Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Group of Characters 1 (storyline A) - love gone wrong/true love vs duty

The Romantic Young Lovers with Family Problems

Hermia who loves Lysander
Helena who loves Demetrius
Demetrius who expects to marry Hermia
Egeus is Hermia’s father and he expects Hermia to marry Demetrius
Theseus is the Duke and he supports Egeus (Athenian tradition and law)
Hippolyta is the Duchess and Queen of the Amazons and she supports Hermia

Group of Characters 2 (storyline B) - putting on a show

The Players

Bottom - he is the blustery, arrogant “star” of the show - COMIC RELIEF
Snug
Snout
Flute
Quince

Group of Characters 3 (storyline C) - jealousy and romance

The Fairies (the supernatural)

Robin Goodfellow (Puck) - he is also a “puck” - a mischievous sprite
injects CHAOS - he creates problems and moves things forward

Oberon - king of the fairies - (kind of the Theseus of the fairies)
Titania - queen of the fairies - (kind of the Hippolyta of the fairies)

Random other fairies who flit around and do things (fairy who talks to Puck at the start of Act 2, Sc 1, Mustard Seed, etc

Act 2, Sc.1

The more Demetrius doesn’t like Helena, the more she says she loves him.

Is this realistic?

Sadly, it IS!

There is a sick side to our brains that, when something is difficult or held away from us, that becomes the thing we most want. Especially in relationships.

We see this in our lives! Lots of arrogant, jerky, nasty, unpleasant guys with awesome, nice, smart girlfriends!

Women are somehow interested in jerks.

The values of the time are such that the women in this ARE very much “pure like glass” when married.

In the days of Shakespeare, women were the objects of men’s interest and they had to be passive, and allow the men to “woo them” in the tradition of the time.

For Helena to be more aggressive in pursuit is a real surprise. And it might even be disturbing on some level (for Demetrius AND the audience).

Oberon is going to get involved and make Demetrius love HER. Which might just flip her around.

Agh! Mistaken identity! That CLASSIC piece of comedy excitement.

THIS is getting into very clear territory! We can begin to see how much complication can be had with a love potion, a trickster fairy, a bunch of people in love triangles, etc

I ASSIGN YOU ACT 2, SCENE 2!

READ ALOUD (it is allowed)

Then, make some notes about actions, characters, ideas.