Responses to Presentations May 1 2012

Group 11

The King Lear project which was most meaningful to me was Group 11. Their group presentation was a creation of ‘the oldest newspaper’ called The Olden Times highlighting obituaries of the main characters of the novel. Featuring King Lear, Gloucester, Cordelia, Regan, Goneril, Edmund, and the Duke of Albany, the group was thorough in explanation of each character individually. Giving description of each one of the character’s personalities and qualities, as well as a brief explanation of their deaths, this newspaper gave the reader a great idea of each one of the character’s lives. I felt it was clever how the group created the obituaries to be written by either themselves, or their murderer or their beloved friend. Depending on which character had written the obituary, this set the mood and tone of each individual character’s newspaper article. Earl of Kent writing King Lear’s obituary, gave his article the view from a friend, who looked up to him. Edgar writing Gloucester’s obituary, revealed his true sadness of his father’s life. Earl of Kent writing Cordelia’s obituary also revealed his true grief for her innocent life. Edmund, the lover of Regan, wrote her obituary described her as kind though she was in fact not. Gonreil writing her own obituary revealed her guilt for her actions. Albany writing Edmund’s obituary described his noble character. Lastly, the Duke of Albany honored his lost friends, ending the newspaper. The newspaper itself was very interesting to read and a great visual for the class. I enjoyed their creativity of the project and how their power point was presented in an old fashioned design. The group thoroughly explained the emotions of the characters about the causes of death of the main characters that were described in the book, and overall I enjoyed the creativity of the powerpoint presentation.

The presentation that I enjoyed the most was that titled, The Olden Times, presented by Group 11. I really enjoyed this presentation because I thought it gave a very accurate representation of the story and characters presented in King Lear. I really enjoyed the style of the presentation in that the group used a powerpoint for the audience to read of off of as they also read aloud to the class. I like how they did the obituaries for the characters that had died because they were very interesting and seemingly accurate. I also found the actual appearance of the powerpoint to be very helpful towards the project because it made it seem very realistic and just really captured my attention right off the bat. I like how each group member focused on different characters and made accurate judgments of what their obituaries may have been like if written by the real characters. The overall group presentation was very straight forward and I feel that this added to the clarity of the presentation. The group spent a significant amount of time reminiscing upon each character and I think this really helped the audience get a better understanding of the major features that each character was known for. It appeared that this group put a lot of time and effort into this presentation because of how thorough and well put together their presentation came across. Overall I really enjoyed this presentation and I believe that it ultimately furthered my understanding of King Lear altogether. 

The presentations from May 1 were all very good, however my favorite presentation from yesterday’s class was the reenactment of one of the scenes from King Leer. I thought they did a really good job of modernizing and translating the scene so that the audience was able to understand what was happening, as opposed to simply memorizing the lines out of the original script of the play. I had a general understanding of what happened in the scene from reading the play, however after the presentation, I have a much better notion of what happened. All of the actors had great charisma and seemed to really reflect what each character from the book was really like or described to be. I especially want to make note of the person who played King Leer as I was very entertained and intrigued by her interpretation of the character.  Using a nerf gun instead of a sword to threaten Kent and others was very funny as well.  The group’s use of signs on their chests, which contained the character that they were playing at the time, was really clever.  It was a smart way to be able to include multiple characters from the scene but at the same time not confuse the audience as to what was going on.   Overall I really enjoyed watching the entire presentation and found myself laughing and giggling on multiple occasions throughout the entirety of it, as well being very interested as what was going on between King Leer, his daughters, Kent and the husbands. Bravo!

The group presentations for King Lear and Francis Bacon were some of the best presentations of the quarter. From a modern play on King Lear, a police interrogation, and the correlation of idols to modern day society, each group did a fantastic job. However, the presentation that meant the most to me was Group 11. Death and tragedy is a main theme in Shakespeare’s play of King Lear. The group came up with presenting obituaries for each of the characters that died written by a fellow character from the book. The obituary of Lear was told by his favorite daughter Cordelia. Gloucester’s life and death was presented by Edgar. Cordelia by Kent, Reagan by Edmund, and Edmund by Albany. Goneril’s obituary was in fact her apparent suicide note. Each of the obituaries talk about the characters in-depth with even similar dialect that each of the speaker’s characters have using their own personality and their perspective of the events that occurred during the play. Their lives are portrayed very accurately and incorporated scenes from the play. I thought the group did a great job, were creative, and had a very unique concept for their project. I did think that the obituaries should have included more direct quotes from the play to use more authenticity about their knowledge of the play. I loved how each obituary had a picture and an estimated age of the character. Even the newspaper seemed authentic in terms of the coloring of the paper, the title “The Olden Times”, and even had newspaper-like font.

The King Lear presentation was very entertaining to listen to.  I really enjoyed how their powerpoint was filled with creative pictures and did not contain many words.  The group was obviously very knowledgeable about King Lear, and did a great job putting together an entertaining presentation.  With all the deaths that occurred in the story, it could be confusing as to what was really going on and why but this group did a good job portraying it to the class in a unique way.  I was easily able to relate King Lear to modern day crime shows with all the suspicious deaths that took place, just like they do on tv.

I really enjoyed watching the group that presented the obituaries for the various characters in King Lear. This was a very tragic story, so I felt that it was fitting to focus on the deaths that seem to be of the greatest importance in teaching the lesson that Shakespeare likely wanted to share. While a lot of the information they presented wasn't explicitly stated in the story, it helped me to get a better grasp on the difficult language in which King Lear was written. Because each of the obituaries was basically an explanation of each of these deaths, it helped me to better understand what went on in the story, and gave a good explanation of the various truths that should be taken away after reading. It is really easy to get caught up in the story line of a book and forget to think about the underlying theme that the author is trying to get across. Because of this, important to remember that most authors aren’t simply trying to tell a story, they’re trying to teach the reader a lesson. The group did an excellent job of tying everything together and it was obvious that they really grasped the information presented in the book. By doing this, they were able to pass on that knowledge to the audience, offering us a whole new level of understanding that we previously didn’t have.

I thought that group number eleven did a great job with their project.  The book of King Lear ended up having almost all of the characters die, but it all happened so fast towards the end of the story.  This project, The Olden Times, not only helped to describe the personality of each character through their obituaries, but also showed who they were closest with through the writers of each, such as that Regan’s was written by her secret lover Edmund, Cordellia’s was written by the earl of Kent, and King Lear’s by Cordellia.  I also thought it was very clever that they made Goneril’s a suicide note.  In it, she says goodbye to this cruel world and makes it very clear that this was written right before she went to kill herself.  Although this project did not go over the whole book of King Lear, in fact it only went over the last few scenes; the reader can easily pick up on the plot through these obituaries.  There was not a whole lot of excess information, which made each obituary direct and to the point, and the character’s personalities were really revealed through these writings, such as when Edgar was comparing his life to Gloucester’s saying that they were similar because they both had cruel brothers and both had similar personalities, or such as when Cordellia described her love for her father in the writing, which is what the whole basis of the book is on.  I though group eleven was very creative and the newspaper was well titled and well put together.

All of the groups today did a great job, but I found group 11’s presentation to be very insightful to the readings and also a great and innovative way to present information.  The idea of using obituaries to tell a story is a great idea; this group was able to summarize each characters individual stories all while telling the overall story.   I found it very helpful and interesting that the group presented the obituaries as not just reports, but as letters from lovers as well as a suicide note.  These factors alone tell their own story and show more about the plot.  As someone who has an eye for detail design, I also enjoyed the background of the presentation; I thought it showed that the group truly paid attention to detail and helped express the fact that this did not happen in present day times.  The group did a great job and showed a true understanding of the text and also spent a long time preparing for the presentation. 

While I really enjoyed all of the presentations from today, I felt that Group 11 made the project that was most meaningful to me.  I feel that they had a really great and unique idea by writing the obituaries for all of the characters that died in the madness that was act five of King Lear.  By making each article in “The Olden Times” newspaper, there was an added effect that the articles seemed actually authentic.  I think they did a great job having each obituary written by a character in the play since it gave a good idea of both the essence of the character as well as how they were perceived by the character who “wrote” the article.  For example, Kent wrote Lear’s obituary and called him a “feared warlord”, and tried to portray him in the best light possible.  I thought it was particularly funny when Edmund wrote Regan’s obituary and he mentioned how she was just like him and had an “annoying sibling” bringing him down.  The group even made sure that there was a logical reason as to when the obituaries would have been written, such as clarifying that Edmund wrote the obituary before his battle with Edgar, and making Goneril’s obituary a suicide note.  While I’m not sure if it was intentional or not, each member was also wearing all black, which was very fitting for the sadness associated with obituaries.  I think that group 11 presented the material in a very clear and easy to understand way, while also staying true to the content of the story.

I enjoyed group 11’s presentation the most yesterday. King Lear was a difficult read with many characters and many complicated relationships. With such, the group gave a unique insight into the characters. It was clever to make obituaries for all the characters who had died in the play as well as having these obituaries written by another character. They accurately portrayed how the character died and their individual characteristics. The group also was able to depict the different relationships between the characters of which had died and the character who had supposedly written the obituary.  Kent wrote Cordelia’s obituary, which gave a unique perspective to their loving and somewhat familial relationship. Edmund wrote Regan’s obituary, which was clever as the two were supposed to be lovers at the end of the play. I especially enjoyed that Goneril’s obituary was actually a suicide note, thus written by her. She was definitely my least favorite character and the most annoying to me, so I found it humorous that no other character seemed to want to write about her. Overall, the group’s presentation, although not very engaging, it was interesting and easy to listen to.

I liked the old look of the document, it gives the project a nice feel.  Writing obituaries is a cleaver approach, because to a non-literature enthusiast’s, all I see in a story like this is everyone dies.  I felt like this was a mockery of the fact that a literary work is considered good or great if everyone dies at the end, which seems ridiculous to me.  Lear’s obituary was cool because it describes his personality while still telling his story  in chronological order.   I also liked how Goulester’s obituary was written by Edgar, which is very cleaver, because you get the perspective of someone at the end of the story with some bias and emotion.   I would have liked to see more than just reading the slides verbatim, but all in all, this was a very cleaver representation of the tragedy.  They were still able to get the gist of the story from the obituaries with some emotion and feeling from another character.  I liked how Edmund’s was funny and they painted him out to be an asshole ladies man, and having Zeus writing Cordelia’s obituary was very appropriate.

  My favorite presentation was “The Olden Times” group.  I loved the idea of making an olden times newspaper, and I found it comical that the majority of the pages were all obituaries.  This made me laugh because I thought that that would probably be the whole paper in that time.  I thought the group had a very good grasp on the reading.  It is evident that the group read thoroughly.  The quotes given in the paper matched excellently.  Another aspect I enjoyed was the author of each obituary.  It was interesting to see the perspective each author gives towards the person they are writing about.  In their presentation the power point went well with the speakers.  They all complemented each other very well.  If I were going to pick one thing out negatively it would be to have a little bit more information.  There was a bit of a lack of information in the presentation and PowerPoint.  The information given was not very deep and I felt like the group could have gone into a little bit more depth.  However, this group really did a good job at accomplishing what they were trying to do.  I enjoyed the presentation, and also reading more thoroughly what was in the obituaries afterwards.  I even laughed a couple times.  Good job!

The project that I found most interesting was the collection of obituaries for the characters that passed away at the end of King Lear. I have always thought that casting a positive light on the recently deceased is an interesting thing- often times even for people that are generally disliked. I felt that in general the obituaries here did shine a more positive light on the deceased even though they were written in the voice of the characters- King Lear especially is portrayed in a positive light by his loyal servant and friend, and the Duke glosses over the long episode of exile and madness that King Lear endured, instead choosing to mention him in his prime years and then later as a man enlightened by the truth. This style makes this the most believable of the obituaries in my eyes. On the other hand, I felt that the Cordelia obituary was much less reflective of what a character might actually say about her. Certainly it is difficult to say as much about her given her only coming into play at the beginning and end of King Lear, but it still seemed that the Duke of Kent here used too much of the platform to criticize King Lear and her other sisters(and their failures) rather than Cordelia herself. It may have been a better choice to write this obituary from the perspective of the King of France rather than that of the Duke. Overall, though, I felt that the group did a good job of channeling the authors' voices of the obituaries.

The olden times newspaper presentation was very clever. This play has been my favorite literature thus far in the class and I felt like this group didn't detract from that. They captured both the plot, characters and the relationships between the characters in a slightly depressing way, because of the emphasis on obituaries. I was disappointed that the other sections of a newspaper were not utilized, because it could've given the reading a lot more depth. On a side note, there was a mistake with on of their facts. Gloucester did not blind himself. The duke of Cornwall blinded Gloucester and was aided by his wife Reagan. Disregarding these critics, the presentation was informative and captivating. Very well done.

The project that was the most meaningful to me was the project done by group 11. I liked this project because it was simple, and to the point. I liked that the whole thing was done in obituaries because it emphasized that so many people in this story died because they were not loyal to their family. I also liked the fact that through the obituaries the group was able to summarize the story fairly well. King Lear’s obituary described how his daughters deceived him. Gloucester’s obituary noted that he trusted the wrong son. Cordelia’s praised her truthfulness. Regan’s described how powerful she was as a woman, and described Edmund’s love for her. I also enjoyed the addition of Goneril’s suicide note, and the Duke of Albany’s lesson to rulers of the future about the importance of respecting family members. I felt this was meaningful because in my own life experiences I have found it very important to be loyal to family. I have learned throughout my life that parents are the people I can always count on to help me. Although this isn’t the case in all families I feel that if Goneril, and Regan had respected their father they would have ended up with much happier lives. The fact that they deceived their father lead to the suffering of so many people.

In this third round of presentations two presentations really stood out,the King Lear Crime Investigation and the Obituaries. For the King Lear Crime Investigation I enjoyed the fact that their slides were not wordy. Wordy slides distract the audience as they try to read it instead of being engaged to the presentation. But on the other hand, I enjoyed the wordiness of The Olden Times because it added to the allusion of the newspaper background. The background of the paper was definitely one my favorites so far out of all the presentations because of its authenticity. The wording and quoting of the text in the obituaries was also very authentic and blended in nicely with the time period. For the King Lear Crime Investigation, the quotes on each slide were humorous at  times when they were coupled with the pictures. Overall the pictures did work well though to keep the audience captivated with the presentation. At the final slide page of the Olden Times, the quote used from the Duke of Albany was put to good use as a concluding slide. It tied up all of the descriptions of the charaters previously mentioned. Overall both of these presentations used contrasting styles that I enjoyed and kept the audience captived the whole time.

I really enjoyed the olden times newspaper article. It was interesting how the first one was written in first person while all the rest were written describing a loved one. The daughters was written very well, but I didn't really like the intro for his wife. The PowerPoint itself was decorated very well and had an old-time feel to it making it seem like it was an actual old magazine. Overall I enjoyed the presentation.Group two’s presentation was definitely my favorite. One reason I steer clear from Shakespeare is because it can be very difficult to understand. This group took a really fun approach, “translating” Act 1, Scene 1 into our modern language. I really loved the way the four presenters incorporated their own personalities into the script and added a lot of life to the dialogue. Another way the group made the scene a lot more entertaining was by adding humor. Though I think Shakespeare was a genius playwright, a lot of his work can be dull if just read line by line. This presentation showcased the adaptability of his work; though the delivery might be altered. The message was still crystal clear, possibly even more easily grasped, and a lot more relatable. The approach this group took reminds me of how old texts, like the Bible, have been translated into more contemporary vernacular so that people of this day and age are able to read and understand clearly. Another thing I loved was that the group members played two characters at once. That concept emulated Shakespearian performances back during the days of the Globe theater. Overall, I was impressed by how thoroughly the group seemed to understand the happenings of the first act. They then took that knowledge and shared it with the rest of the class in a way that we all could easily comprehend. Using terms like “shut up” and props like the Nerf gun gave a 21st century feel to a 17th century play. 

Group 12

As interesting as all the presentations were, I thoroughly enjoyed group 12s presentation. They performed an entertaining rendition of the first act of King Lear. I thought they all did an accurate (and at times emotional) portrayal of the characters in Shakespeare's classic tragedy (particular the girl that did King Lear's part). Due to Shakespeare's complex language, they put it in modern english so the entire class could understand. This enabled them to correctly portray several different characters as well as all of the important and significant parts in the first act. Not only did they give us a good understanding of the beginning of King Lear, but they also turned this tragedy into a comedy of their own which I found very amusing, especially when they would flip their cards over and play an entirely different character at the drop of a hat. I also enjoyed the way the three sisters were portrayed, with Goneril and Regin being stuck-up and mean, while Cordelia was played rather sweetly and lovingly. I commend Group 12 for their accurate and amusing performance and presentation.

Group Twelve's dramatic reenactment of Shakespeare's King Lear was truly a masterpiece. There was obvious thought and time put into Group 12's "modern version" of Act 1, Scene 1 of King Lear. Moreover, I found the group's enthusiasm and overall commitment to the performance compelling and assisted their intent to make King Lear more relate-able  to those in modern society. Although the group was somewhat short on members to play all the roles in the original King Lear I thought that they did an excellent job choosing the primary characters that contributed the most to the main story line.Also, I found it noteworthy that the drama enacted by the members of group twelve made the story of King Lear much more real and even enjoyable for me. Thank you group twelve for your wonderful performance.

I found group 12 to be the most entertaining, their presentation of the first act was informative since they translated the text into modern English which was more understandable and could be related to. It actually felt like being at the theater, it was so enthralling. I admired their ability to play more than one role, it added greatly to the entertainment. They also had their roles and lines very well rehearsed, I do not think that I would be able to do anything like the amount of lines they memorized. They made the play flow very well. Overall, it greatly increased my appreciation for Shakespeare. Normally, when just reading Shakespeare, it doesn't hold the same captivating appeal, as compared to the spoken word and acting.

The presentations given by the groups yesterday were about King Lear and all cleverly and effectively went through the story and portrayed and explained the characters and the plot in a way that the class would understand. The second of the five groups that presented yesterday presented the information the best by far. The group acted out the first scene but altered the language to make the characters more relatable. They portrayed the characters in a way that each student could relate, making the girls sound like typical teenage daughters. Their actions were altered as well, using a Nerf gun as a weapon shown in the scene, a map and a highlighter to represent the father dividing up the land between the daughters. The language and props provided comical relief that improved the groups performance and enhanced the presentation. Also, each person in the group played two characters and flipped their name tag over to let the audience know which character they were playing, much as people in Shakespeare’s time played multiple characters.

The second group(#12) had a very unique idea and it was very intriguing the entire ten minute presentation. King Lear, as we all have realized, is a very difficult read and hard to understand some of the interactions between the characters. Thankfully, this presentation was very helpful and straightened out a lot of questions. Not only was it very entertaining and creative, but also very put together. They memorized all their lines, which also made it more engaging. The style of their act was also perfect for the time period as well. This is because they had different characters played by one person, which they did back in the Shakespearean days. The English version of the original old English I thought was entertaining like I said earlier, but also pretty accurate. Their emotion and inflection of the text also was accurate to the original text and made it very believable as well. One of the things I liked most about it was it made the scene feel like a normal family argument with its new translation. Overall, this project was well put together and engaging, which I believe is very important in such a big class. It was fun to watch while still being educational and helpful to the entire class.

I thought that the second group that went was the most entertaining. They gave an accurate depiction of the first play of King Lear and made it interesting to pay attention to. They seemed as though they rehearsed a lot, and I felt that the interpretation they took from the act was very close to how I interpreted it as well. It was the actions and characters of Shakespeare put into a modern context – very effective. They did a good job of speaking loudly and clearly, and presented well. The third group, as well, had a very creative rendition of King Lear. I liked the “police station” idea, and giving out donuts in class is a sure-fire way to keep people engaged. I thought it was a good idea for them to explore the ending of the play, in which nearly everyone dies. This is a difficult portion to investigate because there are many different conclusions that can be drawn. This group could have gone more in depth into the motives behind each character’s actions, but for presentation purposes, I thought that the portrayal of the story was effective. They really engaged class participation. By witnesses not telling the story accurately, it gave the class more opportunities to correctly portray the events (and get donuts).  Overall, I think that the third group had the best idea and the second group had the best acting/performance. 

Out of all the presentations, my favorite was Group 12, who acted out scene one from King Lear. I thought it was a creative idea to change the language into modern terms that would be easy for our age group to understand. The group did a very thorough job at depicting everything that happened in the scene. All of the members were also really good at acting, and I was presently surprised. It seemed like they put a lot of effort into recreating the scene and portraying all the emotions. I was also impressed with the fact that they changed their characters throughout and stayed true to the character they were portraying. They also made the scene humorous, which made it very enjoyable to watch. Overall, it looked like they put a lot of effort into making their portrayal enjoyable and accurate at the same time.

William Shakespeare’s King Lear is one of the most famous pieces of literature ever written; however, it is not easy for a modern day student to understand. In turn, I thought that the group who performed their own rendition of King Lear in modern day English was very successful in relaying the key points from the script while also making it entertaining and easier to understand. I thought that the humor used in the re-written script was very engaging and appropriate for a college aged audience. I know many students struggled with understanding Shakespeare’s language (I being one of them) so I found it very useful to hear the play in modern day language. There were some key points that I had missed because of the language barrier and so this group helped me understand the text in more depth. Shakespeare used some humor and underlying emotion that I was not able to necessarily pick up on because of the language and so seeing the group actually act out the characters really helped bring them to life for me. I felt a whole new sense of resentment between the sisters this time, something that I didn’t feel as strongly in the text; however, I feel this was because I did not connect as when with the language Shakespeare was using. I think that Shakespeare is a writer that everyone should indulge in during their lifetime because he is so famous and his work is timeless. I also think that having presentations like these is necessary because it helps students engage in the work more in depth and helps us better understand key points/the plot of the Shakespeare’s literature.

I chose the second group because I really liked their premise for their project. The play of King Lear is written in old English and is at times difficult to understand the types of emotions being conveyed because of the different word choice or the kind of person that would be saying each line. This group did an excellent job interpreting the first act and changing it into modern vocabulary. Each person in the group did an excellent job of playing the character(s) they were acting out. Their interpretation made the scene seem like the type of bickering a normal family would have only in a much more extreme situation, it also did a great job of displaying the sarcasm, irony, and character traits of each person in the scene. The group translated the lines well and made it very funny and realistic. The acting was good, they kept the whole class entertained and you learned the scene better because in my opinion it was much more interest, so overall I believe this group did an excellent job with their project.

I found the group (12) that performed the 1st scene of the Shakespeare play, "King Lear", to be extremely insightful. This scene of the play brings about a strong theme of the play which pits greed against loyalty. On the one side, the daughters Goneril and Regan use flattery to obtain the most wealth from their father, King Lear. On the other, the daughter Cordelia refuses to follow her sisters' strategy to obtain as much wealth as possible, and suggests that her father does not need to be flattered with exaggeration, rather her love should already be understood and not lying to her father shows her loyalty to him. Furthermore, the outcome of the play implies the positives of loyalty and the negatives that can occur when people act based on greed. In a sense, this theme of greed is still present and a critical dynamic in today's society. Nearly everyone is guilty of acting based on greed and obtaining wealth. Making sure that your actions based on greed are ethical is a prevalent issue of today's society. Nothing makes this clearer than the outcome of Shakespeare's play, wherein greed causes lots of unnecessary death. This is not to say that greed should be done away with, but that greed has to be utilized correctly or else all hell can and will break loose. Moreover, there seems to be two sides to greed. Greed can be wonderful thing that benefits all parties or greed can lead parties to lose trust in one another and, consequentially, act deceitful and violent towards one another. 

Group 12 (the group that performed act 1 scene 1) really stood out to me. They were able to portray the scene with humor and modern language. They had creative props and the signs were easily readable so that we knew which characters were talking at the time. The scene was really easy to follow and it kept my attention because it was so funny! All the members of the group did a really good job acting and knowing their lines. All of their voices projected really well so we could hear exactly what they were saying. The performance actually enhanced my understanding of Act 1 Scene 1 and I enjoyed watching it. Their performance was simple but so effective, and overall I think they did a really great job with it.

The group that stood out to me the most in their presentation was the second group performing Act 1 Scene 1 of King Lear. This group had the most effective presentation in my eyes, because they didn’t read directly off of a script the whole time. The scene started out very strong with the actress that played King Lear, as she was very talented. The acting level for all of the presenters was much better than I expected when they all walked on stage. They did a very good job of sticking to the original storyline, with Goneril and Regan kissing up to their father in order to get land. Cordelia was also portrayed very well, as she was honest and faithful to her father. She gave no false flattery in order to trick her father into bestowing her land, she only told him how much she truly loved him. This group did a great job of making you feel for the characters, such as Cordelia when King Lear made her sob in the corner. However it also had a humorous aspect to it also. Every person in the group played multiple roles except for the actress that acted out King Lear’s part. This made for quite a few funny situations, in which the group members would quickly change back and forth between opposing characters with a flip of their sign. Another humorous addition to the play was the Nerf gun that the actress playing King Lear whipped out from behind her back to point at Kent. This modern and unexpected addition had the whole class laughing and really helped them hold their audience until the end of the scene.

Though I thought all of the projects were great in their own respects, I enjoyed the reenactment of Act 1, Scene 1 of King Lear the most. I thought Group 12 did an excellent job of illustrating this scene, one of the most important in the play, in a way that everyone could understand. Though we went through that scene in class discussion, and I felt that I had a pretty good grasp on what takes place here between King Lear and his daughters, the group's reenactment provided a source of further insight and enlightenment by relaying the dialogue in layman's terms. They followed the plot perfectly and brought each of the characters to life in their own unique way. The visualization that they provided was a better modern remake of the play than the video even, because the scene was transcribed in a way that made it accessible to everyone. I was also really impressed by all of the great acting skills, and the fact that each person played more than one role in the scene was true to the presentation of most Shakespearean plays in which the actors played more than one role. The fact that all of the actors were very energetic and really got into their roles made their presentation that much more entertaining to watch. "Cordelia" especially did a great job switching back and forth between her role as Cordelia and her role as France. All in all, the presentation was very well put together and fun to watch.

The presentation that stood out the most to me during this round of presentations was group 12. They did an interpretation of a scene in King Lear using modern English. I liked the fact that they took the time to explain the reasoning behind their choice in what scene they wanted to do, rather than just jumping straight into it. They had to cut out some parts due to time constraints and most of the group members had to play multiple characters but I feel it was all very well executed. They translated the lines from Shakespeare’s English into modern day English which really made things clear and easy to understand. The actors themselves were expressive and played their parts very well. In particular, the girl playing Lear really managed to get across the depth of Lear’s madness and showed how unreasonable and irrational he was being. The nerf gun really surprised me too. It was unexpected and came completely out of left field and I loved every second of it. One other group that really managed to grab my attention was the one that did a comparison between King Lear and Akira Kurosawa’s Ran. I knew of Kurosawa but had never really seen any of his work. The film showed obvious parallels between the two works but still managed to be different enough so that doesn’t seem like it’s just copying and pasting King Lear into medieval Japan. It was nice to see and Eastern interpretation of a Western classic. I felt that these presentations really helped me gain a better understanding of the course materials. 

The presentation that caught my attention most was the first King Lear speech.  The group started out by giving a brief background of the time and setting of King Lear.  King Lear is about to die and must distribute his kingdom between his three daughters; Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. The first two daughters started out with clear voices and great eye contact to grasp the audiences attention from the start.  Both Goneril and Regan are awarded one third of the their fathers kingdom.  Last to serenade is Cordelia, she tells her father although she loves him very much she is not going to lie to win is love.  King Lear then flips out in outrage, and concludes to leave Cordelia with nothing.    Cordelia’s actress used facial and hand gestures to show her dismay to bring the story to life.  Kent attempts to convince King Lear that he is being unfair and should reconsider his decision.  King Lear then goes into rage mode once again and decides to banish Kent from the Kingdom.  The performer of King Lear’s part did an excellent job using energy and authority on stage to portray the characters distress and anger.  Next to enter the scene is Bergundy, France and Cordelia. This was a very solid/ easy to follow transition with the changing of the name tags.  France ultimately decides to marry Cordelia without the inheritance, stating that the money and land is not important to him.  One major strength of this presentation was the use of name tags to distinguish the characters.   The dialogue incorporated throughout this skit was not only interesting but also made this ancient piece of literature easy to follow.

The project that stood out the most to me was that of group twelve. This group acted out Act 1, Scene 1 from King Lear, by William Shakespeare. Each group member had a double sided name tag that they wore around their neck. The name tags were double sided so each person could act as more than one character in the scene. This group translated William Shakespeare's poetry from old English, that is very difficult for many of us to interpret, into more modern English. This gave the presentation character and also allowed for the audience to easily follow the scene. The translation they made also added some comic flare to the scene and made it there own, while still making sure to portray the meaning of the play. In this scene King Lear is deciding how he will be splitting up the kingdom and how much he will be giving to each of his daughters. He asks each daughter to tell him how much they love him. Goneril and Regan both speak as if they love Lear very much and think highly of him. This group did a great job of showing the insincerity in the characters and how each of them had their own wants in mind. When it is Cordelia's turn to portray her love for him and she won't speak. Lear then disowns her and decides to not give her any part of the kingdom. I liked this presentation because they were a very confident group and seemed to have practiced their presentation many times. They showed a clear understanding of the scene and what the characters motives were through out the play. The only props they had were the name tags to identify which character was speaking and a map which gave a visualization of King Lear splitting up the kingdom to his daughters.

I think that all the groups did a very good job of analyzing King Lear, and all of them took very different approaches for addressing and analyzing the book. Group 12 was the most helpful for me. The language used by Shakespeare can often be very difficult to understand, so it was very interesting to see a modern day twist on the words. It made the scene much more understandable. It was very clear that King Lear wanted his daughters to say how great he was and Cordelia was rolling her eyes off to the side knowing that her sisters were full of it but trying to build him up to get the most land that they could. It was very helpful to see it acted out. The group members did very well on stage and seemed to be having a lot of fun with their performance. They seemed like they had rehearsed it quite a bit and did not have to look at their cue cards the whole time. They seemed pretty comfortable being on stage. It was even a little comical at times, such as with the Nerf gun. They discussed the themes of the story before they started acting. It was interesting and helpful to hear what these were and to see how they related to the scene that was performed. The entire presentation seemed like there was a lot of effort put into it and it paid off.

For the projects that presented on May first, my two favorite were Group 12 and Group 13. I liked Group 12's presentation because it was very creative in the realm of theater and dramatic performance. I was thankful for their big name tags, so you could see who each actor was supposed to be portraying. I also liked the fact that they translated the play into modern English! It was much easier to follow and made it that much more interesting because you could be less confused and pay more attention to what the substance of the text was saying. Overall, it was very funny and creative. I think it was especially funny when King Lear pulled out a water gun and threatened Kent. They obviously spent many hours rehearsing and memorizing their lines. My other favorite group was Group 13. They made the whole play of King Lear into something more modern, like you would see on a C.S.I. Show, or possibly an episode of Law and Order. The props were good, but the donuts were the best part! They really encouraged interaction with the audience by giving out donuts for answering questions. Overall, Group 13 gave a solid performance because it was creative and modern, while still being different from Group 12's creative and modern approach to King Lear.

I thought many of the presentations delivered on May 1 were well done, however, the one I favored a little more than the others was Group 12. The group essentially acted out a majority of Act 1 Scene 1 of William Shakespeare's King Lear. The four group members were cast in multiple roles to accommodate what the scene required in a comical farce of the actual source material. From the presentations on King Lear, I found the second group most interesting. They took what they knew from the play and interpreted that into modern English making it easier to understand. There were four people in the group who each played two roles each. The interpreted act 1 of King Lear and started with the first scene. In scene one, King Lear is passing his burden on to whichever of his daughters loves him most. When he asks them, 2 of the daughters give him compliments and love him dearly. Cordelia, the other daughter, doesn’t have anything to say; she loves the king like a daughter should love a father but nothing more. The play had a very realistic approach to it, they used toy guns to threaten each other and talk normally to each other. As the play goes on the two daughters who equally love their father decide they need to work together to get what they want. Different men come in with the intention of getting Cordelia with her father’s assets. King Lear does not give his blessing, therefore, the men doing the offering do not accept except for one who chooses to take Cordelia regardless. Overall, I thought this group had a very creative way of thinking of the project. The reading can be difficult to understand at times and it was nice to have something more clear and understandable.

In my opinion, Group 12 delivered the best and most meaningful presentation during today’s round of projects. They opted to act out a scene from King Lear like a play, however they substituted the original language with contemporary dialogue. The modern language made the story much easier to follow and fun to watch. The dialogue in the original story is very hard to understand, so using contemporary dialogue was a great choice. The language the group used also made the presentation comical and made the audience pay attention, which is important. Because the group was acting out the scene, their voices were loud and projected across the room. This made it easy to hear and understand, whereas other groups tend to be more quiet and not as easy to follow. I enjoyed the fact that the group also improvised with the use of the name cards. This allowed each member to act out two characters instead of only one. This added another element of humor into the project. For the most part, the group members had their lines memorized and did not rely on note cards whatsoever. This was an important factor, because it allowed for a more fluid flow in the presentation, and was a fresh alternative to other groups who simply read material off of their note cards. However, what gave Group 12 a lasting impression on the audience was the humor. It seemed the group was having fun during the presentation, which made the audience have fun as well. You could tell that the group had practiced the performance beforehand, so they could just let loose and have fun with it during the presentation. Overall, Group 12 had a solid performance with very few flaws in my opinion and provided a fresh take to King Lear, I commend them for their effort.

Group 12’s modern reenactment of Act 1 from “King Lear” and Group 15’s video on Francis Bacon’s four Idols are tied for being my favorite/most meaningful performances from yesterday, 5/1/2012. The first performance, the “King Lear” reenactment, was well rehearsed. The actors rarely had to read off of their note cards and performed their parts with energy. Furthermore, the lines were sufficiently reduced to their core ideas (no extraneous fluff!) and into easily understood, modern English. I especially liked the changing of the name sign (and voice) during the France/Cordelia sequence of lines. It would have been odd if the target of the lines had been each other (France to Cordelia, and vice versa), but since the target was Lear, it all worked out. Also, I liked the redone conflict between Kent and Lear; the (toy) gun was an amusing addition. Imagine if Lear (an old man) had actually shook a weapon (sword, gun, or otherwise) at Kent while he had been behaving unreasonably! Would Kent have been brave enough to come back to court as Caius? The second performance, the 4 Idols video, came rather as a relief to me; I’d barely understood every tenth word in the actual “Novum Organum” text. Therefore, I appreciated having all the Idols summarized and given examples. The text for the definition of each Idol was hard to read (too big to fit the screen and too fast going up the screen), but from the following examples (with well-chosen video clips from a variety of sources), I think I managed to understand some of what the original text was saying. Well done.

Group 12 presented a very well integrated analysis of King Lear with a summary and enactment of one of the scenes. Using the scene where King Lear performs his “love test” to see which of his daughters deserve his wealth, Group 12 depicts the themes of insecurity and madness within Lear and the shallow appearance of love versus that of true love. They reinforce these themes with modern day props and stereotypes. For instance Goneril’s voice and tone resembles that of a “valley girl”. This modern stereotype implies that those who speak and act this way are materialistic, shallow, and selfish. When Goneril combines this tone with her declaration of daughterly love, I can very clearly understand that her actions are dishonest and do not reflect her motive. King Lear’s madness is emphasized with the use of the plastic gun, which he picks up and points at his reasonable and loyal advisor Kent. The gun is an extreme and unnecessary weapon for such an argument and the group’s use of it here demonstrates Lear’s lack of reasoning. Kent maintains a low volume while Lear yells and gestures at him with the gun. This juxtaposition of their demeanors further highlights Lear’s madness. One last thing that Group 12 effectively portrayed was the polarization of characters in this scene: the just and the unjust. The actor who transforms from Goneril into Kent shows how the two characters act differently and receive different reactions from Lear. Goneril, who is dishonest and caters to Lear’s hubris, is given wealth and property. Kent, who is honest and speaks up for the well being of his king, is met with banishment and death threats. These opposing characters are switched on and off within one actor, ironically contrasting the two. Overall, I really enjoyed the acting and I believe that the presentation was meaningful and engaging. 

The presentation that I found most interesting today was group 12. Group 12’s presentation of acting out Act1 Scene1 of King Lear put a difficult to understand topic into clear and simple terms. This group acted out the first scene in modern day english and with a modern touch. This engaged me and the audience as well due to the ease that I was able to understand what was happening and in what order events happened in. Another piece that we were exposed to as an audience was the way that this group covered 7 characters with only 4 people. People playing multiple parts was much like the way original Shakespeare plays were performed. Within the performance this group used humor along with the modern language to portray the scene. I think that this was a creative and effective approach because of the way that it kept the audience engaged while closely mirroring the original text. My favorite part of the groups presentation/performance was the way Cordillia and France were played by the same girl. In one portion of the performance she had parts from both characters back to back and did a great job distinguishing each character. Another portion of this presentation that was meaningful to me was the scene and act that the group chose to perform. Being the base of the play with so much of the plays foundation being set I now have a greater understanding for the overall play due to the language that the performance was presented in and the energy that the actors exerted while putting on a great performance. 

I liked the second presentation the best, where they acted out the first scene of King Lear. They did a good job of acting it out and they added a few humorous parts to appeal to the class more. The acting made the scene much more clear to me than just reading the text. I also thought that the humor made the scene more entertaining. I know that Shakespeare intended that the scene to be more dramatic than humorous, but I still enjoyed it. It was also interesting how they used only 4 people to portray 7 different characters, which was often the case in acting companies performing Shakespeare’s work.  I also liked how they cut things out of the scene (in order to save time and stay within the limit) but did not take away from the purpose of the scene. Often when a scene is heavily changed or reduced you lose a lot of what that scene is really about and just focus on the main point. This group avoided that, and showed not only the major plot points but also the details in how King Lear acted and why. This scene could be seen as the foundation for the whole story, since what happens in it is what causes the terrible series events to occur. Finally I liked the use of nametags for identification of characters. Without costumes, it would have been very difficult to distinguish who is who and when. Nametags were a clever way of avoiding that issue.

I thought Group 12’s skit was the most helpful and entertaining. Act I is a critical part of King Lear, as it creates the context for the entire play. Group 12 portrayed this critical base extremely well by translating the scenes to modern day English that the whole class could understand. They laid out themes that are found throughout the play, such as the conflict between real and fake love. The group also did well at exposing the foreshadowing found throughout the act, which hints at major events that occur later in the play. For instance, the unstable relationship between Cordelia, Goneril, and Regan was the source of most of the play’s tension, and was apparent from the first act. Group 12 did an excellent job at portraying the dramatic familial issues and bringing to light the underlying context for the play’s emotional disasters. Not only did Group 12 effectively portray the plot, characters, themes, and foreshadowing of Act I, but they did so in an entertaining fashion that captured my attention. The group members played their roles with gusto and enthusiasm. This is often uncommon in group projects, as it is easy to simply recite lines and dissociate from the characters. However, by using present day English and putting their own spin on the underlying features of their roles, the presenters became actors rather than students teaching their class about King Lear. Seeing the play acted out made me appreciate King Lear on another level, and solidified Act 1 in my memory.

For Tuesday's class on May 1st, I thought the best group, and my personal favorite, was Group 12.  The re-enacted Scene 1 in modern-day English, and it was hysterical.  I thought it was really funny that each person in the group played two people and would switch off characters in the middle of a scene.  I also thought that their translation made understanding the scene much easier and a lot more enjoyable.  It was definitely surprising that the King Lear had a gun in the their translation, but it definitely contributed to their comedy of their skit.  It was also impressive that they memorized all of their lines.  Overall it was a great re-enactment and a great performance.

My favorite presentation was the group that did a modern reenactment of Act one from King Lear.  They did an excellent job presenting the material in a fun and understandable way. They were able to portray most of the characters in that scene with just a few actors themselves.  The signs that they wore around their necks made it easy for the audience to keep track of which character was speaking. The more modern spin on this act kept the audience engaged. Witty responses, firm tones, hand movements, "girly" responses, and of course the gun, together made this performance entertaining while still presenting the original story line.  You could easily decipher King Lear and his three daughters from one another by the responses they gave.  Goneril and Regan were both suck ups to their father while Cordelia gave an honest answer about her love for her father.  As the weeks go on, it is interesting to see each group come up with new and creative ways to present the material we have been reading and learning about in class. This group definitely accomplished this and did a great job!

I chose group 12's Act One, Scene One presentation to critique. This group exemplified their knowledge of King Lear by presenting the most impactful scene in the story. Recreating the lines in a language more understandable to us was a great idea. I knew the basics of what this scene was about, but it was hard to grasp the underlying concepts without the play in front of me. The group's skit was satirical, easy to follow, and very informative. I got a much better view of what happened in the story because of the group's adaptation. I thought it was very clever to have the signs around everyone's' necks letting the audience know who each person was portraying. I also found it very funny when the girl playing both Cordelia and the King of France had a conversation by herself; perfect attitudes of each character. The other groups were just as entertaining but many of them I could not follow. I didn't understand what they were trying to get across that we should learn from the stories. Group 12 really showed they understood the project purpose.

King Lear is not an easy play to tackle. Shakespeare lived in a very different time from ours and his writing is difficult to decipher. The second group that presented yesterday was able to make Act 1, Scene 1 more understandable and fun for the class. By acting out the scene where King Lear has all of his daughters tell him how much they love him, we were able to get a comical and personal experience of King Lear. The parts were played very well and the actress that played King Lear was exceptionally good at projecting her voice and acting the part. Although they did not have enough actors to play all the parts, they did a wonderful job of playing multiple roles, just like many actors did in other Shakespearean play writes. They kept the entire scene funny and entertaining. It captivated the audience's attention and helped us understand more the concepts of King Lear and the play's complicated plot. This was a very enjoyable presentation and I wished they would have continued and presented the entire play because it was so entertaining.

The group that stood out to me the most was group 12. They had an absolutely superb modern-day script of act one, scene one of King Lear. Not only was their translation of the text outstanding but their acting was as well. Each participant displayed such great enthusiasm, it really made me want to listen and I am sure it kept everyone very entertained. The pivotal action in scene one, was when King Lear asks which daughter loves him the most, and I thought group 12 did a great job of displaying this. When they acted out this part of the scene they used a map, as many plays of King Lear also does, to display the segments of land that Lear is giving to has daughters, except for Cordelia of course. They also assigned multiple roles to each group member, which I found to be very Shakespearian, as professor Marx also pointed out. Their two sided name placard they hung from their necks was also a very simple and witty idea. In all they had a great presentation that stuck to the work very well, and kept me entertained and intrigued. Great job group 12! 

All of the group presentations today were very interesting but the group I felt had the best project was group 12. This was the group who acted out the first scene from King Lear. I enjoyed the way they related a play that was written so long ago to modern day. They involved the audience by cleverly using the language from the play and portraying it comedically which kept us as viewer entertained. Even though it was not intentional I also noticed that this group was able to make use of double rolls for their actors which was much like in the time of Shakespeare. The group was able to make clear the key points Shakespeare was trying to convey without loosing too much of the integrity of the play in translation. Overall the presentation was very well put together and when coupled with the other presentation of the day they had the best. I have a better understanding for having seen the presentations and was able to see how others interpreted the play through their presentations. A tip I would give to future groups presenting would be to try not to just play videos or just read from a piece of paper. These presentations are suppose to be something different then the lectures we get everyday in class and when you are just reading at the audience it is a lot less meaningful then actually engaging the audience. This is the main reason I chose group 12 as a the best presentation.

The most inspirational presentation was that of Group Twelve. Although a reenactment of Act 1 Scene 1, Group Twelve’s presentation added a fresh twist to the time-worn tale of King Lear. Characters within the reenactment played multiple roles per person. Each presenter wore a double-sided gigantic necklace around their neck with their character’s name scribed on it in cursive. Upon changing roles, they would flip the name tag, changing into a different character. The fact that each presenter played two characters spiced up the skit, adding additional comedic value when the audience discovered that Grace was playing both “Cordelia” and her future husband “France.” The voice changes used by the different characters were also remarkable. For example, the presenter playing Goneril and Kent would pitch his voice high for the lady and deep for Kent. In addition to appearances and voice attributes, presenters ensnared the audience with their use of modern syntax. For example, towards the start of Act 1, Cordelia expresses her frustration towards her sisters’ flattery, declaring to the audience in a sudden outburst: “What the crap am I supposed to say?” Another example is when the presenter playing Goneril took on an instant Valley Girl persona as he pitched his voice high and used “like” in every other word. Props also played a minor role in Group Twelve’s presentation. In addition to the classy nametags, Twelve used a giant map taped onto the blackboard to signify Lear’s division of his land. As each daughter was given land, “Lear” would take a giant highlighter and color in their piece of land on the map. Overall, Group Twelve’s presentation was exemplary for its giant necklaces, modernization, and comedic use of language.

King Lear was a story that I enjoyed reading. The plot of the story really attracted my attention: it was a tale of betrayal and drama. It was also a story about trust, which unfortunately Goucester and King Lear put into the wrong people. King Lear ended up loving the wrong daughters and was easily swayed by flattery. Both Gonderil and Regan  were extremely greedy and only pretended to love their father. Only Cordelia truly loved Lear; she knew that love did not have to be spoken and loved her father as much as a daughter should. The second group that presented (Group 12) demonstrated this scene quite well. They showed how Cordelia was honest with her feelings while Gonderil and Regan were full of deceit. All they wanted was wealth and land from their father: it was basically like they needed to be payed for their love. Cordelia understood what her sisters were doing, but stuck with her own feelings. The group put a lot of effort into the acting and made it come alive. Also instead of sticking with the old english, the group modernized it making it easier to understand and also adding humor to the scene. The second part of the group's act was of France and Burgundy being suitors for Cordelia. Burgundy only wanted Cordelia because he thought he would also receive wealth and land. He did not actually love her; he was really just greedy. France showed that he was honest with his feelings and wanted Cordelia for herself not because of any other benefits that would come with her. This group acted very well and put their emotions into the scene and expressed these scenes thoroughly.

My favorite group from yesterdays set of presentations was group 12. Their presentation of act I scene I dramatically increased my understanding of the reading. I attribute most of that quality to their outstanding ability to translate the text into modern, almost collegiate, language. This shows that they actually understood the text line for line. I found that cutting certain characters from their interpretation of the scene showed excellent planning. Also the way they doubled up their roles to achieve the maximum of eight characters was quite shakespearian and true to the style of the text. I would have learned significantly more about king lear if the other groups continued the trend but with scene 2 and etc.

I thought that the group that performed Act I Scene 1 of King Lear did an excellent job! I really enjoyed the fact that they changed the somewhat complicated language used in the original into more modern terms so it was easier to understand. It was very comical and relatable as well! I enjoyed that the students played multiple characters which added a funny twist to the France and Cordelia storyline. Also very impressed that it was memorized for the most part! Excellent presentation!

The presentation where the group acted out act one, scene one of King Lear, I believe it was group 12, was the most meaningful to me. It was easy to understand, entertaining, and it seemed like they put a lot of effort in to memorize their lines. Also, I had read King Lear in high school and we had a similar project to do so I really connected with what the group did. I thought their translation was pretty accurate and entertaining as well. When trying to read King Lear, I had a hard time so I often used the No Fear Shakespeare translation, which helped a lot. I felt like their presentation was almost like the No Fear Shakespeare acting version. It was a nice touch to have the map on the wall as a prop, as well as the water gun. I liked that they tried to make it funny for the audience while maintaining the accuracy of the scene. The nametags were done well and it was great to see all of the main characters of the scene represented. I liked that the men played females and the one female played a male. When Shakespeare’s plays were performed, men had to play women so it really added to the group’s presentation. The group’s presentation was geared to satisfy the audience, but I’m sure the group members got a greater understanding of Shakespeare by translating the work and getting into character. It is not easy to act, so I admire all of them for trying. I am so used to just reading plays that it was really cool to see one acted out.

The second group's presentation on May 1st was my favorite and most entertaining to watch. By interpreting King Lear into a modern day version, it gave me better insight of William Shakespeare's literature pieces. The dialogue of the script was easy to understand and a great representation of the scene they performed. As an audience member, this presentation looked well rehearsed compared to all the other groups. They memorized their dialogue, positions to be on stage, and practiced projection. It was very easy to hear everything each group member was saying even from the back of the classroom. This is an important factor because it is very frustrating when the audience cannot hear what the characters are saying. Not only did the projection allow the audience to listen, this also gave them confidence. Their nature on stage appeared more engaging and natural especially since they did a good job memorizing their lines. I also appreciated the signs they made with the character they were acting to indicate who they were. Since the majority had acted out two different characters, this made it less confusing for the audience. Overall, this presentation was one of the better one's performed on this day.

Out of all of the group projects presented this past Thursday, I believe that Group 12, the group that acted out Act I, Scene 1 of King Lear, was the most creative and thoughtful.  The group did an amazing job of rewriting the script in modern language and vernacular, so the entire class could follow along easily and fully comprehend and understand the first scene.  One of the things that I thought was entertaining, was that the group did not limit themselves to only four characters, and doubled up on roles.  This is true to a lot of plays that were presented during the Shakespearean era so that was a nice touch.  I thought it was smart to have the girl that played Cordelia, play France as well.  It made the dialogue between the two hilarious.  I believe that the group picked a good scene to do as well, since this scene is the basis for the rest of the play, and introduces the audience to most of the characters.  The name plates were a great idea, since the group played multiple characters, and the class could have easily gotten confused.  I was very amused by this presentation.  It could have easily been a bad project if the group did not act out the scene with drama and emotion, but they did an excellent job acting.  I never became bored or uninterested during their presentation, and I now have a better grasp of Act I, scene 1 of King Lear.

All the presentations for King Lear were very well done.  My favorite presentation was by the group that did a modern day renactment of King Lear.  Their acting was very entertaining and believable.  I particulary enjoyed the use of signs to denote which character they were playing.  Their updated langauge of King Lear was very easy to understand and perfect for the play.  I thought the girl playing King Lear did a fantastic job of potraying him.  The actress who played Cordelia did a great job as well.  There were many instances where I could not stop laughing and humor is always a good thing.  In my opinion they were far and away the best group.  Although they were not the most creative, their preparation was evident in their presentation.  Every group member exhibited excellent poise and acting skills.

All of the groups that presented yesterday were creative and brought the stories new insight. I liked group 12 the best because out of all the presentations this quarter, no one has done live acting. The group members were extremely theatrical and made scene 1 of King Lear come alive. The modernized version of the lines also made it easy and enjoyable to listen to. I thought the girl who played King Lear did exceptionally well and showed how mad and crazy he was going in response to his daughter, Cordeilla's non-comment on her love for him. It was intense and probably how King Lear would have actually reacted. I also liked how the actors wore signs that they would reverse each time they changed character. It made the audience laugh and i think that is important because everyone was paying close attention! 

The presentations for Shakespeare’s King Lear were all very entertaining, however I found group 12’s presentation outstanding. When the group presented you could really feel that they had worked hard on their project and really wanted to keep the audience’s attention. They all acted out act 1 scene 1 of King Lear. Each member in the group played two different characters; I found this interesting since this is how most Shakespeare’s plays work. They had nametags to help decipherer who was who at what time. They would switch the nametags over when they were playing a different character.  There interpretation of the scene was really funny. They translated everything into modern English so the audience could have a better understanding of it. I feel that choosing the first scene of the play was advantageous for everyone involved because it gives everyone an idea of what the rest of the play is going to be. The group shared this information with the audience before they started to scene. They explained that the opening scene foreshadows some things that happen later in the play, such as the two evil sisters turning against their father.  The group also gave a description of the scene and some of the limitations they faced with only having 4 members in a group. I feel this was important to give the audience some context before they watch the scene. The group clearly practiced their lines thoroughly and therefore amused their audience with their acting skills. Their modern English allowed for humor to be imbedded throughout the scene. It made it very easy to understand what the scene really meant and how the rest of the play was going to go. Shakespeare is very hard to understand, but this group made it easy and fun to watch and listen to.

Although I thought all groups did a wonderful job on their presentations yesterday, the one that I connected the most with was group 12’s presentation, who reenacted out part of King Lear, where Cordelia did not tell her dad how much she loved him and the consequences that followed.  I really enjoyed their performance because it was entertaining, creative, and well executed.  Everyone in the group did a great job acting out their characters, especially the girl who played King Lear. I like how she captured the essence of how mad he truly was when his youngest daughter, Cordelia, did not profess how much she loved him.  I thought it was clever how some people in the group played more than one character, which allowed them to display the characters attitudes towards certain events. I also enjoyed their presentation because it was humorous while it still got their point across.  By recreating the scene in modern day language, it made it more relatable to us students and made it easier to grasp the concepts within the scene.  I like that their presentation brought up the issue of family because it is very relatable for a lot of people; I’m not saying to that extreme, but a lot of siblings fight over who gets what and a lot of the times in families there are jealousies and power problems that get in the way of what family should really be about. All in all, I thought their presentation was great and portrayed a lot of useful information.

There were several great presentations on King Lear and the Francis Bacon Essays, but the one that stood out the most to me as the most meaningful and memorable was Group 12’s live interpretation of Act One, Scence One  from William Shakespeare’s King Lear.  The took the old English Shakespearian text and translated it into a modern day English rendition that made the themes and plots easier to understand.  I appreciated the modernization of the dialogue while maintaining plots and themes from the book in order to make the story more relatable to our generation.  My only criticism would be that I wished they had jumped into the act sooner.   They opened with an extensive explanation of the themes that we were about to see, which was less effective than the actual portrayal of the themes through their acting.  They accurately presented the initial scene where King Lear distributes his land among his daughters based on their profession of love for him.  The scene set up much of the themes and plots that continued through the story, and they explained the situation well.  The dialogue between the two girls appeared especially well rehearsed and displayed convincing acting skills.  I also liked how they switched between characters to cover all the necessary roles; it offered an authentic Shakespearian performance with a touch of comedy in the quick role reversals.  I enjoy any presentation that can take text in a difficult to read format such as King Lear and interpret it an a  way that clearly communicates the themes and ideas to its audience.

The most meaningful presentation that I saw today was preformed by group #12.  They reenacted act 1 scene 1 from King Lear but they modified it slightly to use modern English and cut down on the amount of characters in true Shakespearian spirit. I enjoyed this presentation because the group was able to bring the characters of the play to life while at the same time interpreting the story for us.  I was able to understand more clearly all of the emotions and reactions of each character when the group used common language we hear every day to represent their feelings.  This group had good performers that acted well and displayed attitudes that correlate to the written story.  One part of the play that was most helpful for me in understanding the play was the reaction of the duke of Burgandy to King Lear stripping Cordelia of her inheritance. The group showed how the duke needed the land and money but the Duke of France didn't and valued Cordelia for her love instead of her property.   The group did a good job of entertaining the audience with humor and drama while showing us an embodiment of each characters persona in a modern world.

William Shakespeare’s King Lear could be difficult to read for most people, including me. There were a few times I did not know what a certain word or phrase meant without having to look at the notes on the side of the reading (or even from the notes in class). The fact that group number twelve decided to re-enact the beginning scene of King Lear was not only funny and entertaining to watch, but it made the story easier to understand and more realistic. When the group members were speaking in terms that we would normally hear in a regular conversation it made me think about language and how a certain word or phrase in one language can have a completely different meaning in another. When I studied Shakespearean, or Elizabethan, language and compared it to contemporary language, the language I know and comprehend, it was amazing to see such differences in the meaning of such simple words. If I were to learn the Elizabethan language and begin to use the language in my daily conversations, the chances of other individuals understanding what I am saying would be slim to none. It is intriguing to know that English, a somewhat simple yet complex language, can be transformed so drastically over hundreds of years for reasons I could only assume were for the better communication among the American and European people.

All of the projects that were presented on Tuesday May 1st were very well thought out and executed. It was extremely evident to me that all the groups took the time to brainstorm about how to best relate their projects to their chosen topics. However, there was one project that stood out the most to me. This project was group 2’s modern language King Lea,r scene one, performance. The members of this group took a lot of time and incorporated extreme creativity and humor to create a modernized King Lear scene. They took into account the characters personalities and portrayed them very well. I particularly enjoyed the character of Cordelia. This character’s attitude and pure love for her father was represented extremely well. Being a member of the audience I was very entertained watching the scene play out. King Lear in the play was very over the top and foolish just like the original character. The group members really went above and beyond by throwing themselves into the characters shows and not being embarrassed to really become the character they were playing. The time this group must have spent on rehearsing their lines and practicing the scene as a whole made the project even better. It was clear that this performance was not a thrown together project and a great amount of time and effort was put into making this an entertaining, funny project.

All of the groups did an awesome job of analyzing the text and creating their own plots to go with King Lear.  I believe Group #12 was the best with their acting of the beginning of the story.  They were very smooth and well practiced which helped me follow the story better.  It was so fluent and natural that I actually imagined the students being their characters in my mind.  I realized that it must have taken much practice to know when to switch characters and attitudes to follow the actual story.  Although this group picked one of the easiest scenes in the story to interpret, they did a thorough job of analyzing the internal meanings of the text and translating that to current day English.  Through this clear interpretation, it was evident that the members of this group completely understood the plot of King Lear.  This group has been one of the best to keep the audience engaged and interested in the presentation.

The Project by group 12 was in my opinion the best project of the day. While the other groups did a great job, this group stood out to me. Their portrayal of act I scene 1 of King Lear was both comical and insightful. I liked how the characters changed roles much like that of a real Shakespearian play. The funniest part of it all was went the girl who played Cordelia also played France and she had a banter back and fort with herself as two different characters. I appreciated that the play was comical and yet serious at the same time. They were able to make the audience laugh but still did a great job portraying the scene. They did change the scene a little from the original play but it was only in order to act it out in class, which was understandable. The scene they acted out is where King Lear asks his daughters to come into his chamber states he will divide his kingdom between them if they tell him how much they love him. He asks them which one loves him the most and his two oldest daughters Regan and Goneril flatter him with love, but his youngest daughter Cordelia refuses to speak and flatter him. He disowns Cordelia and gives his kingdom to his other two daughters. Cordelia was supposed to marry the duke of Burgundy (in class they called him Edmund) but due to her losing her inheritance he no longer wants her. The king of France ends up taking her as his queen and they leave Lear’s kingdom together. Meanwhile Regan and Goneril scheme together to take more of the power away from their father.

I found all the presentations to be very well done and helpful, but I found number 12 to be the most meaningful to me.  The project highlighted Act 1, Scene 1 of King Lear.  They translated the passage into modern day English and acted it out in a way that made it very easy to understand.  They gave personality and enthusiasm to the characters.  I also liked that they didn’t just read what it said in King Lear, but actually analyzed what it would mean to people now.  The four students displayed all the roles of King Lear and his daughters in a comical way, while showing how Lear would divide up his land to them.  It was entertaining to see them each play more than one role and it showed some irony between the characters.  They really captured the relationships between the characters and made it easy for me, as a member of the audience, to understand the significance of the scene.  They showed the relationship between Lear and Cordelia and how he disowns her because she will not show the love to him that his other daughters will.  The relationship between the characters was carried out through the whole presentation and was made into a more comical representation of the original work.  Overall, I enjoyed this presentation because it kept me engaged and helped me to better understand King Lear.  The most important part of these presentations is to teach the class another way to look at a piece of literature and I believe group 12 really did that.

The presentation by group 2 on May 1, 2012 was interesting and insightful.  Group 2 did an excellent job throughout their presentation.  Their project, a play based on the reading, gave a more understandable and much less antiquated version of the book.  The group started by setting the stage for the first scene in which the children of King Lear were to receive land.  This scene, the first scene of the play began with King Lear hearing complements from his first 2 children.  Many characters were left out but the group was still able to cover 8 characters with 4 people which was impressive.  With the 8 characters being portrayed the story came to life.  King Lear was portrayed perfectly.  King Lear gave land to the characters that sucked up to him the most and none to Cordelia who used to be his favorite child.  This showed that there was clearly something wrong with his emotional and mental states.  Kent was also portrayed perfectly; as a character that cared about others, but was still shunned.  Later, Cordelia’s suitors come and discuss the terms of the marriage proposal.  Hers suitors do not want her because she is not given anything from King Lear.  She ends up leaving with France on bad terms with her other siblings.  The siblings, Regan and Goneril realize that the father has become irrational and decide to back each other.  Overall the play was full of humor and well thought out.  The group incorporated all of the important parts and portrayed each character very accurately and satirically.

Group 13

Of the projects presented on May 1st, group 13’s presentation had the most meaning to me. The detective character was funny, especially to the audience because the questions he asked were so obvious to us, having “been there” through reading the play. I also thought it was clever that they made it a sort of quiz for the class, and the donuts were definitely a good incentive to answer their questions (and they also poked fun at the stereotype of the donut-eating policeman). This presentation made good use of direct quotations from the text to corroborate the “evidence” that the audience presented. This also helped the audience to understand those quotes in the text, as Shakespeare is difficult for many of us to understand, and I thought that was helpful. I also thought it was cool to see the story from the perspective of each of the characters who were being questioned, and to see what each character knew and didn’t know, and the characters’ reactions to the situation. The group also highlighted the fact that nobody cared at all when Edmund died. Considering that Edmund was an important figure in England at that point in the story, when the presentation highlighted that nobody cared about Edmund’s death it made me think of how little the common people care about their rulers, and vice versa. This is reminiscent of King Lear’s “sermon on the heath” where he notes that while he was a ruler, he never cared enough about the plight of his own people. Finally, the group’s presentation of an alternate happy ending was creative. The idea of an alternate happy ending also has historical significance since many people who produced the play did so with an alternate ending, saying that the original ending was too sad and bleak.

Group Thirteen's presentation had the greatest and most positive impact on me because they got the whole class involved. I liked the idea of creating a police investigation about the deaths that occurred throughout King Lear. Their presentation gave a good overview of the plot, introduced the main characters, was entertaining, and got the audience involved. I personally found their presentation helpful because I got caught up in a lot of the little details while reading King Lear, and I found the reading to be confusing. This group's presentation definitely helped to clear things up for me and helped me to see the bigger picture. They kept me interested by asking the audience questions and by being funny. Overall, I thought they did a great job creating an informational yet amusing presentation that was very unique.

I was taken off guard by Group 13’s presentation of “King Lear” in the form of a police interrogation. An extremely creative performance, it modernized Shakespeare’s play and was a lot of fun listening to. Characters who were still alive by the end of the play were portrayed as witnesses to all of the deaths. Deaths of the play included Cordelia, Regan, Goneril, King Lear, Edmund, Gloucester, Cornwall, Oswald, and lots of other minor characters. The group played a policeman as the interrogator and Kent, a servant of Edmund, and Albany as the witnesses’. They even incorporated the audience by directing some of their questions towards us, and answers were rewarded with donuts! Personally, nothing gets me wanting to participate more than free donuts, and it was a genius way to seamlessly use stereotypes to their advantage. While real life experience with police questioning is hard to come by, the majority of college students can relate the act to one of the many popular cop TV shows. Each actor delved into acts glimpsed by their characters, such as “who was the last to confront Edmund” or “who witnessed the disappearance of Goneril”.  Unsure of what he/she saw, the audience was used to identify a suspect but it was the policeman who was the deciding opinion that put everyone’s views together to construct a suspect. Being a tragedy, they all had plenty to talk about. They all knew their parts well and made us knowledgeable of “King Lear” without simply summarizing the play.

The most meaningful project to me was Group 3, a police review of King Lear from witnesses’ perspectives. I liked this group project the most because it challenged the class to be reminded of the facts about King Lear. The police man with donuts was asking witnesses about King Lear’s story and they would get confused so the audience would have to say the correct answer in order to get a doughnut.  One question was about King Lear’s death and the “witness” couldn’t remember what happened after he died. I thought this was a very clever way for the group to incorporate the audience in the presentation. Unlike most, this presentation made the audience really listen, there was food rewards so I think that was a big motivator! The group project also was the most meaningful to me because the acting was very good as well. Although most of the acting came from the police man, he was in character the whole time and the presentation seemed more like a play rather than someone reading off of a power point presentation. I thought it was very clever how this group incorporated the motivation for the class. Sometimes, the presentations can seem a bit repetitive but this one stood out to me especially. The overall originality caught my attention and it was both informal and entertaining. I caught myself thinking about the play and answers to the questions that the “witnesses” couldn’t answer. The presentation had humor and the people were dressed up in character, you could tell that they practiced and prepared this presentation. 

I thought group 13 had the most effective presentation in class on May 2nd. I was impressed that they were able to incorporate the class, while maintaining the creative setting for describing the story of King Lear. They very clearly kept the story and characters in the correct century, however the language and setting was in present day. I thought their creativity in coming up with such a unique idea was unique, and they implemented their presentation well. I liked that the “main witnesses” had gaps in their statements that allowed the rest of the class to get involved. I thought they did a fantastic job of keeping the class involved by asking questions and then giving out doughnuts, which also played into the stereotype of polices stations and officers, only further enhancing their presentation. By presenting King Lear in an interesting and unique way, this group was able to maintain the class’ attention, improving the understanding and comprehension of the play for students in the class. They essentially told the story of King Lear, but in an interactive way. They clearly demonstrated a strong understanding of the storyline, and were able to convey that to the class.

My favorite group for Tuesday, May 1st was group number 13. They displayed information about King Lear through a court and incorporated interviews from the characters, as well as asked the audience members who were bystanders of the three cases of death to help out with the cases. The approach to the project was one I would not have come up with, but they did an excellent job portraying the important events of King Lear and I thought it was a very clever way to provide information to the class. The characters, which were depicted by the group members, summarized the main events that lead up to the deaths in each one of the case they were identifying. I thought this was a very efficient way to display information about King Lear and I found it very interesting and comical. Also, they did a good job of involving the audience and forcing us to engage in the so-called “case.” With providing incentives to engage I felt like people were more willing to participate in the cases. They used quotes from the text and brought in their own translations, which made the events very clear for the audience to understand. They picked some of the key quotations to describe the event adding to the credibility of the presentation and their own knowledge about the death scene. This group seemed interested about their project and engaged in the presentation making it more intriguing for the audience to pay attention to and mentally engage in. I enjoyed listening to this presentation and found it to make the deaths to King Lear clearer.

For the projects that presented on May first, my two favorite were Group 12 and Group 13. I liked Group 12's presentation because it was very creative in the realm of theater and dramatic performance. I was thankful for their big name tags, so you could see who each actor was supposed to be portraying. I also liked the fact that they translated the play into modern English! It was much easier to follow and made it that much more interesting because you could be less confused and pay more attention to what the substance of the text was saying. Overall, it was very funny and creative. I think it was especially funny when King Lear pulled out a water gun and threatened Kent. They obviously spent many hours rehearsing and memorizing their lines. My other favorite group was Group 13. They made the whole play of King Lear into something more modern, like you would see on a C.S.I. Show, or possibly an episode of Law and Order. The props were good, but the donuts were the best part! They really encouraged interaction with the audience by giving out donuts for answering questions. Overall, Group 13 gave a solid performance because it was creative and modern, while still being different from Group 12's creative and modern approach to King Lear.

My favorite group was the one that turned it into a mystery, with the police officer trying to solve it. It felt like I was at dinner theater. When they originally walked up I wasn’t really sure what was going on because they were wearing clothes that could be worn normally or could be costumes. Once he explained I really appreciated that they dressed up. I really liked the spin they put on it. When presenting, they managed to summarize the story while still keeping it short, which is hard to do. It was cool how they got the audience involved and to motivate them they brought donuts someone would get when they answered the questions. The people who played the witnesses were funny because they would be telling the story how it actually happened and then they would go off on some tangent and say that something completely absurd happened instead of following the story. Then the main police guy would say “No that’s not what happened. Does anyone here know?” And that is when the audience got to get involved, so it gave us a chance to review what happened in the play as well. Someone would answer and then get a donut. The donuts were funny to me because it fit in with the theme of the police. I really enjoyed watching their performance. While all of the performances were entertaining, I thought this one was very creative and kept the audience

All the presentations that were presented today were very clever. It was hard to pick one that really stood out far beyond the rest. With that being said, I randomly chose Group 13's presentation concerning the SLO P.D. This group put a lot of thought in coming up with the scenario in which they were interrogating characters from King Lear about all of the deaths that occurred in the story. This was sort of like a crime show that is so popular nowadays on T.V, and definitely appealed to our modern audience. They also did a great job in getting the audience to interact by giving doughnuts to us "witnesses" in the audience that volunteered information concerning all of these deaths. It was enjoyable watching the police getting made fun of in that respect. The presentation was clearly thought out and showed that the presenters had a true understanding of the text. The presentation also refreshed my memory on how all these deaths went down.

All of the groups that presented on May 1^st did an excellent job organizing their projects. The presentation that I enjoyed the most was group 13. I thought they did the best job on taking the material from the reading and putting it into an organized and amusing project. I thought it was very creative to include the class by making us feel as if we were in a courtroom setting and being questioned. The other three telling their recollection of the story did a great job emphasizing main parts from King Lear through a crime scene investigation. It was a clever and engaging way to capture the audience’s attention and keep us thinking. Also the donuts added a fun twist to the project and I wish I had answered a question right! Another addition to the project that made it more engaging was the “cop” outfit that gave us that real feel of being in a courtroom. This group seemed very prepared and organized which was clear in their performance. I was able to clearly understand the context of King Lear through a creative and interesting presentation. All of the groups did a fantastic job presenting King Lear on Tuesday, Great Job!

Out of the presentations on May 1st, I personally enjoyed the project by group 13.  This group creatively came up with a presentation that had a main character of a cop who “interviewed” three witnesses about the ending of the King Lear story.  What really drew my attention to this presentation was the fact that it encompassed different ways of presenting the information.  First, the group participated in a skit in which each student took the part of a particular character.  I appreciated the effort that went into playing these parts, especially with regards to the costume of the cop with the props, sunglasses and leather jacket; it’s always nice to see that type of effort within a project.  Second, the group also utilized PowerPoint during the presentation.  I like how the use of this wasn’t the entire project itself, but instead helped aid the presentation in a visual sense that helped the audience connect the points that were trying to be made.  Third, the group included an aspect of audience participation, which is something that hasn’t really been done in a presentation thus far.  I thought this was cool and helped increase audience attention, especially after the first donut was handed out as a reward for participating in answering a question asked by the cop. I also appreciated the humor with the donut rewards since there was the character of the cop; of course a cop would give out donuts as a reward.  It was a clever touch that, in the end, really brought cohesiveness to the whole presentation.  I also thought it appropriate to comment on the organization of the project.  Each student knew his or her part and when it was their turn to speak, so the overall preparedness of this group’s presentation was well done and well planned out, and that made it enjoyable to watch and easy to follow.

All of the groups that presented today did an excellent job. The presentations were all put together so well, they were all creative and were all very entertaining. However, Group 13’s presentation stood out to me. They had a fun, interactive presentation that the audience seemed to really enjoy. Their goal was to figure out what happened in the end of the King Lear play, and explain how everyone died. The group selected a great part from the book to present on. It is a very memorable portion that the class could all recall easily, and it gave them a lot of information to present on. They achieved their goal very creatively and were able to grasp the audiences attention. The group had great props, their powerpoint was a great assistant for the information they were presenting. The group’s customs, such as the handcuffs, were well put together, and helped get the point across that the setting was in the San Luis Obispo Police Department. Their case files, and the doughnuts were also a nice touch. The group did a great job incorporating the audience in their presentation. Keeping the audience involved and asking them questions, it helped keep the presentation interesting and made it so the audience had to pay attention. The doughnuts were a good incentive for answering a question, and went along great with the police department theme. Overall, I thought the group presented their information with confidence, they made good eye contact and had strong voices.

Group 13 was my favorite presentation and not just because I got a free donut. The police drama style presentation did a great job of creating a modern take on an old world classic. It was easily the most original of the presentations taking almost no creative queues from the original story. They developed their own idea and used it to envelope the most important moments of the King Lear story. One of the highlights of the presentation was the team’s incorporation of the audience into the skit. I experienced an extra dimension of drama as I waited tenaciously for another opportunity to earn a donut. When I first heard the mumbled statement regarding a “prize” for audience participation I thought surely it wouldn’t be one of the delicious treats in the pink box. To my surprise, after my tongue failed my in remembering who stepped up to defeat the bastardly Edmund, the vigilant student to my right was rewarded with a glazed circle of delight. I again missed my second opportunity but on the final round succeeded in remembering how the story concluded with “everyone dies”. After the presentation, Professor Marx let us in on the inside joke about how the ending actually really had been altered to a happier note for a period. Well played. I wish I could have appreciated how clever that was during the presentation but I still think it was pretty great even after the fact. To sum up, the presentation was superbly performed and concisely brought together the last few moments of the play. I couldn’t have asked for a more interesting representation and summary of King Lear. Case closed.

Group 14

Group 14 had a very interesting presentation where that did the basic idea of comparing the reading to movie versions and other types of adaptations of the reading but with this comparison to the Japanese movie Ran was a very interesting twist. This was an interesting twist because; first off it was a very obscure movie to even find I’m sure, and second, the adaptation had to deal with change in culture which seemed to have a big impact of the movie. Each member found a part in the movie that correlated to the reading and describe how the movie was different then the reading. I imagine this must have been hard for them considering there were a lot of changes in the movie but the group did well. I also think this must have been hard because the movie was 3 hours long so there was probably a lot going on that was filler that was different than the reading that they also had to sort through. The parts they pick to explain to the class were explained very well. Having to explain the differences in the plot and explain how some characters were overlapped and rolled into other characters showed that the group had thorough knowledge and understating of the characters in the reading. To see King Leer be done in another culture was very surprising and help show me how well done and important this play is and will continue to be. With all this said I enjoyed this presentation very much and the group did a good job.

I feel that all the presentations yesterday were all very good. Unfortunately my favorite one was the movie one on Bacconis Idols, but though I found it entirely entertaining seeing the examples they were providing in TV for each of the Idols. It wasn't memorable in the way for me to give much more feed back than 'it was super fun to watch', but did provide a variety of clips to keep us entertained and provided a unique medium. The use of the clips did give more insight into their interpretations of the idols as it may mean for today's society, giving it more connection for the audience. In a close second place slot, I think the Police Station Recap. The Police Station one had a great form of recap of the last part of the play. With the lead student acting as head of the investigation, and all of us as other members of the police department in a debriefing format was very creative. Also the bribing of donuts for correct information on witness statements was clever too. They obviously spent a lot of time on their act, and it was good that they got the audience involved with questions. All in all, I wish I wasn't so dawn to both of these presentations, but I found all of them attention grabbing and very amusing. They both covered the information from the readings very well.

The King Lear and Francis Bacon presentations were especially well done but the presentation that I found most unique was that done by Group 14. The presentation was a comparison between the Shakespeare play King Lear and the Japanese movie “Ran”. The movie “Ran” was based on the play King Lear only adapted to Japanese cinema. The group discussed some primary differences between the two and discussed some of the key differences in each of the five acts. The movie was based on the same time period as King Lear only taking place in Medieval Japan. Because Japanese women held very little political power at the time “Ran” adapted the characters of Lear’s three daughters to three brothers. The play also eliminated the characters of Gloucester, Edgar, Oswald, Cornwall and Edmund, their lines and actions being distributed between the other characters of the play. The movie begins similar to that of the King Lear with a Japanese lord attempting to distribute power between his three sons. One of the sons is disowned by the lord while all the power and riches are split between the other two. Over time the two sons put into power begin to pressure the lord into losing more and more power. In act three the play and movie start to deviate more rapidly. Instead of Lear disappearing into a fierce storm the lord is on the losing end of a battle. It’s clear that the lord is losing his clarity and then appears to venture off. Act four the missing characters of Cornwall, Oswald, Edmund, Edgar, and Gloucester become more apparent as their lines are taken by the main characters. One the key differences between. The betrayal between Goneril and Regan is used as a subplot between the wives of the brothers. Another key difference between the play and movie was that the Lord had no obvious character transformation like that of Lear. Overall the group was very informative in comparing play King Lear to the adapted Japanese movie.

Group 15

Of the presentations on May 1, I felt that the Baconian Idol project stood out the most.  I felt that the presenters made their video especially entertaining.  It was interesting to see examples of the different Baconian idols in the sitcom/television world.  I thought this was an extremely effective teaching method, but I felt that the text between each scene, describing the idols could have been screened longer.  I had some difficulty reading the text as it was scrolling through so quickly.  I thought that because the shows that the group took the clips from were extremely comedic and entertaining to begin with, the quality of their presentation was very much enhanced, but I felt that some of the clips the group chose were a bit forced with the matching idol quality.  I thought that some of the clips didn’t match their corresponding idol as well as other clips.

Of the groups that presented yesterday, two groups had projects that impacted me. First, Group 15’s project was one of the two that had the most impact for me. When I read the essays written by Bacon, I had a hard time understanding his four idols and what exactly he meant by them. When Group 15 took the four idols and broke them up into categories each with pop culture examples, I felt as though I fully understood what Bacon was saying. It was also interesting to me that there seemed to be so many examples in our culture to support what Bacon was saying. I feel as though that shows just how relevant and important his ideals are still today, hundreds of years later. The second project that had the most impact for me was Group 12’s reenactment of Act 1 Scene 1 in modern English. It really struck me when they were performing just how foolish King Lear’s thought process and decisions were in the scene. While I did catch on to the fact that he was not being rational when I was reading, I feel as though it was magnified when they performed their interpretation in modern English

Group 15's project was the most entertaining and meaningful to me out of all the groups that presented on May 1st. Group 15 presented on Francis Bacon's Novum Organum. I found Novum Organum to be a little bit outdated in terms of language and relatability. They used culture and modern interpretations from TV shows and movies to relate this work to a modern audience. What I didn't like is that they really didn't talk to us. There was no human feeling in the video, just something they put together and let it roll. I really would have liked to see it broken up into the four pieces and have them talk in between the sections. Otherwise, the project was solid. All of the clips described the four idols in very clear and simple terms. Here I would have liked to see the presenters themselves introduce the idols and tell us what they are about, then play the video clips to add the humor. The video clips were very well chosen and were all culturally relevant, which many people could recognize and laugh along with. Not the best project it could have been, but it was well done with a few minor gripes.

The group presentation that had the most meaning to me was the group that discussed Bacon's 4 idols. Being in a more scientifically based major, I have a great appreciation for Bacon. I like how the group took a rather abstract concept and made it relevant to a modern audience. It was fun seeing shows that I watch in my spare time for fun relate to the more technical part of my life. It actually got me thinking of examples of how these four idols show up in my classwork.  For the idol of the tribe, in several lab classes the data didn't match the expected results. Instead of figuring out why, there was this temptation to alter the experiment to get the 'right' answer, regardless of the change's scientific relevance. We are so driven as a society to be right, it can blind us from learning why things stray from the right answer. For the idol of the theater, the aerospace industry is incredibly stuck in tradition. If something worked before, it will continue to be done that way for decades. It is considered too risky or expensive to try new things. This is slowing the potential growth of one of the most high tech industries. For the idol of the cave, in most of the group projects I've worked on, conflict arises from differences of opinion. The progress of the project is inhibited by people being unable to step away from their own mindset and see value in other possible beliefs. For the idol of the marketplace, there is a problem in acronyms. Even though there is an attempt to use simple language overall, words get bunched together to form new words. This can get very confusing as the same acronym can be used for several different parts of the same system. In summation, Even though Bacon brought the idols to the attention of everyone in the 17th century, it still hinders are development and understanding nearly 400 years later.