A piercing scream filled every nook and cranny of the SOUP office, the noise bouncing off each wall as it echoed through the department. "YES, FINALLY!!!! THE MOMENT I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR!!!" Katie_slytherin burst through her office door throwing papers in the air and twirled her way towards the SOUP Bosses' private office. Flinging open the doors, interrupting their meeting, Katie glomped and huggled the editors "Eeeeeeeeeee!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!! THEATER THEME!!!!!!" Skipping through the halls of the SOUP department, Katie made sure each and every person and dust bunny knew how excited her heart was. "Oh, and I know just who to interview as well!!! This is going to be the best issue ever!!!!"
However, all of Katie's hopes and dreams soon came crashing down a few days later as she received an owl back from her interviewee. She had so much excitement, but her wildfire of imagination was extinguished with a single word. "Shakespeare?! Nooooooo!!!!!!" Slamming her head on her desk, Katie groaned. "Why Shakespeare? We could have talked about Broadway, musical theater, actors, even dramaturgy would have been better than this!" While Katie's excitement may have been killed, she could feel the excitement oozing from her interviewee's owl. She couldn't let her interviewee's hopes down. "Alright then, if it is Shakespeare I must suffer through, then I shall suffer through the Shakespeare hell like the Kween I am! This is still going to be a HEXing awesome article!"
Hi there friends, it's Katie_slytherin here once again bringing you another edition of 'Chatting With . . . '! Let's give a warm round of applause for my dear friend OCEANCALM (Katya) - art enthusiast - for agreeing to come chat with us despite her busy schedule. Even though she chose Shakespeare as the topic for this month's issue, we will still chat with her; perhaps we will figure out the reason behind her terrifying topic of choice. So buckle up, hold onto your butts, and grab a dictionary because we are about to set off onto a great Shakespearean adventure!
Katie: Hi there Katya, it's great to have you here with us, thank you so much for meeting with me today to talk about the wondrous world of. . . er, Shakespeare! Alright now, let's get started. This is the question we are all dying to know. Why the HEX did you choose to talk about Shakespeare? We could have talked about anything and you chose Shakespeare! WHY?!
Katya: When theatre is the topic of conversation, Shakespeare comes to my mind almost immediately. When I was younger, I read his plays - to be honest, I wasn't immediately entranced by them, but I found them interesting. Then, in highschool, I joined an extracurricular program based entirely on Shakespeare (as it was one of two theatre options - the other being Musical which I also joined.) We put on two plays a year; a tragedy and a comedy. This was where it all began, leading to a deep interest in the texts and a passion for the language and the stage work of it - there's something special about a Shakespeare play that I haven’t felt in any other type. My love of this only grew when, last summer, I attended a 4-week long Shakespeare program at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. The more I learn, the more I want to learn - Shakespeare, specifically in a theatre setting, makes me passionate and just really truly happy.
Katie: Did you hear that folks? Katya studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London! For those of you who don’t know, RADA is one of the top most respectable theater schools in the world which was founded over 100 years ago. Former Queen Elizabeth II was the Royal Patron of RADA, and the late Princess Diana was the school's president in 1989-1997. But most importantly, one of their most notable alumni includes Alan Rickman, our very amazing Slytherin, Severus Snape! But anywho, moving forward, thank you for telling us about why you chose Shakespeare, but I still have more questions about how you could enjoy such a thing, it's so boooorrrrrriiiinnnnngggg. Do you have any advice for those of us who want to bang our heads into a wall when we hear the word Shakespeare?
Katya: Go see a good performance of it, either in person or online. When the actors know the text and understand it well, the audience is easily enthralled. Something a teacher once told me was "It is never the audience's fault if they do not understand." It is an actor's responsibility to analyze the text and make choices, to work with the director's vision in order to comprehend their own words and, more than that, express and show it all. In a great show, the audience members who have never read the play can understand perfectly. Shakespeare can be a pleasant read, but its true form is as a performance, and when the direction is good and the actor's choices and voice all come together. . . Well, I can't imagine anyone would find it boring. (On a side note, I detest lazy plays, ones that ride on the audience's knowledge of it - I've seen horrendous productions of the widely known Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet, where even knowing the play, I was confused at the events. It's about proper understanding and expression of that understanding.)
Katie: Okay, fine, but how do you even understand it? I love talking in old English every now and then but yikes! It can quickly become a hot mess.
Katya: I still don't, completely. I mean, the basic necessary knowledge was already in my brain (English being my first language.) The next part came from reading his works - context clues, etc. Actually being in a few school plays with the Shakespeare extracurricular helped tremendously; speaking it out loud with the cast, understanding your character's motivations… Then, the deeper understanding of it came from my time in London, where we discussed, during a few classes, the writing itself. For example, iambic pentameter and the clues it leaves in the text.
Katie: Ummmmm. . . yeah, okay, right. . . So what do you think of modern translations and adaptation of Shakespearean works?
Katya: Books like No Fear Shakespeare are good on a certain level; they help with base comprehension and are a good first foray into Shakespeare's works. They are not, however, perfectly accurate. Learning the differences in language, reviewing the notes in certain trusted editions - that's where the truth of the text lies. That's why different copies are used for academic study. Not everyone wants to understand the language that thoroughly, however, in which case the translations are beneficial and fun!
Katie: I remember having to use No Fear Shakespeare for classes, they made my life a bit easier. I will admit that along with the teacher guiding us through it, we were able to have fun with the works we focused on. I remember we got to rewrite and create our own scenes for A Midsummer's Night Dream and I played an overly obsessed Demetrius. Alright, so maybe with the right teacher, Shakespeare isn't so bad. Well, this interview shouldn't be a total Shakespeare roasting session on my part, we also need to have some fun. Katya, what is your favourite Shakespeare play?
Katya: I love Much Ado About Nothing!!! This actually ties back into an earlier point I made - I saw a performance of this play at the London National Theatre and it opened my eyes to what Shakespeare could BE. This was the highest level of Shakespearean theatre I have ever seen - not just the lighting, the set, or the costumes - though, trust me, those were also impeccable. No, it was the brilliance of the direction and the knowledge, voice, and even movement of the actors; they made me laugh at parts of the script I hadn't even remembered to be funny!
(I must confess I also have a fond place in my heart for Twelfth Night, having played Malvolio in my highschool Shakespeare group, and having seen it multiple times - with varying degrees of success.)
Katie: Very nice! Alright, now for one of the most important questions in this interview. Are you ready? *clears throat* Why did the chicken cross the road?
Katya: . . . . . . .
Katie: You have to answer the question ma'am. Why did the chicken cross the road?
Katya: Because Shakespeare made it do so.
Katie: Okay, okay, good, but why did Shakespeare cross the road?
Katya: For an attempt of a murder most fowl.
Katie: Ooooo murder! Alright, I know you are very busy, so we will wrap up the interview here. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us!
All right, folks, that wraps up this issue's Chatting With...! Thanks for reading, and thanks OCEANCALM for agreeing to chat with me!
Until I reemerge from my cave again, this is goodbye from your favourite socktastically pureblooded Slytherin!
- Katie_slytherin