We had a smaller but no less lively group this week at Shakespeare Club. After studying the fairy court last session, this time we turned our attention to The Mechanicals. We started off by watching this clip of Act 1, Scene 2 where we first encounter our group of amateur actors discussing their production of Pyramus and Thisbe. The projector was working this week so we were able to watch it on the “big screen”.
Afterwards we discussed what we thought of each character but mostly Nick Bottom and Peter Quince.
We then moved on to creating posters in small groups. One group decided to focus solely on Bottom, they were very taken with his lion roars, especially his attempt at a very gentle roar, so as to not scare the ladies of the court! Of course, no poster is complete without some fairy dust added to show his transition from human, to (partial) ass and back again.
Another group decided to take a look at all of the characters and did a very good job considering Shakespeare did give us rather less to work with where Flute, Snug, Robin Starveling and Tom Snout are concerned.
And because Home Education isn’t just for children, the adults teamed up to make a poster as well, we took a look at Shakespeare’s naming conventions and discovered that each of the Mechanicals names matches their profession is some way.
Break time! We had some snacks – grapes are always a big hit with this bunch – and then 20 minutes to get some fresh air, have a chat with friends and even do a little bit of fencing.
We are settling in to our nice rhythm to the club and while the first and largest chunk of time is dedicated to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, we reserve the final section for a more generalised Shakespeare activity. This week we played a game I was calling “Shakespeare or Not Shakespeare” until a much wittier young person pointed out it should in fact be “Shakespeare or Fakespeare”. We played this game outside, with the young people standing on the stage (decking) if they believed the quote I read out was written by Shakespeare and on the grass if they thought it was written by someone else.
Next session – we’re going to discover more about Theseus and Hippolyta + the four lovers and it’s time to start designing some costumes!
Glasgow Home Ed 