Ms. A's Advanced English Book Discussions discussion
Memorizing Shakespeare
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I thought I did good from where I started earlier in the week. I had to stop and think once but you have to assume that will happen. I felt I did good on keeping a good pace and not having to stop and think beside the one time. That comes with repetition and just saying it over and over to yourself. Well it does change from saying it to yourself to others, the more comfortable you are with it the better. The challenge for me was that it wasn't so black and white, it was very open ended and different to what I have done before. It is not something you can say you are going to get done in one sort time, you have to keep working on it all the way leading up to when you say it. It is between you and yourself, no one else is involved in you getting it memorized.I think it would be difficult for anyone to perform Shakespeare, but easier then then now. It is the language they would have used at the time so it would have been easier for them to pick up on the lines. If you gave someone during Shakespeare time a play from today they would find it difficult because it is not written how they would say it, it is how we would say it. It just give me a greater appreciation for actors and how they learn all the lines. If it takes this long for us to learn 16 lines, it is hard to memorize a whole play. Well doing that to also get the emotions and actions would be extremely difficult, plus having an audience or anyone that will see it in the future judging you. We don't give actors the appreciation they deserve.
I feel that I did really well. I had memorized it front to back and back to front, so it was easy to recite. I think that the memorization and presentation was the easiest for me. Being in the play for 4 years, you learn to memorize and the key to memorization is to just repeat and repeat. You just keep doing that until you get it right. Once you got the words down, the emotion and feeling goes with it. I do not think it would be difficult in Shakespeare's time to preform these plays because it was in their language, but it would be difficult for them to memorize and then preform it. I think that it is harder today to memorize Shakespeare because the language is different and we aren't used to it. After having to do this, I respect those who take the time to memorize Shakespeare's works. It takes a lot to memorize the lines we did and it would be difficult to memorize all of the lines in the play.
I think that when I performed it in front of the class it was probably my best time saying it. I didn't mess up on things that I have previously messed up on. I think one thing that I did well on was not stopping and not messing up on things I usually mess up on. I think this was because I usually loose my place and have to get the start of the line, but I didn't have to do that today. I think the challenge I faced was getting in front of the class and performing it. It was because performing in front of the class is scary. I don't think it would be difficult because that's how they talked everyday so it would be nothing out of the normal. I think it would be more difficult today because the language is not normal for this time period. I don't really look at the play different now because I already knew that it was challenging and would be intimating to perform.
In response to brad: I think it was very important in keeping a good pace just like you said. I always thought that what you said about repetition was important because if you aren't able to say in with just you you won't be able to say it in front of other people. I think you did a great job and could tell that you spent some time looking into it.
Cassidy wrote: "How do you think you did? What is one thing you did well on. Explain why that was. What was a challenge for you in this assignment? Why? Do you think it would be difficult for people in Shakespeare..."I think my performance was pretty good. For as much as I stressed out about it, I think all the memorizing and stressing was worth it when I got up there and knew every line. I think I did well on saying the lines and memorizing them correctly. Memorizing the lines were not challenging, but getting up in front of the whole class was not easy. It was hard because you get up there and you feel like you lost it all because everyone is just staring at you.
I don't think people in Shakespeare time had a tough time like I did. I feel like they were use to talking in this way and they could have memorized it easier because they were use to it in the beginning. People performing Shakespeare in today's time might have a little bit of trouble like our class did performing it. Doing this assignment doesn't make me think any differently about the play. It kind of helped me understand it more in a way.
BradR5595 wrote: "I thought I did good from where I started earlier in the week. I had to stop and think once but you have to assume that will happen. I felt I did good on keeping a good pace and not having to stop ..."Hunter wrote: "I think that when I performed it in front of the class it was probably my best time saying it. I didn't mess up on things that I have previously messed up on. I think one thing that I did well on w..."
I agree with Brad. The hardest part was going up in front of the whole class. You get up there and you feel like you lost all of it because everyone was just staring at you. That was challenging, but we all still managed to do very well despite the challenges.
Cassidy wrote: "How do you think you did? What is one thing you did well on. Explain why that was. What was a challenge for you in this assignment? Why? Do you think it would be difficult for people in Shakespeare..."I think when presenting in front of the class, I started out well, but as it got into the part I wasn't so comfortable with, I stuttered a bit. I felt better doing it in front of the class and Mrs. Applegate then I would have performing in front of someone else. I practiced many times in front of my family over the weekend and the snow days, and I think that helped when it came time to do it in front of everyone else.
I don't think it would be difficult back then, because it was their time period. That was natural for them, and something they were familiar with. It's more difficult today because we have gone away from that type of talking and grammar. I don't look at the play any different now, because I already respected actors and actresses. They get up on stage and do things in front of hundreds that I Struggle with in front of 20 people.
In response to Brad,I believe you are correct when it comes to strategy. It takes a solid pace and a lot of repetition. If you aren't able to look in the mirror and say it, how would you in front of classmates? I think you did really well and it was obvious you had taken the time to practice and become familiar with the script.
How do I think I did? I think I did fairly well. I knew what my lines were. I was well prepared when I came to class. I was a little shaky and don't like speaking in front of people. I did well on knowing my lines. I knew them so well because I practiced a lot. The biggest challenge from this assignment was preforming the lines in from of the class. It is very hard for me to get up in from of the class and present or preform anything. I do not think it would be hard for people in Shakespeare's time to preform these plays. They all talked like that back then. I think today it would be much harder because no one talks like that today. I think that people that do Shakespeare plays today have to put a lot of effort in to them. I think they are very talented.
In response to Jadyn: I would agree with Jadyn, I don't think the people of Shakespeare's time would have the trouble that I did memorizing these lines. They already talked like that so it would be modern to them. I feel like I would have been more comfortable if I didn't stress so much about it. If I relaxed and felt confident, then I would have done better.
I think I did okay. I thought that I did a good job memorizing my lines and while I was reciting them, I was halfway confident. My main issue with the assignment was just getting the lines memorized. I had issues with several lines and that showed when I was presenting. Some of the words that were used in the lines were just hard for me to get through my head.I think it would be easier for people in Shakespeare's time to perform in these plays because all of the words were normal back then. Everything that is in the plays was every day things back then. They weren't learning new words or new idea. Even for today's people who perform, it would be difficult, but they have a general understand of exactly what it means. That really helps them understand what they are saying. Having to do this makes me not want to do anything with the book.
I feel like I did a decent job. I think that I did good on my lines. From when I first began saying them, it was very hard for me to remember any of the lines. I had one pause in it, but I eventually remembered them. I think a challenge for me was to remember all of the lines. I have trouble remembering things for anything. I feel like it would be hard for most if not all people to remember and act out Shakespeare. The language that Shakespeare uses can be very difficult to master. During his time, it would be easier to act and perform because they would be used to the language and how they talked. It's harder now because we aren't accustomed to how they talked. It makes me think about how hard it is to do a play. It seems a lot harder than I thought it would be.
In response to Brad; I think that one of the hardest parts of the memorization was because I didn't really understand what he was saying. It wasn't so clear to me, and that really did make it difficult. I had to try to understand what it meant as well as the memorization.
In response to Brad: I agree with you when you said it's something we haven't done before. It was a different challenge that we had to do. I agree in saying that Shakespeare is harder to learn and perform now than it was back then. We aren't used to how they talked during thier time. Esepically since we only had to learn 16 lines, I can't imagine how they learned a whole play.
I think I did better than what I thought I was going to do. I had all the lines memorized. When I was up in front of the class I still knew my lines it was just harder for me because I was in front of everybody. Even though I did not say it smoothly I still knew my lines. I do not think it would be very hard for them back in that time because that is how they mainly spoke. I feel like it may be more difficult now for people to memorize it because we do not speak like that. I think that the people to perform Shakespeare's plays are pretty talented.
Liz wrote: "I feel that I did really well. I had memorized it front to back and back to front, so it was easy to recite. I think that the memorization and presentation was the easiest for me. Being in the play..."I agreed with most of Liz's post. Being in the play I feel would help me to feel more confident. Well it would be easier to do Shakespeare back then it still wouldn't have been easy. Like today, just because it is in the same language or ascent we use today doesn't make it easy, it just makes it easier.
Cassidy wrote: "How do you think you did? What is one thing you did well on. Explain why that was. What was a challenge for you in this assignment? Why? Do you think it would be difficult for people in Shakespeare..."I think I did pretty well. I was really confident to begin with, but throughout the speech I got more shaky and scared. I think I was just nervous about messing up. I did a pretty good job memorizing the lines. I think this is because I actually didn't put it off to the very end. A challenge I had with this assignment was speaking the way they did, with all the "'tis and thus" it got a little confusing.
I don't think it would have been such a struggle for people to do this in Shakespeare's time because that is the way they spoke. They wouldn't have to figure out a whole different way to speak. I think it would be much more difficult to be an actor and perform Shakespeare today. It would be so difficult to memorize those lines especially when it isn't in modern English. After having to memorize these lines I give props to the actors who do this. It took me almost a week to memorize 16 lines, I couldn't imagine memorizing any more.
BradR5595 wrote: "I thought I did good from where I started earlier in the week. I had to stop and think once but you have to assume that will happen. I felt I did good on keeping a good pace and not having to stop ..."In response to Brad:
I agree with Brad when he said it is much different saying it to yourself compared to a crowd. It takes a lot of practice and you can't just wait and put it off. A lot of repetition helps when you are trying to memorize something, and I think you did a good job with yours.
I think I did pretty good with saying my lines. I think I did good on not stopping while saying my lines. I felt pretty confident while saying them so that made it a little bit easier. My biggest challenge was just getting the lines down without stopping and stumbling on my words. I think that was challenging because to be able to perform your lines you have to know them first. I don't think actors would of had an issue with them because that was how they talked. Obviously times have changed and so has the way we speak. I think for people today it is probably pretty challenging because you have to really speak a whole other language. I now really give the actors props because it was not easy learning Shakespeare and being able to understand what it is meaning is a difficult task.
Bridgeth wrote: "Cassidy wrote: "How do you think you did? What is one thing you did well on. Explain why that was. What was a challenge for you in this assignment? Why? Do you think it would be difficult for peopl..."I agree with Bridget because back then the people didn't know another language and it was easy for them to know what they are talking about. It was difficult to memorize 16 lines. I can't even imagine memorizing a whole play.
Cassidy wrote: "How do you think you did? What is one thing you did well on. Explain why that was. What was a challenge for you in this assignment? Why? Do you think it would be difficult for people in Shakespeare..."I think I did a pretty good job with the Shakespeare lines. I stumbled a little once but that is just because I got nervous. I practiced the lines at my house until I could say them all easily, but I knew I would probably get nervous. I believe I did well on speaking clearly. I worked very hard on memorizing my lines and practiced a lot so I would know how to pronounce all the words. The challenge in this assignment for me was that I was nervous speaking like that in front of the class. If I had something to read off of I think I would have been more calm, but it was good for us to do this. I also think it was a bit of a challenge because the type of English that it is written in is not what we are accustomed to speaking.
I think it would be difficult because there are so many lines, but it is written in the English they are used to speaking so I think that would make it easier. I think today it would be very difficult because there are a lot of lines and the play is not written in today’s English. It would also be different because people of today would have to learn how to carry themselves and act as if they were from that time period. In Shakespearean times people had many different customs and acceptable behaviors so actors would have to learn these things. I also wonder if the play was performed today if girls would be apart of it. That would be a major change from the original. This does cause me to have a newfound respect for the Shakespeare actors/actresses of today. I see that this is a very difficult play to perform and we only had to do sixteen lines. I can not imagine memorizing the whole thing.
Nichole wrote: "I think I did pretty good with saying my lines. I think I did good on not stopping while saying my lines. I felt pretty confident while saying them so that made it a little bit easier. My biggest c..."I agree with what you said about the acting today vs. their time. I think it would be pretty hard for people of today to act with a completely different version of English than what we are used to. I would not want to do that! Do you think if the play was preformed today it would remain historically accurate? Do you think they would include women?
Nichole wrote: "Bridgeth wrote: "Cassidy wrote: "How do you think you did? What is one thing you did well on. Explain why that was. What was a challenge for you in this assignment? Why? Do you think it would be di..."In Response to Courtney:
I agree with the fact that it takes a lot of memorization and I can tell you, I did the same thing memorizing the lines. Repetition is key to memorization and it was not easy with Shakespeare.
I also agree that it was easy, yet hard at the same time for the people in his time because it was a lot to memorize. I give credit to any and all who try to do this today. It can not be easy.
I think I did a good job reciting my Shakespeare lines. I got twisted up on one line and it really put the pressure on! The trick for me was reciting the lines over and over again out loud at home to my parents. I definitely have a new-found respect for actors in general because memorization is not necessarily the easiest thing to do! It was really easy to start off confident, but once you forget a single word, it can throw you way off track. This was especially true since it was not written in our modern English that we are used to. Although it was hard to remember for awhile, I think I was able to capture the tone in which Shakespeare meant for it to be said.
In response to Jaydan,I agree that it was probably easier for the actors of the time to recite and perform Shakespeare, since they were used to the English of the time period. In the past, I feel that the sets for the plays would have been pretty elaborate, since the Shakespeare plays we have read all have unique settings. The lines would definitely be the hardest part of being a part of a Shakespeare production! It definitely helps to sit and memorize to yourself before trying to perform in front of others.
I agree with Brad. It was so much different saying to myself than it was in front of the whole class. No matter how much I practiced I still got nervous and stumbled a little bit. Although, I stumbled I think practicing as much as I did helped a lot.
In my opinion, I did decent but I could've done a lot better. I feel like it was a lot easier when it was just myself running it through my head than when I had to say everything out loud. I stumbled more than once talking and I know that I messed up multiple times. One thing I did well was remembering every word. I had to take a couple breaks, but I came back and finished it. One thing that was hard for me was to keep it fresh in my head. I had to constantly think about it the whole time, otherwise it was going to leave and I wouldn't remember. Back in the day, I think that it would've been very difficult for anyone to perform Shakespeare. Not only because the words were hard and they had deeper meaning, but because of the fact that everyone had such high regards for the plays. You had to be a great actor/actress because everyone expected so much from a Shakespeare product. I think that people who perform Shakespeare today deserve an award because it is so hard to get into it and understand it. After this I feel like the play makes a little more sense because I know that there is a lot deeper meaning in the play.
I would have to agree with Carter. The actors and actresses do a lot of hard work to remember all of this because it's almost like studying a whole new language and reciting it. I am glad that I don't have to do that as a job because I would never be able to remember anything. I have a lot more respect for our acting citizens because it was hard enough just to do 16 lines, let alone a whole piece of work.
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