A Pacific Northwest Girl

Well, everybody in the class already knows that I'm an actor-although I wouldn't say that's completely accurate. I've acted before, but I'm not true actor. My love of theater originates in my deep and unending love for words. I love books, poems, essays, stories, speeches, etc. If you give me a beautiful sentence, or a word, I will fall head over toes in love with it before you can remind me that the sentence is part of a book. Nonetheless, acting has been, fun, mostly because I've done quite a bit of Shakespeare. I was Juliet in a high school production of Romeo & Juliet, as well as Hermia in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. I get to be a part of that play again this year in the role of Hippolyta. Other than that, my love of Shakespeare is as unending as my love of words, a passion that the bard himself shared. I've read many of his plays, memorized his sonnets, and seen some incredible, and not-so-incredible performances of his works. 

As for me, all you really need to know is that I am from Vancouver (not BC), Washington (not DC), and that I miss it every day. The rain, the trees, the unpolluted PNW air; it calls to me. I come from a half hispanic, half white family where cultural lines get blurred. The first picture is of me and my best friend/boyfriend enjoying the sunrise, the second picture is of my other great love, Oly the bunny. His predecessor, Jaro, was also named after a mountain. Olympus and Kilimanjaro. I would read all day long if I could, and I often do. My other interests include paleontology and baking, which I try to combine as much as I can. 

I'm looking forward to this class, and to getting to know everybody.

Thanks, 

Sarai

Hello all my literary friends! My name is Alyssa and I am from Versailles, Kentucky. Unfortunately, "Versailles" is meant to be pronounced phonetically with a Kentucky accent. This leaves one with a hearty Verrrr-sail-LLs, rather than with a soft ver-sehhh. As a reference, you can check this YouTube video.

Now that I've established my roots, I'll proceed with a short list of things I love:

• Running. I ran a marathon about two months ago... I hope to run an ultramarathon sometime in my life. 100 miles of sheer joy!
• Family. I love my three sisters and two parents. My mom was the one that helped me fall in love with reading. I got super swoll from all the heavy lifting.
• Nature. I love the smell of cut grass and pine in the morning.
• Reading. Duh. I just finished up The Road. It was fantastically dark and compelling--a dystopian novel like no other.

The theme that I noticed the most as I read through Richard II was that of Kingship. Shakespeare seemed to present a convoluted presentation of what “Kingship” really means, especially in regards to King Richard II. In Act one, Scene one, both Bolingbroke and Mowbray lavish praises on the King. Mowbray goes as far as to compare the king to something heavenly and God-like as he says, “Add an immortal title to your crown.” Though some players remark on the King’s divine majesty—especially towards the beginning of the play—most change their tune as they distance themselves from the King and revolt against his faults. Like in Act two, scene one where Northumberland remarks that they should, “Wipe off the dust that hides our scepter’s gilt, and make high majesty look like itself.” I thought that Shakespeare did a wonderful job at presenting a complex image of the reality of a King and his followers. The King lost the grace of a divinely appointed throne, but the perceived divinity of the throne was simply passed on to Bolingbroke.

Rosemary, the Fairy King

Hi. My name is Rosemary. I like to party.

By party, I mean I:

• work at a high school with teenagers who have turned me into an bitter old woman.
• have recently returned from a 8-year sabbatical from BYU.
• am trying to get a fee waiver from Homeland Security, which is as easy as getting teenagers to turn off their phones.
• read when I should be working...or sleeping...or eating.
• play video games instead of read sometimes.
• watch TV instead of play video games sometimes.
• get too excited about comic books.
• have adventures with my Misfits.

I was first formally introduced to Shakespeare through desperation. I was failing English. Luckily, my teacher was directing A Midsummer Night's Dream and her Oberon decided he didn't want to perform a week before opening night. In exchange for all of the extra credit, I memorized lines I didn't understand and ran around in tights. When I was around 17, I figured out that Shakespeare was a soap opera written in layers. I've been a fan since.

A Quick Introduction

Hi everyone! My name is Jordan and I am from New Jersey. Like any typical English major, I love to read. It's what I do 90% of my spare time. My favorite book series is Harry Potter and if there was a class just about the Marauders, I would take it! My biggest hobby, other than reading, is cosplaying. I make costumes and props and then wear them to conventions. I am a huge nerd and it's great! A cosplay that you might recognize is Jack Frost from Rise of the Guardians. It's always a blast to see little kids reactions when they see me as Jack. When I have to time, I like to do a bit of writing. I usually do short stories but I would like to work my way up to bigger projects. Eventually I would like to be an editor for fiction writers. The process of creating a story fasinates me and I would love to make being a part of it my career.

Me in a Minute

My name is Shelise Rupp. I am 21 years old, from Thousand Oaks CA, and - you guessed it - an English major.  There. In one sentence I have answered all the stereotypical questions that we have all heard fifty times these first few days of school. So now that that's out of the way, I can tell you that I am addicted to reading, I love drawing, my favorite thing to write is poetry, I am a nature freak who goes googly-eyed at every tree, sunset on the mountains, or starlit night. I am the oldest of six (three boys, three girls), I am considering going to law school, and I served my mission in the Philippines Quezon City Mission. I am obsessed with the Lord of the Rings and J.R.R. Tolkien's work, and my favorite color is blue and my favorite food, chocolate. So there. That's me in a minute. :)

Myself: John Koerper

Hello everyone, I am excited to get to know all of you throughout this semester. To introduce myself, I am from Kentucky, although my family moved frequently as I was growing up. I have lived in Kansas City (on the Kansas side); Los Cruces, New Mexico; Billings, Montana; Ashland, Kentucky (a small town near the border of West Virginia); and finally Lexington. Through all the moves I have had my eight siblings to keep me company. I have two sisters and six brothers and all the normal fun and complications that come with a larger family: a mom that calls you two different names before she remembers yours, giant family monopoly games that start with jokes then proceed to yells followed by tears, shared rooms, there always being a family member at any time of the day to call for a pick-me-up etc . . .

I served my mission, Spanish speaking, in Fort. Lauderdale Florida.

A list of what I enjoy doing would include playing the piano (I started when I was six), singing (quality varies), films, basketball, and, of course reading and writing.

The last two hobbies came due, a large part, to my mom. She homeschooled myself and my siblings and was an English major herself. While she did teach the sciences and other subjects, I could not help but notice and be influenced by her, frankly biased, passion for literature. It was her assignments that first introduced me to Shakespeare. I have read many of the plays (Hamlet, Macbeth, Midsummer Night’s Dream etc . . .) and some of the sonnets though not recently, except in class.

Besides reading the plays, which I enjoy, I have had one other experience with him that was not so pleasurable. My mom required when I was eight or nine to memorize Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” monologue. That was the moment that I realized that, while I love reading and watching Shakespeare, I also love leaving the performance of his work to others (good luck Sarai!). Maybe that idea will change this semester, who knows?

Potential Research Topic: "To Be Or Not To Be"

As I mentioned previously on a couple posts in this blog, I helped to Kickstart a book called To Be Or Not To Be: That Is The Adventure by Ryan North. I've described it to most of my friends as a "Choose-Your-Own Hamlet"; it runs through the story of Hamlet from a couple different perspectives, written in an informal, modern tone, and littered with decision points (for example, Hamlet can choose to go and kill Claudius immediately after talking to Hamlet, Sr., instead of agonizing over the decision).

The book is really entertaining, but academically interesting for a number of reasons. Specifically, the book itself criticizes many of the "Canon" choices--when you (as Hamlet) choose to go into Ophelia's room with fouled stockings, etc., then persist in choosing to act crazy in front of her, the narrator actually forcibly takes the reins from you: "You know what? I think you've made enough choices for a while. Move over. I'm driving" (308). Also notable is the "lost" pirate fight scene, which goes on for at least a dozen pages, and is filled with enough bad puns to make even Shakespeare himself groan.

What could make for a really interesting semester project would be a review/survey of To Be Or Not To Be, talking about what changes were made and how that affects the narrative, possibly comparing and contrasting it to other modern "renditions" (Better Myth's "Hamlet is Very Bad At Revenge" comes to mind [language warning]). What could make it even more substantial is talking about why we feel the need to "modernize" the narrative, and, possibly, how books like To Be Or Not To Be could be used to help teach Shakespeare.

If you'd like to check the book out, it retails for about $28 on Amazon, and might be available at one of the local libraries. You're also more than welcome to borrow my copy, and you can also take a peek at the Kickstarter bonuses I got (which is how most of the first edition readers would experience it). Go ahead and email me if you're interested; commenting on this post might send me an alert still, but I'm not sure.

Good luck this semester!
David G.