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Thursday, March 26, 2015

"To Be or Not to Be" a Good Trip?

On March 25, the seniors (a joke: seniors come first because they’re more important) and sophomores went on a field trip to the Barter Theatre. They watched the Shakespearean play Hamlet, and also had a brief workshop afterwards to explain the use of iambic pentameter. It was an entertaining and educational trip, and many of the students enjoyed it.

Hamlet, like most Shakespearean plays, is a tragedy, and even though it might be viewed as a spoiler alert (!), a lot of people die. The play was performed at the smaller stage, Stage II, where the people sitting in the front row could have literally reached out and touch the actors. There were only six actors to play a wide cast of characters, but this was hardly a problem due to changes in costume and personality. The workshop afterwards explained that all of Shakespeare’s plays were written in iambic pentameter: a form of verse in which each line has five pairs of stressed and unstressed syllables to form a “heartbeat" rhythm.  Shakespeare would often break the iambic pentameter in certain aspects to bring emphasis on the line. It is the actor’s job to decide why the iambic pentameter wasn't used for that line, and choose how s/he will portray it.


Not only did the play entertain its audience, but the workshop afterwards gave students an inside look at acting in a Shakespearean play. Personally, Hamlet has become my favorite Shakespearean play, topping Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar. The abundance of Barter Theatre trips recently has been great for the student body as a whole to experience theatre, and I hope these trips continue in the future.

-Dylan Crigger

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