The Engaging Shakespeare event was excellent. I was really impressed with all of the groups, especially the music video group. Their project was very powerful. It was evident that everyone put a lot of time and effort into their projects. To be honest, originally I wasn't a fan of the whole event idea, but mostly just because I hate being in front of people. It turned out great though. We had a few issues with our audio a few hours before the event with overlapping and improper formatting, which was kind of really stressful, but we got everything worked out in time.
Learning Outcomes:
Shakespeare Literacy:
Of all the plays that I read this semester, I hadn't read any of them before, and I didn't know anything whatsoever about The Tempest, King Lear, or The Winter's Tale before this semester. I had seen productions of Hamlet, Taming of the Shrew, and Love's Labour's Lost before but didn't really understand much about them until taking this class. It was so much easier for me to read and understand Shakespeare when I had people to talk about it with who read it the same time I did, and who were generally on the same level. I feel much more well versed in his works than I ever have before. It's nice to feel comfortable when it comes to Shakespeare. The plays that I feel most comfortable with now are Taming of the Shrew (because it was my individual play) and Hamlet. We did a lot with Hamlet this semester in class and for my group's project. I had to do the voices for Horatio and Laertes and since I had to distinguish between the two, I had to better understand their characters and where they were coming from. In the end I tried to give Horatio a more caring and light voice and with Laertes I tried to make him sound more gruff, masculine, and very angry after his father died.
Critically:
One of my favorite blog posts that I did this Semester was Tragedy, Comedy, Reality. This semester I have felt a lot of connections to my Shakespeare class and my Contemporary Anthropological Theory class. Shakespeare knew a lot about people and their motives and behaviors and while he set all of those into fiction and entertainment, they come out powerfully. It's been interesting to study human nature via modern theorists and Shakespeare at the same time. Man kind really hasn't changed much since the 1600s.
Creatively:
While our final project doesn't seem quite as creative as the other groups, we still had to act and be the characters in Hamlet. I talked a lot about the final project under Literacy, so I won't repeat myself, but it was kind of a challenge, at least for me, to act like two different people while only standing in front of a microphone in a tiny booth instead of on stage or something where I could also move around and interact with the other characters with more than just my voice. It was kind of hard to get the hang of, but as we recorded more and more it was evident that we were more comfortable with recording than we were the first few takes.
Shared Meaningfully:
Obviously the event and posting the audiobook online were pretty good sharing opportunities, as was blogging for most of the semester. I really don't have a whole lot more in this area. I've shared with my husband a lot of the connections I've made between Shakespeare and anthropological theory since he is also in the anthropology major. And like I said last time, I've talked a few times with my co-workers a few times, but with less than enthusiastic responses often times. I know it's sad, but I rarely ever see or spend time with anyone other than my husband and co-workers due to my tight schedule.
All in all, I was happy taking this class, and I got a lot out of it. I am much more aware of how Shakespeare and the issues he wrote about are still present today. I'm kind of sad the class is over. But I'm very glad the projects are finished.
