Monthly Archives: September 2013

RCL #4 Rhetorical Analysis Essay

I have chosen to do Hamlet’s “To be, or not to be” soliloquy as my text for analysis. I have chosen this piece because it speaks to me on many levels and I have studied the text enough that I think I will able to apply it to rhetoric. William Shakespeare wrote this in his tragic play ‘Hamlet’. Just as a quick background to what is happening at this particular part of the play(spoiler alert if you have not read or seen the play) Hamlet is by  himself, contemplating suicide, as guilt is washes over him as he realizes how horrid the act of killing his brother was, just so that he could be king. Here is a link to the soliloquy, but if you want a translated version we can go to ‘No Fear Shakespeare’ on the ‘Sparks Notes’ website and its in act 3 scene 1. You will have to turn the page two times and it starts at the bottom.

http://www.monologuearchive.com/s/shakespeare_001.html

I believe that Hamlet is having an internal argument because he kind of goes through all of Aristotle’s Modes of Persuasion. As he continues to go on and question certain aspects of his own disturbed life he makes arguments about the ways of men and their imperfections. What drew me to do my essay on this piece is how much that can actually be taken from it on a deeper level. Shakespeare always wrote with a purpose and when he wrote his soliloquy’s it can be inferred by knowing what he saying that he was always implying about human nature and how people were very flawed. I am going to be looking at how Hamlet can be tied to logos through his self pity and how with that ethos and pathos appear because of other conclusions that he draws from his thinking.

 

PAS #4 Lights, Camera, Shakespeare!

I want to start off saying that this post might be longer than usual and that is because I REALLY love what I am going to be discussing. Just please hang in there with me and hopefully you will enjoy it! 🙂

ELIZABETHIAN THEATRE! This would have to be my favorite time periods of history out of them all. This would be because I absolutely love William Shakespeare and how he redefined Theatre with his world renowned 38 plays and sonnets. It is also a very important period in history when Queen Elizabeth was in power. This was because theatre was flourishing and the demand of new plays to be written by playwrights was accelerating. Play writes were expected to put our a many plays to keep up with demand and in turn more were employed to keep up with the thirst of novelty.

SHAKESPEARE ERA: Mr. William Shakespeare is by far the most successful play right that this world has ever seen! Am I saying this because I am a biased fan? Maybe a little. But the bottom line is that he when he wrote his plays he planted seeds in the audience/ reader. He showed the error that is instilled naturally in humans. It is scary because when you actually bring them to life it teaches a life lesson that sticks with your audience years and years after. It does not matter that the generations over time have changed, people will always succumb to the same human nature, no matter what time period it is. This man who has died almost FOUR hundred years ago still has an impact on literature and theatre today. Now before I go into explaining why I love Shakespeare’s play and highlight the ones that I have read, I want to give you some background information about Mr. Shakespeare.

Shakespeare was a part of a acting company called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, where he was also one of the main writers. There was a rival company called Leicester’s Men. People who were involved in either one of these companies, or one like it they were either actors, hirelings, and apprentices. If you were an actor you were called a ‘sharers’ and you had stock in the company and the profits were divided amongst you and the other actors. An hireling were just paid weekly while the boys who were apprentice’s (played woman roles) were paid very little. The Globe theatre is were Shakespeare’s most famous plays were performed and it was constructed in 1599 on the Thames River, by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, when the lease of their previous theatre was up. The innovated design of it allowed it so that anywhere that a audience member would sit they would have a good view of the performance. Seven actors (including Shakespeare) financed the construction and were ‘housekeepers’ who has investment in the theatre as well as the company. William wrote two plays a year for the company. His earliest play was The Comedy of Error and his published word was Venius and Adonis in 1593. His tragedies, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and King Lear were written after 1600. His last plays, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest were written between 1608-1612. The Great playwright and actor retired to his home in Stratford, England where he died in 1616.

Romeo & Juliet: My first exposure to Shakespeare’s plays was Romeo & Juliet. At a young age when I grasped onto it because I was fascinated by the idea of a girl and boy going to such extreme lengths to be with one another.  The fact that they killed themselves because they could not stand the fact of living without the other, really pulled on my very developing hopeless romantic heart strings. Of course at first I read a illustrated young reader  version, that was still very graphic might I add, but it made me want to read the actual play. At first I was like “what the heck is all these words that no one says anymore?” But it did not stop me, I wanted to keep reading it. In ninth grade I finally got to read it and analyze it properly. I wanted ,and a part of me still does, to play Juliet. One of my first monologues that I memorized was one of Juliet’s most famous, “Romeo, Romeo. Wherefore art thou Romeo?…”

Titus Andronicus: Now this play is one of Shakespeare’s most graphic and vengeful plays, at least in my opinion, and it was very interesting to see all the dynamics that are in it. I really recommend this one and the movie as well. It is performed in his original text and a attention getter. I read this one in ninth grade and if you ever read or watch this play you will probably question why the hell my ninth grade teacher thought this play would be appriopate for ninth graders lol. We were very mature about it though.

Macbeth: This play comes right behind Romeo & Juliet on my favorites list. This was the first Shakespeare play that I performed in. I was Witch #2. I loved that role, the two other witches and I just had a blast with it. My school’s rendition of it was done very well considering that we had to condense it a bit. The dynamics of the characters of this play get me excited and I could just go on and on about it.

Ok so I am going to stop here. I was going to go on with Hamlet and Othello but I know you have other posts and homework to work on. If you want to discuss anything I have blogged just shoot me an email! I hope you enjoyed this weeks entry!

Happy Blogging <3

Jenn

 

PAS #3 Italian Theatre

A lot of Italian theatre is influenced by methods of theatre that the Greeks used. Roman theatre however, is more entertaining than philosophical. They incorporate more circus like performances like acrobats, jugglers and gladiators. In Ancient Rome, the biggest form of entertainment was putting the most strong and athletic man into a ring and unleash lions upon them and it would be a fight till the death. I think that the Romans had a sick sense of humor. It is very interesting that they found seeing someone getting slaughtered. Personally I am glad that that form of entertainment is frowned upon in today’s society. But something that is the polar opposite of gladiators being eaten by lions is a form of Italian theatre that in my opinion holds more entertainment and comical situations.

Firstly actors/performers of Italian theatre were called “Histriones”

Commedia del ‘Arte: Other wise know as “Italian Comedy”. It is a collection of characters with their own set personalities. These characters were performed by professional actors who completely embody that character. Some of the character names were il Capitone (a mocho man),  il Dottore (a doctor), Pantalone (an idiot servant), and Columbina (a smart girl servant). They’re were also characters called the lovers who wore no masks and they were very ballerina like and vain. Besides the lovers the other characters have their own mask that they wear that fits their character. A prop that is incorporated into the acts was a slapstick, which was used with the antics of the characters. It is where the term slapstick comedy came from. along with My junior year at the performing arts school that I attended we raised money to get a Commedia del ‘Arte instructor who came twice a week for six weeks. She taught us the different characters and then we were broken up into groups and using the s of the characters we created scenes to perform in front of the class. It was some of the best fun that I had in theatre class. I remember just about dying from laughter at some of the scenes. Our class was a pretty comical bunch to begin with. I think it would be really cool to go Italy and study this form of theatre.

Other forms:

Pantomime: this included solo dances with music and a chorus. These performances were mostly serious but there was some comedic. They were mostly stories of mythology and history.

Mime: Mime overtook after the 2nd century A.D. These performances were short and the actors did not wear masks. The stages were elaborate and violence and sex was performed literally on stage. Women were incorporated  which was becoming popular in theatre across the board. They were not really popular among the church because they scoffed and mocked it.

These three forms of theatre are very very interesting to me and I’ve wanted to dabble in them more because they are different from Drama, which is what I mainly focus on.

 

RCL #3 Reflection of Civic Life Speech’s

Considering I have never given a speech before I would say that I did a pretty good job. As an actress I always critique myself in anything I do that involves speaking in front of people and I always look back and think about things that I could have done differently or better or explained in a better way. I am so used to just having a script or monologue, memorizing it and then acting out this character that was made up by someone else. I cannot do that here, I am my own character, so it is a very interesting transition. Honestly, I could always see myself down the line doing public speaking or being a motivational speaker because I love to help people and talking to them is the best way to communicate,  especially since we live in a technological world where everything is done over the computer, text messages, email, etc.

As a class I think that we collectively did a very good job. I think now that we have done our first speech’s for this class we can have more confidence the next time around. I believe practicing these skills is important because even though you may never give speech’s in your career is still builds communication skills. I liked how a lot of my peers engaged the audience with their speech’s and made them so that we would want to hear more about what they have to say. I am looking forward to the next speech’s that we will have to give and see the growth between both of  them.

PAS #2 Ancient Greek Theatre

Once upon a time….

Thats the common way to start a bed time story wouldn’t you say? However, the kind of story that I am going to tell you is how Theatre developed in a specific part of the world. Long before we staging, lighting, sewing machines and long red curtains were around, in ancient time  stories came from myth, rituals and ceremonies. The only way we know this because of the artifacts they left behind as evidence; such as wall paintings, hieroglyphics and decorations that showed life cycles, seasonal changes, to name a couple.

This week I am going to touch on theatre and how it started in ancient Greece.  When I touch on the development of theatre in different countries in weeks to come, you may notice a common thread of how/why it started.

Ancient Greece:

The Play’s: Aristotle’s poems have been said to hold the theory to early Greek Theatre. In ancient Greece theatre started with religious rituals to their god Dionysus. What is interesting is that the actor, director, and stage crew was just one person. Then eventually only three actors would be allowed to be on stage. There are still no speaking while on the stage so the whole performance would be choreographed. These three people were called the chorus. As more time progressed different types of plays began to be written and performed in the Greek theatre. there were the tragedy, comedy, and satyr plays. The Tragedy plays were brought about by a man named Thespis, who was considered to be the first actor and the originator of the tragedy. The plays came form dithyrambs, which were songs sung to Dionysus every year at the rituals that were held. Some of the most well known playwrights of this time to write tragic plays were, Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus. The comedy plays came from the act of imitation. No one is sure where the origin of this genre came from; however, Aristophanes wrote most of these plays. Only eleven of them survived.  Satyr plays are where the characters are play satyr’s( half goat, half  man) and the story lines are comedic.

The Stage: The actual place where these performances took place was the Theatron. It was an area with amphitheater seating and the stage was at the base of it. When it came to the actors on the stage they were amateurs, no professionals. Woman were also not allowed to be actors. If there was a play with women in it, men played those parts as well, costume, make up and all.

Costumes: The actors wore masks during their performances and they would represent the type of play that was being performed. In tragedies the expressions were pained or mournful where if it was a comedy the expressions would be laughing.

Learning about Greek theatre is one of my favorite parts when learning about theatre history. It was a huge part of the Greek culture in ancient times and a lot of famous plays from that time are still read and performed today. I hope you enjoyed it!

 

Happy Blogging,

Jenn

RCL#1 Rhetorical Activities Response

Question 2:

I have not personally encountered examples recently of non-arguments. But you can tell when a argument is theatrical because it almost seems too staged. In terms of television nothing is really geared toward problem solving. Media focuses on the negative, especially with reality TV. That makes sense because if everyone talked it out and made peace no one would watch it; there would be no ratings so the show would get canceled. The more yelling and one-sided thinking there is the better. Even in day to day life people feed off of conflict and drama. When two people are arguing and have two different opinions both of them have to  have the last say  which heightens the attitudes of both parties. Neither sides opinion gets heard and no growth is made. Television shows that model this kind of behavior are not setting a good example for the youth. They are watching these kind of shows and think that what they are watching is the way they are suppose to act when engaging in conversation with someone. It does not show them that despite their disagreements they should be open to other peoples opinions and come to a middle ground. The act of having a conversation with someone is almost lost in a way because of the lack of communication that we see because of the media. People nowadays like to dispute things over social networks rather than duke them out verbally face to face. We hide behind the screen because we think that it will in some way help avoid uncomfortable situations. In all actuality it is crippling us as a society. It has to be taken seriously, or else we will be lost in our own denial that we have a communication problem. Once we pull down all these barriers that are holding us back from growing in having constructive arguments, we will forever be stuck in our current state of being as a nation.

RCL#2 Civic Life Speech Topic

My civic life speech topic is on Human Trafficking. http://bawso.org.uk/assets/Uploads/traffickingMedium2.JPG. The link that I have posted is the picture that I chose to analyze.

I believe that human trafficking is a very over looked topic in America. There are so many different levels to it that people may not even know about. This topic interest me because it is one that probably would not come up in conversation if you are discussing current issues that are happening in the United States. It needs to be brought to the attention of people because they need to know that it can easily happen to someone they know or even themselves. I think it will spark people to become more aware about what may be happening in their own back yard and they don’t even know it.

PAS#1 Passion Blog Intro Post

LIGHTSCAMERAACTION! What do all these words mean might you be asking? They mean drama, crying, sadness, happily ever after, murder, betrayal, lust, love, suspense and any other  character that can be created inside a playwrights  and movie script writers mind.  It means that once that curtain or video camera is turned on their is no turning back, the production has began and you must role with the punches. Always remember that the SHOW MUST GO ON!

Now that I just threw a lot of ‘drama’ at you let me tell you why I chose theatre as my passion blog topic. Theatre is my passion and I would never change it for another. I will be talking about the different aspects of theatre and how it is so important and more a part of our lives than people may think it is. At first I will be focusing on the history aspect and blog about important playwrights and important figures who defined what theatre is. I will also be blogging about the different types of theatre, i.e. musical theatre, plays,  and the key ‘players’ that we all know and love because of their passion and love for theatre.

What I hope people take away from this blog is a new respect for this discipline of art. I feel like theatre goes under appreciated. It has been around so long and plays a huge role in world history. I think people who are not really into theatre but love movies will be able to look at this and get a better understanding that it took a long time for movies to become what they are today and how it all started many many many years ago. I love sharing this part of myself with others, and even if it touches someone else just a little bit will make me a very happy Thespian.

Happy Blogging

Jenn