Week Fifteen Part 1: Shakespeare

New Year, New Term, New Assignment

6th January 2014: Shakespeare

To begin the new term, we started with a simple warm up exercise.  This warm up consisted on focus, beginning with all of us focusing on our breathing, looking at the speed we breath and how deeply we breath to ensure total relaxation and concentration.  The next step was focusing on our body strength.  Due to us all returning from the Christmas holidays, most of us were tired and exhausted, so the purpose of this exercise was to warm up our muscles to physical work, which would also awaken our entire body to be ready for the days lesson.  The warm up of the muscles was to stretch the arms from the sides to the air, whilst entailing and exhaling our breathing.  I felt this warm up was very helpful as it prepared us for a whole days worth of work.

     Once the warm up exercises finished we straight into the main task of the day.  Our new assignment's topic is Shakespearean Plays, so to begin with we looked up some interesting facts about Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Era.  With a task our teacher set us, and some research using the internet, we found out many facts to do with the life and career of William Shakespeare himself and what an impact his work in theatre had upon the world and history.  We learnt of where and when he was born (in Stratford-Upon-Avon, in 1564).  Who he was married to (Anne Hathaway) and how many children he had (three).  Along with learning how his plays broke away from the traditional theatre, as well as his use certain elements became a huge development in the English theatre.  Just name a few facts upon many.  I felt this was a perfect way to start the assignment because many, but not all, of us in the tutor group knew quite a lot about Shakespeare already, but this task implanted more details we didn't know about the famous playwright.  Also we were able to categorise what genre each of Shakespeare's thirty-seven plays.

     Therefore I think of this lesson as being very interesting and engaging, as well as a great start to a great assignment focusing on possibly the greatest playwright's who ever lived.  My imput to the lesson was simply introducing what I have experienced in the subject and how much I knew.  As I have performed Shakespeare monologues and researched into many of his plays, I feel very positive about the entire assignment and I look forward to unpcoming lessons.