Shakespeare Week - Your Favorite Play?

[Razen]

Hello all, and welcome to Shakespeare week! Here's where we will discuss what your favorite Shakespeare plays are and why they are your favorites. So with much ado, we shall begin. *hides the CliffNotes behind his back*

 

As more questions get added, I will add them to this first post. Feel free to jump in at any time!

 

The Questions:

1) What is your favorite Shakespeare play? Why?

2) Have you ever gotten the chance to act in/create props for/help out in any way with a rendtion of a Shakespeare play?

3) I know this is supposed to talk about your favorite plays, but are there any plays that you just went "blah" over? Ones you don't particularly care for?

[Crystal Tipps]

I've not read or been to see many, but of the ones I have I think probably A Midsummer Night'd Dream. I studied it in my first year of uni and had to design costumes for it so it has a bit of a special place in my heart. I love the magical element to it. I would go into more detail but it's been a while since I read it, might have to watch the film tonight actually...

[Rhea]

I am a huge fan of Shakespeare's comedies and my absolute favorite is Much Ado About Nothing. I also like A Midsummer Night's Dream as Tipps mentioned. I have seen both on stage and loved the movie version of Much Ado About Nothing with Kenneth Branagh. Mostly I love the plots and how the characters interplay with each other.

 

I have never part of any on stage production, but I would love to someday!

[Razen]

My high school put on a performance of a Midsummer Night's Dream my junior year that was very good. I was not an actor in it, but I have read it.

 

One of my favorites is the comedy Twelfth Night. The love triangle that develops between Olivia, Viola, and Orsino is quite hilarious, as is the imprisonment of poor Malvolio.

[Turin Turambar]

I have never seen any real production of a Shakespeare play and have only read a handful of them. As a comedy guy I would say that Much ado about Nothing is my fave comedy and Hamlet is my favorite of the tragedies. I particularly enjoyed the duel with Hamlet and Larertes (sp?).

[Elgee]

Our primary (junior) school presented A Midsummer Night's Dream when I was about 9 or 10 years old. Since we were only about 150 children in the school at that stage, most people took part. We were incredibly lucky in having an English teacher who didn't look down on things like Shakespeare Made Easy as a teaching tool. We youngsters (many of us not native English speakers) could understand that language much better than dear Shakespeare's, but since the stories were so good we got hooked and later read the originals. She gave me a love not only of Shakespeare, but also of fantasy.

 

We had quite an active local acting society, so growing up I saw most of Shakespeare's plays. I simply can't pick just one favourite, but some of those I enjoyed most (for various reasons) are definitely AMND, Twelfth Night and Macbeth. Can't stand Romeo and Juliet, though :P

[Gabriel Kross]

I missed the chance to see henry the 4th/5th back in Feb due to medical stuff. I really like Hamlet and the Taming of the Shrew, I also now like The Tempest (I watched it for research for this event)

 

I like Hamlet just for all the ploting and masterminding of Hamlet after he learned what happened to his father.

 

Taming of the Shrew was just really really funny imo.

 

The Tempest was just awesome (I watched the movie version but still)

[Crystal Tipps]

I went to see a production of the The Tempest whilst at uni, I didn't really like it all that much but I think it was due to the way it was done, it was an abridged version and having never seen or read it before I wasn't too sure what was going on.

 

I also forgot to mention a very interesting version of AMND I went to see with uni when we studied it. It was extremely weird and sexual... definately not PG-13! No one really liked it either.

 

We also went to see The Merchant of Venice at the Globe Theatre in London and we were stood in the yard and the actors would come out into it. It was very good, I think it is the only traditional Shakespeare performance I have seen. They also made us watch the film, I'm sure it was when we got back from London so everyone was really tired and falling asleep so I don't really remember the film.

[Rasheta Ardashir]

The Questions:

1) What is your favorite Shakespeare play? Why?

2) Have you ever gotten the chance to act in/create props for/help out in any way with a rendtion of a Shakespeare play?

 

My Fave Comedy is: Taming of the Shrew. My Fave Tragedy is Macbeth. Taming partly because it was the first play I was introduced too. If you haven't seen it I highly suggest watching the Elizabeth Taylor version of the play. She is an amazing Kathrine! Another good version of the play is Kiss me Kate its a musical but still good. Macbeth because its different, i've grown rather tired of Hamlet and the other more commonly performed plays. The opening to Macbeth is very different then the other plays too. The Witches remind me of the Greek chorus to start things off.

 

Yes i've played in most of the well known plays. Even the one I really despise (Romeo and Juliet), I make a really good Beatrice and Kathrine from Much ado and Taming respectfully. *laughs* So it has been fun.

[Nyanna al'Meara]

From the ones I've actually read so far...A Midsummer Nights Dream, for it's comedy , and Macbeth, cos it's actionpacked, with a few twists along the way, and reeking of treason! it was fun to study :)

Can't wait to read Othello for this year

[Senexx]

1. Hamlet. He's Batman out to avenge his parent.

2. No.

 

3. I'm Batman

 

I would add a Midsummer Night's Dream comedy is a little slapstick for my liking, haven't read The Taming of the Shrew but I enjoy Ten Things I Hate About You.

 

Apart from the bad props I'm not sure Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet can be surpassed.

 

Whenever I turn around Macbeth is mentioned and whilst I think I know the gist of the story, that is all I know.

[Leala]

I have a number of favorites. When I was younger, I liked a lot of the tragedies, but I'd grown to love a lot of the comedies nowadays.

 

My favorites include:

Taming of the Shrew: I love how you can make it say so much. And Kate remains one of my favorite characters.

 

Midsummer Night's Dream: It's just so happy and whimsical. I named one of the characters in my in-the-works novel after Lysander. :D Well...inadvertantly. I named him Lysander before I read the play, but it still has me giggling sometimes.

 

Much Ado About Nothing: Beatrice and Bennedick are amazing together, I love their personalities.

 

And my favorite tragedy is still Titus Andronicus. It's just so out there, and so tragic without a break, it has me laughing eventually.

 

I love Hamlet, too. It's one of those timeless ones you can find almost anywhere. It's kind of funny, though, finding misused quotes in cartoons that give no context.

 

My favorite historical play is Richard III. I like it because it reminds me of Titus Andronicus. It's history, but it's so over exaggerated, it's funny to me.

 

No, I haven't. Not in an actual play, but we did read all the plays we studied in my Shakespeare class aloud.

[keyholder21]

1. What if I can't really choose just one favorite? My favorite comedies of his are Much Ado About Nothing and Taming of the Shrew. The characters/dialogue make me laugh. Favorite tragedy is Hamlet. I just really like the story heh. Plus, my dad was in it when I was younger (he went back to college when I was 5) and I think that forever made me a fan. He played Claudius.

 

2. Kinda? When I was in high school our English class would go and act out some of the scenes in the auditorium during class. We never really had props or anything, but acting it out on stage with classmates taking turns during the scenes was really fun and a great way to learn/get involved in the story. I've also seen a great rendition of King Lear...but was in no way involved heh.

 

Sen - I love the Zefferelli version of R + J :).

[Crystal Tipps]

I played Lady Capulet in drama at school when we had to act out a scene... acting is definately not my forte, I prefer to behind the scenes not in front of them!

[Senexx]

Oh and the King Henry ones with Falstaff are pretty good too. It was King Henry wasn't it?

[Razen]

Ah, yes, I remember Falstaff. I think he's also a part of one of the comedies - The Merry Wives of Windsor, I think?

[keyholder21]

You're both correct

. It's Henry IV parts1 & 2 Sen. I haven't read Merry Wives of Windsor Razen, but I looked it up and yes, Falstaff is in it *g*.

[Alanna]

I tend to prefer the comedies in general, and I really love Midsummer and Twelfth Night. But my favorite is actually a lesser known one - Measure for Measure. I had a college class that was about the progression of Shakespeare's comedies, and the interesting thing is, the humor becomes less out-there hilarious as he goes on, and Measure for Measure was one of his later comedies, so the humor is a little more subtle. Anyhow it involves a king in hiding and a nun that he falls in love with, and I love it :D

[Razen]

Alanna, Measure for Measure is another good one! I've read it too - for a high school academic competition. It's a good one - and definitely more subtle. Also a lot more bawdy and couply. My English teacher read this one with us when we were working on it and she was surprised that it was assigned to high schoolers. It's not inappropriate, you just have to know how to handle it maturely, which some high schoolers cannot.

[Alanna]

Oh, yeah, it's super bawdy :D I can see where that could be a problem for high schoolers lol.

[Razen]

New question added at the top!

 

To answer that one, I've read Henry IV, Part II and Henry V, and I must say that I found those histories to be rather dry compared to the tragedies and the comedies. I'm also not that big of a fan of Julius Caesar.

[Leala]

Mark Anthony and Cleopatra. I should have been all over that play. It had Romans and Egyptians. But it just made go...'meh'. Even our teacher got bored with it.

[Razen]

^ Also not a big fan of that one, but not because the play itself is bad, but because the movie I saw just was awful.

[Crystal Tipps]

I have to say, all the ones I have seen/read/studied I have enjoyed, although I've not seen/read many the ones I have have been comedies and tragedies.

[Turin Turambar]

I must admit to not getting into the histories. I am sure there must be a good reason to see read them but always made my go meh.