When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Basically, this sonnet is about a man who wishes his life was different than his current state, until he realizes he has nothing to complain about because he has the love of his life.
If some of you don't know, Shakespeare's sonnets are supposed to be read in iambic pentameter, which is a set of 10 syllables paired into twos with one syllable in each pair being emphasized more. It is complicated and difficult, but when executed correctly, it leaves the sonnet with the greatest impact. Today, once becoming familiar with the sonnet, we played around with it in different ways. We tried walking around and reading it, and each time there was a punctuation mark, we had to switch the direction in which we were walking in. We also tried reading the sonnet without iambic pentameter, as well as reading the sonnet as if each line were it's own finite poem. It was interesting to see how different people executed the poem, some spoked fervently, while others more pleasantly who emphasized the love story part of the sonnet. It really amazed me how the sonnet could take on so many meanings just by the tone and person reading it.
In our afternoon classes, we have been doing some pretty interesting things with Charlie. Yesterday, we started off the class by lying in a circle so that your head was resting on the person's stomach next to you, and someone's head was resting on yours. We then were told to let out all of the giggles that we had inside of us for the next five minutes of class. It's pretty funny how when we are told to giggle, it becomes the hardest thing in the world. Meanwhile, most of the class has giggles throughout each of our sessions. Once one person started giggling; though, you couldn't help but start laughing as well just because of the pure strangeness of the sensation of feeling someone's stomach vibrating below you as it erupted with laughter. It was a great way to relieve all the stress and tension everyone felt, and to start the class off on a light note.
After the laughing exercise, we were told to get into partners and do more mirroring. I decided that since I have basically avoided Maggie in every session thus far, we should finally be partners. And boy oh boy, what a good idea that was! It was so funny how much we could predict each other's next movements, as well as how identical we have come to be in our mannerisms and facial expressions...no wonder people think we are sisters or something! My favorite part of class yesterday was making Maggie do the dance to "Shawty it's your Booty" and seeing if she could figure out that that was what I was making her mirror. Obviously, once she caught on, we both burst into laughter. Gotta love that girl!
(For those of you who don't know the dance...here it is:)
Today in class, we were assigned scene partners because we are going to begin working with short scripts in this class as well. But, before we were given our scenes, we were to do a trust game with our scene partner. The trust game consisted of one of us closing our eyes and pretending we were blind, while our scene partner guided us around the room. Lori is my scene partner, and I had no issues trusting her in guiding me around to room. Only once did I come a little to close to hitting my face into the window, but I'll let her get away with that this time! It was amazing to see how much my senses heightened when my eyes had to be shut. Every smell was more poignant, and every touch was more intense. We were told to touch other people's hands and arms and try to figure out who they were. It was funny and rather embarrassing that I had such a hard time telling who was who when I could not look and see who it was!
We got to end class early today because we were scheduled to take a tour of the National Theatre on the South Bank. The Theatre was extremely interesting, as it holds three different kinds of theaters under it's roof; each one catering to up to 3 shows at a time! I'm pretty sure the tour guide said that over a year, over 26 shows could have been shown at the Theatre. We also got to go backstage and see the set design area as well as all of the extra and random props that they have laying around. I'm not a huge theatre buff but the tour was still very cool!
After the tour, Maggie and I along with two other girls went to the restaurant Giraffe that sits right along the South Bank of London on the River Thames. It is a beautiful view, rain or shine; and luckily today, the sun was shining! We got extremely delicious food and passionfruit cider that was to die for! I can't really tell if I'm gaining or losing weight on this trip due to the constant paradox of walking so much but then eating so much food!!
Another day of class awaits tomorrow and then tomorrow night we are going to see The Audience featuring Helen Mirren! My hopes are high that I will actually like this play!
Until next time!!
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