Community Chat

[on the bay]

@millieshops-

When I read your reply I was surprised all over again.

I was just going to say how once when I was teaching an English class, they chose Romeo and Juliet as one of the ones they wanted to read as a play out loud and chose parts.

These were middle school kids who seemed to have no problem understanding the story and read with expression and great character.They too discussed back and forth their ideas of how they felt about the story and the characters.

I was totally impressed and amazed. I think they understood it all far better than I. 

I think some find Shakespeare easy to understand and others not so much.I think the movie Romeo and Juliet had come out recently when they read it in class but still, I'll never forget that.

I like the idea as @SaRina mentioned to have them read in its original form and then express it in their own words thru rap, music, however they want. That gives them such a thrill and pride in creating their own works from Shakespeare, knowing they understand it. What could be better than that? 

[Q4u]

BTW, I was lucky enough to be cast as Rosalind in As You Like It.... What a great character to play....  

[ROMARY]

OMGosh..........I'm now recalling in middle school?  having to read a book.  Smallish, yet very thick book.  Was it A Tale of Two Cities?  Regardless, I just did not understand what the heck words/sentences/whatever was being said in that book.  It truly was Greek to me.  Very frustrating, to say the least.  If it was in middle school, that period in time was a complete blurr..........lol.

[ROMARY]

I'm only thinking that kids (some) now-a-days are struggling enough just to keep afloat.   So, yes, for some students, a translated version might be helpful and less frustrating.

[candys mine]

No, it just needs to be translated.  Read it as it was written then translate the wherefors.

It never dawned on me until high school English Lit. that "wherefor art thou Romeo" ment Why Oh Why did I fall for the son of my fathers arch enemy (sort of)  NOT where are you Rom's?  It puts a whole new spin on it.

Shakespeare needs to be read as it was  written! It's not just words! It's language and timing and so much more.  Translation would be the difference between standing in the midst of a  forest and taking a snapshot of it.  You'd see it but you wouldn't get the experiance.

[chrystaltree]

Let's stop tallking about when we were in school 50, 60, 70 years ago; that's irrrelevant. Shakespeare's works have already be translated into every language on this Earth.  So, I have no problem at all with a moderan translation to make easier for young people or anyone else to enjoy his works.  The bible has modern translations and that's a good thing because it makes the bible more accessible.  It's no different with Shakespeare.  However, the original versions aren't beeen discarged, banned, burned.  They will still be read and taught in schools. 

[millieshops]

@on the bayI also had middle school students who could do just that -  probably in 7th grade could have run rings around plenty of us!  But I also had high school studnets who could barely read everyday English but were expected all the same to deal with Shakespeare.  There is no way to work the same way with both groups, but there are successful ways to teach both and achieve respectable, even if different, outcomes. 

[on the bay]

@millieshops-

I so agree! And yes about the middle school vs high school students. It would have been a pleasure teaching with you-I think we would have made a good team with like ideas about teaching

[Burnsite]

If we think about it, every one that reads a play, or book, or poem, is just by reading it, "translating" it into their own terms.  These other recastings of Shakespeare discussed in this thread are also revised readings.

Shakespeare wrote what he wrote and it's not about the characters and the plot, but about his words.  He was a magician with words.

It's a fact that there is nothing inaccessible about Shakespeare (whose characters and ideas are still the same as ours)---except some vocabulary words that people no longer use.  And if people of today read a lot they have larger vocabularies and it's a minor issue.  Not every writer writes at the 6th grade level that newspapers have always used/ Notes in the margins are OK for constant readers.  If we aren't constant readers then it's better to get part of the Bard (plots and characters) than none of the Bard. 

But he is pretty good as a poet, and poetry is just the poet's words.  That part can't be translated.  Some of my favorite Shakespeare moments are not full of old words.   In King Lear, the speech beginning "Is man no more than this?"  In _Hamlet_, "To be, or not to be, that is the question." In maybe _Twelfth Night_, I am not sure, "If music be the food of love, play on."  In _The Tempest_, "We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little lives are rounded with a sleep."

I probably misquoted some or all of the above, but they are all favorites. They couldn't be reworded and sound anything but banal, but if the goal is getting people to the stage where they can appreciate the passion of the words themselves, it is a worthy goal.  

And as I said in an earlier post, Shakespeare's words aren't going anywhere.  People across the world have developed a taste for them.  Those who are unfamiliar, why shouldn't they have some help in developing a taste?

I don't think a professional troupe in Oregon has much street cred if they rewrite Shakespeare but  it would depend if their audience were adults or teens or kids.  Adults do not need anything but the play Shakespeare wrote.  Almost all directors do cut scenes they feel will not stage well.  That's a bit different from rewriting the poetry.

[Noel7]

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@Burnsite wrote:

If we think about it, every one that reads a play, or book, or poem, is just by reading it, "translating" it into their own terms.  These other recastings of Shakespeare discussed in this thread are also revised readings.

Shakespeare wrote what he wrote and it's not about the characters and the plot, but about his words.  He was a magician with words.

It's a fact that there is nothing inaccessible about Shakespeare (whose characters and ideas are still the same as ours)---except some vocabulary words that people no longer use.  And if people of today read a lot they have larger vocabularies and it's a minor issue.  Not every writer writes at the 6th grade level that newspapers have always used/ Notes in the margins are OK for constant readers.  If we aren't constant readers then it's better to get part of the Bard (plots and characters) than none of the Bard. 

But he is pretty good as a poet, and poetry is just the poet's words.  That part can't be translated.  Some of my favorite Shakespeare moments are not full of old words.   In King Lear, the speech beginning "Is man no more than this?"  In _Hamlet_, "To be, or not to be, that is the question." In maybe _Twelfth Night_, I am not sure, "If music be the food of love, play on."  In _The Tempest_, "We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little lives are rounded with a sleep."

I probably misquoted some or all of the above, but they are all favorites. They couldn't be reworded and sound anything but banal, but if the goal is getting people to the stage where they can appreciate the passion of the words themselves, it is a worthy goal.  

And as I said in an earlier post, Shakespeare's words aren't going anywhere.  People across the world have developed a taste for them.  Those who are unfamiliar, why shouldn't they have some help in developing a taste?

I don't think a professional troupe in Oregon has much street cred if they rewrite Shakespeare but then one of my brothers, a pro actor,  sometimes acts in Shakespeare plays.

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@Burnsite

It's not a troupe. The Oregon Ashland festival has been going since 1935.  The entire town is well known worldwide because of their Shakespeare festival.  People come from all over the globe to visit the town all during the year and to be there for the festival.

They are more than credible and have been for a very long time.