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De Rarem Naturem.
Apr. 15th, 2005 08:38 pmLatin state's competition tomorrow--wish me luck! *studies frantically*
We've been reading Julius Caesar aloud in English class. We've done four acts of five, and I've been Antony in all of them. My gods, my class is incompetant!
We did act three yesterday, aka 'The Act Where Antony Gets All the Best Lines', including the famous, "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!" speech. I read along in my usual way (with ten times the expression of anyone else, the sticks) until I got there, then I stood up and orated, as best I could. I wasn't as good as I could have been, but I got an actual round of applause. Today, people said it was impressive, and very emotional, that it effected them strongly.
My mental response: Well duh! It's rabble-rousing oration to stir the hearts of multitudes at its best, it was meant to effect you! Even in a classroom you know is not Rome, delivered by a girl you know is not Antony, some of that fire is still there. It was meant to be there! I may be no skillful actor, but I'm not so bad that I can screw this speech up!
These people have no concept of theater as relating to them. They truly have no idea that the words printed on the page can become words that burn like flames, that the printing is only an afterthought to the pure emotion of the lines. They simply do not see that the lines they read on the page correspond to words, true words, emotional words coming from their mouths. They speak the lines like scientific papers, dry and emotionless, as though they were not plotting death on the Senate steps. They read the lines, and the lines are no longer lines, but clumsy words that mean nothing. These people, these intelligent (for the most part), interesting (for the most part) people of my own class simply do not see that the words are meant to be spoken from the heart. They don't know what they are doing wrong; they have no idea of what a play can be. They are so starved of drama that a girl standing up and delivering the lines, no matter how clumsily, strikes them as unthought-of. They had no idea that such a thing could be done, that more than they were doing might be done.
What is this class, that they do not know to read a play as though it were they upon the page, crying their torment to the stars? What has this world become, that even the intelligent have no concept of a play?
On another note, JC is just about the slashiest play ever. Seriously. Brutus and Cassius throw the word 'love' back and forth at least ten times in their first scene alone--what am I supposed to think? (Besides, any play about Caesar...well!) The subtext isn't very at all.
There is something entertaining yet evil in sitting in a classroom after school, listening to one's teacher rant about how bad her class is. (Shiro-kun, I feel for you, I do.)
We've been reading Julius Caesar aloud in English class. We've done four acts of five, and I've been Antony in all of them. My gods, my class is incompetant!
We did act three yesterday, aka 'The Act Where Antony Gets All the Best Lines', including the famous, "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!" speech. I read along in my usual way (with ten times the expression of anyone else, the sticks) until I got there, then I stood up and orated, as best I could. I wasn't as good as I could have been, but I got an actual round of applause. Today, people said it was impressive, and very emotional, that it effected them strongly.
My mental response: Well duh! It's rabble-rousing oration to stir the hearts of multitudes at its best, it was meant to effect you! Even in a classroom you know is not Rome, delivered by a girl you know is not Antony, some of that fire is still there. It was meant to be there! I may be no skillful actor, but I'm not so bad that I can screw this speech up!
These people have no concept of theater as relating to them. They truly have no idea that the words printed on the page can become words that burn like flames, that the printing is only an afterthought to the pure emotion of the lines. They simply do not see that the lines they read on the page correspond to words, true words, emotional words coming from their mouths. They speak the lines like scientific papers, dry and emotionless, as though they were not plotting death on the Senate steps. They read the lines, and the lines are no longer lines, but clumsy words that mean nothing. These people, these intelligent (for the most part), interesting (for the most part) people of my own class simply do not see that the words are meant to be spoken from the heart. They don't know what they are doing wrong; they have no idea of what a play can be. They are so starved of drama that a girl standing up and delivering the lines, no matter how clumsily, strikes them as unthought-of. They had no idea that such a thing could be done, that more than they were doing might be done.
What is this class, that they do not know to read a play as though it were they upon the page, crying their torment to the stars? What has this world become, that even the intelligent have no concept of a play?
On another note, JC is just about the slashiest play ever. Seriously. Brutus and Cassius throw the word 'love' back and forth at least ten times in their first scene alone--what am I supposed to think? (Besides, any play about Caesar...well!) The subtext isn't very at all.
There is something entertaining yet evil in sitting in a classroom after school, listening to one's teacher rant about how bad her class is. (Shiro-kun, I feel for you, I do.)
