Shakespeare: always timely

On the docket for tonight’s class: A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  I’ve asked the students to bring in lyrics to a love song of their choosing to compare to the theme that the course of true love never did run smooth.  I mentioned it to a friend, who warned me that I may get some undesirable language.  We may have to do some bowdlerizing.

While searching around for fun ideas, I came across this video:

 From the article at The Guardian:

The danger – if there is one – in such an approach, is that it might be seen as both patronising and naff to use hip-hop as a backdoor to introducing young people to what is often viewed as "high culture". Is turning Sonnet 18 into a rap the equivalent of turning children's food into funny animal shapes in order to get them to swallow something unpalatable? Keith Saha runs the innovative 20 Stories High theatre group in Liverpool and he thinks it can be if it's handled wrongly. "All sorts of industries use hip-hop as a branding tool to sell to a yoof market that they don't understand and can't connect with," he says. "Unfortunately, the arts, and theatre in particular, is one of them. Akala is a great example of a genuine artist who has a passion for both hip-hop and Shakespeare and what he does really works. But a lot of the time big arts organisations are clueless in how to attract young people to their venues; they have boxes to tick in terms of attracting new audiences and the results can be embarrassing, misguided and often offensive."

I may be one of the "clueless," but I'm not opposed to trying to make Shakespeare more accessible.   

Akala says the aim isn't that limited: "It's about showing them what's attainable. And if Shakespeare is presented as the most unattainable, highbrow entity, but then it's made relevant to them, what else might be? It's part of a wider effort to open kids up to what they wouldn't traditionally be interested in." Chanelle Newman, project manager for the Hip-Hop Shakespeare company, is already seeing the effects. "By the end of the workshops you get to see that it opens their mind up to other things such as theatre acting or going to see more Shakespeare plays. "

Too bad the classroom doesn’t have wi-fi.

Ironically, or not, this theme ties in nicely with our life lately. My husband and I spent about a few days last week at cross purposes.  Miscommunications, perceived slights, wrongs resurrected – the typical angsts of marriage.  So it’s not surprising that the sparring between Oberon and Titania caught my attention.  When lovers are at odds, all else in the world seems disordered.  Thankfully, our quibbles have nought to do with infidelity, but it would be nice if we could argue as eloquently as this :

          O: Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.

          T: What jealous Oberon? Fairies, skip hence.

            I have foresworn his bed and company.

          O: Tarry, rash wanton. Am not I thy lord?

          T: Then I must be thy lady; but I know when thou hast stolen away from Fairyland

Fortunately, like Oberon and Titania, our moods are as inconstant as the moon, and after a decent sleep, all is reconciled and right with the world:

       O: Come, my queen, take hands with me,

         And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.

         Now thou and I are new in amity,

         And will tomorrow midnight solemnly

         Dance in Duke Theseus’ house triumphantly

     T: Come, my lord, and in our flight

        Tell me how it came this night

        That I sleeping here was found

        With these mortals on the ground.

Providentially, one morning I opened up Benedictus (recycling through) to this quote from Pope Benedict:

 “No one can arrive at knowledge of himself just by looking within himself and trying to build up his personality from what he finds there. Man as a being is so constructed for relationships that he grows in relation to others. So that his own meaning, his task in life, his advancement in life, and his potential are unlocked in his meetings with others. From the starting point of this basic structure of human existence we can understand faith and our meeting with Jesus.”

Growing in relation to others is sometimes painful, but always fruitful. Does literature count as a meeting place with others? Can this class become a meeting place to grow in knowledge of self? Reminds me of this article: Can Tolstoy Change Your Marriage?

from http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lu82zpVNoc1qdrwy3o1_500.jpg