Shakespeare initial responces

Monday the 3rd of December

                                                          Today, in groups, we wrote on a large piece of sugar paper with Shakespeare in the middle. And each of us in the group wrote what   Shakespeare means to us and what primarily comes to mind when we     hear his name. We then, with us and the separate groups all presented them to the class.

We also as groups, got given snippets of the scripts and then had to come up with acted scenes and perform them to the class. our groups were numbered by the 5 pieces of paper we all wrote on. My group was number four and our scene told the scene of when Macduff convinces Malcom to get an army together because Macbeth has completely lost the plot and is going to kill Lady Macduff and her kids. Then Macbeth kills them, which was our final semi - scene. I felt that our shortened version worked pretty well because it helped me understand the story, because most of use studied this for GCSE English so the story came flooding back. Also with our shortened presentation of the story, also helped convey and show off the key scenes which also helped me understand the major and important plot points. 

Tuesday the 4th December

when I first heard that we will be doing Shakespeare's play Macbeth ; I originally thought that it will be the Greek theatre stuff all over again. That its far beyond my time, and that the language would be too in-depth and far too hard to learn. I also thought if I land a role of one of the main characters, even though no small part is too small or insignificant, it would be a huge responsibility that I would feel pressure from, more so than other plays that we have done. Macbeth is a world wide known play so to muck up anywhere down the line would be embarrassing and because it is much loved I would feel I've let myself down as well as the audience and Mr Shakespeare himself. 

Thursday the 6th December 

Upon doing a class reading of the script we got given Monday, I feel a bit more ready for the hard work and the performance beginning week of March 11th. 

The script seems easy to learn, its also quite straight forward the language now that we read it, because before in English we had the full version which was a lot longer and we had to analyse the language, so now we read the shortened version and read it normally it seems a lot less complex than first impressions. 

Now that we read the whole play, I have realised that every character has their own significance whether small or big. I'm pretty fond of the play, it will be a challenge, a big responsibility but every piece of drama is a responsibility if you look at it like that because you're selling the play. 

But I do like the play, and we can make the play and characters our own because ever version is different.