Memorizing Isn't A Walk in the Park

     Here I am trying to memorize my monologue and I realized something. This isn't the first time I've done this and yet it is turning out to be incredibly difficult. I was in an Acting For Non-Majors class my sophomore and we had to memorize a monologue for our first assignment. I picked a monologue from the book The Princess Bride. It took me about three or four days to memorize the passage. It was nearly two pages. It was longer than the passage I have now which is giving me so much grief. I thought, maybe it's because I didn't pick this passage or because I didn't know anything about the passage nor do I like it. It's from All's Well That Ends Well, a play I've never seen nor no nothing about. Then I thought, no it's not that. After all, I had never read The Princess Bride and up until about last year I didn't really care for the movie either. Perhaps it's the language but I dismissed that quickly. I've memorized short passages from Shakespeare and the Bible and even some in French so language wasn't it. Then I figured it was probably because it's the last week of school and I have so much going on around me with quizzes, exams and papers all being turned in that I was simply distracted. I have a lot more to do now that I did my sophomore year. So here's to memorizing while in the back of my mind I am thinking of rocks and maps for upcoming exams!

Turning Comedy into Tragedy

     "Tragedy when the feeling's gone and you can't go on, it's tragedy...when  you lose control and you got no soul it's tragedy!" The words from this song inspired an amazing project idea. As implied by the song, what happens "when the feelings gone"? Why "can't you go on" or "lose control". What happened to your soul? Comedy and tragedy, two ends of the spectrum, so very different from one another and yet so interconnected.  Comedy, generally, is full of humor, banter, lightheartedness, pleasantry, and always with a happy ending. Tragedy is the implied opposite with everything that could possibly go wrong happening and ending in something sad, usually death. So how do you take a light, happy story and turn it into something depressing? 

       The basic outline for a comedy starts with the characters. There is more than one main character, each a likable hero with weaknesses. Take a Midnight Summer's Dream for example. It has many main characters, not just one. For the purposes of this paper, we will focus on Hermia, Lysander, Helena, and Demetrius. Now, each one is likable in their own way with their own weaknesses. To really get a comedy going, at least one of these characters has a disagreement with one of their parents. Hermia fills this role by not wanting to marry the man her father wants her to marry. Her weakness is her lust for Lysander. Let's face it, teenagers wouldn't know love if it slapped them in the face. 

       This weakness is then turned into a petty concern. For Hermia, the simple matter of "Is she going to listen to her father?" is the petty concern. This petty concern leads into a play full of mix ups and nearly broken hearts. Eventually everything is put right and the story has a happy ending with several marriages. So far, a comedy consists of many main characters that are likable heroes with weaknesses, one having a disagreement with a parent, with story that ends in a happy marriage. 

     The next part of a comedy is the theme. The theme for a comedy usually centers on appearance versus reality. In a Midsummer Night's Dream, the four teenagers are running around in a forest at night not sure if what is happening is real or not. When they wake in the morning, they think they all had the same bizarre dream. The same came be said for Bottom and Titania. Appearance becomes reality in a comedy. 

     For the audience, they see everything that happens so they don't feel much of connection to any of the characters on stage. The ridiculousness of it all actually makes the audience feel superior. The audience gets this attitude of "that would never happen to me, I would notice this or that." So the audience laughs at the silliness that these characters could be so dense. They are detached from the happenings. 

     Now, still using A Midsummer Night's Dream, we get to the tragedy of it all. This play ends in marriage but marriage isn't all butterflies and daisies. If Shakespeare had made a sequel he probably would not have made it nearly as happy. Let's say that it's thirty years later, Hermia and Lysander have a couple of kids and perhaps they aren't getting on as well as they used to. In real life, we call this a reality check. 

    This "reality check" starts by isolating a single main character. Let's isolate Hermia. Something has happened in her relationship with Lysander, he's pulling away and she is feeling very vulnerable. To turn her into a tragic hero, she must have a tragic flaw. Perhaps she still doesn't recognize she was in lust and not love with him so she believes that because she is still "in love" she can't leave him. That her leads to wonder about serious, profound concerns. These could be anything from "Is this what love truly feels like?" to "Is this how marriage is supposed to be? Is it worth fighting for?" 

    The theme of a tragedy usually stems from these concerns, typically revenge or honor. More than likely Hermia will not be seeking revenge but will be seeking to save her honor. It would terribly embarrassing to admit that perhaps your father had picked the better man but in your childish rebellion you picked the one person your father couldn't stand. There may be revenge in the background, if say; Demetrius breaks free of the spell placed on him to fall in love with Helena. He may think that Helena was a witch who enchanted him and seek revenge on her. 

   When an audience watches a tragedy they are much more invested in the characters. They sympathize with the main character who has been wronged by all the others. They pity them; maybe even put themselves in their shoes. They fear for that character as they would fear for a real person. The audience feels no superiority and though they know the story won't end well they keep hoping that things will look up for that character so they won't have to suffer anymore. 

   Of course, a tragedy has a sad ending. This is typically a death. Hermia kills herself in her depression over the rift between herself and Lysander. In his guilt, Lysander goes crazy and becomes a "Poor Tom" wandering around in the woods spouting nonsense. Maybe Demetrius kills Helena. 

    While it seems like there is no way to pull a comedy out of a tragedy, it is really simple. The characters will be different simply because we killed the ones we knew. Whoever survives the end of the tragedy become the main characters for the comedy to come. Then the cycle starts over. This is the never ending circle of happy to sad. The ups and downs of real life put into a stage production in parts; the happy part of life becomes the comedy and the bad part of life becomes the tragedy. 

Holy Cow It's April!

     Well, now that school has loosened its grip on me and given me time to blog it's time to play catch up. First, Frederick Turner. I am not a poetry fan at all. Sitting through a poetry reading is like stabbing my eyes out with unsharpened pencils. My sister liked it far more than I did. I do like his accent, I 'll give him that. He did give a very good lecture too. That was far more enjoyable. I have a lot of "nothings" scattered throughout my notes. I liked his comments about profound rituals and symbols. It got me thinking about the profound rituals and symbols I know of or even partake in. He mentioned the American flag. Growing up we always had a flag on our front porch. We took very good care of it. I remember going to boy scouts and listening to my dad tell the scouts why it was so important to fold it up a specific way and to not let it touch the ground. Then I thought about how there are other symbols like that in the world. Take the Olympic Rings for example. There are five rings to symbolize the five continents that participate: North America, South America, Eurasia, Australia, and Africa. The rings are interconnected to show unity. There are also profound symbols in legends. Take Ancient Egypt for example. The pharaoh held a crook and flail, the symbols of the pharaoh, the leader of the nation, the God on earth. The Round Table of King Arthur's tales symbolized equality and brotherhood of the knights. When I thought about myself and what rituals I took part in there were tons of examples. Every Sunday I partake of the sacrament which symbolizes the body and blood of Jesus Christ given to atone for the sins of the world. When I was eight years old I was baptized by immersion to symbolize death and rebirth; leave sin behind and become a disciple of Christ.
       The Tempest. I watched the version starring Helen Mirren. That was quite interesting. I have always thought she was a great actress and she didn't disappoint in my mind. I quite enjoyed it. The setting of this story felt so much different from the others because it was set on an island. I really like all the music written into this play. As a musician myself I get great joy from imagining what the songs sound like.
      Working on my project I came across a list of comedy and tragedy contrasted which was really cool. It definitely will help to show the similarities and differences between comedy and tragedy. It will also help to show how one can become the other. Here's a link for those interested in a sneak peek:
      http://blue.utb.edu/mimosa/Handouts/T&C.htm

Dysfunctional Family

      Today in class one of my classmates (sorry I don't remember who it was) was asked to give a summary on King Lear.  She summed it up as a crazy story about crazy people. I don't disagree but I feel it's more than that. We read King Lear in my Intro to Lit class and it was chosen for very different reasons. So far everything we have read in that class has revolved around extremely dysfunctional families. And King Lear has a very dysfunctional family. First of all, there is no Mrs. Lear. We don't know whether she just has nothing to say or if she died or something else. She just isn't present. This leaves a single father of three daughters. For ten years, my family was my mom, my dad, me and my two sisters. While I love my dad and everything he does for us there are just some things he just can't help us with. A mother is very important for growing daughters. I feel that we see a bit of Lear's insecurity with how to raise his daughters from the scene in the very beginning. He thinks that the only way to find out how much his daughters love him is to basically make it a competition. Now, some girls are very competitive but for the most part girls tend not to be. Clearly, Lear does not understand this. So when Cordelia refuse to play along with her more competitive sisters and tells him she loves him as a father, no more, no less, Lear kind of freaks. He doesn't understand why she wouldn't just follow along and flatter him like her sisters.
       Part of me also feels like he doesn't really know how to raise children in general. We're talking about a time when children were raised by their mothers and, in the case of royalty, probably some servants. More than likely Lear has no idea how to be a parent. First of all, what kind of father makes his children lie to him to make him give them a good portion of land. Why not just divide it evenly and be done with it? Or if that is to much to handle, pick an heir? He might have a nephew or something to leave the kingdom to. And what kind of father banishes his daughter for speaking the truth instead of flattering him with willowy lies? He strikes me as a terrible father.

     Then there's Gloucester's family. He has his legitimate son, Edgar, who's not much of a looker and his bastard son, Edmund, who is basically a hunk. Now Gloucester is a lovable fool really and you'd think that no one could possibly hate him...if you skipped the beginning of the play. He blatantly makes fun of how Edmund came to be saying it "was good sport at hi making" right in front of him! Now I feel like there aren't any hard feelings coming from Edgar until after Edmund screws him but Edmund certainly has many reasons to hate his father. He was hidden from existence until Gloucester decided it wasn't that big a deal if everyone knew he had screwed around behind his (also "missing") wife's back. Then to have his father make fun of him to another noble in front of him? Clearly Gloucester isn't father of the year either.

Tragedy vs. Comedy and a Twist on Hamlet

       You'd think blogging would be easy but it's very difficult to get anything done with science classes. Let me tell you those labs take over your life. I mean I've been working on one lab for three weeks now and I've still only got half done. Shakespeare is a lot more engaging than rocks in thin section staring yourself blind in a microscope. Anyway, enough ranting.
      Over spring break I took a road trip to Salt Lake City. I had been intending to blog while I was there but the WiFi in the hotel was awful and kept shutting off. On the flip side, the long boring drive between Idaho Falls and Pocatello is the perfect time to think. I was thinking about King Lear and what my LIT 201 teacher had said about it. We read it back in January and I couldn't help but wonder...what would King Lear be like if it was a comedy? I thought about what would change in the plot to go from tragic to funny, how the characters would have to change and what would stay the same. Then I thought, what if A Midsummer Night's Dream was A Midsummer Night's Terror? What if Hamlet was more manic than depressive? Or what if Hamlet had simply dreamed the whole play and it wasn't real? (Same could go for Lear and Dream).
       I mentioned this to my friend, Kyle Butler, an English writing major, and he said it was an interesting thought. He even offered to send me the formulas for setting up tragedies and comedies that he had learned recently in class to help if I decided to give it a go.
       That night I had a fun little dream about a "missing scene" from Hamlet. Right after everyone dies and Horatio steps up to the plate the scene abruptly changes and goes something like this:
       [Scene: Hamlet sits upright in bed in a cold sweat, eyes wide, terrified]
       [Enter Horatio]
       HORATIO
            My lord is everything all right? I heard screaming.
       HAMLET
            I have had a dream, a premonition if you will.
       HORATIO
            My lord?
      HAMLET
            A premonition, a vision! My father died and I was summoned home to find that he had been buried and my mother had married my Uncle Claudius. That same day you came to me saying you had seen my father's ghost. I came with you to the ramparts that night and saw for myself. I spoke to him and he told me a terrible tale of the truth of his death, Mine uncle poisoned him as he slept in the garden and it was my duty to avenge him. So many died because of this. I accidentally killed my darling Ophelia's father in rage over my mother's incest and then I was sent to England with Rosencrantz and Gildenstern...but I never made it there. You and I snuck back to find that my darling had drowned and that her brother was out for my blood. We dueled and I uncovered my uncle's foul deeds. Then my mother, my uncle, Laertes and myself all died of poisoning. Oh what a cruel fate to befall us! I shall die at the hands of a Frenchman!"
      HORATIO
           My lord, 'tis nothing to worry about....
      HAMLET
            'Tis a vision, Horatio, I shall perish very soon and all because of my foul uncle.
      HORATIO
             My lord, this is not possible.
      HAMLET
              I have seen it.
      HORATIO
             You do not have an Uncle Claudius.
And this is where I woke up. I actually rather like where it ended. . So much could be interpreted from that last sentence Horatio utters. Perhaps Hamlet doesn't have an uncle named Claudius but he does have an uncle, whether it be a brother to his mother or father. If it is his mother's brother, he could be older or younger and have no reason to fulfill Hamlet's dream. If it is Hamlet Senior's brother, the "dream" could still be possible...unless the uncle's name changes the outcome. The end could also imply that Hamlet doesn't have an uncle at all. Maybe all he has are aunts on one or both sides; perhaps he has none of those either. Maybe one of his grandmother's had had a son named Claudius but he died young. Maybe Hamlet has a cousin or even a little brother named Claudius. If it is a little brother, perhaps he is subconsciously afraid of what his little brother is capable of doing to him.

Mesozoic Flattery

As was requested by Professor Sexton, I have written a sonnet. I don't have a significant other so this goes out to all my friends in Paleontology. Perhaps I will tape a copy to my advisor's office door as well as pick someone to mail it to. On to the sonnet:

Tyrannosaurus rex is the king
Stegosaurus has its four massive spikes
Quetzalcoatylus on giant wing
Permian oceans full of Trilobites.
Velociraptor with its large toe claw
Therizinosaurus huge hands it has
Smilodon has such a powerful maw
And Spinosaurus with a sail tall as
Ankylosaurus with its mighty club
Herrerasaurus oldest dino found
Liopleurodon like a toothy sub
Lambeosaurus makes a funny sound
Each dinosaur and reptile you see
Are special and unique as you to me!

Pronunciation guide and pictures for recognition:

Ankylosaurus

Herrerasaurus

Liopleurodon(pliosaur not dinosaur)

Spinosaurus

Smilodon (yes not a dino or a reptile but still cool)

Trilobite (also not a dino or reptile, more like a giant pill bug in the water)

Therizinosaurus

Not as big as Jurassic Park made them

Quetzalcoatylus (pterosaur not dinosaur)

Lambeosaurus

Stegosaurus (my favorite)

Tyrannosaurus rex

Ket-zal-co-at-ih-lus
Purr-me-un
Try-low-bite
There-ih-zeen-oh-soar-us
Smie (like smile)-low-don
An-kie (like kite)-low-soar-us
Huh-rare-ruh-soar-us
Lie-oh-plur-oh-don
Lamb-bee-oh-soar-us

Hopefully you learned a lot from one little sonnet! On a different note, I was telling my friends about we talked about Pope Benedict puns in class the other day when one of my friends brought up something I had made during a game. The game is called Cards Against Humanity and it's basically like Apples to Apples only much much worse topics. Well, the "green" card we got one round was "What are you giving up for lent?" I played the card "God." So last night when we were talking about the Pope my other friend said that the Pope had given up God for lent this year. Horrible but really funny. Until next post folks, have a fantastic weekend!

Thoughts on Hamlet

 I discovered in class the other day that I must have been the only one who didn't read Hamlet in high school. Apparently both high schools I went to had a different idea of what Shakespeare plays we should read. Anyway, I was asked to give a summary of what Hamlet was. I gave my best go at it and then I was asked where I had gotten my information since I hadn't read the book before. I said my junior high had put on a collaboration of Shakespeare's plays from Romeo and Juliet to Julius Caesar. In it they performed Hamlet both forward incredibly fast and backward incredibly fast. It was very entertaining and creative. I don't think many people can say they've seen one of Shakespeare's plays backwards.
When I read Hamlet I found it very entertaining and intriguing. Hamlet is on a level that none of his peers seem to comprehend. His puns reminded me a great deal of my friend Ammon who is the pun master. If the opportunity arises, Ammon will pun for all it's worth. Hamlet does this too I've noticed and it was incredibly fun to read the conversation between Hamlet and the gravedigger.
Having watched The Royal Shakespeare Company do a fantastic production of King Lear for my other literature class, I decided to look up their production of Hamlet. I knew that one of my favorite actors, David Tennent, was in it. He played Hamlet alongside Sir Patrick Stewart who played both Hamlet senior and Claudius. It was fabulous performance. David Tennent has played many a crazy character in his acting career from the slightly mad Doctor to the completely insane Barty Crouch Jr. (shame on you if you don't know these characters). His theatrics, especially with how dramatic Hamlet gets, were brilliant and Sir Patrick Stewart certainly knows how to command the stage when he is present. Beware, Gertrude has major hair extensions and she pulls them off quite dramatically.
I did not want to hold this back for anyone so here is a link to the play. I hope you enjoy it as much as me!
Hamlet-Royal Shakespeare Company