeare literacy to a level that any person can understand, be entertained, and enjoy the show/shakespeare.



-Averill

Shakespeare Literacy

Thirty repetitions later, I finally understand what a single line of Shakespeare means.

It sounds funny, but it's true. There's a line in the back-and-forth between Rosaline and Berowne that I never quite understood until today:
Berowne: Your wit's too hot, it speeds to fast, twill tire.
Rosaline: Not till it leave the rider in the mire.
Maybe I'm just being slow on the uptake, or her wit is too fast for me too, but that always seemed like an awkward line to me. I didn't get what Rosaline was supposed to be saying. But after memorizing lines, running through them multiple times, and trying to assign meaning to what I was saying, I finally got the metaphor. Her wit is like a horse, and it's so quick that it will leave it's rider behind in a sticky situation long before it ever gets tired. Basically, she's saying that by the time she runs out of witty things to say, Berowne will be so far behind that it wont matter. Hooray for finally understanding. There are things about these plays that I never would have picked up on if we weren't doing this production.
-Martina

ending poem--averill

Different hues and different shades appear in stories told
through time and space the tale of love, in every shape is sold
across three scripts what could have been potential love most true,
Lust, dishonesty, hate and haste have tragic endings drew.

Conflicting views from either side fashioned a love in the middle
A bond began through a look and haste, but logic, there was little

When truth from vivious lips doth fall, on ears already feighn'd
Honesty's lost, by sad misuse, for promise's now tainted

If born from lust, but care not of the struggles of their brother,
both fault the end in guise of truth deceiving both the other.

Is love in vein? Once can search these tales of sordid action
(so choose yourself, which course you'll take, to counter) Shakespeare's fiction.

(i don't like the last line. and a few lines in between)

Ending Poem-Martina

Well, it's short and not in Shakespearean, but here's what I came up with as a potential ending poem. It would be great for everyone else to post their's too so I don't feel so lame! Thanks:)

If your love is born of lust,
come to a speedy end, it must.
If you love stems from familial hate,
no happily ever after can be your fate.
If your love starts with the breaking of an oath,
your lover will soon find your promises loath.
Lasting love is born of honesty and trust.
Without these labours, your love will be a bust.

Voila! Done! And I even tied in the title of our show.

The REAL Schedule.

This is it. The really real thing. I will print this out in a packet, along with everyone's scripts and contact information. It's really coming together team! :D

Date	Place	Time	Schedule
Nov. 17 (Thursday)	Stage! JFSB-B192	class	Finalize script/ending poem
Nov. 19 (Saturday)	Stage! JFSB-B192	1:00-3:30	Block show.
Nov. 29 (Tuesday)	Class	class	MUST HAVE LINES MEMORIZED. There will be a quiz. If you fail, you will fail at life. moral of that story: memorize your lines.
Dec. 1 (Thursday)	Class	Class	Production elements meeting: Costumes, lighting, sounds/recordings, etc.
Dec. 3 Saturday (Maybe)	TBD	TBD	TBD (may or may not be out of town)
Dec. 5 (Monday)	STAGE JFSB-B192	8:00-11:00	Cast FHE--work out kinks
Dec. 7 (Wednesday)	STAGE	7:30-11	Dress rehearsal. (start at 8:00) Tell family and friends. We’ll need to practice for laughter etc.
Dec. 8 (Thursday)	Stage	Class	Final problems.
December 9	Stage	Call time: TBD (have room from 5-11)	OPENING NIGHT (and closing)

Check IT.

Love's Labours Rough Rehearsal Schedule

Tis a little small, but hopefully readable. Let's talk about as a group whether or not we want to add some extra rehearsals there towards the end.

Date:	Tue. 15	Thur. 17	Sat. 19	Turkey Break	Tue. 29	Thur. Dec. 1	Sat. 3	Mon.5	Tue. 6	Dec. 8	Fri. 9
Sched.	Finalize Script	Finalize Script	REAL first read-through	No rehearsal	Must have lines MEMORIZED	Production elements meeting	(TBA) (might possibly be in NY)	Cast FHE! Problems	Problems	“	OPENING (and Brittni's bday)
Time	Class	Class	1-3:30	YAY	Class	Class	1-3:30	7-?	Class	+ 7-?	TBD

Let me know if any of these dramatically conflict with personal schedules.

p.s. I have more specific directors notes about blocking/cutting/acting notes etc. (Just so you know) but i don't want to post ALL of our secrets

More accurate one will be posted tonight with places and times. 

First Read Through

I shared this on my individual blog, but once again here is the video from our meeting last Friday. Enjoy.
 -Martina

Yay Research!!

Okay gang, here goes group posting. I just spent some quality time with Google and Youtube. It was quite fun. And involved getting distracted watching David Tennant videos...(He was in The Royal Shakespeare Company before Doctor Who, so there was some sort of connection!) The only thing I could find that was kinda like what we are doing is from a group called the Reduced Shakespeare Company. They have one show where they did the Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged, and it's genius. The section with the comedies is my favorite:


Way more entertaining after having actually studied some of the comedies and getting their jokes.
The thing about this company is that they turn everything into humor. I'm not saying out show should be one big joke joke, because it definitely shouldn't be, but the every once in a while break from character to show that you're not taking yourself too seriously could be fun..
I also wanted to point out how they did their costuming. We haven't talked much about costume, but I love how they mix authentic costume with modern clothing. You can see it a lot better in this video. I like how they have a sense of continuity with all their crazy costuming, because they're all wearing high-top converse. I'm not saying we need to all go out and buy matching shoes. Something like the color-coded shirts we were talking about in class could work, too. I just think we need to have some sort of unity across the costuming. Just a thought. Let me know what you think.
-Martina

How do we feel about a common blog for our final project?

Love's Labours Lost

Romeo and Juliet

Love's Labours

Hey everybody, if we like the idea of creating a common blog for our final project, I entitled the name of our blog as "Lovers of Shakespeare."  GET IT???  Hopefully the pun isn't to hard to catch seeing as we are casted as lovers of Shakespeare and also happen to collectively be lovers of Shakespeare...  

Anyway, last night Averill and I spent a couple hours watching a classic version of Romeo and Juliet and ate some incredibly buttery popcorn... and now have a great foundation for our script.  We focused on the classic lines that pertain to the way we have divided up the material for our three 1 1/2 minute scenes.

Lastly, in class today, I can give everyone the passwords etc. associated with everything if this is 

something we are interested in doing.    

Hamlet and Ophelia

I liked Matt's idea that he brought up in class on Tuesday, and thought this could be a great way for our group to inform each other on our progress, address road blocks, and a put up and develop ideas we have for our final project.