Classical Plays and Operas

PBS oftentimes shows "Great Performances," a series of filmed classic plays. The above production is of Hamlet, with David Tennent as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart of Claudius. The director staged the famous Shakespearean tragedy in modern times, and the run-time is 4.5 hours!
I know that watching Shakespeare for 4 and a half hours may seem daunting, but I guarantee it's worth it! When I was in acting school, I learned that if Shakespeare is done correctly, the audience will understand everything that is going on - even with the Elizabethan speech!
One year, I took my father to see Henry IV parts I and II at Lincoln Center, starring Kevin Klein and Ethan Hawke. My father had never seen a Shakespearean play before, and was very nervous that he wouldn't understand what was going on. During the first intermission, my father turned to me and said, "Wow, Amy, you were right! I am understanding everything that is going on!" He was so impressed at himself and at the performance, that the next year, he took me to the opera to see if the same concept held true. It did!
Watching classical theatre is very important to learning about culture and history. Seeing a Shakespeare play, or seeing the opera can be a cultural experience that will be incorporated into your life forever!
And now, one can watch Shakespeare and the opera anytime! With websites like Netflix.com, you can order many Shakespearean dramas and operas to come to your house, or you can watch them online. Also, in July, many movie theaters are running an Opera series, where they will be showing 2 operas per week for the whole month!
Channels like PBS and the Voom network Gallery HD often show great plays and operas during the weekend.
I highly recommend you check out the Great Performances production of Hamlet next time it's on the air.
Enjoy the show!!!


Vocabulary Words
Classic (adj) - not modern, older, from the past
Elizabethan (noun) - a period of time when Queen Elizabeth was in power in England (1558 - 1603)
Shakespeare (noun) - an English poet and playwright who is considered one of the greatest authors of all time
Opera (noun) - an art-form where the play is completely sung and composed
Intermission (noun) - a period of time between two acts of a play, where the audience can take a break, get a drink, go to the bathroom, and talk to other audience members
Culture (noun) - development or improvement of the mind by education or training; or excellent art that influences society


Fill in the Blanks!
1. One of the most famous playwrights of all time is ___________________.
2. Shakespeare, the playwright, was alive during the __________________ era.
3. I went to go see The Marriage of Figaro last week, the famous Italian ___________________.
4. Its important to see opera and plays to learn about ___________________.
5. During the ________________ of the play, I went to get a drink of water.
6. Picasso is a modern artist, whereas Monet is a __________________ artist.


Grammar Point
When talking about plays and books, we talk about them in the present tense, as though it is still happening as we read/watch. But when talking about when Shakespeare wrote his plays, we need to talk about it in the past tense, as it happened hundreds of years ago. I know that it may be tricky to differentiate when to use the past and present tense when talking about written works, but its important to separate the author from the plot.


Now you try!
Have you ever seen a play or an opera? If you have, write a review. If you have not, make sure you check out a play or an opera on TV, and write a review about that!

Selling a Home

When selling a home, its very important that you advertise the home in the right way! There are websites, like Multiple Listing Service (www.mls.com), that can help people buy and sell homes!
My parents have decided to sell their condo in Long Beach, NY. They mostly live in Florida, so they wanted to downsize their home up north. They have been working with a friend of theirs, who is a realtor, in order to get the house sold!
The home is beautiful! Its an oceanfront home, which means that it's on the beach. There is a master suite, which has a porch, a full bathroom, and two walk-in closets. The downstairs also has two guest bedrooms, another full bath, a laundry room, and access to the garage.
The 2nd floor of our condo is a great room (see picture), or a room that has an open floor plan, so that the living room, dining room and kitchen are essentially one room. There is a balcony overlooking the ocean.

You can see the "virtual tour" of the home here:
http://homesite.obeo.com/viewer/default.aspx?tourid=595522&refURL=&locale=en-US

Vocabulary Words
Advertise (verb) - to market a product, to make it appealing to potential buyers
Condo (noun) - a home that is physically attached to other homes, and are a part of a complex
Downsize (verb) - to make smaller
Suite (noun) - a space that has many rooms, oftentimes including a bathroom and a sitting area
Great Room (noun) - living room, dining room, and kitchen with no walls between them
Balcony (noun) - A small outside area, above the ground floor, with a railing.


Fill in the Blanks!
1. After our children went to college, we wanted to __________ our home, since its now just the two of us.
2. At the hotel, I ordered a _________ room. There's not only a bedroom, but a kitchen, a full bath, and a sitting area!
3. Romeo called to Juliet when she was standing on her ______________.
4. There is a lot of open space in our house. One whole floor is a ________ _________.
5. If I'm going to start my own company, I have to ______________ to show my potential buyers how good my product is!
6. When Grandma and Grandpa retired, they moved into a __________ complex, where they can be near all of their friends.



Grammar Point:
In these sentences, I used embedded clauses, or clauses that are imporant to the overall statement and can't be removed. Often, they are proceeded by a "who" or a "which," and embedded clauses use commas to separate thoughts.

The bolded phrases are the embedded clause.

a) They have been working with a friend of theirs, who is a realtor, in order to get the house sold!

b) There is a master suite, which has a porch, a full bathroom, and two walk-in closets.



Now you try!
Write up a description of your house, as though you're trying to sell it! Make sure you advertise it appropriately! Make your potential buyers want to come in and take a look! Be persuasive!!!

Charlie Chaplin

On Thursday, I did a project on Charlie Chaplin, where I dressed up like the famous movie star, and presented a Powerpoint presentation on his life.

On April 16th, 1889, Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on East Street in Walworth, London, England to Hannah and Charles Sr. Both of Chaplin’s parents were singers and actors on the vaudeville stage. Charlie’s Dad, Charles Sr. left the Chaplin home before Charlie was three. Charlie, and his older half-brother Sydney, were raised solely by Hannah. It was very tough for Hannah, Charlie and Syd. Charlie and Sydney were placed in a workhouse, while Hannah suffered from depression in a mental institution. The Chaplin family was very, very poor, but Sydney and Charlie were very talented!
Charlie and Sydney were found by Fred Karno, a well known vaudevillian performer, and were asked to join his troupe and tour America. At first, Sydney was the star for Karno – he was older and not as much of a gamble. But Charlie emerged as a comedian early into the tour. Charlie and Sydney were apart of the Karno Troupe until 1913, when Charlie was asked to star in his first feature film, Making a Living, produced by Mack Sennett and the Keystone Film Company. Chaplin had a very difficult time converting from the stage to the screen, and Sennett was convinced that he had made a huge mistake in hiring him.
Luckily, another director disagreed. Charlie was placed in the hands of Mable Normand, a female director, who directed Charlie in the first of his “Tramp” films. Charlie’s first “Tramp” film was the Keystone comedy Kid Auto Races at Venice, in which Charlie made the Little Tramp character famous.
Charlie said, “I wanted everything to be a contradiction: the pants baggy, the coat tight, the hat small, and the shoes large….I added a small moustache, which I reasoned, would add age without hiding my expression. I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the makeup made me feel the person he was.”
Charlie not only made the little tramp character famous, he also gained creative control of his movies. He acted in, composed, wrote and directed most of his subsequent films. Some films where he played the Little Tramp were The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), and City Lights (1931).
But as Charlie was perfecting his roles both on and off the screen, the film industry moved to a new platform: talkies. To audiences, it didn’t seem like Chaplin had difficulty switching genres. Two of Chaplin’s most important works were talkies, although talking in these films were limited. The films that brought Chaplin’s talkie era to success were Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator(1940).
After The Great Dictator, Chaplin wanted to move away from comedy, and into more serious roles. He produced Monsieur Verdox (1947), and Limelight (1952), the former being a black comedy about a serial killer, and the latter being a tale of an older actor no longer in his prime. Neither reached critical nor commercial success.
Chaplin died in 1977 in Switzerland of old age. But he will forever be remembered as the most famous silent film actor of all time.

Vocabulary
Genre (noun) - a theme or type of movie
Vaudville (noun) - a theatre type from the early 20th Century, with lots of singing and dancing.
Comedian (noun) - someone who makes people laugh as their job.
Director (noun) - a person who tells the actors in a film what to do
Compose (verb) - to write music
Talkies (noun) - after silent films, talkies included the characters speaking


Fill in the blanks!
1. My favorite ______________ of movie are horror movies!
2. Jerry Seinfeld was a famous _____________ who created the TV show, Seinfeld.
3. The _____________ of Avatar was James Cameron.
4. The first ____________ movie that Chaplin produced was Modern Times.
5. My grandfather was performed in _________________; he was great at entertaining others!
6. I'm trying to ____________ my first symphony!


Grammar Point
In the above paragraph, I used the structure "Neither___________ nor ___________." "Nor" can only be used with "neither," (so you can't write "Neither _________ or _______"). This structure is used to say not one thing, or not another thing.


Now, you try!
If you could do a biography on a famous person, who would it be! Why don't you write a short essay on a biography on someone you're interested in!



PS: That's me as Chaplin in the picture!

Not yet engaged...but soon

My boyfriend and I are currently planning our wedding. No, we're not engaged...yet. Nor do I have a ring on my finger. But, he has this "great idea" about our engagement, so I'm being as patient as a bride-to-be can be.
We haven't let our non-engagement stand in the way of our wedding planning, though. We plan to marry in May or June of next year. We'd like to either be married in a farm, or in a loft space in NYC or Brooklyn. We both understand how different those ideas are, but we both have two different sides of us that we'd like to nurture - our earthy, nature side, and our city, party side.
I have found a wedding gown that I am in love with, and I'm looking forward to ordering it to try it on! I have decided that I want my bouquet to be comprised of spider mums, my late grandmother's favorite flower.
Also, we have picked who we want in our wedding party. We have a caterer in mind, just in case the venue we pick doesn't have catering. Furthermore, we have ideas for wedding bands - both the rings, and the music! My boyfriend, Brian, and I love funk music, so we're planning on having a funk band at our wedding. We also have picked our funky wedding song - Darling, Darling, Darling by The Meters, a New Orleans funk band.
Although we can't book anything yet (it's bad luck!), we have our hypothetical wedding completely planned! We're so excited to become a family! Now, I just have to be patient....


Vocabulary

Wedding (noun) - the ceremony where two people pledge to love each other forever
Engagement (noun) - when a man asks a woman to marry him
Nurture (verb) - to pay attention to, or take care of
Gown (noun) - a dress for special occasions, most likely floor-length
Bouquet (noun) - many flowers tied together with ribbon, which the bridal party carries during the ceremony
Hypothetical (adj) - to assume, a pretend plan


Fill in the blanks!

1. After my boyfriend proposed to me, we had an _________________ party.
2. Its important to __________________ a baby to ensure that he or she grows up properly.
3. For my wedding, my _________________ is filled with red roses!
4. When I'm a senior in High School, I want my __________________ to look elegant.
5. Although we can't say definitely, it's our ____________________ plan to have 5 people in our wedding party.
6. My fiancee and I are having our _____________________ in June!



Now you try!
I am planning a big party, and I'm getting everything organized! Why don't you plan a [i]hypothetical[/i] party! It can be a birthday party, a party for a friend, or you can even start planning your own wedding!


Grammar Point
I used a lot of transitional words in my paragraph. Can you point out the transitional words?

Trip to MoMA

Picasso Etching at MoMA:




Today, I went with my boyfriend's family to the Museum of Modern Art (also called MoMA). MoMA is on 53rd street and 5th avenue in New York City. We have been looking forward to this trip for a while - Modern art is my favorite form of physical artwork. We went specifically to see the Tim Burton exhibit. Tim Burton is a popular movie director, who has directed films like "Edward Scissorhands" "Sweeny Todd," and "The Nightmare Before Christmas." Presented in the exhibit were some of the masks used in "Batman," sketches from some of his animated movies, as well as small films that he made when he was in college. His artwork was very weird, but being a fan of his movies, I appreciated a lot of the work.
We went to some other exhibits when we were there, including Marina Abramovic's The Artist is Present. It was a piece of performance art. Marina was sitting in the middle of the atrium staring at another person, not moving. Also, there were naked people standing around, not moving. It was awkward to see this exhibit with my boyfriend's parents, but it was worth it.
Lastly, we went to the Picasso exhibit. Picasso was a very famous artist who lived in the early 19th century, known for his cubism. MoMA shows a collection of his etches. It was really interesting to see the progression of some of his works moving from normal to cubism.
We had a great day at MoMA, and I wished I could have seen more. I'm looking forward to going back when they have a Matisse exhibit!


Vocabulary
Modern (adj) - new, set in the present. In art, its a type of art that is different than classical painting and sketching.
Exhibit (noun) - area where art is shown
Animated (adj) - to put a drawing into motion, to make like a cartoon
Performance art (noun) - art that uses real people as the art, rather than a drawing or a painting
Atrium (noun) - area with a large opening, could be an open-air space with no ceiling in the middle of a building
Progression (verb) - movement from the beginning of something to its completion


Try it!
1. You can really see the ______________ from caterpiller to butterfly in our science class!
2. I just got a job to work for this artist! I'm going to do the chicken dance in front of people. She calls it _______________ _______.
3. Lets go see the new ______________ disney movie about talking zoo animals!
4. My mom bought a whole new wardrobe, its very ________________.
5. Its a sunny day out, so lets go sit in the ________________ and enjoy the sunshine!
6. We went to the Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaur ________________ yesterday.


Grammar Point

Take a trip to a museum and write about the different types of art that you have seen! Remember to use the past tense when you're writing about something you did! Also, make sure you include who your favorite artists were at the museum, and use superlatives to show who you like the most and whose art is the best!

Hair

My hair is very fine and soft. Its a shade of coppery-blonde that I detest, but the people who look at me the most love. I used to dye it, but I've since stopped (too expensive). I also had very long hair until last December, when I got bored with it and chopped it to my chin. It had an awkward phase for longer than it looked good, but now I'm at an OK place again.
My mother's hair is dyed a sandy-almost-platinum blonde. I think her hair used to be a coppery-brunette. Her hair is relatively short, but she likes it to grow "long" sometimes (meaning to her ears). It still retained some of the curl she got from her perm-days in the late eighties, which gives it texture.
My father's hair was salt-and-pepper, but now its more salt. He styles it in different ways, and is proud of his changes, but I can never tell the difference between one hair style and another. Its thin, like mine, but he has a full head of it at 60. I think he has great genes.
My sister Christine's hair was also permed in the eighties, but since she keeps her hair longer than my mom's, she needs to use a straight-iron. Her hair is dark brown and thick. She currently has it at shoulder length. She gets her hair from her mother's side of the family. My sisters and I have different moms.
My other sister, Suzanne's hair is also like her mother's - dark and thick. She doesn't have much of a curl to it, although in the eighties she had one of the most drastic perms that I've ever seen. Sue oftentimes cuts her hair herself.
My boyfriend Brian's hair is dark and what I would call not thick. He has dark straight hair, and since we use the same shampoo, its very soft. I like it when its summertime and he grows his hair shaggy. But when he cuts it, he looks so handsome! His hair doesn't always cooperate, though; by the end of the evening, his hair is all disheveled. I still think he looks great!
I think that hair is an important part of how one looks. With the right hair, it can make someone pop out of the crowd. I'm looking forward to my hair growing longer so I can style it more often!


Vocabulary Words

Relatively (adj) - in comparison with something else
Salt-and-pepper (adj) - composed of a fine mixture of black with white
Shaggy (adj) - untidy; unkempt
Perm (noun) - Also called permanent wave. a wave or curl that is set into the hair by the application of a special chemical preparation and that remains for a number of months.
Curl (noun) - a coil or ringlet of hair (circle shape)
Thick (adj) - close together; closely packed thing (think: opposite of thin)



Use those words in a sentence!

1. My granddad has ____________________ type of hair
2. My mom went to the salon to get a ____________________. She said it will last for 6 months!
3. My niece has a singular ______________ coming down in the middle of her forehead! Let me tell you, her hair is not straight!
4. She was ______________ nice....a lot nicer than Denise!
5. The horse had a really _________________ mane!
6. My dog hasn't had a bath in months! He's a _________________ dog!



Grammar point

In this paragraph, I talked about my family's hair. Tell me about your family's hair!

Great News!

I found out yesterday that I have received a promotion! I'm very excited for this new opportunity for me! Currently, I work for a Human Resources company, where I help hire people for new jobs. I also help people move up the ladder in their company. Previously, I did testing for people, where I would have role-plays to see how people would be in their new roles. After my promotion, I will be organizing all of the role-plays that my colleagues do! I even get a raise! My new title is "Project Manager!" I'm very excited for this, but shhh! I'm not allowed to tell anyone at work until April!


Vocabulary words
Promotion (noun) - advancement in rank or position
Opportunity (noun) - a good position, chance, or prospect, as for advancement or success
Human Resources (noun) - a division of a company which works with the employment needs of a company
"Move Up the Ladder" (idiom) - to consistently make one's way through a company
Role-plays (verb) - to experiment with or experience by pretending to be a character
Organize (verb) - to make into a certain structure
Allowed (verb) to give permission to or for


Now see if you can fit these vocabulary words in other sentences!

My mom _____________ me to go to the park! But before I could, I had to ____________ my book shelf in my room.

I talked to the head of ____________________ when I was hired.

When I got my __________________________, it came with a raise! Now I can really _________________________!

Rebecca, if you have time, can we do some ______________________ to prepare for my audition tomorrow?

Can I please go to the show, dad? Its a great __________________ to see my favorite band!



Grammar Point: When discussing something exciting, its good to show your excitement using exclamation points! How many exclamation points did I use in my paragraph?