Shakespeare Performances 2006

Well done Shakespeare Class of 06. So good to have the five plays we have been working on brought vividly back to memory. I was very gratified to see the amount of work you had ALL done… I really do think that this component of the work in the unit as a whole pays great dividends… not only from the point of view of entertainment and friendship, but also from the point of view of how much you learn about Shakespeare through doing a section of the play…. And then wasn’t I amazed to see whole plays being rewritten and recast into a twenty minute segment. And then there was the beautiful finale in which Group 5 presented us with Act 5 of “The Tempest” in which our bard presents his fantastic farewell to the theatre: thank you Fadia, Marie-Lisa, Dyana, Alicia and Nike. Marie-Lisa made a terrific Prospero in her magicians gown… and special mention also to Nike who performed a great Caliban along with a few other roles… indeed there was much clever doubling of roles in this performance…. the ending with a team performing the Epilogue made the last scene into a Renaissance Masque… very fitting!
And now here are some screen shots from our hardworking teamsters in the other 4 productions. Here is ClareBear strutting her stuff in Twelfth Night:

Followed in the same fantastic production by Orsino and Viola played by the look-alike duo Jordan and Jenn:

I have to say that I thought this production, while it got off to a slow start -because it was the first item and needed to get the audience animated- became a fantastic miniaturized interpretation of the whole of the play with a focus on all the key LURVE scenes…. well done to Kristen, Danielle , Jermyne and Janine behind the scenes as well. You all had managed to memorize your lines… wow… fantastic.
Next was the very interesting composition of “Henry IV” with embedded sonnets. This production explored the relationship between this history play and key sonnets… well done for this inspiration and especially for the way the sonnets were staged within the play’s episodes…. the scene in the background freezing and the sonnets being read by one and then three actors…. Here is a snap from one of the sonnet readings… with Falstaff (Sonya) cowering in the background:

Next we were treated to a very avant-garde dramatized “rehearsal” of the casting for Hamlet…. with poor old Hamlet (Peter) and Laertes (Steve) being abused by the casting director (Gabrielle) for refusing to hold hands: Gabrielle shouts from off stage left: “NO HANDS YOU IGNORANT HOMOPHOBES”: this brought the house down:

Thank you those already mentioned plus Jessica, Jenna and Jackie for this inspired performance.
Last but by no means least mention must be made of the Crino/O’Brien/Dunn/Hasrouni/Jang/Shearer (in no special order) version of a modernised Lear set in Mafia-ridden New Jersey… wow what a fantastic backdrop as Lear (Young J) divides his Kingdom between his three daughters with Kent (Kath) lurking on the right:

This compressed version of the whole of Lear (in 25 minutes!!!!!) had a wonderful atmosphere partly because of the fantastically pertinent music selected for the performance (would love to know what the music was btw guys!)…. This was a great script overall and much work had clearly been done to turn this play into modern idiom… The high point came however when Edgar and Edmund (James and Mitch) fought it out with a real duel… guns and heavy truncheons… I was cowering behind my desk in fear of being clobbered over the bonce!

All in all a great time was had by all… thank you again- team!
MG- group marks will now go up in WebCT (if for whatever reason you did not participate – please be in touch)>