Reflective post

I feel I have gained Shakespeare literacy through many things accomplished in this class. I’ve read a range of Shakespeare’s plays such as, sonnets, comedies, tragedies etc.  I’ve also studied a single play, Othello, more in depth. For this course we were able to view two plays, Merchant of Venice and Love’s Labors Lost, and I think this has been the most helpful for me in gaining Shakespeare literacy.  Watching the plays be performed, as they were meant to, rather then just reading them taught me allot about

Shakespeare’s works.  Since reading theses plays I’ve noticed a lot of modern movies books, reference shakespeare. Weather quoting his writing or discussing his life Shakespeare’s legacy is found everywhere in pop culture.

During class we had the opportunity to learn about the context, language, and themes of Shakespeare’s plays.  These have helped  me to analyze the plays we’ve read in my blog posts. While watching a couple film adaptations of Hamlet I was able to critique the performances using these things. Through our project of mimicking Shakespearian works I have been able to apply what I’ve learned. 

Blogging about shakespeare has given me the opportunity to engage in Shakespeare creatively.  By comparing it to music and other works, casting the plays(such as Merchant of Venice) and making a literary map of Othello. For the final project my group has even tried performing. 

Act IV scene I with stage directions.

Francisco and Fillipa enter stage. Francisco give Fillipa, disguised as a duchess, a rose.

Francisco: The flowers dost suit thine eye, Cecilia?

       

             Francisco leans in for a kiss. Fillippa leans back disgusted.

 She tries to keep a distance as they walk, while flirting.

Filippa:  'Tis so, my lord, tho ne'er care for roses.

              Painted beauty promises but then they

              pierce and prick when drawn too near, and we bleed.

Fillippa sits down on a bench, she see’s the empty spot next to her and quickly puts the rose down to “occupy” the seat. Francisco, pursues Filippa by brushing aside the rose, sitting and taking her hand.

Francisco: They mean not to harm but simply remind

                   the young lover's soul of his living love.      

Francisco leans in for a kiss as Filippa dodges him.                     

Filippa: Forgive. I miss your meaning. Pray, do tell.

Fillippa goes to stand but Francisco, oblivious, grabs her hand preventing her. 

Francisco: How the heart aches, sick, nay, nigh death even

                 Of one who loves but knows not of its return.

                 A roses' thorn pricks merely to awake

                 a sleeping dreamer to act on his love.

Francisco kneels on one knee in front of Fillippa.

Lucio appears in the gardens, although unseen to Francisco and Filippa.      

Lucio is behind a wall or pillar and spies Cecilia

Lucio: (aside) What's this? Fair Cecilia and Francisco.

            O, if only I beside her walked

            Sweet verse and line t'would surely fill her ears.

Filippa: You speak as tho experienced, my lord.

           (aside) What's this? Here, nigh on knees, this swooning sword!

Francisco stands seriously.

Francisco: Fair Cecilia! Words with no actions take

                 Are mere symbols on a page or breath on

                 fleeting wind which leaves as quickly as comes!

                 Dost thou weigh (judge) the meaning of mine words now?

Filippa stands cautiously.

Filippa: Indeed. But thou fails to weigh (take into account) my mean (poor, of low rank) state.

Francisco Grabs Filippa’s hand and moves closer.

Francisco: Tis nothing.

Fillippa smiles in fakery then looks away  to avoid Francisco’s gaze

Filippa: Correct. Nothing is what I have.

Francisco, thinking he has offended, rushes to redeem his speech.

Francisco: No no, your worth (rank). It is of small import (significance).

               Filippa pretends to be offended.

Filippa: Sir, callest thou my worth (value) base (worthless)?

              Lucio jealously looks upon Fillippa and Francisco

Lucio: (aside) Francisco had a base (of low quality) school to mix words,

and marks not the meaning of his fair bird (object of prey).

Staging Shakespeare

My group is working on staging a scene from our lost play  so I decided to research more about the subject (our group hasn't had theater experience). Here are some things I found that could help everyone with their plays.

http://www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=963

Scene Changes with No Curtain
In Shakespeare's time there wasn't a curtain to drop between scenes.  To signal a scene or location change, all the characters would exit the stage and you would have different characters enter to begin the scene. In some cases when the characters remained on stag,e such as in Romeo and Juliet Act 1 scene 4 to scene 5(move from street to Capulet house), dialogue or stage actions made the change of location obvious.


Props and dialog were a big deal in Shakespeare's day. They were used to specify where the setting of the action because the playhouses didn't use movable scenery to make the set precise.  They did however use stage props such as rocks or banquet tables etc.


Actors would sometimes leave the stage as part of the performance. like the Ghost in Hamlet who appears beneath the stage. They used things like trapdoors or used building fixtures to stage things like the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. The stage was also provided with rjpes and winches so that actors coudl descend from , and reascend to the "heavens".

Shakespeare in the 40's

First off I loved the play. Great acting and Setting it in the forties during war time was brilliant!. I thought changing the setting added to the themes of Love's Labour's Lost. 


For example:


 In this play the women make their suitors go through the test of a year apart to verify their love. They know that True love will pass the test of time while infatuation will not. In the play the men were about to go to war, that kind of situation is a recipe for extreme infatuation and historically it was. In Shakespeare's day, women fell for sonnet writing gentlemen, the same way war brides fell for soldiers so this theme translated well to the change of setting.


The men in the play give up all worldly things to study like soldier going to war giver up the real world to go fight, they still want these things so its an inner battle. 


Another thing I really like about the play was the role of accents. A lot of the character had different accents such as: new jersey, spanish, british, cockney, etc. I thought this was an interesting choice for the director. I don't know for sure what he was trying to say but for me I thought it added to the importance of language in the play. 


One thing I didn't think transferred well was the role of the teacher. The actor was decent but I felt her role didn't make as much sense as it did in the original setting. I thought incorporating the play scene into a radio show was genius. People didn't go around performing spontaneous plays in the forties so I wasn't sure that scene would work with the modern setting but they figured out a way to make it work and I loved it.

To be or not to be a Comedy: Love's Labors Lost

First off can I say I loved this play. It was so different from Shakespeare's other comedies and yet there are many similarities. Because of the ending some people including myself aren't sure if the play should be considered a comedy. So I decided to use the Comedy formula I posted about earlier to determine its genre-legitamacy.

What originally made me question its genre was the ending. If Love's Labors Lost was a normal comedy it would have ended with five marriages. Instead at the end the lovers depart and their futures together are left ambiguous. Biron at the end of the play says,"Our wooing doth not end like and old play; Jack hath not Jill: these ladies courtesy Might well have made our sport a comedy." I feel like these lines are admitting its not a comedy. On the other hand,perhaps this was just a statement Shakespeare wanted to make. The point of a marriage at the end of a comedy is to show that society is once again fixed/restored. Love's Labor Lost doesn't end with the characters problem being fixed which also isn't typical of the genre.


I felt like the male character of the play and their female counter parts were foils of each-other. Foil characters are often found in Shakespeare's comedies.


Most comedies center around love and in this way Love's Labors Lost was the ultimate comedy. Also, the scene where then men disguised themselves as Russians is also found typical of Shakespeare comedies. The case of Disguise or mistaken identity provides humorous opportunities and was therefore used often (ex.Twelfth Night, Merchant of Venice).

There were Stock Characters: Don Armado, Jaquenetta, Costard, and Dull. There were also the wise servants: Mote and Boyet These types of characters are typical of the Shakespeare Comedies


In Conclusion, I would say that Love's Labors Lost is more Comedy than not but the ending definitely breaks the mold of the typical Love wins out in the end plot.

Pitching to a Shakespeare's Audience

I found this interesting book called The Background of Shakespeare's Plays it had some interesting facts about the Elizabethan audience concerning there taste in plays. Here are some facts that I thought were interesting and could help in our play writing. 

Storyline

1. Playgoers wanted a story -old, patched or borrowed,- so long as there was plenty happening.


so twisted complicated plots were what entertained the Elizabethans
Shakespeare usually had two or three plots going on.  not all were not all were logically resolved but they had a hero or heroine "on the horns" of a dilemma. The play I'm working on Duke of Venice has two solid plots and a less resolve third plot which I think is representative of this.

Setting

2.Setting of the play wasn't as important so long as it was romantic.  the Elizabethans were not strict about geographical or historical facts. They preferred the play to be set somewhere exotic. 


This would explain shakespeare setting a lot of his plays in foreign places like Italy. Our play takes place in Venice which was a popular setting for Shakespeare's plays.

Characters

3. Shakespeare was more interested in his character then his plot which was popular with his audience. If is plot was lacking in logic he would compensate by slightly tarnishing the figures of his main plot, I. E. making his minor characters more attractive, he could use a tale of pathos and potential tragedy for high comedy.(he did this in Much Ado About Nothing). The interest lies in the character and incident. 


Though were not writing the play we tried to create deep/complex character traits that would "tarnish slightly" our main characters and make our B character more appealing. 

Themes

4. Elizabethans like romance as a theme for plays no matter how extravagant. They had a great love an capacity for imagination. they liked stories where wars were averted by sudden conversion, disguises impenetrable,and where love at first sight is the expected thing and anything can happen. ex. "Twelfth Night only in Illyria can  a girl disguised as a page produce such complexities. and other stories like the Tempest are possible only in the glory of romance."


disguises, marriage, romance are all found in our play. Also our third plot of impending war is averted by a transformation of the main character which was a popular idea back then.

Manners

5. Even though the stories took place in different times or settings characters were expected to conform to Elizabethan mannerisms. I.E Romans behave like London Crowds they would not have been well received otherwise.


Though I don't know much about Elizabethan behavior we tried to model them after shakespeare characters rather then Italians etc. By doing this I think our characters would be understood and enjoyed by an Elizabethan audience.

Whats in a Comedy

So Our play the Duke of Venice is a comedy and we tried to use the Shakespeare-Comedy formula to come up with our plot. 

First off we came up with an A-line and B-line plot. Shakespeare uses regularly uses in his plays. Our A-line plot involves Francisco and Fillippa while our B-line plot is centered around Lucio. 


Comedies usually start with a broken society and at then end everything society is fixed. This is usually represented by a marriage (ex. Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Knight, Taming of the Shrew, etc.) Our play begins in a broken society Venice which is getting a new ruler. This causes many problems but in the end they are amended by marriages. 

Foil character, who provide contrast between character) are found in many shakespeare plays (Bassanio and Antonio, or Portia and Jessica)so we decided to have some in ours. For example Francisco is responsible for ruling Venice but he would rather see the world. He is carefree and lacks responsibility. Lucio, has traveled the world and wants to settle down. He's experienced the life Francisco wants and is now looking for a life filled with duty and responsibility. 


Also, Shakespeare uses Dynamic characters that undergo a change in the course of the play (ex. Katherine-Taming Of the Shrew) Francisco and Fillippa  Francisco doesn't want to rule and doesn't take life seriously. He's using his power to further his own dreams by threatening to conquer Croatia. Fillippa wants the power and respect that her brother has. Fillippa takes life way to seriously and hasn't figured out the true meaning of living. both characters under go changes as a result of the plot.

Most Comedies involve young love. There are often obstacles keeping the characters from there loves and these are resolved in the end. For example, in Taming Of the Shrew Bianca can't be with her love until her sister is married and in Twelfth knight Orsino and Viola can't be together because Orsino thinks Viola is a man. In The Duke of Venice, Fillippa can't be with Lucio because she is pretending to be Francisco's lover. 


Mistaken Identity is also a common theme in Shakespeare Comedies. For example: The Comedy of errors is a play that entirely revolves around mistaken identity. In our play Fillippa is pretending to be a (word for female suitor??) that her her brother falls in love with. This leads to misunderstandings and comical situations. 

Some Stock Characters we could add to our play:
The fool 
The Drunk
Perhaps Fillippa has a wise servant
etc.


Another thing we need to work on is a new name. Shakespeare's comedies often have clever names (ex. Twelfth Knight, Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About nothing) We could get away with ours because there are some straight forward names (ex. The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Two Gentlemen of Verona etc.) However I think a clever name would be more exciting. 


The general theme of Shakespeare Comedies is that loves always wins out in the end.