Today we began with our Theatre In Education unit. We decided to perform a play by William Shakespeare as Shakespeare is widely taught in secondary schools for GCSE English. Although they study the text in depth, students often struggle to understand the story and meanings behind the plays, so performing a Shakespeare play would not only be entertaining but also very beneficial.
The play we decided to go for was A Midsummer Night's Dream. We chose this play as it not only an extremely entertaining comedy but also has good range of bold characters which would challenge us in terms of characterisation.
Below is our cast:
Theseus - James
Hippolyta - Lorna
Egeus - Rob
Hermia - Lorna
Demetrius - Ollie
Lysander - Lewis
Helena - Rob
Philostrate - Ollie
Quince - Lewis
Bottom - Ollie
Flute - James
Starveling - Lorna
Snout - Lorna
Snug - Rob
Puck - James
Oberon - Lewis
Titania - Lorna
Peaseblossom/Cobweb/Moth/Mustardseed - Lewis, James and Rob
We spent the rest of the lesson acting out and roughly blocking the first 20 pages of the script; this included the explanation of the Lysander/Demetrius/Hermia situation, the plot to escape Athens and the very first Mechanicals scene.
We decided that we would perform this in the hall infront of the stage to give us lots of space to perform and have two flats at the back centre to allow us to walk "offstage". Obviously with such a small cast compared to the amount of roles there are in this play, there would be a lot of quick costume changes so this where we'd, for example, switch hats/jackets.
Next lesson, we will continue on reading and blocking through some of the script.
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