fandomhigh | Journalism Class - Tuesday October 25

Journalism Class - Tuesday October 25

This morning, all the newsfeeds are off, for a change, and Spider appears to have made a concerted effort to get rid of the amphibians that have been haunting his desk and the dark corners of the classroom. The cat looks very round and roly-poly and self-satisfied and is lurking sleepily beneath the cappucino machine in the back of the classroom in the newspaper section, so perhaps it was she who did the cleanup.

Spider is leaning against his desk, arms folded and, for a wonder, not smoking.

"Good morning, class. Today we are going to have a guest. I'd like you all to be polite and respectful to Professor Dream in thanks for his agreeing to spend time with us and aid the class with today's exercise. I'd also like to welcome any of Professor Dream's students who are with us here today. Please try to keep any chatter for after class, as the exercise is one of human observation."

Spreading his hands, he continued. "Professor Dream is going to share with us all an event. You will be given a short time to think about what you saw and then each of you will be required to write a short piece on what happened. Please include any observations, no matter how apparently inconsequential, and turn in your papers before discussing the exercise amongst yourselves. This is vitally important as tomorrow's exercise will be for the class to go over all the descriptions in an attempt to piece together the most accurate picture of what was witnessed."

Spider smiled broadly. "This exercise has a very specific point, so please concentrate on your own impressions, however vague or uncertain. And now, I should like to turn the class over to Professor Dream."

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Dream stands before the class in his formal robes. It is clear he takes this event very seriously.

Hello.

As part of this exercise, I am going to transport you briefly into the Dreaming. This should not hurt you or cause any lasting repurcussions; however, if you object, please let Mr. Jerusalem or myself know, and you will be reassigned to an event in the waking world.

Dream pauses for a moment to allow any students who wish not to participate to make their objections known. Once the class is settled -- heads drooping onto their desks -- he speaks again.

The scene you are about to see is from a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, by William Shakespeare. It is ... a bit of a personal favorite. You are to describe the onstage events.

The students who have made the trip to the dreaming find themselves at the fringes of an English field on a summer day in the 16th century. The audience is made up of all manner of fantastic creatures, but the actors are completely human.

Onstage, the story plays out. "What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?," asks a teenage boy dressed as a fairy queen.

An actor wearing a mask shaped like the head of a donkey replies with a song; "The finch, the sparrow and the lark, The plain-song cuckoo gray, Whose note full many a man doth mark, And dares not answer nay;-- for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish a bird? who would give a bird the lie, though he cry 'cuckoo' never so?"

The queen responds, "I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:
Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note; So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape; And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee."

The actors continue to coo at each other for a few moments, the audience obviously entranced. Eventually, other actors -- dressed as lesser fairies -- join them onstage, seemingly in service to the Queen. Shortly after they enter, the scene dissolves, and the students awake on their desks, ready to describe the event.

Do you have any questions for me?

[OOC: They saw Dream's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" from the Sandman. The specific portion of the play described is
Act 3, scene 1 (http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/midsummer/midsummer.3.1.html), starting shortly after Bottom's transformation]

*just stares at him like hes lost his mind intirely,notintirely sure what he just saw, or what it meant, but only that it discomforted him*

John blinks a few times and remember seeing a lot of animals, hearing a lot of old English and just...a lot of animals.

"I remember animals. Animals talking in old English and, instead of using old English to describe events like regular humans do, they were substituting animal sounds. At least, I think they were." John rubs his hand over his face. "Lots of talking animals."

Jake blinks himself awake, not quite sure where he'd been, but he'd been paying attention, since that was the exercise. He picks up his notebook and starts writing.

Duce has some sort of mini-spaz upon waking, rubbing her hands rapidly over her arms as if trying to shake off dust or filth. Her lips are puckered like she just bit into an unripe parsimmon. "Gah! ICK! Bardy BADNESS!"

Scowling at Dream, she describes the scene, "The Fairy Queen, played by a boy because in that era women weren't allowed to act, being seduced by the Ass, also played by a man, both of them spouting lines from 'Midsummers Night Dream' until the Faerie Court enters the scene." Her scowl deepens, "And now we're gonna have that entire horrible mindfu..bender of a play stuck in our head all day. Thanks heaps."

If Dream is a bit startled to see the girl with snakes for hair, he quickly recovers.

I am sorry it was not to your liking, Miss St. Clair.

Perhaps you would have preferred a scene from mythology?

Duce smiles humourlessly, "Not really. Especially not if it's the one where we get our head cut off. We have enough nightmares lately, thanks." Shaking her head slightly, she offers, "'S'Okay. Shakespeare just gets in our head and stays there .. and he never wrote any /short/ plays. So we'll be hearing the rest of MSD in our head all day."

Dream gives her a slight smile.

He does have that effect, yes.

George shakes her head slightly in confusion. The lighting in the classroom seems suddenly harsh and ugly compared to the romantic summer sunlight of the dream.

As soon as she can capture a coherent train of thought, she leans over her notebook and begins to write down what she thinks she saw.

Rory blinks.

And then busily begins writing.

George waves at Rory to get her attention. "Psst! Rory! Have you seen our posters yet?"

"Oh! Yes!" Rory whispers, blinking and looking up. "The look so great. Disgusting, but great."

George grins, feeling a bit smug and accomplished.

Not sure what was expected of him, Chihaya just decides to write and see what pops out.

--

What impresses me most was the role reversals of all the players in the scene, not just the actors.

The actors, dressed as beings that would live in the woods were performing for the very beings they would represent through their costuming.

It's also amusing to note the queen fell in love with an ass who, as per usual, was completely ignorant to her feelings. Funny how that also seems to be mirrored in real life?

A little startled but mostly intrigued, Angela rubs sleep away from her eyes and begins jotting down impressions.

We were at a play, only it was outside, and the audience was sitting on the grass. The performers were doing something from Shakespeare, I think.

In the play, this really beautiful woman (only I'm not sure she was really a woman) wearing a crown was talking about how much she loved this guy with the head of an ass. I think. It was hard to follow exactly what they were saying.

Chloe blinks for a few moments, certain that there was something familiar about what she just saw. She grabs her notebook out of her bag and begins writing.

Ivanova pays close attention to the . . . whatever it was that they witnessed, and thought about it. She recognised it as Shakespeare, but she had always preferred Chekov. Ivanova had never been given to flights of fancy, and Shakespeare's comedies had a tendency to bend reality a bit too much. Woodland critters and fairies spouting poetry made her want to punch something. Especially love poetry. It was far too . . . sappy and impratical. After pondering what to write, she realised that she already knew.

Sitting back up, D'anna blinks a few times while getting her bearings. While rummaging in her rucksack for her notebook and a pen, she thinks to herself, "I wonder if that's what taking chamalla feels like. Note to self: 'goggle' Shakespeare."

Veronica is a little nervous about the exercise, as her dreams are often less than pleasant.

When she awakes at her desk, she remembers a vague feeling of peace and happiness. She scribbles some notes on her tablet.

Jack woke up still rather sleepy and reached for his notebook. He quickly jotted down what he remembered seeing. The words were messy and all connected together but was readable after a moment of concentration.

Xander shakes himself awake and writes in his notebook: There were fairies at a play. Not that kind of fairy -- He looks vaguely uncomfortable. -- except since they all seemed to be guys, who knows. And not the Tinkerbell kind either; the weird, creepy, hard to tell from demons kind. Except those were the ones in the audience, and the ones on the stage were just people in fairy costumes. Except for the jackass that the drag-queen was in love with.

Beka vagues from the dream wondering why the costuming and fairy creatures were so poorly done, then realizes that it must've been from a period long before now even.

She writes a short essay on how much better the play would be when done with high Commonwealth tech.

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Journalism Class - Tuesday October 25

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