Blocking... as a Whole

Wow! I'm sorry (and really shocked) at how long it has taken me to write last week's "episode" of Shakespeare class.

Blocking the scene featuring the argument between Oberon and Titania was genius on Angela's part. (For those of you who aren't sure, blocking is when you cast the "moves" or "where to go," for an un-blocked play. Since Shakespeare's plays are almost always never blocked, this is generally the most tedious part of performing any of his plays... in addition to your lines, you must memorize the blocking as well. However, Angela tends to make things fascinating and fun at the same time.)

She pulled up an Act II, Scene '0', instead of immediately jumping into II.1, in which Oberon is spying on Queen Titania and the fairies playing with the changling boy, so the audience kind of gets an idea about what the fairy king and queen are arguing about, and to show how much Titania enjoys her changling boy, and why she dislikes the idea of giving him to Oberon. In II.1, we started the blocking. That was loads of fun... and you'll have to wait and see how it turns out!