My First Shakespeare Performance

Today was our field trip in AP English (along with the English 12 Honors class).  This was the first field trip I can remember being on since middle school (unless you count the character trip I went on to Nashville sophomore year), so I was excited about it.

We did have to go to our first class, so I spent AP U.S. history trying to prepare for the debate we're having next week.  My group and the group we're debating against are debating over Indian removal.  It had to be a subject that we had learned about so far, and we were currently on the chapter about Indian removal and the Trail of Tears.  The group we're debating against wanted slavery, but we were able to get them to agree on something different.  I'm in charge of writing the conclusion for my group, and I have no idea what I'm doing since I've never participated in a debate before.  It should be interesting.  We're the cons side, and I'm hoping it'll be easier since I think that's the side most people are already on.  I just don't want to screw up the conclusion.

After AP U.S. history, we all met to get ready to leave on the field trip.  Haley and I were surprised to see that the bus we were riding on was the bus we both used to ride.  (We ride a newer bus now.)  It was weird being back on that bus.

Hamlet was interesting.  It was the first time I'd seen Shakespeare performed live, and Hamlet is one of the Shakespeare plays that I haven't read.  I was impressed that I was able to understand most of what they were saying.  Some of the actors were really good and a few weren't as great.  I was impressed with some of the younger kids they had.  Some of them were really good for their age.  Most of the adults were good as well.

Not knowing much about Hamlet beforehand, I was a little surprised by the play.  Because it was a tragedy, I wasn't expecting it to have as many jokes as it did.  I'd heard enough about it that I knew Hamlet went crazy, but I didn't know that he became an amusing type of crazy.  I always thought of it as a darker sort of crazy.

Although I enjoyed the play, it was definitely noticeable how long it was, especially after the intermission they had.  I think most of this came from the fact that I was really tired, and there were several times I almost fell asleep.  Still, I learned today that Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest play, and that was definitely obvious today.

Overall, I really appreciated the experience, and I enjoyed it.  It was really fun to see Shakespeare performed for the first time.

After the play we stopped to eat lunch.  We had a choice between several different restaurants, and I went to Taco Bell with some friends.  We didn't have a whole lot of time to eat before we had to be on the bus again to head back to school.  We got back about half an hour before school ended.  A large portion of my government class had been on the field trip, and we decided we just weren't going to take our books or anything when we went in.  It was a good choice because they were watching TV when we entered, and we basically spent the rest of the day talking.

Of course, I had play practice after school today.  Nothing huge happened there.  It's gotten to the point where pretty much all of the "big" stuff is finished.  I'm just doing random things.  I had to paint this banister, find some coats for a costume, wash glasses, and other things.

The field trip made today go by really quickly.  It actually feels really weird because it doesn't really feel like I went to school today but yet it does.  I'm not complaining about it though.  It was an awesome field trip.