No toil or trouble during visit
May 24, 2011
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William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth came to life for St Joseph’s Nudgee College Year 12 English students recently courtesy of a performance by the Bell Shakespeare company.
The performance, titled Macbeth Intensive, last for around an hour with actors performing most of the scenes from the play and stopping and interpreting selected scenes. At the end of the performance students were allowed to ask questions of the performers.
“Year 12 English students have covered Macbeth in class during Term 2 and the performance filled any gaps in their understanding,” said Head of English Ms Monica See.
Bell Shakespeare’s newly updated Macbeth Intensive exposes every spine-chilling aspect of Shakespeare’s bloodthirsty story and the intense preparation the actors must go through to play two of the greatest characters ever written, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
With Bell Shakespeare touring in May, the Year 12 curriculum was adjusted to ensure the students were able to benefit from the experience.
“We normally study Macbeth in Term 4 but we moved it to Term 2 this year,” said Ms See.
“The performance was timed so it was held just before the students handed in their assignments which allowed any gaps the boys had in their understanding to be clarified.”
The written task requires the boys to look at alternative readings of the main characters while still using Shakespeare’s words.
“The performance also provided the students with a good lead in to their final assignment for the term which is a spoken task that will see them dress up as one of the characters. This is another reason why the performance was so good for the boys as it allowed them to see how easy it is to bring a character to life. Sometimes the simple addition of a scarf is all that’s needed.”
The students understanding of the play was clearly evident to the performers who commended Ms See on the quality of the questions the students asked.
“One of the actors told me that the questions the boys asked showed they had a solid understanding of the play and were the most impressive group they had performed for,” she said.
