A More Organized Self with Re-Direction in Focus of Sound and Text

So in deciding that my theme was how SOUND FOCUSES TEXT, I just jumped right in and started doing applications and analyses instead of doing research. Silly me. So I've decided to take a step back and finish what  I started the RIGHT way. Here is a list of where I am going.


1. How does the pronunciation of a word change meanings?
I will be looking into the front of our class text The Necessary Shakespeare, which has a fascinating section on just this. I will also be looking a little bit into the Great Vowel Shift, which my classmate David pointed out to me in his comment on a previous post.


2. How do performance aspects influence how the sounds focus the text?
I want to look at different productions, and see if plays versus movies make a large difference in the sound. What about a live outdoor performance? What about a lavish silver screen production? 


3. How do individual performances bring out different aspects of the text and/or define characters?
This is one that I'm really interested in. I have a book, Author's Pen and Actor's Voice: Playing and Writing in Shakespeare's Theater, Robert Weimann, (I mentioned it in that same post that David commented on) that has to do with this very aspect. It's also what I looked at when I was comparing and contrasting performances, as in my post on A Winter's Tale, and my post on The Taming of the Shrew and Much Ado About Nothing.


These are what I am going to be focusing on, breaking them down into weeks and days. I'm making a schedule of when I'm posting/focusing on each topic, but I know that my next post will be on the first item. I noticed while making my sources page that I need to actually get sources that apply to my topic! So here I go, off into the world to get cracking on the research part of this research blog!

Finding a Point to the Madness AND a Taste of My Creativity

I've been studying SOUND, and so far, it's been a variety of different topics within the text. Although I'm extremely interested in the songs, and will not likely give that up altogether, I am leaning towards SOUND FOCUSING THE TEXT, and how that changes the meaning and understanding of Shakespeare's plays. I really enjoyed doing my last post about this topic, especially focusing on the comparison of different renditions of the same play. I am going to be editing/expanding that idea as per the suggestions of others, and some further ideas that have come to me through my studying. (Tonight shall not be the night since I'm having SEVERE technical difficulties-good grief.)

As I have been looking at The Tempest for inspiration on sound, I decided that's going to be my creative juice. I do baking. So I am making a CAKE that depicts the play. It's quite the adventure so far, since I went to the store, and it didn't have ANYTHING that I needed, so I made some interesting substitutions. And I'm excited about it. I'm debating with myself about whether to bring the big thing into class or not. Either way, my next post will include pictures and details of my cake/Shakespeare extravaganza. There are follow up elements to the cake as well, that show the connections between the elements of the cake and the elements of the play. Just know that my cake is delectably delicious. Thanks for being alive. Hopefully I continue to be so as well.

The Taming of the Shrew: A Text/Film Comparison of What Makes the Shrew Shrewish

This post applies my topic of SOUND in Shakespeare to an old idea. It's actually a bit of a follow up/comment on a previous post of mine when I read The Taming of the Shrew. I also read Joanna's blog post that wrote about the same time as mine. I watched the Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton version of this play, and am doing a comparison to the text, and how I think it all played together.

Firstly, I would like to focus on how the sounded lines changed the understanding of the text. When Katharine and Petruchio are having their battle of tongue and wit, the text allows for a very quick repartee between the two. I felt the need for snappish returns, which would in turn fuel the next response, culminating in a fantastic sparring of the sexes. I felt that, although Kate's lines were still witty, Taylor's sometimes drawn out delivery slowed down the pacing and changed the feeling of the exchange. Between the slowed delivery and the blocking, the scene became more focused on the physical exchange of who is mastering who with clever skillz and moves. I don't think that this is a necessarily bad choice, but I do feel that it takes the focus away from Kate's being a Shrew because of her tongue.

What makes her a SHREW?

Katharina of The Taming of the Shrew VS. Beatrice of Much Ado About Nothing

  If Kate is a Shrew because of her words, then who else is a Shrew? I am thinking of Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing, and I don't believe that she is called a shrew. Is then the definition of the Shrew included in the delivery of the words? Kate has an exceptionally sharp tongue, and she's got the mind to fuel that dagger of hers. If her words were said is a lighter, almost more playful manner, would she be considered a shrew still? Is she a shrew because she shrieks her lines, and throws chairs and tables about? Beatrice is also very clever, and can dish out to anyone. She is in a constant rivalry of words with Benedick, and blasts words out nearly incessantly. However, they way that she speaks is completely opposite from Katharina. She is not physical, and has a less shrill tone to her voice. The sound comes across as much more pleasant. Consider the difference between how we are introduced to Kate and Beatrice in their openings. Here is Kate when we first meet her in the production that I just watched again.

Here is Beatrice in the opening of the excellent Kenneth Branaugh adaptation of the film version of the play Much Ado About Nothing.

The Shrew Katharina is very violent and tears your ears with her lines. Beatrice, though exceptionally sassy, is not called a shrew. Is this because she is bright and playful?

I'm going to be following this post with another one similar to this focusing on an analysis of language itself as a theme using these same two plays.