So this summer I took a theater class, intro to theater, where we just learned yknow the basics on what theatre is and different types of theater yada yada. My friend was haha asking me questions like “OMG LIKE ACTING AND STUFF OMGGG YOU SHOULD TAKE CLASSES ON THAT” and I’m like well I just did it to fulfill the requirement and it was intro and like I said just learned like the history and basics of different elements of theater so 😅 I felt bad because she was like asking so many questions about it as in you should take an ACTING theatre class and such when well I WOULD be down but just doesn’t fit in my schedule for college/major so no point. However I definitely will consider in the future but like NOW no, can’t. Also since I go to community and plan to transfer to a 4 year (and I may or may not have FUCKED UP MY FIRST YEAR WELLLLLL…another story for another time) I’m trying to transfer THIS year but may not be the case but I’m doing my best! Yeah I’ve always hated questions about my future as I don’t know what I wanna do for my future, so she was also asking questions most people do like “OOOO WHERE ARE YOU GONNA TRANSFER TO” or “HAVE YOU STARTED GO APPLY?!?!” Questions like that just piss me off to say the least because we’ll know I DONT EVEN KNOW IF I COULD TRANSFER HAHA…that and I don’t know where I’d like to go and would end up being whoever would take me…so yeah. I feel bad because I was getting mad at her but like damn school didn’t even start for me. And she gave me tips (she goes to a 4-year) and I know the process already, we went through it together when we were seniors so again, I was getting irritated because like OKAY HAHA I GET IT!!! Also I play softball and do I wanna continue???? Depends on again WHO IS EVEN INTERESTED IN ME AND WITH BAD GRADES AND HAVING TO MAYBE AND PROBABLY STAY A YEAR WHICH NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT THAT…yeah I’m fucked and just trying to focus on THIS SEMESTER to give me hope on well my future…and most people I talk to don’t even know about the recruiting process for sports so yeah…kinda hard to explain to my friends as they only have to focus on school. Probably what I’m gonna do now honestly like IF I transfer, hopefully my love for softball comes back…HAHA ANYWAYS WHAT WAS I GONNA GO ON ABOUT?!?!
SO HAHA apologies for getting sidetracked, but in theatre for our midterm AND final we had this project-type thing where along with a final we had to do this written assignment, well we had options. It was to either do a written diary entry, for the midterm is was of a person who has a theatre job, one we went over. I did mine on a manager of the theatre production. They basically oversee everyone and make sure they’re getting their things together and getting paid. Thought that was neat and yes I did rush it…I’m a horrible procrastinator IM SORRY!!! But I loved the creative freedom. ANYWHOOOOO FOR THE FINAL WE GET THE SAME OPTION, however…we gotta write a DIARY ENTRY FOR SOMEONE WHO WENT TO SEE A THEATRE PRODUCTION!!! I was on a time crunch as I had an entire day to watch 2 plays and write a review on them, 6 assignments, 1 being my final, 2 discussion posts, and 2 quizzes and well this, the diary entry that had to at least be 600 words long. I had to get the ball ROLLING AS IT WAS SUNDAY AND THE TERM ENDED THAT DAY so yeah…BUT HEY WE GOT A B AND PASSED AND GOT EVERYTHING DONE SO 😛; so easy I could’ve got the A but again I’m lazy so yup…laziness gets you nowhere…NOT THE POINT BESIDES C’s GET DEGREES SO (I was an excellent student in high school and yup I’m now facing the consequences in college…woohoo all those people were right, who would’ve thought 😒😮💨)
ANYWAYS THE WHOLEEEEE POINT OF THIS BLOG is what I wrote my diary entry for my final on. I wrote it about this girl who was going over Macbeth in her senior AP LIT class and well her dad is HELLA smart and she’s rich so of COURSE she just has a Time Machine in her house. Yeah so she travels back in time to witness the first ever production of that play. I truly don’t know why I had this idea in the first place but I considered being like “aghhhh just choose an easier diary entry this is TOOOOO OUT THERE” but I really couldn’t think of anything else and I couldn’t shake this idea I had so yup I went with it!!! And as I was writing it I was like shooooooot I gotta look important details up like WHEN did it come out because yknow you can’t just GO BACK IN TIME WITHOUT A DATE!!! AND SINCE IT WAS REALLY OLD LIKE YEESH I GOTTA BE semi specific, and they don’t even know when Shakespeare HIMSELF DIED so do you REALLY THINK THEYRE GONNA HAVE A DATE WHEN IT FIRST APPEARED?!?! Yeah so I looked it up and I click the first website I see that it says it COULDVE been shown to King idk who haha, and I just go with it. I honestly find the concept interesting and wow I can’t believe I thought of this myself to be quite honest but then haha…I was writing my STORY or well the follow up to the ACTUAL play rather than the ASPECTS I ACTUALLY NEEDED TO FULFILL FOR THE ACTUAL ASSIGNMENT. And Macbeth I read in MY AP Lit class my senior year, that’s why I chose it because CERTAINLY I WOULD REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENS RIGHT?!?! Yeah turns out, while I actually appreciate the story, I didn’t really pay attention ANDDDD FORGOT THE STORY, well MOST parts and yeah had to watch like 1-2 minute recap videos on the different acts and caught me up. And I don’t understand Shakespearean language, SUE ME OKAY IM SORRY I UNDERSTAND IT WAS OLDEN TIMES BUT I HATE AND CANT UNDERSTAND IT!!! AND BEFORE YOU TALK I PASSED THE AP TEST SO SHHHHH (I failed 2 english classes in my first year…ITS BECAUSE IM LAZY OKAY NOT BECAUSE I DONT COMPREHEND ANYTHING; ANDDDDD REMIND ME TO TALK ABOUT THE CIRCLE!!! ITS A BOOK THATS RELEVANT TO TODAYS TIMES GREAT BOOK) phew, so sorry I get carried away all the time, but yeah I mention the theatre aspect I’m supposed to and I had to talk about how the character was feeling watching it instead of summarizing the play and while like 500 words in I was like “oh shit” 😃😀. And yknow when you’re writing and you’re screwed as you can’t go back as there’s not enough time? Or when you’re writing an argumentative essay and well the OTHER side is better and you can’t go back as all your research is on your main argument and going back would take hours??? Yeah that but add a time crunch as I NEEDED to do OTHER ASSIGNMENTS AS WELL 😃😅😂🤣😝🔫 yeah I was shitting bricks but WE HAD TO ROLL WITH IT. Anywayssss I managed to get it done and honestly I was HAPPY with my work and was just hoping she saw the vision of this diary entry. It was an interesting story I felt and well I couldn’t linger on it much longer as I was flying through lengthy assignments, I’m overall proud of myself and yup I’m INCREDIBLY LUCKY THIS WAS AN ONLINE CLASS!!! Should’ve maybe prefaced that in the beginning. But yeah I passed, got a 60/60 for that portion of the final. Wish she made a comment on it or something but beggars cannot be choosers and she also had to grade so many peoples stuff so why am I asking so much of her, geez. Anywhos story is at the end now and all credits to me but PLEASE FEEL FREE (haha if anyone is ever reading this) TO MAKE THIS STORY YOUR OWN AND WELL CREDIT ME IF YOU POST ANYWHERE - my instagram should be on my page!!!
March 18th, 2025
11:16pm
Blast From the Past, Literally!
So today in AP Literature (AP Lit for short) or as I like to call it AP Shi- no no, I promised myself I would be more “mature.” Anyways, in the lamest class of all time, we started to learn more about the infamous William Shakespeare, I mean I know he’s this important guy but seriously, what was he on about? “You either understand him or you don’t” Ms. Finney was telling us and to be (or not to be haha) honest I don’t understand him or his appeal. So I had to see what was up for myself, which is exactly what I did! Once I decided that I would go back in time to catch one of his plays, literally, I couldn’t stay in my seat. I was so antsy even though I got weird looks but this isn’t the first time, certainly won’t be the last but hey, I have a timemachine, they don’t. So who really is the winner here?
Class could not go by any slower and honestly with Ms. Finney’s monotone voice reading Macbeth, that indeed did not help. Luckily she didn’t care that I was on my laptop the entire time. Researching what day I should go back for this Macbeth play in 30 minutes maybe isn’t the smartest move, but we found a date and I’m going with it. And if it doesn’t work well, I’ll just go back home, no biggie. Eventually though, school ended and I rode my bike home as fast as I could! I ate some of the food my mom left in the fridge, I’m sure she left for me before she left for work, perfect! Glad she wasn’t home when I left, makes me leaving so much better and so much easier. After I got some food in the system, I went into dads room, more of a laboratory if you ask me, but went to the time machine and started to set it up to go back in time. I really want to see what people see in this Shakespeare guy. Before I step in I let mom and dad know I’m going and will be back and left just like that, probably should’ve waited for them to reply, oh well I got back safe and sound (duh or I wouldn’t be writing this).
I arrived in England, August 7th 1606 I believe and wow, incredibly gloomy and so dull looking. Pretty much what I expected but I see the Hampton Court, where Macbeth was being performed, right away. I found some clothes that were hanging to dry and headed over there. I did have to sneak in as this performance was for King James I, so royalty really but I stay low and keep quiet in the back and perfect timing too. To be honest as they were getting ready for the show, so many people were giddy which was making me giddy and excited for some reason. However, me being stubborn to a fault, I’m still skeptical of Shakespeare and still think he’s overrated. The Hampton Court, or the theater itself is small. It feels cozy and nothing like what I expected, I was expecting bigger but from what I heard it’s a premier showing to royals so it makes sense. But the smell, not that appealing but what did we expect Ruby, it is 1606 in England where they barely even know anything about hygiene. Finally, the play was starting, they indicated with a horn which yup, got my attention indeed.
The setting was actually pretty intricate to say the least, a lot more than I expected. The beginning of the play seemed very dark and eerie, which is what I remember Ms. Finney was talking about. Once the actors started speaking, the Weird Sisters, I really couldn’t understand the words. It was English, yes, but the language itself was hard to understand what was going on. However, knowing some of the characters and the stage design really immersed me into the story, totally unexpected. Audience immersion am I right? Despite not knowing what was going on, dialogue wise, one thing that caught my eye, besides the set design, was the costumes and the props they used. Their acting itself is what really made me feel like I was not only watching but seeing what was going on. I may not like Shakespeare’s words, but his directing skills, yup he knew what he was doing. Lady Macbeth going from evil to crazy then being paranoid by her actions really amazed me, the actor portrayed that incredibly well. The audience too were amazed and let out a lot of “oohs” and gasps, which made the experience better and it was nice to see their reactions as well. I guess this is what people mean when they say theater has the ability to move people, this is certainly moving me. Especially the scene of Burnham Wood that goes into the battle. That battle scene man, I felt all the rage that the men did and was truly hoping Malcolm won. But how the play ended, with Duncan killing Macbeth, good, it’s what he deserved for murdering his family. I’m glad Malcom was then named the rightful King of Scotland, he truly earned it and was everything Macbeth wasn’t. He had loyal people by his side, he was smart and strategic, I mean covering themselves with the tree branches from Birnam Wood, GENIUS!!! How that scene played out too, I love how the lighting changed for the fight scene, then when we see Duncan and Macbeth fight. This play was really nice, and I’m glad this one had a happy ending. Ms. Finney said Shakespeare wrote a lot of tragedies, and this may or may not be considered one, but I’m so glad there was a happy ending.
Once the show ended, there was an enormous amount of applause at the end. All of the cast came out and bowed and it was truly nice to see. Although we were in 1606, I unfortunately got to hand it to the guy, Shakespeare knows his stuff. What I thought to be a boring story with dialogue I could barely even comprehend, I felt so many emotions by this. I felt angry at times, especially when Macbeth was being rash, when Lady Macbeth was feeling evil, oh gosh the feeling of “take that” when she was going crazy then later died, glad they both got what they deserved. But once the play ended, I quickly walked back to the time machine that was hidden by this house and went back to the present.
So now I am here, gee, writing at 12:36, geez that late already? Well can’t complain because today was such a fun day. Granted that was mainly due to watching Macbeth live and the first time it premiered. Now I better understand why people see Shakespeare as the pioneer of playwriting and such, he’s got a few tricks up his sleeve that's for sure. And I could also use this new sense of knowledge to help on the tests, starting tomorrow we have a test on Act 1 already. No biggie, I got this in the bag. Sucks how I can’t talk about this to anyone though, if I told anyone about my dad’s time machine, oh he’d definitely freak out and never let me near it again. A risk definitely not worth making. But enough being said, I guess I’m a “bard” fan now. I think I’m bored of Macbeth in class because of how Ms. Finney reads it. She definitely isn’t reading it how it’s meant to be acted out, put some heart in it! Anyways I have to go to sleep now. I’ll definitely write about how tomorrow goes, and I may or may not have to see some other Shakespeare plays in real time, great idea Ruby! Anyways I’ll write to you tomorrow, or I guess later on today, peace.
Ruby
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