So, this is really ONLY a starting point. I still need to make it sound more Shakespeare-like and I need to check iambic pentameter, rhythm, etc. But here's my first draft of a scene:
Ariel: Well met young Puck. I feel we have much in common. Come, away with us my boy. Our first feat will be to tamper with the affairs of those hapless creatures in the local village.
Puck: And what shall we do there master?
Ariel: Why, I generally leave that up to how I feel in the moment. I give myself a lot of room to work in.
Puck: Such as?
Ariel: Sometimes I hide their clothes. At other times, I get them to fall asleep and I move them somewhere else. And sometimes I change their appearance and watch the reactions of those around them.
Puck: Aye, that sounds gloriously entertaining!
Ariel: On then, young lad. Let us get to it.
Ariel: Well, here we are young lad. Does anything catch your eye?
Puck: Hmmm. I suppose that the young lass over there looks like she could use some more cheer in her day.
Ariel: That would be a dog. They aren’t as much fun to tease as humans. I can tell this is your first time.
Puck: Ok, so a human then. How about that foolish looking lad. He looks like he’d be easy enough.
Ariel: Fine then. What sort of trickery do you see in store for him?
Puck: Hmmm. He does seem to be a bit of an idiot. Perhaps we should get him to follow us somewhere?
And then I'll have them do something. So, I know it needs a lot of editing, and I'll do that very soon. Content-wise though, what do you guys think? I know that the writing is terrible and I really need to flesh out some 3D characters for it, but do you all have any thoughts as to what Shakespeare would do for that or how he would really make it come alive now?
So, I've heard we have a wiki where we are collaborating for our final project. Where is that exactly?
Anyway, I am definitely behind the times. Thank you Emily for trying to catch me up. In your email to me, you mentioned how we wanted a background story for Puck, tying it into an Aladdin-esque theme. So, how about this?
Aladdin was an orphan, so we can say that Puck was found in the forest as a young one. He was reared by a fairy under Oberon (so a slightly better life than Aladdin--we could also just have him live alone until he is older and that is why he likes pranks so much-->because he's finally around people or something like that), and this fairy is a very humorous fairy. His life beforehand is largely a mystery--he was found with absolutely nothing but the clothes on his back, and he was too young to remember much. He is happier now though. Perhaps he had some memories of a bad domestic influence in his early years. But we'll never know. Such is the life of us peons.
Anyway, we need a love interest. And an unrequited one at that. So, perhaps we could have a fairy friend of Puck who totally digs him. But he sees her more as a sister the entire time, and also doesn't want to mess up their friendship at all (maybe another friend dated a close friend and it ruined their relationship recently). Anyway, since he had some bad upbringing pre-Oberon, maybe he doesn't want to lose the warmth of such a good relationship. Also, Puck has his eye on a high-standing fairy, as per my original idea. She is a pretty amazing fairy, and she is also very influential. But, as he is a low-standing fairy, he doesn't have a chance to catch her eye. So, we can have a bit of a chase going on here.
This is only something that I am thinking of as I type, so it could definitely be improved. And I have no idea what we have already done. So I apologize if there are any repeats or anything I wrote was already discussed.
So, again, I know that this is pretty bad. But I'm just throwing it all up here in order to get the creative juices flowing. Once I have a better understanding of what direction we are heading in, I'll be able to focus it better and drastically improve the quality. As it is now, though, I do not have any idea what we are shooting for. I am sailing without a compass as it where.
So, I keep coming back in my mind to the first act of Love's Labour's Lost. In it, the king is trying to set up an academy where the men do nothing but study. It is interesting to note some of the similarities this shares with the brotherhood that Pythagoras established.
As per Wikipedia, some of the characteristics were:
Candidates had to pass through a period of probation, in which their powers of maintaining silence (echemythia) were especially tested, as well as their general temper, disposition, and mental capacity.
There were ascetic practices (many of which had, perhaps, a symbolic meaning) in the way of life of the sect.[65] Some represent Pythagoras as forbidding all animal food, advocating a plant-based diet, and prohibiting consumption of beans. There appears to be some historical discrepancies regarding this, but temperance of all kinds seems to have been urged.
It is also stated that they had common meals, resembling the Spartan system, at which they met in companies of ten.[70]
Ten, of course, was the most sacred number. They even prayed to it. :)
So, when Ferdinand creates a law that those who study with him for the next three years must inhibit their time with women (even though women were included in Pythagoras' brotherhood), food, and other such pursuits, it really reminded me of this. In their search for further knowledge, they wished to be bereft of all worldly influences.
This also seems to follow after ancient views of knowledge. After all, when Pythagoras or the Jains of India sought to learn more about the abstract qualities of numbers, they also felt that in so doing they would unlock a spiritual aspect of themselves. They felt that understanding numbers would lead them to understanding the divine. Why else would Pythagoras' adherents assign meaning and gender to numbers, even praying to the number 10 as the "most holy"? Why would the Babylonians use a base 60 number system to correspond to the numerical rating they gave to their highest God? People in these times believed that numbers were divine, and that deep study of them would bring one closer to their God(s).
So, that last paragraph was me largely throwing out a lot of ideas regarding the ancient's views on numbers, but I would definitely say that this still had some influence in the minds of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. If we look at Shakespeare's other plays and remind ourselves that this was still near the time of the Renaissance, we can easily see it creep into his works. After all, if numbers and other types of learning were not seen as "divine" or god-like, how could Prospero hold so much power based solely on his learning from his books? How could witches exist? It seems that much of the supernatural things humans can do in plays are attributed to their learning. I find it very interesting.
Isn't it an interesting book? We have Prospero's magic mixed with learning. Go figure! Fits this post perfectly!
Anyway, that's what it got me thinking about. The play's about love, and I think about math and magic. Go me! I'll probably be single for a long time because of that. :)
So, I've been gone for quite a while! It's been a while since I was that sick. I'm feeling quite a bit better now though, so I'll be getting a lot of stuff up now in the next few days!!!
So, I was thinking yesterday about how I could possibly put some more common Shakespeare themes into my idea of a play where Puck is the main character. From this, I began thinking about how a lot of the plays that I have read have something to do with loyalty of friends or family.
Basically, what if Puck had begun as a lowly underling, but then started dating a high-up fairy? This would mean that Puck would probably have had a very different personality at the beginning as a young-un, but that he was just beginning to blossom and this higher-up fairy had seen that.
But then, what if she dies, or leaves him for something else, etc., and he becomes sad. However, then his family and friends kind of shun him--even though right before this they had all held him in high esteem (but, it turns out, it was only because he was gaining prestige)--and he then is left sad and alone (think of Job too here).
After this point, he could go through everything I had in my initial blog, Oberon takes a liking to him, and he rises in prestige yet again. Now, his friends and family try to return to him, but he refuses and shuns them (maybe have some of a revenge theme here?). Nobody speaks of the painful points of Puck's transformation after this either as they do not want him to relapse.
I think that this will be what I develop first then. I'll put some writing down on my post Saturday, unless I somehow get it done by tomorrow. I'd definitely appreciate it if you all looked it over and gave suggestions! That, of course, includes this post. Does anybody have any other ideas for this? Anything you think should change or could be improved?
Now, here are a few other ideas for it, represented in a more user friendly format:
This makes me think of Shakespeare's fairies mixed with those wood things in Princess Mononoke. So, one like this could gear us towards a more "cutesy" play.
This is similar to the first, but maybe a little plainer. If we can't think of enough to flesh out the characters, or just want a "cutesy" play without the sometimes-crazy interpretations in anime-styled things like Princess Mononoke. :)
To me, this "Alone" just spells out a tragedy...
Tragedy, with hope on the horizon?
Alone, but with mystery (Romance genre). So, something happens/comes to him to get him to go to Ariel? It becomes an important, magical mission?
We could make it really freaky...Asian horror films sure do capture that...
Now, here's something I found just searching "Alone" on YouTube. I thought it could also be interesting to give Puck an awfully dark history. Say his girlfriend cheats on him, and his feelings are similar to those of this song. Then, to turn it all around at the very end (maybe after he brings about her death--revenge plot), we could switch the girl from being a terrible person who trampled on his heart to someone who always did love him and under some circumstances had to/was forced to do that to him for his own good or from magic, etc. Now, Shakespeare generally ended his plays with all dying after this, but what if she asked him to live on and he did for her, or he chose not to die in order to face up to what he did to her as a sort of penance? And he is such a trickster now because it is his way of forgetting what happened but staying alive and trying to be what he could have been before this all happened (to be what he was becoming before it all). Or maybe Oberon could give him some "Forget-Me" juice. In any case, I think this would be a pretty tragic beginning!!!
So, I think that this would be fun. One of the things I alluded to in my last post regarding human nature both in plays and in writing plays was:
"I wonder what people would think if guys/girls suddenly did speak similarly to this. Would they be freaked out, or would they really enjoy it? Maybe we should try it out. :) We could even record the statistics and turn it into a math thing. That'd be fun."
So, I really think that I'd like to do that. If anybody could help me out with that by helping me compile a list of romantic sayings in Shakespeare throughout all his plays, that would be much appreciated. Afterwards, it'll be great to get a group together and try those out on people in a natural way. We could record what the reactions are numerically somehow, because I'd like to do some statistical analysis on that. We could see how well these lines will relate to people today. I'll go over the logistics of that a bit more so we can record data more efficiently.
What does everybody think? If it is successful, we can try it out with other genres too.
So, I was re-reading one of my first blogs (on bravery in Henry V) and I got to thinking about how characters ins Shakespeare's plays--and in stories in general--almost always seem to be up on a pedestal. They seem to exude all of the characteristics that we all want to have. Well, the protagonists at least. I don't think we wish we could murder like Claudius or scheme like Edmund. But then I got to thinking about A Midsummer Night's Dream. Now, there's definitely a lot of "love" going on here. But definitely not the normal kind. I don't know too many guys who would go up to a girl they like and say something along the lines of:
"I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow, By his best arrow with the golden head, By the simplicity of Venus' doves, By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves, And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen..."
I wonder what people would think if guys/girls suddenly did speak similarly to this. Would they be freaked out, or would they really enjoy it? Maybe we should try it out. :) We could even record the statistics and turn it into a math thing. That'd be fun.
Anyway, back on task. Now, it may be because I just need to see it played out, but I feel like it would be interesting if a play were to delve deeper into the emotion of love than writers generally seem to do. After all, how many people do experience this sort of romantic development? We don't all have fairies to play with our lives. But this definitely does add to the feeling of mystery and allow the audience to slip away into a fantasy world powered by their own imagination.
So, that would be the challenge in writing a play about a deeper love--with the entire roller coaster affect of ups and downs, "do they like me?s," "why did this have to happen?s," etc. If you could still set it apart from people's lives, but somehow connect it on a deeper level, you could do this I suppose. So, it sounds pretty tough now that I am writing it, but I think it could turn out pretty interesting. And perhaps Shakespeare does have some a bit more like this. He definitely has downer moments in his tragedies, and A Midsummer Night's Dream is meant to be really light-hearted.
In any case, it just really made me wonder, and so I wanted to write a bit about that. I'm sure I'll revisit this a bit later on.
