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Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair
By Kate H.
This winter the seventh grade read and performed Macbeth. After reading and annotating the text, we did numerous activities to deepen our understanding of the complicated play. These activities included reading scenes multiple times with different readers, acting out certain scenes which helped us discover emotions felt by the characters at that time, and discussions about characters and implications made in the text.
Written analysis aided our comprehension of the play as a whole. We wrote about topics like why Lady Macbeth went mad, and then analyzed a few passages for proof. Because the language of Shakespeare is so unique, these analyses and in-class discussions were helpful for the seventh graders. We were required to keep ‘word journals.’ Each of us chose a word or image to track throughout the text. The images included eye, hand, desire vs. reason, and heaven vs. hell. This close reading culminated in writing a thesis statement and accompanying essay. The thesis was an observation and interpretation about the play regarding our word.
While all this in-class work was going on, the seventh grade was preparing numerous scenes for Macbeth night on March 27. We were assigned our scenes in late February, and practiced intensely through the whole of March. Besides just practicing in English and Drama classes, it was mandatory to have four half hour independent rehearsals in order to create the best play possible. We also had to write two rehearsal journals about our independent rehearsals. These journal entries were about realizations we made while we practiced. |
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Our version of Macbeth was unique because we did an environmental play. This means that the audience moved with the scenes. For example, 1.1 was set in the garage while 1.3 was set in the yard; the library represented Inverness (Macbeth’s castle) and the gym was Dunsinane (his castle once he became king). We used the environment to enhance the mood of the scenes; the dim and cold garage was a perfect witches’ haunt and the play structure of the yard served as a windy heath. We included dark lighting and techno music to intensify the feelings of madness that course through the text. Musicians, Ian and THE SHE’S, added even more complexity by incorporating live music in the show.
After a month of practicing, gathering props, correcting lighting and music timing, and blocking, the performance finally came. Everyone was nervous and excited to perform the play they had been working on for so long, but it was hard to believe that it was finally time. Throughout the show, moments that stood out were the three witches’ (Allegra, Melanie, and Kate) evil cackles in 1.1, Macbeth’s (Will D.), bloody hands after he committed the murder, and Macbeth (Johnny) and MacDuff’s (Eli) fight scene. Shakespeare language is difficult to master, but the seventh grade did a memorable job pronouncing and understanding it; we all will remember lines like, “A drum, a drum, Macbeth doth come,” and “{Life} is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” as we creep in this petty pace toward eighth grade.
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