![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Friday Five:
Mar. 6th, 2020 02:28 pm1) A question that was on my mind, this morning:
Has the world really become more cruel in recent years, or am I just more aware of it?
2) I often think of Act Four, Scene One of the "Winter's Tale," and how it's a brilliant example of stagecraft, even though I have a hard time reading through it, and most often skim the middle, and just race ahead to the action bits of the scene. But then again, Shakespeare wasn't writing the scene for me; he was writing it for an audience that would only see the play once. And he basically turned that whole scene into a music/dance concert where the audience was invited to join in and sing along. So rather than simply watching the characters on stage have a party, the whole audience became guests at the party. So when the hosts' lives were threatened by the king at the end of the scene, the audience was emotionally invested, and cared about what happened next.
It doesn't work for modern audiences, because we come to a "Shakespeare Play[TM]" with a whole different set of expectations. But it's a brilliant bit of Audience Wrangling on Shakespeare's part, since he probably realized that half the people in the theater that day were only there to see the live bear run across stage. And he didn't want them to lose interest and leave right before the plot comes to a head.
3) I have a (relatively) new favorite flavor combination (as in: within the last few months): Chocolate, Coffee, & Ginger. The spice just brightens everything up.
4) Ever since I started thinking through my theory that Ophelia was murdered, rather than died by suicide, I've had a quite obsession with Hamlet running almost constantly in the back of my mind. I've come to the conclusions that a) the traditional typecasting for the title character has been all wrong, most of the time, and instead of being cast as the Romantic Lead, Prince Hamlet should be cast as the slightly out-of-shape, nerdy sidekick-to-the-Hero type, and b) it should be played for laughs as often as possible* )so that the truly tragic ending comes as much as a surprise to the audience as it does to the characters on stage.
5) If I had a working Time Ship, and the skill to fly her, the ethically dubious thing I would try to do is rescue the breeds of dog that were native to the Americas, that are now all extinct. Just saying.
Has the world really become more cruel in recent years, or am I just more aware of it?
2) I often think of Act Four, Scene One of the "Winter's Tale," and how it's a brilliant example of stagecraft, even though I have a hard time reading through it, and most often skim the middle, and just race ahead to the action bits of the scene. But then again, Shakespeare wasn't writing the scene for me; he was writing it for an audience that would only see the play once. And he basically turned that whole scene into a music/dance concert where the audience was invited to join in and sing along. So rather than simply watching the characters on stage have a party, the whole audience became guests at the party. So when the hosts' lives were threatened by the king at the end of the scene, the audience was emotionally invested, and cared about what happened next.
It doesn't work for modern audiences, because we come to a "Shakespeare Play[TM]" with a whole different set of expectations. But it's a brilliant bit of Audience Wrangling on Shakespeare's part, since he probably realized that half the people in the theater that day were only there to see the live bear run across stage. And he didn't want them to lose interest and leave right before the plot comes to a head.
3) I have a (relatively) new favorite flavor combination (as in: within the last few months): Chocolate, Coffee, & Ginger. The spice just brightens everything up.
4) Ever since I started thinking through my theory that Ophelia was murdered, rather than died by suicide, I've had a quite obsession with Hamlet running almost constantly in the back of my mind. I've come to the conclusions that a) the traditional typecasting for the title character has been all wrong, most of the time, and instead of being cast as the Romantic Lead, Prince Hamlet should be cast as the slightly out-of-shape, nerdy sidekick-to-the-Hero type, and b) it should be played for laughs as often as possible* )so that the truly tragic ending comes as much as a surprise to the audience as it does to the characters on stage.
5) If I had a working Time Ship, and the skill to fly her, the ethically dubious thing I would try to do is rescue the breeds of dog that were native to the Americas, that are now all extinct. Just saying.
