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Posted: Monday 23 June 2008

Primary 7 Shakespeare Day

Primary 7 Pupil Julia Grewar reports:

“If music be the food of love, play on.”

It was Shakespeare Day on 22 May. Primary 7 pupils had been studying the fantastic poet and his famous play Twelfth Night. Everyone had to dress up as a character from a Shakespeare play. Many of the girls were fairies from A Midsummer Nights Dream and lots of the boys were Julius Caesar, Shakespeare himself or Sir Toby Belch.

“The play’s the thing.”

We all learnt a dance which was a court dance called the Pachelbel’s Canon. We then acted out a scene from a play inside a play. It was about two lovers Pyramus (Fraser) and Thisbe (Julia). The wall was acted by Megan as in Shakespeare’s day they wouldn’t have had props. The two lovers could only see each other through a hole in the wall and it was a very stupid play.

“The apparel oft proclaims the man.”

Next we went to the costumes department where we made hats. We all drew out our design and then we used paper, materials, pens, feathers and buttons to decorate our basic design.

“If music be the food of love, play on.”

We then went to music where we listened to some Elizabethan music. We also played a piece of music. Some people played xylophones, guitars, keyboards and clarinets. There was also some percussion which was very loud.

“I have heard of your paintings too, well enough.”

We made a wall in the shape of a human, made out of paper in the shape of bricks. We had creepy crawlies and even vines around the wall. It was put on a big display board and I thought ours was very good. A S6 girl called Rachel helped us think of our design.

“My words fly up my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”

We learned how silly the “play inside the play” was. We tried being shy but also outgoing, quiet but also loud, tall but yet small, and bored yet excited. We also looked at the wording in detail and talked about whether things were insults or compliments. We also noticed that Shakespeare had very few stage directions.

Finally we all met together and showed the other classes our drama performances.

Tags: Departmental, Drama, Primary