January 26, 2016  Hamlet 3.1

If you were absent yesterday, please pick up the Personal Insight Paper assignment

Reminder: You don't have to have a deeply personal experience (such as Meghan O'Rourke's experience of grieving) in order to have personal, informed opinions on meaningful topic. So much of this paper is about offering a contrast in tone and voice to the typical objective, third person essays you are typically asked to write.


Hand in Log # 6

Activity 1) To Be or Not To Be - Tandem Reading

- First, do this with with one partner; exchanging who is speaker 1 and 2

- then we will do this as a class

Divide the class into two groups (Reader 1 and Reader 2).

Reader 1 will rehearse in the classroom; Reader 2 will rehearse in the hallway

The goals are for each group to use pitch, tone, inflection, stress and pacing to emphasize the meaning of the words and lines and to read in unison as if each of the two groups were one voice. If you cooperate and put some energy into it, this should be an interesting experience of the text.

Activity 2) "Ha, Ha, Are You Honest?...Get Thee to a Nunnery" 3.1.99--175

Why might Hamlet be questioning Ophelia's honesty?

Reading and Performance of scene...with a partner

Preparation of the script: 
Materials: Handout of 3.1.99-175

To deepen our understanding of subtext and motivation, you will do the nunnery scene several times, using different subtexts and objectives.   By objective we mean what a character wants in a particular scene, his goal.

For example, at the beginning of 3.1, we might say that Claudius's objective is to find out exactly what Hamlet is up to, whether his "confusion" is feigned or real.  Acting on this objective, Claudius first questions Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Then he and Polonius prepare to spy on the meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia.  By varying the objective and subtext for Hamlet in the "get thee to a nunnery scene", we will explore several interpretations and you will read the text closely for clues to performance. 

Divide into three groups to direct and perform three interpretations of the nunnery scene:

1) Hamlet knows from the beginning of the scene that Polonius and Claudius are watching him.

2) Hamlet does not know until later in the scene that he is being watched. The group decides when, based on the script.

3) Hamlet never knows that he is being watched.

Decide who will be actors and who will direct (one or two primary directors with everyone else, including the actors, assisting them and providing insights on how lines should be performed). Polonius and Claudius will not be speaking, but you should figure out where they will be positioned and how they will act/react non-verbally.

For each interpretation, ask the following, and write notes on your script concerning how specific lines might be performed:

What is Hamlet's objective?
What specific gestures, inflections, movements, or pauses could an actor use to show this objective?
How does this objective affect the subtext?

Discuss and rehearse for 15 minutes.  Tomorrow, we will do performances.  Those who did not play either Ophelia or Hamlet, will take the lead in telling the rest of the class which textual clues their group used to support their interpretation and enactment of the scene (but the Hamlet and Ophelia characters can chime in too).

Post performance discussion:  How do the various interpretations affect the interpretation of Hamlet's character?


Period 7 groups: 

Group 1:  Jacob B., Kay, Ben, Stephanie, Lyrik, Nick, John, Tara

Group 2: Niko, Emily, Vicki, Albert, Chloe, Mary, Jacob P

Group 3: Kyle, Maiya, Becca, Brandon, Jack, Lara, Alison

Period 8 groups:
Group 1: Sarah, Paul, Isaac, Kim, Rachel, Claudia, Megan, Sam

Group 2: Marina, Frannie, Dan, George, Maeve, Emilio, Kelsey, Griffin

Group 4: Michael, Maddie, Morgan, Colin, Alexis, Cullen, Erica