~Re-arranging the Stuff~

SO... today was Shakespeare class, and we began with a little speech by Angela. And then, we went- (drum roll, please) straight to BLOCKING! The fairies managed an arrangement for our song to sing our beloved Queen Titania to sleep, warning all evil "things of the night" to leave her be.

"(Verse One) You spotted snakes with double tongue,
Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,
Come not near our fairy queen.

(Chorus) Philomel, with melody
Sing in our sweet lullaby;
Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby:
Never harm,
Nor spell nor charm,
Come our lovely lady nigh;
So, good night, with lullaby.

(Verse Two) Weaving spiders, come not here;
Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence!
Beetles black, approach not near;
Worm nor snail, do no offence.

Philomel, with melody, etc."

Angela changed a little of last week's bit of blocking, and on we went. The first verse of the song is to "Just Around the Riverbend" from the Disney film, Pocahontas. (Whoops... did I really have to say that???) Oh, well:)

A Call...

Just a little tidbit I found interesting about Macbeth. Macbeth's servant's name is 'Seyton.' Say that three times and tell me what it sounds like:P. Anyhow, it takes forever for him to anser to Macbeth's call, showing complete unrest and turmoil in Macbeth's kingdom. Ick!

A Stack of Blocks (No, not toys)

Last Thursday (again, sorry about the lateness), was another week of blocking. I designed my costume, and showed it to Angela, and she liked it; and we ran through the blocked scene, read through another, etc.

All the blocking, like a set of children's toys, tops one after the other, making an interesting and exciting play really exciting.

Shakespeareience

Shakespeareience was yesterday, in Glendale. It featured several different love scenes from some of Shakespeare's most "loved plays," namely, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, and Hamlet. Some of them were a little off by way of portrayal; and I'm looking forward more to our show in May.

Pattern after Pattern

In Composition class today, we had a review on pattern and rythym: Trochaic, for instance. My teacher used an excerpt from Shakespeare *surprise*.

"Honor, riches, marriage-blessing
Long continuance and increasing
Hourly joys be still upon you;
Juno sings her blessings on you!"

Trachaic pattern; four beat tetrameter. Ha!

Dates

For those who would like to know:
We have four performance dates this year, including (hurrah!) one down here in the desert. One is down in Palm Desert, the Matinee, so at 2 o' clock, on May the 8th (2010, of course:-) ) I will post the other dates, and times later.

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!