blog, week 5:

Friday April 1, 2011

This past Friday was much better than the last! Participation was great and entertaining, and the students were pretty active. Maybe I am looking back at the class through rose-tinted glasses, but I do believe it was a good class. We began with recapping all of the scenes from Acts 1 and 2, and we were able to read through Act 3 as well. I felt that the students were particularly animated this week and were more willing to ask questions than they sometimes have been in the past.

I was sad to not see Victor and Bruce on Friday. However, for those who did show up, each one had read a bit or more and did their script writing homework (excluding Luis and Joey, who happily did show up since they were unable to make it to class last week). I could not help laughing while reading through their scripts, which I did a little in class and then later on the drive back to Mesa. It was interesting to see the differences in writing, although I equally appreciate all of them. Mikey, who has been reading ahead and I'm fairly certain has already finished the play, rewrote Act 1, Scene 3. His writing and diction resembles a simplified Shakespeare; to me his dedication and interest in the play and Shakespeare in general shines through as a result. I was very impressed with his summarization of the scene, which he did extremely well, albeit a little over a typed page long. Travis did condensed versions of Act 2, Scenes 2 through 4. Each were to the point, and written in modern language. He was open about getting help from Steveo, which was fine with me - as long as he made an effort as well. While there are some gaps in the writing where Gabby and I might have to insert some information, they were overall good scenes, and as short as I wished them to be. Steveo was only able to get one of his scenes done (Act 2, Scene 1), so I hope to see the rest of his writing next week. The scene he did finish was highly amusing. Also writing to fit modern language and slang, his scene caused the most amusement for me. He did a good job getting to the point of the scene in a few lines. Since he will be doing the scenes with the two princes and their choosing of the caskets, I am excited to see what he will bring next week.

I think that Gabby's idea of having the students write their own script will pay off, rather than us finding a prewritten, abridged version of the play. The students were more willing to volunteer for scenes from Act 3, which was reassuring. This allows them to become more understanding of the play and its happenings, which is particularly reflected in their choice of what to include and exclude in the scenes they write. Gabby and I have chosen to not streamline all the scenes and allow for each scene to have its own individual flare, depending on how each student writes. We feel that it's important to keep their work as close to their original writing as possible, so that they have ownership of the script and have something to be proud of. We will certainly add a disclaimer at the beginning of the performance to make our audience aware of this fact. If we had more time, I would love to have each of the students pick a scene or a set of scenes specifically that they will direct. Unfortunately, since we will be rushing through Acts 4 and 5 hopefully this upcoming week, and completing the script, with so little time left before May 6 th I don't think that this course of action will be possible. We will need to make the acting experience for them as simple as possible, I believe, in order for it to be successful.

 

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