The Grande Finalle

That was an incredible production. I thoroughly enjoyed everyone's part in the production on Friday. Being able to see Shakespeare through so many different lenses helped me understand how many ways a person can study his works.

MUSIC VIDEO
Doing the music video was a blast! A lot of it was just coming up with ideas in the beginning, but once the wagon started rolling the vision we had became reality. Scenes took preparation, but once we knew (1) What we were going to say (2) Who was going to say it and (3) Where or how it was going to be said it was like clockwork. Although some of the scenes took 3 or 4 sometimes up to ten cuts, we eventually finished them all and Cara did most of the editing.
One thing Cara referred to that I thought was true was our different parts in the music video. Cara was the mind for what we should do, Chris kept us organized, Meg was willing to do anything (including skipping class one day), and I was the action person. It could be because I am an entrepreneur. When people have great ideas, they are worthless, invaluable, until they are brought to fruition. Therefore, it does not satisfy to sit around and create an idea and reform it over and over until we are all unified etc. To me, when we actually start doing the things we talk about, the idea continues to unfold, new things come to mind, and the product begins to become tangible and real.

SHAKESPEARE LITERACY
Looking back on the first day of class, I feel like my Shakespeare world has turned upside down. The ironic thing about our final project is that I used to be the one who thought Shakespeare was pretty much love and roses. Although there is a lot of love, Shakespeare deals more with truth, guilt, greed, lust, war, age, nature, and other topics than I realized. One I feel like I have learned especially a lot about is truth. I have not only read about but applied a lot of the ideals we read in Shakespeare into my own life. I am noticing through my own experience that what I talked about in two older posts, Trusting the Untrustworthy and Considerest Not the Beam that is in Thine Own Eye is true today.
Of course reading through Shakespeare has helped gain the most Shakespeare literacy. King Lear, although I feel like I have just scratched the surface of understanding its meaning, was a great play that taught me a lot, especially in the last lines of the play.

ANALYZE SHAKESPEARE CRITICALLY
To analyze Shakespeare critically I have focused on the lines I enjoy, like the last link points out. Reading that post shows how I analyzed the lines of the play, took opinion from some of my classmates, and looked up a more scholarly opinion on the matter. Dr. Carson had interesting things to say because she knew some of the history of King Lear. In comparing two of the renditions she pointed out the impact of different characters delivering the two lines. This developed my own creativity and personality because (1) It's not what you say, it's how you say it and (2) Whatever it is, the person who delivers the "line," whether in real life or in a play, makes a difference in the meaning of the message.
Doing the music video project also taught me a lot about Shakespeare's "one liners." A lot of his text was explained to me by the "far more literate Shakespearean than I am" Chris. It helped when delivering lines to hear his, and Meg's interpretations of the lines. Chris would explain to me exactly what the lines meant and what was happening in the scenes. A good example would be between Aerial and Prospero. When we are having the conversation with Meg in the orange jumpsuit, Chris explained how Aerial was opening the eyes of her master. "This is the paradigm shift," Chris would say. Understanding the lines as individual pieces of text helped me to analyze Shakespeare critically.

ENGAGE SHAKESPEARE CREATIVELY
Memorizing lines, acting in front of a camera, and directing scenes of the music video all were ways I engaged Shakespeare in a way I thought I never would. Chris and I took a day to film a few scenes together which turned out to be nothing short of an adventure. We bumped into a young girl who we felt was perfect for our "who suffers alone suffers most in the mind" scene and I looked at Chris for the go ahead. He nodded and I opened my mouth and asked her if we could film her. Finally we ended up in her family's home, with all of them giving us a tour of spots to film the scene we had created in our mind. With the camera rolling, I directed her in her actions and emotions to get the right feel. Again this happened in our nature scene from King Lear and again in our jealousy scene from Othello. Chris and I drew upon our creativity skills as we directed our players.
In connection with all of this, being on the camera meant we were memorizing lines. In our dialogue between Aerial and Prospero, with King Lear, and with Biron I had to memorize a few lines in order to give the right look. Also, this involved understanding the message we wanted to portray through delivery. Portraying the messages of individual lines was a creative way to engage Shakespeare.

SHARE SHAKESPEARE MEANINGFULLY
Sharing Shakespeare was probably the biggest focus of the class for me. Even though going to class took three or so hours a week, I feel like most of our attention was turned toward expressing our thoughts and research through blogging. One of the more formal posts this semester was mentioned above where I talked about the last lines of King Lear. Another one of my favorite, which I referred to on our midterm post was my analysis about war. Doing this was one of my favorite posts because it tied back the play to Shakespeare's time.
My informal sharing came through blogging and inviting people to the performance on Friday. I think hearing other people's brushes with Shakespeare was a treat. In fact, one girl I met had simply read the article about our Shakespeare event and decided to come out of a shear love for the art. We shared about some of our favorite plays, and finding out she had not read the Winter's Tale, I made sure she got the book as a prize (I didn't cheat I promise). :)

Overall, this class boosted my appreciation for the arts. Not just Shakespeare, but many literary and ancient realms of art. I can recall times when I saw situations through the lens of Shakespeare analysis I gained in class. That means a lot, when the things I learn in the classroom, become a part of my life outside of the classroom.

A Bit of Better Posting - Summing up my Blogging Experience

Over the semester I must say that this whole blogging thing has been really good for me. The terrifying mystery social media was to me is now friendly and VALUABLE. Two reasons. FIRST I learned how to blog. It's something I can do for the rest of my life to promote business (of which I plan to have many), to involve others in events like a family reunion or something, and to keep others posted about current events, for example if I travel to India or go see Machu Picchu. SECOND the steady consistent work we did helped me see what it takes to develop a new skill. Even though it is daunting at first, if we just try, and I mean honestly try, we can do it. It's like playing the piano, the first song you pound out is tiresome and long, but after daily practice over months and years, it comes naturally.
Now I am not saying I'm an expert, but here is one of my favorite blog posts I've done about a favorite Shakespeare plays Henry V. Obviously I put a lot of time into it and it felt good to analyze and think about the events from a historical viewpoint. On top of that, reading other's comments was informative.
Another one that I liked, which was more recent, is about the last lines of King Lear.

The weight of this sad time we must obey,
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest have borne most; we that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.

You can check that one out by clicking here.

Reading over my peer's posts and comments throughout the semester has been a treat. I was put into a dynamic group and feel like we heard positive, but different opinions all throughout the semester (I always enjoy an intelligent debate). One of my classmates, Christa (I could have used one from just about any of them, especially J.J.), posted about Music on her blog. The posts goes into detail about the use of music in Shakespeare's plays, analyzing the text and certain scenes from the play. She shows three of the four class outcomes in the post, gain "Shakespeare Literacy, analyze Shakespeare critically, and share Shakespeare meaningfully. The first is shown as she briefly acknowledges the "Tempest" as a contrast to another Shakespearean play, "As You Like It." Second she quotes the text and refers to scenes from the play to develop her point that "music and enchantment are eternally intertwined." And of course, by sharing her insights she is sharing it with all of us.
Again, I really feel like there were a lot of good posts given by classmates, here are two more I felt were superb. J.J.'s post, referring to the live blogging I thought the whole process was a very good, creative idea. Kelsie's post detailing how the director of the "Tempest" made Aerial and Prospero's relationship like a puppet and puppeteer.

The Orange Jumpsuit

Well things are coming together for the final project. We all met today for class at the law building and shot some film in the court room. I thought I was going to be in a scene wearing a suit, so I dressed up, but it turns out I was fit to be the convict and zipped on the orange jump suit. The things you have to do for show business!
The atmosphere of thought changed. My collared shirt wouldn't cut it for a man on trial, and we had Meg jump in to the suit and I cinched back up my tie. Chris and I played Prospero and Ariel and quoted lines about forgiveness and mercy. I don't want to reveal too much, but I think it will turn out pretty cool. Kara really knows what she's doing with directing.
To finish off the day we divided up the rest of the scenes, set a deadline for when they need to be in the drop box. After that we have to do the editing and put the picture to some music and the project will be finished.