In Unit 1 of Drama we looked into the playwright of The Taming of the Shrew written by William Shakespeare. As we read, we stumbled upon some questions on gender equality and how it has evolved from then and now. We visited The Goodman Theatre to look deeper into costume design, set design, how actors prep, and more! The Taming of the Shrew tells the story of two young sisters living in Padua. Katharina is a young, independent women who will not get told off by any man, while Bianca is a pretty, kind, gentle girl who everyone is in love with. Practically every man in Padua is in love with Bianca, but Bianca is not able to get married until Katharina is married according to their father, Signor Baptista. The story plays around with gender in a way that gets the audience thinking which is something that Shakespeare was known for. Who looked at societal "issues" that weren't really issues at the time because no one acknowledged them. Another thing that Shakespeare is quite known for are his sonnets. Sonnets are interesting because Shakespeare followed an iambic pentameter which meant that certain words in the sentence would follow a "duh-dum" beat like the rhythm of your heart. Each sentence would have to have ten syllables. After reading The Taming of the Shrew, we were asked to make a sonnet for one of the characters in the play. We would need to give them advice for a situation that they were in or tell them something we agreed or disagreed with. I chose Signor Baptista, the father of two young women who he marries off. Read or watch my sonnet to learn more!
NB. The Taming Of The Shrew. (2019)
Sonnet:
Baptista sure knows how to be a vex
Although others may disagree with me,
It’s all about the superior sex.
You know all they care for is the dowry.
If you want your daughters to be happy,
Allow them to wed whom they truly love.
All the men for your daughters are scrappy,
Treat your daughters the same way one treats doves.
This summer, we were assigned to read a book that was based on a world without water. Title of the movie was, A Long Walk to Water, where we were told the story of a young lost boy of Sudan and a young girl named Nya. We were told the daily struggle of dealing with life without water. The documentary was called, A World Without Water, where we were told different stories of famiies that were dealing with the issue of limited amount of water around the world, such as, South America, Africa, and even the U.S.
