March 29 is Speech Practice.
Tasks to do:1. Reading and Speaking
Be ready to check in class the following tasks.
March 25 - 30 Classical and Modern Theatre
Tasks A – C (Texts 1 – 7) from English-3 Part 2, pp. 23-35
2. The following topics are to be written and one is to be learnt by heart (to your choice).
7. Theatre: Theatre in Society. Speak on the role of theatre in society and its
impact upon people.
9. Theatre:
The British Theatre and Its Roots.
Speak on the theatre in Shakespeare’s time. Cite examples from the story “First
Night” by Moira Burgess.
11.
Theatre: Actors and Acting: the touchstones of greatness. Cite examples from
the story “Wistful, Delicately Gay” by Irwin Shaw.
3) Rendering: week 7 (in your blogs).
You are free to choose an article!
Deadline: Friday, March 29
4) Laboratory work 2
Part 1 an 2 are to be done in detail, Part 3 and the written task can be ommitted. We do Task 5 instead!
5) Watch a video (to your choice) and leave a commentary (in this blog).
What new things did you learn about Shakespeare and his time from this film? Why was the time the film is set in "a time of revolution"?
I have learnt from the video much useful and interesting information about Shakespeare’s life in early years of Elizabeth's reign. This time is also known as the beginning of Elizabeth’s cultural revolution, so we may see that the film is set in this certain period. I like the beginning of the video which really awakes your interest or even curiosity – “Like all stories in history, this is a search for ghosts. A quest for the people that made us what we are. And for one man in particular. William Shakespeare is the most famous writer of all times...Yet his life is still shrouded in mystery...This is a historical detective story...searching for the life of William Shakespeare of Stratford Upon the Avon”. I think that this period is chosen because it is especially important one because it is associated with the beginning of Shakespeare’s first attempts in his further great creative work. So, the title of the vides “A Time of Revolution” symbolizes not only class and religious struggle and a Civil war as a result, but also a Revolution in Shakespeare’s own world and mind, where the struggle for living seems to be no less important that in its broader, country sense. I have also learnt much about Shakespeare’s early life and childhood and his family which turned to be upwardly mobile one which is loyal to the old faith. It resulted in many unpleasant consequences for the Shakespeare, for example the fact she had to start to work at the age of 14. However, he got experience how to be a stranger, “outsider” in this Protestant Britain at the same time and later used it for his plays. At the age of 19 the family unsuccessfully tried to make its ends meet and the father had lost all his fortune. The following events are illustrated by another Shakespeare’s myth - William was beaten and thrown out of town for poaching. So we definitely may say that after watching the first episode it’s quiet difficult to stay optimistic towards the development of William Shakespeare’s future life…But we all know how it will unexpectedly turn out! The last words of the episode “There's the first nineteen years of Shakespeare's life…and that's just the beginning of the story” also make me think that other ones are equally worth watching.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I think you are right!
DeleteSlips:
... his family which turned to be AN upwardly mobile one ...
... consequences for (no 'the') Shakespeare, ..
At the age of 19 the family unsuccessfully tried to make its ends meet and the father (no 'had') lost all his fortune.
This episode is only the first step in our attempt to find out more about Shakespeare’s life and creativity. Nevertheless, it provides quite a number of useful, interesting and new information about him. The first episode sets Shakespeare's life in the early years of Elizabeth's reign, at the beginning of Elizabeth's Cultural Revolution. The film shows William’s life based on the local documents and with the help of the modern-day town councilors. We find out that Shakespeare came from an upwardly mobile and prosperous family, because William was brought up in a nice house, with money, servants, and a good education. However, when William was 14 his family lost its fortune and Shakespeare had to leave school to start work, ruining his chances of going to university. At 18 he was forced to marry a daughter of a local farmer, and in spite of the fact that this marriage gave him dim prospects for the future, his first known work, a love poem to his pregnant wife on their wedding day, appeared during that period. But still this first episode of the film leaves 19-year-old Shakespeare with quite dim career prospects. So, it is quite intriguing and interesting to watch the next episodes of this film.
ReplyDeleteI like this video.It's very interesting and useful for the understanding Shakespeare’s life, which was full of mysteriousness and gossips.A Time of Revolution, begins in 16th century England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. William Shakespeare is born to a wealthy family and receives a decent education. During his teenage years, his family is persecuted for believing in the Pope under the Queen's strictly Protestant rule. Forced to go to work and leave school, Shakespeare becomes a father and a husband at the age of 18. He writes a love poem to his wife, which would become his first known work. His family's trouble with the Protestants escalates, leading to a feud with the wealthy Lucy family.
ReplyDeleteIt was the Time of Revolution, which began in the mid-16th century, when England was torn apart by religious conflict. The country changed its religion several times from catholic to protestant, then back to catholic and then back again. The revolution was started by one of the most repugnant king who ever ruled England – Henry VIII. Later his children, here Queen Elizabeth, continued that process, and then choose the protestant church. It was the time when William Shakespeare was born. He was the first child to survive, while two Shakespeares’ children died, thus he was lucky and at the same time he was the mystery for all times. William was introduced into poetry at the age of nine, when “Ovid” – his favorite book – made a great impact on him. However, at the age of 14 (when his father’s business collapsed) he was cut off from the chance of high education and from going to university. Four years later William married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a farmer, who was 9 years older than her husband. She was another mystery, as in the license there was Anne but with another surname; there was no information about her as well as her appearance. However, married William Shakespeare wrote his sonnets dedicated to his wife (… “I hate” from hate away she threw…).
ReplyDeleteI respect the authors of this film and like this documentary , because it shows us the real majesty and invaluable contribution to the development of the whole world's cultural process of William Shakespeare. The man ,who was the Voice of his age, enlightening peoples' minds and endowing us with the beauty of a syllable and thoughts. Elizabeth's Cultural Revolution , the period that was William's basic line of creation had become the turning point for the Art at all, giving the society a great chance to understand, that revolution time had come. The time of incarnation of exquisite beauty of the human mind to the world of Theater, world of Literature.He was the one who destroyed this shell of unexplored Terra and Pandemonium of fear, speaking not only for himself, but for his generation. He could be least favorite, and Number 1 on the black list of somebody, but the only thing that was undeniable - he had rediscovered that primeval beauty and emotion of the language , and moreover - gave them some new ways.
ReplyDeleteAll in all I dare say that there are a huge number of ideas and versions about William Shakespeare, but we are to say that he was a man of great talent, the inventor of new genres and types of theatrical lives and the conquer of the scene. He started his life in a Baptist town upon Avon, he was the first child to survive in the family (his parents had already lost two girls). That’s why Will was lucky. John Shakespeare, his father was a master-glover. When William was one year old he was attended to the town council, three years later John was the mayor, the chief in Stanford. That time there was the cultural revolution – a change in the religious life from Catholicism to baptism and vise versa.
ReplyDeleteWill was introduced to poetry in high school. There he loved rude humor and nowadays problems putting on show. By the way, the rulers – Tudors’ dynasty was fond of plays. There were local groups of boys theatre’s troops which gave concerts to different social classes from poor peoples to kings and queens. Will was a member of one of these communities.
Shakespeare missed a chance for higher education and further university study because his families started having financial problems coursed by the execution of his father as a result of the illegal stealing lands and sheep’s. John Shakespeare was finally executed on public which influenced Shakespeare and he came to this question in his works.
William also had a very difficult family life with his wife. He didn’t manage to combine his business in the theater with the marriage.
These are facts which are new for me and which I realized from this video. As we see there are two revolutions which are hidden in the video: the first one is the cultural one and the second one is William Shakespeare himself who made revolution within the theater.
In conclusion I would like to say that he may be compared with Alexander The Great, Christopher Columbus or Napoleon in their deeds, but he is the man-of-art who can’t be compared with anybody, as he has his own vision of the world.
The first part of the whole films introduced William Shakespeare to us and helped beginning to understand his life and work. This was a period of Elizabeth’s reign, where the Cultural Revolution took place. We got to know that William was born in a good and wealthy family which gave him a good education and possible opportunities. However when he was 14 all fortune and money of Shakespeare’s family were lost and the boy had to work to support it and left his school and there was no question about the high education. At the age of 18 he married the woman who was older him on nine years. He did it not because of his desire but because it was a good opportunity for him. His wife inspired him to write his first literary work, a sonnet which started his career of a great author. The first part told us the information about William’s early years and teen’s life when he did not have fame and popularity.
ReplyDeleteThe first part of the documentary investigates Shakespeare's life in the times of Queen Elizabeth I. Michael Wood does a great job and uncovers the dark side of Shakespeare's world. He succeeds in it by using reports, as well as local archives and even a coded prison diary.Some present day witnesses help Michael Wood trace William's early days, his schooling, his father's dubious business deals and the dark secret that ruined the family. Finally, in Worcester Cathedral Michael untangles the riddle of William's shotgun marriage, which left him a teenage father whose career prospects looked decidedly slim.
ReplyDelete