Zoe M.

Before I started the Shakespeare course in Stratford, I wasn’t sure how much extra knowledge I was likely to learn considering that our class had already done so much discussion and analysis beforehand. However, despite our previous daily discussions and research, by the end of the week in Stratford I had learned an incredible amount. Taking this course at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust gave me a whole new level of understanding about –and appreciation for –Shakespeare and his work.

When we began our course on Monday, I thought that it was nice to start off with some historical background information on the time period that Shakespeare’s plays were written and first performed. This gave me a better understanding of the stage sets and the types of costumes that the actors would have worn. For instance, I hadn’t made the connection that the clothes worn at that time would have been considered the modern equivalent of fashionable designer clothes, rather than elaborate costumes that we seen them as today. Other than the costumes and set, it was also interesting to learn about character types, for example how the ideal male lover would have looked, which helped me to visualize the lovers from plays such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

As Merchant of Venice was our focus play, it was fitting to launch into it in the first day with a pre-performance discussion. As we had just finished reading this play and hadn’t yet had time to discuss it thoroughly, it was useful to be able to get some information about the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production before watching it later that night. Not only did the talk prepare me, but it also got me excited to watch the play. In fact, all of the performance discussions I thought were very useful. These discussions helped by reminding me about any plot details I had forgotten –or altogether missed, informed me about how the play had been performed historically, and gave me specific things to look out for in the production that we were about to watch. These discussions proved especially important for Cardenio and City Madam, two plays which we hadn’t looked at before coming to England. For the most part the endings of the plays weren’t given away in the discussions. However, we were still able to learn about the plays’ plots, as well as receive information which aided us in our understanding of certain cultural references mentioned in the play. One example that I though particularly important in the case of City Madam were the facts about the difference in the court and the city society, as well as the stereotypes of new money buying up all of the latest trends and accessories.

One of my favorite aspects of this course was being able to watch the various performances at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. This gave me a whole new perspective on Shakespeare’s plays as a whole. It’s one thing to read a play, but another to witness one performed, along with the director’s interpretations and being able to see the character interactions. When I read Merchant of Venice, I didn’t pay too much attention to Portia’s character, so it was very interesting to see a production where Portia was the main focal point. From watching this production, I was able to understand the layers to Portia’s character and the motivations behind her wish to take part in the trial of Antonio, all of which I seemed to have missed while reading the play.

At Lakeside School, as well as in the Shakespeare study course in Stratford, we did quite a bit of looking at the text for different ways to interpret it. I found that the voice, acting, and stage makeup classes very interesting because they took interpretation a step further. In the voice class we learned about the different ways of delivering specific lines in order to gain a variety of meanings. We took one passage from the character Lancelot and read it multiple times, each time accentuating different aspects of it through tone and movement. This seemed to help the text flow well, and also helped me to understand the subtleties of the passage that I hadn’t seen earlier. In the acting class we were able to take a scene from Merchant of Venice and interpret it as we liked: changing setting, character gender, and character relations – while making sure to back up our decisions through textual evidence. This put some of the creativity into our own hands, allowing us to explore new ways of viewing character dynamics, more so than if we’d simply read through the text.

My experience with the Shakespeare course was very positive. I learned so much and enjoyed the great variety of things that we were able to do throughout the week. From the lectures to the question and answer time with one of Merchant of Venice’s lead actors, Portia, I was exposed to a wide variety of viewpoints. In conjunction with our class at Lakeside School, this course helped to fill out and add to the many of the topics we had covered, taking our level of understanding to the next level.

 

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