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!