April Mini-Challenge - The Bard

[Kadijah Michelle]

The Bard Mini-Challenge
Duration April 23, 2016 - April 30, 2016

Historians believe that William Shakespeare was born on April 23, in 1564 and died on the same day in 1616. To commemorate the 400th anniversary of his death, we would like to have mini-challenge dedicated to Shakespeare's plays.

For this challenge, you will select the play or plays you would like to read during the week and post them below. At the end of the week, we ask you to let us know how things went. We are looking forward to seeing what you all decide to read, and I will be updating as we go along.

*just a tip I got from my English professor in college, she said to try and watch an adaptation of the play while reading or shortly after reading the play to get the most out of it. There are several available on YouTube.

Participants

Amy (other Amy) with either Hamlet or Macbeth
Ann with The Taming of the Shrew and/or The Merchant of Venice
Cassandra with Much Ado About Nothing (finished 4/28/16)
Ecem with A Midsummer Night's Dream (finished 4/23/16)
Emily with A Midsummer Night's Dream (finished 4/28/16)
Honor with The Merchant of Venice • A Midsummer Nights Dream
Jackie with Hamlet (finished 4/29/16)
Janet with The Comedy of Errors and The Taming of the Shrew
Janine with Twelfth Night (finished 4/28/16)
Kadijah Michelle with Macbeth (finished 4/25/16)
Kara with Hamlet
Kristie with The Comedy of Errors (finished 4/23/16)
Lindsay with A Midsummer Night's Dream (finished 4/26/2016)
Paul with A Midsummer Night's Dream (finished 4/30/16)
Rachael with As You Like It (finished 4/23/16)
Ultrajbk with Othello (finished 4/25/16)
Yaara with one comedy and tragedy TBR

*as of message 33

[Emily]

Ooooo this will be great for Dewey's Readathon which on the 23rd!! Yea, I'll read one play.

[Rachael]

I'm up for this challenge! I am going to read As You Like It :)

[Kadijah Michelle]

Thanks for signing up, I also will be reading/watching one play, Macbeth.

[Ann]

Kadijah Michelle wrote: "The Bard Mini-Challenge
Duration April 23, 2016 - April 30, 2016

Historians believe that William Shakespeare was born on April 23, in 1564 and died on the same day in 1616. To commemorate the 400t..."

I am signing up I have not decided which plays I will be reading. Will get back to you on that.

[Yaara]

I'm not quite sure which yet, but I aim for one comedy and one tragedy!

[Honor]

I'm ready for this challenge, I will be reading The Merchant of Venice • A Midsummer Nights Dream

[Janet]

Planning on reading The Comedy of Errors and The Taming of the Shrew this year and I will try to read them for the challenge but with the quarterly awards challenge going on I am not sure I will have time enough.

[Janine]

Sign me up for 1!

I think I'm going to combine this with the 'A book you haven't read since high school' PopSugar challenge so that'll narrow my choices down to:

A Midsummer Night's Dream
Twelfth Night
Macbeth
Othello

I'll decide over the next few days, I'll definitely see which I can find a good youtube video of to help me along!

EDIT: Chosen Twelfth Night

[Kara]

I'm going to try to read Hamlet. :)

[Cassandra]

I'm in! I'll be reading Much Ado About Nothing.

[Amy (Other Amy)]

I'm in; I've had the Arden third edition of Hamlet sitting by my reading spot since January, so maybe that. I also have Alan Cumming's dramatization of Macbeth, which I read the Arden for last fall, so if time is crunched I might do that instead.

[Jackie]

Like Kara, I'm also going to read Hamlet! I have never read it and so many people make references to it all the time, this challenge will give me the perfect excuse to get it done. :)

[Ultrajbk]

I am in but have to think about what I will choose. I love the challenge. Good choice.

[Paul Emily]

I'm thinking of reading A Midsummer Night's Dream! I might find an adaptation to go with it too (apparently it works way better on stage, like even more so than usual?), but I'll see. I wouldn't be surprised if I just end up waiting for whenever Russell T Davies's one comes out though. :) (I'd forgotten it existed actually :$)

[Ecem]

I'm gonna read A Midsummer Night's Dream for this challenge :)

[Rachael]

If you find Shakespeare daunting, No Fear Shakespeare may help. It was so useful when I studying English Lit at school.

[Ann]

I am going to read The Taming of the Shrew or The Merchannt of Venice. Perhaps both

[Rachael]

Challenge complete. It was my plan all along to read a play today on Shakespeare's birthday/deathday. I am glad I chose As You Like It as I had never read it before and it turned out to be quite enjoyable.

[Ecem]

Challenge is completed. I've read A Midsummer Night's Dream, it was very nice and enjoyable :)

[Lindsay]

I have started reading A Midsummer Night's Dream for this challenge.

[Janine]

To update, I've decided on Twelfth Night and am picking it up at the library tomorrow. :)

[Kristie]

I had forgotten about this challenge, but I read The Comedy of Errors last night. I wanted to read a play I hadn't read before, and really enjoyed it.

[Ultrajbk]

1/1 - othello

Hadn't read or seen this before. Now I have done both. Thank-you for this challenge. Most enjoyable.

[Kadijah Michelle]

I am glad to see that everyone involved with this challenge has enjoyed themselves so far. I finished Macbeth last night, and I'm watching another version tonight (I'm kind of hooked!).

[Lindsay]

Completed reading A Midsummer Night's Dream today and now just have to finish watching it.

[Ann]

Still reading The Taming of the Shrew The Taming of the Shrew: By William Shakespeare : Illustrated a different book but still Will. I had forgotten how much humor was in the beginning.

[Janine]

I finished Twelfth Night today and was surprised how much I enjoyed it. It's so absurd and fun! Thanks for this challenge mods/Kadijah, it's been 10 years since I read any Shakespeare at school so this was a great prompt for me.

[Cassandra]

I struggled a bit with fitting this one into my schedule, but I finished Much Ado About Nothing last night. I half-read it for English in high school, but I'm glad I gave it the reading it deserves. It's so funny that it reads like a sitcom.

[Emily]

I spent the evening reading A Midsummer Night's Dream. Hadn't read it since Fall 2005, so it was interesting to revisit it!

I used the tactic of listening to the play online while reading. I also used No Fear Shakespeare a bit too.

It was a FUNNY play--I laughed out loud a few times. I really think hearing it performed by actors who know where to enunciate is so helpful to understanding it. In high school, people just read it all in a monotone.

The challenge was good for my motivation!! Thanks for hosting it, Kadijah!

[Jackie]

I finished Hamlet last night!

It was so dramatic, I was laughing out loud while reading it. When Shakespeare kills someone off in his plays, he always gives them very peculiar parting words that are sometimes just too cryptic/funny and you can't help but laugh.

Thanks for the challenge! It was a nice diversion from the usual.

[Ann]

Not done the Taming of The Shrew yet found the book ( the complete works of William Shakespeare ) a little bulky for reading in bed. Will be done it late Saturday.

[Paul Emily]

I'm a little late updating, but I finished reading A Midsummer Night's Dream last night. It's pretty good, but not as good as I wanted it to be. I was expecting something way more mysterious and strange, but that really only cropped up here and there and at the end. Most of the time it just seemed like this silly throwaway thing about a bunch of rich kids who run off to the woods and have shenanigans, while some decent enough fellows try to put on a play and a group of fairies wander through the text beholden to their own strange mildly unknowable plans. Granted, there's nothing necessarily wrong with any of that (indeed, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Shakespeare specifically wrote it as a frothy diversionary thing, and being from The Past has given it an incredible weight that it probably deserves), but it wasn't really what I was expecting.

It doesn't help that it was a little hard to understand at times, so I kind of just skimmed through parts of it with mild incomprehension even if it really was all very nice. Plus it was short. Really short. I think that was one of the things that threw me most, that some of these shenanigans seemed really promising but they were over and done with immensely quickly. That being said though, I'm fairly sure there's something great at the heart of this; I'd heard that Midsummer was immensely better on stage than on the page, and I wouldn't be surprised if that ends up being true for me too. That being said Russell T Davies's adaptation isn't airing through June, so I'll probably end up waiting until then to get going on that front.

Act 5 was pretty great though. More or less.

[Ann]

Finished up with the Bard for now, I forgot how much I enjoyed the plays he wrote. Thank you for setting up this challenge I may add a play a month till I get all the way through. Do like the character Petruchio.