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fandomhigh2016-05-25 02:14 pm
glacial_queen) wrote in fandomhigh2016-05-25 02:14 pm
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Modern Shakespeare, Wednesday, Periods 1 & 2
"So, just about every year, the island picks a day and makes you sing," Karla said with the smug smile of someone who'd been through it a million times by now and had no fear of it left. "You will sing. Likely, you will sing in public and in front of your peers. If you're lucky, you'll get away with just singing about what you're doing, little musical additions to your conversation. If you're unlucky, you'll end up singing something personal and private in front of someone--confessing your innermost thoughts and emotions to the person you're talking to. For one day, you get to experience living in a musical--almost. One of the rules of being in a musical is that the characters don't know they are in a musical and so the random outbursts into song are either not noticed, even when they happen just a few feet away, or everyone participates and it's considered normal."
Could you see where this was going yet, class? At least, those of you from modern times? "Today, we're going to watch one of the most famous adaptations of Shakespeare's work, East Side Story, which is a modern, musical take on the play, Star-Crossed. In both plays, two teens from rival factions fall in love, but their friends and families are both feuding. That feud leads several deaths, including the death of a family member of the female lead's at the hands of the male lead." Karla continued explaining the plot of Star-Crossed, going over the relationships between the characters and how young the leads were written as and the power structures between the families.
"In East Side Story, some of that narrative is complicated," Karla continued. "Rather than being two opposing wealthy families and their retainers, the musical provides a racial and economic element, with one side being the established white gang and the other the newly-arrived immigrants from Puerto Rico. Either way, the causal hatred between the two groups leads ultimately to tragedy, turning what many consider to be Shakespeare's most romantic play into his most tragic."
Could you see where this was going yet, class? At least, those of you from modern times? "Today, we're going to watch one of the most famous adaptations of Shakespeare's work, East Side Story, which is a modern, musical take on the play, Star-Crossed. In both plays, two teens from rival factions fall in love, but their friends and families are both feuding. That feud leads several deaths, including the death of a family member of the female lead's at the hands of the male lead." Karla continued explaining the plot of Star-Crossed, going over the relationships between the characters and how young the leads were written as and the power structures between the families.
"In East Side Story, some of that narrative is complicated," Karla continued. "Rather than being two opposing wealthy families and their retainers, the musical provides a racial and economic element, with one side being the established white gang and the other the newly-arrived immigrants from Puerto Rico. Either way, the causal hatred between the two groups leads ultimately to tragedy, turning what many consider to be Shakespeare's most romantic play into his most tragic."
Re: Listen to the Lecture