High School Shakespeare
My daughter has to give an oral presentation in her english class. She and her partner (a boy) have to act out a scene from Romeo and Juliet. She has the part of Juliet and he is Romeo. She even took a dress to school for this project. My tomboyish daughter almost never wears dresses. This whole affair has me thinking back to my high school days. When I was in high school we didn't read Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare is a high school standard in most American schools (even the private schools) so we read Julius Caesar, King Lear, The Tempest and A Mid Summer Night's Dream. But I have read others since then. I think Julius Caesar was my favorite back then. I still like those war/betrayal/murder type stories. But honestly, I really got into Chaucer more so when we read the Canterbury Tales. So tell me dear readers, what Shakespeare fare were you exposed to in your high school days? Did you enjoy it? Have you ever seen a stage play of his works?
posted by Daphnewood @ 5:18 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
My first year of highschool when we would have studied The Taming of the Shrew, it was banned and labelled racist. To this day I've not read it.
Then Grade 10 I read Romeo and Juliet and again grade 11 (as I went to a different school this year), and finally grade 12 Macbeth (my favourite by far) and Hamlet in grade 13. I like shakespeare fair enough, and I have always wanted to go to the festival (which is not so very far away and many classes used to take trips there -- save any I was in). I often watch the plays when presented on tv in either ballet or otherwise. I prefer Dante and Milton's works myself, but ... any great works are a big thumbs up with me in general.
We did a spoof of MacBeth when I was a junior in HS. My sister, a friend and I were the 3 witches and we made this icky cauldron of what was vanilla pudding like stuff... blancmange, really, and it looked like phlegm and from our chant it was supposed to have been that, also. We keep hawking up while we did our spoof and the audience was forced to eat the pudding. So much fun!
We got to read The Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet in the 9th grade, Julius Ceasar and Macbeth in the 10th, Hamlet in the 11th, and King Lear and Othello in the 12th. And, I'd read the Tempest and Midsummer Night's Dream in previous schools. And had read a lot of Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare. And I've seen stage plays of lots. That's what comes of being a lit major in college. It would be difficult to imagine turning down a chance to see King Lear especially...that's the best play ever written, in my opinion.
We had an entire semester of Shakespeare in the 8th grade. I think we read 8 plays that semester, with book reports and class presentations... My very favorite was A Midsummer Nights Dream I just love that little guy, Puck!
Post a Comment
<< Home