Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Acting


I feel that the best way to experience Shakespeare is not only to read and analyze the text but also to memorize and act the scenes. Each of you will be assigned an acting group. Based some on your surveys and some on your "performance" in class, you will be cast in a role in one of several scenes from various Shakespeare comedies and tragedies. Some of you will have large parts with lots of memorization while others will have small roles. What would be your suggestion for a fair evaluation of that scene? Considering that the group may need costume/prop help, should the people with smaller roles have other responsibilities? (introduction, written reflection, directing???) Let me know what you think. Scenes will be assigned on Friday.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lots of memorization, come on Brandi. it really wont be fair if the people with less lines dont have to do anything else, but its also not fair that we have to memorize our lines. How long will we have to do it? Come on Elliot, i need some help on this one.

MrsC said...

Be realistic... a 5 person scene usually has two main characters who will have the bulk of the lines. My question is what is the trade off? What is fair? Max, you will probably have one of the larger roles, so what should the supporting actor do in addition to his line memorization for a fair assessment? Answer: Working on scenes on alternating days for 3 weeks.

Anonymous said...

I am really not a fan of acting, memorizing, or anything like that. I'll do it if I have to, but I would much rather not.

Anonymous said...

mrs. c this is bush league. The whole idea of memorization is kind of overrated. We are seniors, don't make us relive the horrors we experienced in 9th grade.

Anonymous said...

Brandi, I want the part that has the shortest amount of lines to memorize. I can't memorize well, nor do I want to. I say we skip this assignment and do some more coloring.

Anonymous said...

In ninth grade when we had to act it was horrible. The teachers made it worth like a million points and it seemed not worth our time

Anonymous said...

Acting is not my thing honestly...maybe it is and i have just not come to realize because of my fear of the stage, but personally i dont think you can punish the people with smaller roles just because they can't act, by giving them busy work or worse grades.

Anonymous said...

When you say work on scenes, what do you mean?

Anonymous said...

the supporting characters should have to do everything else to do with the scene. if the main characters have such an overwhelming majority of the lines than they should be exempt from everything elsein the scene.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Max. It is unfair for some people to have to memorize a lot of lines, while others get to memorize only a few. I at least think that the people who have to memorize more should get more points because they have to put forth more effort.

Anonymous said...

ELLIOT BLOWS

Anonymous said...

i am TERRIBLE at acting and memorizing lines! haha, so considering the fact that i got a kindof big part... i'm not quite sure how this is going to work out. I will definitely need to try to cut down one of the longer lines. I think that people with only a few lines should be in charge of costumes and props, because i know that i'm going to have my hands full with just the memorization alone and i don't even have the most lines in my group!

Anonymous said...

I really like the part you gave in class but there are a couple of memorization parts where they are like paragraphs and there is no way I could end up memorizing it all. Also how are we going to get our scene done and a research paper done in three weeks? Last year we spent the whole nine weeks on our paper. This is really cutting it close.

Anonymous said...

Brandi- Thank you so much for giving Max and I the biggest part in our play! I'm so excited to begin reciting the brilliant William Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. (I hope by now you have sensed a little bit of sarcasm). But I will prove to people who said I couldn't do it *J.E.*! that I can! But I honestly think we can pull it off :-)

Anonymous said...

I think that people with bigger roles should be evaluated differently. But everyone should still do the same amount of extra wrk. the people who have smaller roles have them because they feel uneasy about acting and shouldn't be punished for that.