Soliloquy to Love Day 2 Transcript

[00:00]
Teacher: Okay, we’ve got to get organized. Find your seats, find your seat. On your laptops, you should be go—I sent you an email with this link. There should be a few more over there, okay. This is what you should be having up on your laptops, do you see? You’re going to—everybody needs to have it up. Are you there? You there? You there?

Student: Yeah, I’m there.

Teacher: Okay, wonderful. What I’m going to ask you to do, in order to give some feedback to each other, is I’m going to ask you, instead of putting it on a piece of paper, or something like that, I’m going to have you submit it to this Google form. Then I will send it out to everybody, so that they have it over the weekend. Let me explain to you partially what today is. First of all, today is our opportunity to see you thinking about the soliloquies through the kinesthetic movement, through the drama, and through the performance. It’s also a step in the revision process.

Over the weekend, what I’m going to ask you to do is I’m going to ask each of you to take this soliloquy. I’m going to ask you to make individual revisions to it. This performance is an opportunity for you to think about what’s working, and what isn’t working, and what makes sense to your audience, and what doesn’t make sense to your audience. This is, a lot of times, what really happens. If you watch Smash, then you know for sure this really happens, right? Yeah, that they do performances, and they do their practices. They realize, “This isn’t working,” and they make changes. That’s what I’m asking you to think about in the writing of it. Does that—are we good for that? Okay, so we know the homework. If we go right up to the bell, we don’t have to worry about it.

Then, the second thing is, when the performance is done, I’m going to ask a few people in the classroom to pose a few critical questions. We do this all the time, you know how this works, just a couple of—not critical as in criticizing, but critical as in thoughtful. A few thoughtful questions to get them thinking a little bit more about their performance, and then, what I’m going to ask all of you to do is to choose two groups to fill out the online response form for. Does that make sense?

Each person is going to choose two groups, so that’s how you can share the computers. That means you just go back, and you go to this link a second time. I went ahead and just randomly put an order up here, just to help us. We’re going to get started with Olivia.

Student: Do you want us to share 02:38, so we can do the same thing together?

Teacher: Well, so you do it for Olivia, and then she—

Student: Awesome, three guys doing Olivia. We love it.

Student: Okay, this is a good [cross talk 02:51].

Teacher: Okay, just real quickly, to make sure we do have people giving feedback, who is filling out the online feedback for Olivia? I just want to make sure we have at least a few people. Wonderful. Who is going to be thinking about critical questions? Raise your hand, if that’s going to be your job while you’re—if you didn’t raise your hand for the online, you’re raising your hand for the—yeah, yeah. Okay, whenever you’re ready.

Student: Do we say what characters—

Teacher: Yeah, go ahead and—yeah, you can give us a little preface.

Student: We’re both Olivia.

Student: I’m Viola.

Student: Yeah, and Viola.

Student: I’m Cesario, actually.

Student: I’m going to—I’m saying goodbye to you, and then I’m going to just talk.

Teacher: Yeah, wonderful, thank you.

Student: [Cross talk 03:30] soliloquy, so all right. Unless, perchance you come to me again, to tell me how he takes it, fare you well, love.

Student: My heart is overwhelmed. To thee, lad, I am drawn, as a moth to the flame.

Student: But oh, it ‘tis fantasy, to see thine counties 03:57 man, and I, as one, for his words are sent from another. Oh love, thou art torturous. I’ll not dread 04:06 myself with such.

Teacher: Nice job. Let’s—those of you who are doing the online, go for it. Let’s hear a few questions. Who’s got a question? Ask him about—so we can ask them about their performance. We want to get in their heads.

Student: Oh no.

Teacher: “Why did you do this? Why did you do that? I loved that you did this,” okay.

Student: What was the significance of the point at which you switched? Who was—

Student: Well, at first Olivia is talking about how she’s in love, but then she realizes, when she lifts her veil, that she can’t have the love that she wants. She is lifting the veil as she is unveiling the truth.

[05:00]
Teacher: Wonderful. Anybody else?

Student: I guess we did it perfect.

Teacher: I think you did a really nice job.

Student: Can’t change it.

Teacher: Talk to us a little bit about—I’m curious about the language. How did you make sure that you were using the Shakespeare language?

Student: Chase 05:17 is studying Shakespeare language so—

Student: Yeah.

Student: He wrote it.

Student: I don’t know, we just tried to copy the style of the book, so I don’t know. You just kind of—we just kind of felt it.

Student: Yeah.

Teacher: You felt it.

Student: Yeah.

Student: That’s what it was, just sort of—

Student: Natural.

Student: - natural.

Student: It was thrown in. [Cross talk 05:33], right?

Student: We talk about this all the time too, so [Cross talk 05:35] really any adjustment.

Student: It was fun.

Teacher: Nice job, give them a hand. Next, Sebastian. Give us a little intro.

Student: I will be playing the first part, of Sebastian, and Archie 06:04 will be playing the second part. Izzy 06:07 is blood, and Andy’s going to be Olivia so—

Student: So here goes.

Student: Love, how thou tortures me. Viola is a part of me, as the blood running through my veins is. Now, half of me has been torn away, and what is left is love, to make my heart ache with longing.

Student: Thou has a funny way of mending, turning this blind heart into open arms. I love my dear friend, what have you done? Thou has set me with a newfound love, or am I mad, or else this is a dream, but this Olivia, whom you have found, is now to be mine, and to me, be bound. Yeah.

Teacher: All right, nice job. Let’s give them a hand. Let’s stay there for a second. [Cross talk 06:55]. Question [inaudible 07:02], go for it.

Student: Similar question to the last one, what was the significance of the switch?

Student: Well, the first part of love is about losing his sister, because he thinks that she is still dead.

Student: Then I find Olivia, and that’s a different type of love—

Student: A replacement, sort of.

Student: - it’s like family love and then relationship love was what 07:22 separates.

Teacher: Talk to me a little bit about the idea of the engagement, or the marriage really early in the play.

Student: What do you mean?

Teacher: This is in Act II, so just—I’m curious about how that plays out when it comes to—early in the play, instead of at the end of the play.

Student: I gotcha.

Student: Well, it would change things with—

Teacher: Yeah.

Student: Olivia and—

Teacher: How do you think that would change the rest of the play?

Student: It would be—it would make a lot more sense to Sebastian [cross talk 07:56].

Teacher: Do you think it would make it—do you think it would make it as funny, or would you make it shorter, maybe? I don’t know.

Student: I don’t know, because it’s like—it’s funny how he gets caught off-guard, and I feel like with him being so procedural, and precise, the fact that something doesn’t go accordingly to how—he plans things out, and it’s just like this gets thrown into his lap. It’s like, that’s what’s funny, so it wouldn’t be.

Teacher: Great, okay, good. Anybody else have a question? No? Good job. Are we good? Do we need to pause for just a second, so people can catch up?

Student: Yes.

Teacher: Okay, we’re going to pause. You guys go ahead and stand. [Cross talk 08:40]. There’s tape on my desk. You have tape. We’re going to let people catch up. Are we caught up?

Student: No.

Teacher: Not quite? [Cross talk 08:56]. I think you’re doing a really nice job of handling the computers being open on your desks at the same time that you’re paying attention, because that’s sometimes a hard thing to do. I think you’re doing a pretty good job. As I’m looking, I’m not seeing lots of people looking at their computers, instead of watching, from 09:15 the front, so that’s good.

Student: We’re used to texting, while being on our computers, while watching TV.

Teacher: I know that, I know that. Okay, are we ready? Not quite? Okay, so who’s doing the online response? Got a few, wonderful. Who’s doing the verbal response? Verbal response? Okay, one of the things that I’m going to ask you when we’re done, one of the things I’m going to ask you when we’re done, if you remember, yesterday I mentioned to you that you were performing to a group of people who were going to consider which speech to actually put into Act II. At the end of class I’m going to ask you which of the speeches you think really should go into Act II, and why. Okay, so
[10:00] I also want you to—whenever you’re ready.

Student: Okay, and we’re going to introduce ourselves first.

Teacher: Yeah.

Student: This is Success, this is Love, and this—we are both Malvolio.

Student: Doth mine desire seek me ruined? Here I, prostrated, in this thriftless resolution. I start after one, and the other draws further from me. I turn, and now both are further than my reach, whilst my love, and my aspiration both abscond in opposing ways, that I may never reach either, when I desire both. Without fame, what art thou?

Yet, without love, one 10:35 cannot live. As I seek my love, my future escapes the breadth of my fingertips. Come back now, my beloved. Accursed, mine hopes are twin whirlpools, driving against one another, as they pass through, so they do steal, deriving clout from the other, and become vapid. Yet again thy 10:55 —

Student: Love can be a mere stepping stone on the path to destiny. By my wit, two paths art now one. I will use the—or, I will use my very love to assert my claim to thee.

Student: Love, I beg you, I will do everything that thou wilt have for me.

Teacher: Good job. [Cross talk 11:21]. That was very thoughtful. Some of you are writing, and we’ve got a question from Nick.

Student: Yeah, all right. My only question is that you had love and success as two different people, because from my reading of it, I thought his love for Olivia was the same thing as success, essentially. Even during his soliloquy, he very rarely professes actual love for Olivia, just all of the things that she can bring him.

Student: Yeah.

Student: What we were trying to portray was the history of the love, so at the end is where we were combining the two. That’s what we were trying to do.

Student: I didn’t see it as a—

Teacher: You could almost do a feminist reading, with what you guys did 11:56.

Student: Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Teacher: Rachel’s smiling. Can we get one more question? Can we get one more question? Good, so talk to me a little bit about how you decided to use the movement. I want to hear about how—your thought process in deciding to use movement in the way that you did.

Student: Well, when I jumped into the middle of their conversation, they had established this sort of idea that they’d be walking in opposing circles. We don’t have room for that.

Teacher: You did this instead.

Student: Yeah.

Student: We would have tried that, but then we’d need to be facing forward, because it’s a play performance and so 12:32—

Teacher: That’s—yeah, and that’s also interesting. I mean it’s interesting, you could, of course, write that in stage directions in your revisions. Cool, nice job. Viola, Cesario.

Student: Love, wild, though it be so frustrating.

Student: Why must you cause only suffering?

Student: As I am man, my stay is desperate for my master’s love.

Student: As I, a woman, what thriftless size shall poor Olivia breathe?

Student: Yeah, Viola knows not, her love for me be not but a virus.

Student: Then I shall sit with patience, and wait to understand you.

Student: Love, why be a virus that will not stop?

Student: Love, why do you spout 13:23 at me so? Can you be so unfair, as to leave me lost, deserted on this island?

Student: Your mocking grin stares at me cruelly.

Student: Why hast thou love chosen to charge on me 13:31 so?

Student: Love.

Teacher: Good job, nice. Hang on, hang on. Anybody have questions? Yes, Ben 13:41?

Student: What was the significance of that metaphor, of being stranded on the island?

Student: She’s—because she can’t get anywhere, and she’s stuck between her disguise as a man, as she can’t love Orsino really, and she can’t get out of being loved by Olivia. She’s stuck.

Teacher: That’s great. That’s a really thoughtful way of taking the fact that she actually is stuck on this—and then making it represent [inaudible 14:12] and such. Anybody else?

Student: With the virus metaphor, do you really think that’s how Viola sees love?

Student: No, it was ‘cause it’s annoying. You can’t get rid of a virus and—until you really try hard, so she was trying to get rid of—not trying to get rid of it, but trying to get rid of Olivia’s love for her. She couldn’t try—it was—she was trying, but it was hard and—until the end, yeah.

Student: Yeah, and he—but he took on the part of Cesario, while I was reading Viola’s part, so it was different.

Teacher: You’ve got both of them going [cross talk 14:49].

Student: Yeah.

Teacher: Really nice. Okay, anybody else? Very thoughtful, good job.
[15:00] Good job. Do we need a catch-up minute before we do the next one?

Student: Yes.

Student: We really need 15:02 to catch up 10 minutes.

Teacher: Okay, so who’s responding online?

Student: Nope.

Teacher: We got a couple of responders online? Great, and then we’ve got everybody else questioning, perfect. Okay.

Student: I’m Toby, Megan’s 15:15 Aguecheek, and—

Student: I’m the narrator.

Student: Yep, and this is right after they’re—we planned to insert this right after they’re introduced, as more of a—defining who they are, so here we are.

Where art thou, Aguecheek?

Student: Where art thou, love?

Student: ‘Twas boys of the country sworn, seek her there.

Student: Where thou finds it, for life leads the way to her. Light, and drink.

Student: On the contrary, I find that a marvelous aggressive thrust must be put forth, in order to find her.

Student: And how do you think you’ll do that?

Student: By proclaiming my love openly, and admittedly.

Student: And looking like a fool?

Student: No, she will appreciate my love.

Student: Ha! And what mistress should—would that be?

Teacher: Nice job. First of all, I’m glad you brought, “I am not a robot.”

Student: We debated. Just kidding.

Teacher: Some questions, let’s get some questions from this side of the room also.

Student: Just for me, the movie, the Aguecheek guy doesn’t seem so out there, with his love, until the end.

Teacher: What do you mean by “out there”?

Student: He doesn’t seem like he’s expressing as much love. He’s just sitting back in the scenes, so how come you decided to have him express that out loud?

Student: I did it more, because in the end he was very open with it. He got into a fight, and it’s one of the defining moments of the play, versus Belch, who just kind of hung out there, partied a little, and eventually Maria and him got together. It just—we made it a contrast between the two characters, just their view on trying to find love.

Student: I think it brought out his personality more in the beginning, and trying to bring it out that way.

Teacher: One more question.

Student: With this soliloquy, it’s like one person speaking. What was the purpose of having a narrator for one line?

Student: To get a—

Student: Truthfully, we needed to give her a—

Student: Yeah, exactly.

Student: I guess it was kind of odd, even doing it with two people—

Student: Yeah.

Student: - but since they’re a foil, it’s like you needed to have two people talking, to allow two different views and perspectives of love, and the pursuit of.

Teacher: I think it would be interesting to think about how Viola/Cesario—because you had, in a way, two characters, and then how you had two characters, and how that maybe was similar, or different. Good job. Feste? Whenever you’re ready, ladies.

Student: I will be reading for Feste.

Student: I am providing lighting. It’s just an interpretation of young love, like the, “He loves me, he loves me not,” kind of thing so—

Student: What is love? ‘Tis not hereafter. What’s to come is still unsure. In delay, there lies no plenty. Love, thou art for youth, for we, who are not youthful cannot find you, in a way, so spontaneous and affectionate, for my hope is nearly lost that you may be near. Youth is long gone, as are you, though someday I may find thou art still possible. Not all hope is lost, for those without youth, for joy and laughter may still prevail.

Teacher: Nice job. Who’s got some questions? Isaac.

Student: What role did the light play?

Student: Well, there is a shift in our soliloquy, where at first he was unsure about being able to find love, because it seemed to him that it was only for youthful people, and he was getting older. In the last kind of a stanza, he shifted and was like, “Well, it is still possible for me to find love.”

Student: Do you think Feste is also trying to find love, just as everyone else, or does he still have the observer standpoint?

Student: I think it’s more of an observer standpoint. He’s just watching everything go on with all of the other characters, and commenting on it.

Teacher: Lucas had a question.

Student: Yeah, what does the flower bring to this?

[20:00]
Student: It was just a representation of young love, like when somebody’s like, “He loves me, he loves me not,” with the flower petals, so—

Student: When I think of little kids having crushes on somebody else, it’s like them at the playground, picking at a flower. It also played a dual role, because it also could represent like, he’s getting older, and running out of time to find love, so it represents that.

Student: Like Beauty and the Beast.

Teacher: Like the Beauty and the Beast, that’s really nice. Nick, did you have a question?

Student: Yeah, do you guys think Feste ever actually ponders whether love is for him, during the play, or is he more just commentating on it, and looking at other people’s love, and almost mocking it?

Student: Yeah, what?

Student: Well, like I said before, I really think that he was just observing everyone else in the play.

Student: I get the feeling like Feste was sort of like Shakespeare, like if Shakespeare had 20:50 to observe the play, that probably would have been his character. Well, I guess Shakespeare is actually in it.

Teacher: That’s interesting.

Student: He is.

Teacher: I think—I was telling Rachel, I think he’s like a Greek chorus, a little bit.

Student: He actually—there is something in the play that says something about the Greek chorus, in reference to Feste. That’s weird.

Teacher: Nice job, nice job. Our last group.

Student: All right, so this would be at the scene when—well, like in the movie, when they’re all on the cliff talking to each other, and Viola has just professed her undying bro-love towards Orsino. It’d be after they’ve just discussed love. Okay.

Teacher: Did you say, “Undying bro-love?”

Student: Undying bro-love.

Teacher: Undying bro-love. I just wanted to make sure I got that right. We’re good, we’re good.

Student: Bromance.

Student: What dost thou know? Love, thou tempest. Shake the walls, and shatter the passage to the very fortress of my heart. As a monsoon, you flood the south, and thou doth make it your own. Your waters doth envelop, and destroy, and leave behind naught but desolation.

Student: But still, these waters bring life, make this very land you have ravaged lush, and green, and fertile. You leave this as you make it, ripe for new emotion.

Student: And love, your youthful angst is not lost on me. Indeed, as the seasons doth pass, my fern 22:08 in you grows ever greater. Your passion and zest provides meaning to the nullification of all others, yet you do not blind me. Your beautiful countenance provides me glimpses into her heart, and mine. Your moonshine hair lets me see the stars, and in my hands, I float among them. My body is the body of the gods, for in it I see eternity and a happy paradise, for how. How could I want more than you, and my mistress?

Teacher: Nice job. Let’s hear some questions, let’s hear some questions. No questions.

Student: Winning.

Student: It’s the last one.

Student: You got a place to put [cross talk 22:46].

Teacher: Who’s got a question?

Student: I have one.

Student: Morgan has one.

Teacher: Okay, Morgan?

Student: What was the effect of changing your voices the way you did? Yours was super deep, and just full, and—

Student: Yeah, I think—

Student: I was [cross talk 22:56]—

Student: Go.

Student: Yeah.

Student: I’ll go, I’ll go. Now, so we thought—we like—we thought about this in three parts, an exposition of love, and an argument against that exposition, and then a concession, on my part. That’s sort of what I thought, and so—where he was like, “I’m very”—

Teacher: Just hang on, it’s okay.

Student: No.

Student: I was very firm, and he’s very firm in his ideals and everything, whereas I’m sort of more gentle, with a more accepting—so I just wanted to be more passionate.

Student: Then mine was obviously the woman’s standpoint in all that 23:23. It’s the gentle—

Teacher: You guys did an amazing job. Hang on here one second, okay. I’m sorry, I’ll send you—I’ll send a little note and tell people that you can be—I will send—over my lunch I will compile these responses. I will push them out to you with a little note about how I’d like you to reflect on this, and how I want you to do the individual revision, okay? Does that sound good to everybody? That’s what you’re doing over the weekend, okay. Then on Monday we’ll start in with Act III, okay.

[23:55]
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