Personal Reflection

On brainstorming for our upcoming paper, I find that I can be any of the three demonstrated readers. I can have solely a personal reaction to a text, I can relate manuscripts to various other manuscripts, as well as put a text into a historical and societal framework. I don't know what level of a reader this makes me because I can either read a text in all three ways to varying degrees or I can read a text only in a single way. For instance, when it comes to Margaret Atwood's 'Handmaid's Tale' I can easily read it as a social commentary on patriarchal society and can therefore compare it to other feminist texts. However, I can also read it from a very personal point of view seeing how I am female and see the treatment of female characters in the text absolutely abhorring. On the other hand, I can read a text like Gregory Spencer's 'The Welkening' from only a personal level because I can't get past the fact that his writing technique is completely inadequate. As a result, I can't put his novel in a social context or even compare it to other texts because it is beneath my personal standards. From such a hodgepodge of inconsistent literary reactions I find it very difficult to define myself as a reader.

Othello the Remake

I am actually a little bit thrilled with our Shakespeare production. I know that I was a bit worried about acting in front of a lot of people, but now I think it is going to be a peace of cake because our director, Eliza, has decided to remake the whole entire play in a shortened version of about fifteen minutes. She has removed the love story behind the characters, is insisting on modern language, and has the play following the familiar plot of ‘Law and Order.’ These decisions are acceding helpful because it gives some leeway when we perform, such as allowing us to improvise if we don't have a certain line memorized. Plus, my character Desdemona, a.k.a Debra Santiago, is revamped to be a feisty investigator that is pissed off at everyone for accusing her of being a bad cop. There is one thing that I excel at and that is being pissed! However, I am worried that I won't be able to act drunk and die successfully seeing how these two acting techniques are quite complicated. Hopefully when I perform it won't be completely unrealistic and cheesy.

Acting and the Task of Directing

Acting should be left to the professionals. This is a principle that I have held for years and have thus been able to avoid the humiliation that would inevitably befall me if I ever took up such a career. Unfortunately, this last week I was subjected to the task of performing act 4, scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet in front of our class. This experience has further instilled in me that I hate acting and that I would also never be cut out to be a director. For instance, there is too much that a director has to simultaneously think about not only in the minute details of the scene itself but the gestures, actions, and voice of each individual actor as well. Consequently, directors are forced to achieve a level of superior multi-tasking that is practically impossible to reach. In my small performance, as an insignificant example of my failings, I had no idea how to give a character with few lines (Juliet's nurse) a life of her own. From observing my fellow classmates I noticed that many were able to discover their characters to be soothing, arrogant, timid, angry, desperate, etc, and emphasized these qualities in the character's actions and voice. Hopefully I will improve in my ability of discerning a character's true personality from the text and presenting that to an audience. Time will only tell if I will be able to achieve this goal when the spotlight falls on our class' production.

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1

One of the necessary key elements of every text is the ability to keep the audience's attention. In order to accomplish this goal, an author must use a plethora of conflict and action. However, this is particularly difficult if the audience is reading a play instead of viewing it live on stage. Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' is consequently a work that is well written, but it lacks the essence of a live production. For instance, Shakespeare did not write down the stage directions in the script itself so that the reader could equally follow the dialogue and actions of the characters. As a result, the reader is at a loss when it comes to the emotions of the characters and the means to which they physically convey these emotions. This is not the case in Luhrmann's 'William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet.' The actors and actresses in the film are able to create a visual representation of what Shakespeare intended for his characters through facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice. This visual perfection is evident in the scene right before Romeo and the rest of his party attend the Capulet's celebration. In this scene, Mercutio provides a vehement dialogue in relation to Queen Mab. He energetically gallops across the setting screaming out his speech in defiance. Just reading the play does not convey such deep emotion and rage. We can only discern from the script that Mercutio talked about Queen Mab. The audience has no concept as to whether Mercution is just being informative or if he's being sarcastic or frustrated in his speech to Romeo. Consequently, Shakespeare's script will always fall short of a live production.