I think I'm 4 years old at heart...

...because that play was the best thing EVER!!!!

Captivating. That's really all I can say about Merchant of Venice. I loved everything about it!

Mostly the theme of   timelessness.

The costumes really brought that out for me. I feel like a lot of casts (at least the ones I've seen portrayed academically) wear black. I assume it's mostly due to lack of budget, but I think the black outfits cast a dark dimension to the Shakespearian wonders. With MoVenice, though, the costumes actually enhanced the play. The top hat and the dress shirt of Antonia made me more captivated to the story. Although vivid and wonderful, the costumes were not distracting. This play could have been set anytime, anywhere.


Which leads me to my next point: I love the universality they chose. Although the message of religious prejudice/conflict was lost, the idea that we, as the audience, could imagine this play anywhere, made it easier to pull the "life themes" out. Suddenly I found myself focusing on "mercy can satisfy the demands of justice" rather than "look at the Christian and the Jew fighting." Don't get me wrong, there is much to be learned in that perspective too...but the timelessness was just too apparent to ignore.


I loved the audience participation. There was something about the add libbing (and the actor's REMEMBRANCE of using the add lib in the story) that made it so.......real? I was actually listening for slip ups. After all, BYU theatre has a good reputation. Just because it was a Young Company production didn't mean they could go-a-slackin' on the job. I was impressed. They're GOOD. I think I heard only one. A "Venice" instead of a purple-what-ever-we-chose.

Listen, I'm no drama fanatic...but if you ask me, that acting was GOOD STUFF!!!!!!!!!! I dunno. What do you think, Kent? You've had experience...and I only had 9th grade theatre class where we couldn't speak coherently, let alone act...but STILL! I LOVE THEATRE and I feel like I've seen a decent amount of plays to know that those actors were sincere. Their lines came from serious and deliberate character reflection...What else distracts from timelessness like bad acting...am I right?

Segwaying right along: ANTONIA!!!!! I first heard the main role would be played by a girl before the play even started. All I could think was, "Oh great. If Kent hated LibriVox version of woman-plays-male-role, this is going to be interesting..." However, BYU-Theatre does it again. (Can I just say I love our Performing Arts here? Time and time again they deliver. No where else in the world. I swear...) Katie Jarvis was phenomenal. I think I'm going to carry her around in my pocket with me and let her read all the Antonia parts whenever i re-read the play. I never pictured Antonio being so...animated? She was so much of a classic character, I found myself wanting to listen to her more. Which is interesting for this play because I thought a lot of it was centered around Shylock. I'd never really focused on him that much before. Kinda cool...

The kids! What a way to change things up! I talked to Professor Burton afterwards and he said he actually saw it twice. He commented that the kids in the previous show's performance had a bit more attitude/excitement in their roles. I thought the kids in Saturday's version were a bit timid. (Can you blame them?) I guess nothing adds to timelessness like the innocence of children's character.

LOOK HOW MUCH DIFFERENCE THEIR COSTUMES MAKE!!!!!!!!
COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FEEL!

OH! I forgot:

Here are some things I found in relation to my previous post:

According to the English Phrase Finder: Shakespeare COINED the phrase "love is blind." Cool. I never knew. Supposedly, it appears in Two Gentlemen of Verona and Henry V as well. Three points for Team Shakespeare.
Also, this quote was included on that cite:
Modern-day research supports the view that the blindness of love is not just a figurative matter. A research study in 2004 by University College London found that feelings of love suppressed the activity of the areas of the brain that control critical thought.


HEH HEH! Psych Experiments for the win! Except I feel like that kind of goes AGAINST my previously posted portrayal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .hhmmm. . . . . . . .oh well. :)

Chosen quote from M.o.Venice

But love is blind, and lovers cannot see

The pretty follies that themselves commit.

                              -IV.xi.41-42

ATTENTION: The following is a matter of personal opinion, based off previous observations. This is NOT the end-all-be-all explanation. :) Just keep that in mind.

Love. Wow. What an intense subject. Mostly because I feel like love is very different to every person. Specifically, every relationship. Not even just romantic relationships, but all love.

I do concur. Love IS blind. But not necessarily in a bad way. I think that the cliché, pessimistic interpretation of this quote is: "people who are in love do dumb things." And while it may be true that as soon as a loved one enters your life, suddenly everything in the world seems to center on them...I don't think that's what "love is blind" means. 

Rather, I view it more of "love MAKES you blind." To the faults of your lover. When you're in love, the world seems to be perfect...THEY seem to be perfect. You don't recognize all their flaws because--(here is the important part: )--you choose not to. When you're in love, you have the best attitude. You're always on your best behavior. You don't read into the little things that come up because you are so busy focusing on all their...awesomeness! 

And sometimes, that goes away. "Why?" you may ask. Well..........hhmmm......I can't speak from experience because I've never been married: but all that I've heard in my 19.75 years of living says that people "fall out of love" because they STOP choosing. Stop thinking that their love is amazing. They start focusing on the negative things, and of course we've all heard a billion times, "That which you focus on will increase."

Side note: This in no way relates to divorce. OR marriage. That's an entire subject of it's own. All I'm saying is that I think love means that you see a person in a good light. Because EVERYONE has flaws. You choose to love someone, even a best friend, because you prefer them.  You love them as a whole-person-package. You like the things you DO see. Even the flaws. You look beyond those. To love. Commitment or divorce is a very different thing: we're just talking about love. Deep, raw, love. 

Then again, I don't believe it's entirely a choice. I think all of us here have had crushes on people we don't want to...but perhaps that's just the initial attraction? 

Perhaps love IS a choice. Perhaps we get what we put in. Perhaps love is seeing someone how God sees them: for Christ loves everyone. Even through all, and I mean ALL, of our flaws. And if He can do it...we can too, right???

What do YOU think??????

I'd love to hear. Thanks for listening. -CMS

Happy Monday?

Wow. I was hoping I wouldn't have to admit this, but I'm kind of a nerd for Shakespeare right now. I bought Merchant of Venice tickets today and got pretty excited.

Also, I read Merchant of Venice with NoFear Shakespeare in hand. Don't tell Professor. I know I may be disqualified for reading Sparknotes.....but it was actually a REALLY cool experience for me. :) Don't judge me. I'm not a slacker! Haha I read the original text too!!! Here's the thing: my interpretation was different than their interpretation. And it wasn't like either of us were wrong...they both worked....for me at least. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Shakespeare is so awesome that his works can be interpreted so many different ways, and yet they all make sense.

....well.....they make sense in my mind at least. :)

Shakespeare does it again. Like I said, he knows his stuff.

Shakespeare goes to Psych class

I'm just sitting here reading my Social Psychology text book following our classroom discussion today about Perception. Basically, we perceive situations based on our background.

For example: if you "prime" a subject with certain words, they recall specific memories. So, your mind effects what you distinguish.

Or: the mood of a person affects their perception of their past moods. So, your senses change your perspective.

AND THEN: right in the middle of the text, I read:

"The error of our eye directs our mind: 

What error leads must err."

-Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, 1601-1602

AWESOME! Shakespeare and Psych at the same time. He really knew his stuff.

It's about time I do things right

• SO I may or may not have COMPLETELY misunderstood that we had to go through the Learning Outcomes. So this is me picking up the slack:
• 
  
• 1. Gain Shakespeare Literacy
  Demonstrate mastery over fundamental information about Shakespeare’s works, life, and legacy

  a. Breadth READ EACH ASSIGNED PLAY IN IT'S ENTIRETY!!!!!! 

  b. Depth still thinking about which play I want to read after all the assigned ones. Hopefully, one will appear naturally through my analysis.

  c. Performance watch at least one visual representation of each play I read

  d. Legacy (history, scholarship, popular culture) I want to do some heavier research about what OTHER people are saying about Shakespeare. Hopefully, I can choose one main quote from each play and study that part's contemporary work more in depth. Especially on the character analyses I do (see Outcome 2c).
• 2. Analyze Shakespeare Critically
  Interpret Shakespeare’s works critically in their written form, in performance (stage or screen) and in digitally mediated transformations. This includes 
  a. Textual analysis Psych major. TOTALLY doing character analysis.
  b. Contextual analysis (historical, contemporary, cultural) Research on the time period.
  c. Application of literary theories This one will be a BIG one for me. I want to analyze life themes within and across the plays. I have SO MANY annotations in my book. I intend to link them all together.
  d. Analysis of digital mediations post responses to each movie/play I see
• 3. Engage Shakespeare Creatively
  a. Performance memorize my pulled quote (see Outcome 1d).

  b. Individual creative work alright. this one is me going out of my bubble......I used to dance....so with my character analysis..............I'm going to try to portray the emotions through dance.   ?????? we'll see how this goes

  c. Collaborative creative project   hhhhmmmm....I'll get back to this one
• 4. Share Shakespeare Meaningfully
  a. Formal Writing. Develop and communicate your ideas about Shakespeare clearly in formal and researched writing and through a format and medium that puts your ideas into public circulation.

  b. Informal Writing. This mainly means through regular online writing

  c. Connecting. Share one’s learning and creative work with others both in and outside of class.

  5. Gain Digital Literacy
• Students use their study of Shakespeare as a way of understanding and developing fluency in 21st century learning skills and computer-mediated modes of communication. Those skills are grouped under the following categories.

  a. Consume - Effective and independent selecting, searching, researching, 

  b. Create - Producing content that demonstrates learning and which can be shared for others to profit from.

  c. Connect - Engage with other learners within and outside of the class to develop thinking and share more formal work.

  I guess all I want for these is to really engage in Shakespeare. I want to talk to random people about it like Rebecca did. I want to think about my responses....not just do random blogs.

King Henry...the Fifth

Movie night. Awesome. It doesn't help that Henry was also the actor who does Lockhart on Harry Potter. Or that Fluellen was also the acter who is Bilbo Baggins in LOTR. I couldn't take either of them seriously.

But other than that...surprisingly a good movie. I was actually into it. They did a nice job portraying the people as real people. I felt the emotion of Henry being betrayed. Here's the clip:

Mostly starting at 3:12.......but the good stuff is from    5:26-5:48  and   6:00-7:15

Henry's character is really interesting. I love how the betrayers actually condemn themselves. Shakespeare makes him look like a genius. I'm excited to read the play and learn more about him...cuz the ending was SUPER surprising. Happy reading to all you cramming for Wednesday's class!

BREIF Life-Theme-Analysis of the Tempest!

yup....that's pretty much it...

The Tempest

Well, today was a good day: solely because all I did today was analyze the Tempest. Literally. From about 1:00PM to 7:25PM. All things Tempest.

And I must say, enjoyed a lot more than previously hoped for. Good themes. Good lessons. Good emotions. One scene I was literally fighting back the emotions that wanted to come out through my eyes. (I know, I know. I'm a girl. Kill me.) I doubt anyone was actually watching me in the library...but if they were, I bet it was comical. Shakespeare does it again.

I guess what I came up with today was a renewed love for all things exotic. When Professor was talking about going to India and not wanting Mac and Cheese: I TOTALLY knew the feeling.

So this may be un-kosher tangent for this class, but today, Shakespeare reminded me of my love for travel. So: here's to the exotic theme of the Tempest:

Jerus. Going this summer to the BYU center. This will be the view from my balcony.

Ireland/Scottland. My next dream. Why? Because how can you look at pictures like this and not want to be there? I guess I can mostly thank Andrew for the renewal of this dream today.

















Germany/Poland. At Christmas time. Because I heard my sister and my close friend Chanson talk about it enough that I pretty much fell in love as much as they did.


After that....who knows? An island to myself like Miranda? China with my new friend Austen? I guess I'll see. For now? Off to read Henry V. This should be good. Although....I'll probably just wish I was in England.

Personal Learning Plan

Boring title. I know. But here's the thing: it works. Because this semester, I intend to learn from Shakespeare. Frankly, I'm tired of just reading Shakespeare. I'm tired of thinking inside the box. Maybe, just maybe, there is something more to Shakespeare's works then just his story lines. I've heard people's theories that perhaps Shakespeare was a women. Or a group of writers. Or that his plays were JUST comedies. Or that Romeo and Juliet is a love story.

I don't buy it. I think his plays are more like an iceberg than people want to believe. There's so much to be discovered under the surface of his plots.

Take Romeo and Juliet. Love story, right?
But maybe, just maybe, it's not. Maybe it tells more about the human mind. About how it gets carried away. Or makes rash decisions. Or fails to communicate.

I don't know, I guess what I'm trying to say is that there is more than meets the eye, here. And I intend to find just that. This semester I'm digging deep. There are things here to be discovered: common threads. I hope to string a few of his plays together by finding common themes. Life themes. Like how life is beautiful. Or how there is more to life then your everyday problems. How to deal with trials.

Shakespeare's plots = life themes. And I intend to find them.

Beauty

Sometimes, in this world, beauty is not easily discovered. The simple, yet relative truth for me is that every time I open one of Shakespeare's works...beauty is all I find. 


Not to say that Hamlet stabbing someone is beautiful...but there's something beautiful in the way only Shakespeare can insult. Or show emotion. Or rhyme.


As a Psych major, I guess I just picture beauty waiting to be analyzed here. In the themes. Something within that shouts, "Life is more than you imagine." And that's why I'm here. That what I intend to find.