ms-macbeck

[ms-macbeck]

I can't be the only one who always thinks of Leaf Coneybear whenever I hear Amy Coney Barrett...

I would much prefer Leaf be on the Supreme Court, which is saying something.

#leaf coneybear #amy coney barrett #supreme court #spelling bee #putnam county

[ms-macbeck]

One my students had a similar conversation with me in the spring before Covid closings...

👀👀👀👀👀👀

Can't stop thinking about how I half-jokingly told a friend about my weird idea with Julius Caesar but they're mean girls (not the movie, just the general highschool stereotype) and she got this confused look on her face and said "like... A fanfiction?" and I just went "nah, like a standard production" and she looked so fucking confused.

#ever seen the #donmar warehouse #production of #julius caesar #not mean girls but so good and i just rewatched it last week

[ms-macbeck]

Your tags make me happy. I love when my students go FULL NERD on me, that's how I was manipulated convinced to do Twelfth Night a few years ago.

Also I have a soft spot for R&J 💜

.

[ms-macbeck]

Hold a pencil/pen in your teeth (especially while reading/working)!! This helps you be more mindful of clenching your jaw and tricks your brain into thinking you're smiling, which has a positive impact on your mental state.

Yeah, it's not a perfect study, but I find it SO helpful as a chronic jaw clencher.

my entire life changed when my dentist told me that the only time my teeth should be touching is when i’m chewing. every single time my teeth are touching i have to separate them. and i noticed that i clench my teeth a LOT.

[ms-macbeck]

Oh my god.

I am lol'ing at how much my brain does not work these days, given that I teach Hamlet every year and JUST DIRECTED MUCH ADO IN THE SPRING LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.

Someone needs to take away both my teaching cert and my masters degree.

Thank you for not ridiculing me 😂😂😂😂😂😂

Mercutio

Benvolio

Horatio

Antonio

THE SHAKESPEARE GAYS NAMES END IN "O" IF HIS NAME END IN O, HE'S GAY.

#LMFAO THIS IS THE DUMBEST THING EVER AND IT IS HILARIOUS #i had a FULL THOUGHT #and it was not even remotely accurate #pd days are ruining me #also ive already cried about remote teaching three times today #and now im dying of laughter #so good things i guess? #you are an OG for not destroying me for that mistake #love you #stranger on tumblr

[ms-macbeck]

I agree, but part of me also likes the version of Hamlet where Claudio is a closeted problematic gay man who acts on his internalized homophobia. I mean, his first speech is basically telling Hamlet to stop acting like an emotional woman. His super manly brother threatened him, Gertrude is a beard *unknowing or knowing, works either way.*

I still think hes a "dumb straight guy" but... I dont hate that take?

Mercutio

Benvolio

Horatio

Antonio

THE SHAKESPEARE GAYS NAMES END IN "O" IF HIS NAME END IN O, HE'S GAY.

[ms-macbeck]

Also them experiencing their feelings at 11 is the most appropriate take on R&J. That's an entire lit crit essay in one sentence, and I am here for it.

Here’s a hot take for you:

I know it’s fun and edgy to say that if Romeo and Juliet had lived they would have had a miserable marriage but I super disagree.

They share a poetic, romantic sensibility that no one else in the entire play has. Everyone else is either bawdy (Nurse), or witty (Mercutio, Benvolio), or practical (mom and dad Capulet, Rosaline - even though she never appears). Romeo and Juliet, however, experience their feelings at 11 without judging themselves. They are incredibly present and self-aware about their feelings, and they are the only two people in the play that are the same level of Extra, and that’s what they immediately recognize in each other.

They have fun together in a way that is more in line with Shakespeare’s comedy couples than his tragedy couples. They tease each other and play word games even in dire circumstances. They balance each other’s idiosyncrasies and compliment one another’s senses of humor.

But most importantly, it’s a matter of “What’s the Stronger Choice?” 

 Which I’m constantly harping on about. It’s sad if two people die young. It’s devastating to witness the deaths of two people about to share a beautiful life-long love.

You have to make the audience believe that they are perfectly suited (and Shakespeare does help you with that). You’re making for a lukewarm production if you dull the tragedy by letting the audience walk away thinking: “oh well. It never would have worked anyway.”

[ms-macbeck]

I was finally able to get into my classroom to grab materials to work on curriculum, most importantly my handwritten lecture notes for my Shakeapeare and Theater class *yes, they are literally just in a notebook and not digital, idk man* and I felt like it was important to share with you some of my favorite notes.

In order, a VERY DETAILED timeline of the history of theater; a VERY DETAILED description and definition of Roman theater; naked ladies??; and the very important information about fake penises.

I am not sure how I'm a teacher, either, you guys.

#nada to yada #with NO in between #fake penises everywhere #roman theater is just greek #with more penises #english teacher problems #english teacher #teachers #remote teaching #theater #history of theater

[ms-macbeck]

Okay hi apparently I'm on some R&J shit these days, but there are several moments in this post where I want to hug OP and several where I want to yell at OP.

Romeo and Juliet was a play about two ADULTS in early drafts - that's why there are some moments in it where you're like wtf Juliet, you are 13 and talking like a grown ass woman. That's because most of Romeo was rewritten, but only some of Juliet was. That's also why Romeo seems even more like a lovable moron with no real character development. This is a play about women and girls, and, as in every other Shakespearean tragedy, no one listening to them and everything going wrong as a result.

The mistake people are making in both arguments (this is true love vs this is a future divorce in the making) is assuming this play deals with romance. It doesnt. This is an entirely political play at every single moment. The Friar is looking for upward mobility with his plan to stop the feud, Lord Capulet needs the money and titles that come with marrying his daughter to Paris, Tybalt is obsessed with family legacy and his status within the family after being insulted by his uncle at a party, the nurse views her role as the true mother to Juliet as a statement on class issues, and the Prince and his edicts are a statement on the monarchy in Shakespeare's time. Theres more, but I have to go write my curriculum* in like 5 minutes.

Shakespeare does not care about the long term sustainability of the relationship, because that is not the point of the play. The debate about what their future would be is not pointless (because it is SO fun) but it doesnt matter because they are written to die. Shakespeare did not care about the 'love' part if it, and in the time period that he wrote the play, his audience wouldn't have cared, either. The tragedy is not about love or death; it's about a community where power and hierarchy reigns and the folks outside of those roles are destroyed for the benefit of the ruling and religious class.

*I teach a Shakeapeare and Theatre course, so I guess I could pretend posting on tumblr is part of my PD time???

Here’s a hot take for you:

I know it’s fun and edgy to say that if Romeo and Juliet had lived they would have had a miserable marriage but I super disagree.

They share a poetic, romantic sensibility that no one else in the entire play has. Everyone else is either bawdy (Nurse), or witty (Mercutio, Benvolio), or practical (mom and dad Capulet, Rosaline - even though she never appears). Romeo and Juliet, however, experience their feelings at 11 without judging themselves. They are incredibly present and self-aware about their feelings, and they are the only two people in the play that are the same level of Extra, and that’s what they immediately recognize in each other.

They have fun together in a way that is more in line with Shakespeare’s comedy couples than his tragedy couples. They tease each other and play word games even in dire circumstances. They balance each other’s idiosyncrasies and compliment one another’s senses of humor.

But most importantly, it’s a matter of “What’s the Stronger Choice?” 

 Which I’m constantly harping on about. It’s sad if two people die young. It’s devastating to witness the deaths of two people about to share a beautiful life-long love.

You have to make the audience believe that they are perfectly suited (and Shakespeare does help you with that). You’re making for a lukewarm production if you dull the tragedy by letting the audience walk away thinking: “oh well. It never would have worked anyway.”

#romeo and juliet #tybalt is a saucy boy

[ms-macbeck]

I have many thoughts on this post, but I think there is one point that NEEDS to be clarified:

Lord Capulet threatens to KILL HER. Not kick her out. She does not leave the tomb because she is a dead woman walking anyway, and Juliet takes her OWN life instead of passively allowing it to happen to her. She tells the Friar she's going to do it, and he abandons her (seriously, fuck that guy, he is such a piece of shit throughout the entire play).

Parents owned their children, and her punishment would be death. Juliet is the most tragic of characters because her entire story line is about consent and autonomy, and in her final moments she achieves both through suicide, and we are all left to mourn many types of destruction that could have been prevented.

I’m a week away from playing Juliet here in New York and here are some things I’ve learned about this play and Juliet in particular over this process 

cw for suicide talk. I mean. You know how it ends but I’m gonna Go Into it.

Juliet has no friends. No one. I literally think she talks to the nurse, the trees in the courtyard and the Friar in confession. And that’s it. If she had a Celia things would be different. But she doesn’t. She’s alone. And that’s an integral part of the tragedy.

This is a horny play. If she can use the horniest sounding variation of a phrase she will. I mean partly that’s just Shakespeare, but it also speaks to her isolation and sexual curiosity.

Lots of bird talk. Lots of talk about Romeo being her bird. Lots of talk about wanting?? to tie?? him up?? Like you would a little pet bird. Juliet tops is what I’m saying. 

In the modern theatrical conventions, we tend to smoosh the Shakespearean 5-act structure into 2 acts. When you do that, Act 1 is a comedy, where Romeo is the star, and Act 2 is a tragedy, where Juliet is the star. This whole thing is super interesting and I’ll probably make a separate post about this, but basically, a really good production can make you forget you know the ending. I don’t know if we’re there in this production, but that’s the goal!

I think Juliet was suicidal before any of this started. All of act 2 pretty much devolves into people keeping instruments of suicide away from Juliet. Like, the Nurse is all “Shame come to Romeo” until Jule starts looking a little too closely at that rope ladder and then she’s like “ok. ok. I’ll find him.” And the Friar only goes with that wild sleeping draught plan because she is literally holding herself hostage at knife point in his cell. I think - in meeting Romeo - Juliet found a reason to keep going, escape her isolation, and found a kindred soul to boot. which brings me to:

Romeo and Juliet really love each other. This play is NOT an indictment of young, rash love. Shakespeare is kinder than that, and more nuanced. If you take nothing else away from this post take this: Shakespeare was not writing fables. There is NO “moral to the story” in Shakespeare. Ever.  They’re in love because they say they are - both to each other and the audience - and it’s as real as any other given circumstance spoken in the play. It’s as real as “two households both alike in dignity.” Because that’s how Shakespeare works.

I can really only speak to Juliet for this because I’ve been in her words for the last month and a half, but for her it’s an all-consuming love because of her isolation and the darkness in her thoughts. She thought she was the only person in the world who felt the way she felt. Of course she genuinely couldn’t think of a reason to keep going as soon as that was taken from her. She was alone again. She couldn’t trust her nurse anymore, her father threatened to kick her out, she barely knows her mother, and the one person she’d ever met who saw the world like she did - the one person, as far as she knows, in the world - was gone.

Anyway I’m really excited, and also scared out of my gourd about doing this play. If you’re going to be in New York and want to do something depressing for Valentine’s Day you can get tickets here.

#i get very emotional talking about baby Juliet

[ms-macbeck]

My first name means 'weary' or 'cow,' so I think imma sit this one out.

New Therapy Tool

1. Search your First, Middle, and Last name etymologies in Google.

2. Put the translations into a phrase that makes some kind of sense.

3. Now, whenever you feel small or are wrestling with self-doubt, try calling yourself whatever epic translation your name means. 

Post yours below! Let me see those new titles!!!

(Name meanings should be common enough that they don’t give away your legal name, but if they’re really obvious, please use common sense before sharing)

PS. My new title to call myself is OATH OF GOD’S SEA WARRIOR

#my name #name meaning #etymology

[ms-macbeck]

This is SO important for teachers, as well - not just having this a resource for students but also as a reminder about digital and remote learning for LGBTQ kids. Students may not be out at home, so be sure to tread carefully and ask if you aren't sure.

@ all trans people about to attend online school:

This will visually remove your deadname from any webpage. Obviously switch it off if your parents wanna check up on your work, but yee here's the link fam!!!! BOOST THIS!!! SEND THIS TO ANY TRANS PERSON YOU KNOW WHO WILL NEED THIS

#trans resources #trans positivity #trans tips #nonbinary #lgbtqai #lgbtq community #lgbtq #lgbt #teacher #teachers #gsa #gay straight alliance #queer straight alliance #QSA #protect trans kids #protect trans lives

[ms-macbeck]

All of this appeals to me.

just finished playing Elsinore and I can’t recommend it enough! it’s groundhog’s day but Make It Hamlet, and therefore couldn’t be more tailor-made to my interests if they’d tried. Time loops, Shakespeare, Ophelia-centric to allow her the agency she doesn’t really have in the original play, a lot of different possible endings, eldritch fuckery. if any of that appeals you should check it out, I’ve really, really enjoyed it!

#hamlet #i would die for ophelia

[ms-macbeck]

But we can all agree that THIS take on Shakespeare is trash, right? Like... the absolute worst?

Sophie Okonedo in The Hollow Crown

[images via]

Apparently I should be checking out this miniseries adaptation of Shakespeare’s history plays, immediate-style. 

#Especially since it was originally supposed to #JAMES EARL JONES #but BBC said no it had to be a British actor (ironic hrm?) #and then cast an #overly tanned Anthony Hopkins #instead #othello #incorrect shakespeare #shakespeare #queer shakespeare #blackface #or tan face #i guess

[ms-macbeck]

This poorly-lit and blurry AF picture I took of my cat being very offended by my intrusion looks like a painting. A painting of a cat just absolutely going off at sight of a camera under HIS bed.

#it's not his bed #it's mine #but you know #cats #beans #cat beans #malcolm #rescue cats #art #painting #cats of tumblr #caturday

[ms-macbeck]

Wouldn't load on mobile, repeatedly, but also works as a response.

Me: brain stops working; has no response

Someone: “Why do you get so heated while discussing lore of stuff? And why is it so detailed? Why do you have several thousand words devoted to this shit?”

Me: 

[ms-macbeck]

#upvotes for macbeth references #Shakespeare #reddit #reddit thread #shakespeare memes #macbeth memes #macbeth #romeo and juliet #bite your thumb