'Twelfth Night' on Wordle

No 9. in our Shakespeare Wordles series : Twelfth Night, currently being studied by our Transition Year pupils.

Yesterday's Guardian online has an article by Maddy Costa about Malvolio, following Richard Wilson's arrival in the part for the RSC:-

What do they see in Malvolio? On paper, there is little to recommend him: he is unforgiving and rude; he criticises his mistress, Olivia, while massaging his rampant ego with indulgent dreams of life as her husband. His austerity is born of a puritanism that makes him intolerant of revelry – or, as the unruly Sir Toby Belch puts it, such simple good things as "cakes and ale". What's to like? [continued].


Wordles are created by Jonathan Feinberg's online tool here; the more times the word appears in the text, the larger the word. In our Shakespeare Wordles, the entire text, including the name indicators of the characters before they speak, is included. Thus you can see how relatively dominant a character is in each play, as well as spot recurring ideas and themes. Our Wordles use different numbers of 'maximum words'. Click on the image for a closer view.

2007 Drama Prizes

Congratulations to the winners of this year's drama prizes. The Senior Prize goes to Ben Russell, for his outstanding performances as Malvolio in Twelfth Night and as Stepan Stepanich Tschubukov in Chekhov's A Marriage Proposal.
The Junior Prize goes to Celeste Guinness, for her excellent acting in the role of Angelique in The Hypochondriac in February. And the Fry Prize for Stagecraft goes to Katie Terres, for her fine design work on the set of Twelfth Night.

The School for Scandal

The cast and crew from our November production of Twelfth Night are going on Monday evening to the new Abbey Theatre production of Sheridan's The School for Scandal, which has had very good notices in the press - called 'sparkling' by the Irish Times and 'nothing short of a triumph' by the Irish Independent. An introduction and the full text can be seen by clicking here.

Twelfth Night review

Rebecca Feeney-Barry and Emily Plunket, from Transition Year, who were also two of the production's prompters, here review Twelfth Night.

Twelfth Night photo album

Click here for a selection of over 120 photos of rehearsals and other moments from the recent Twelfth Night production. Then click on 'View Slideshow'.

Twelfth Night

Our production of Twelfth Night featured last Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and was tremendously well-received - great reward for all after more than two months' hard work. Shortly we will post a pupil-review here, and an album of photos.

Transition Year pupils have now completed their major project, the Extended Essays. These will also feature here within the next fortnight.

Exams start tomorrow, followed by an Exodus weekend off.

Twelfth Night performances

Above, the huge cast of our production of Twelfth Night, which had its preview last night, and opens tonight in the BSR at 7pm.

Twelfth Night week

Pictured is a general dance practice for the end of Twelfth Night, this year's Senior Play, which is performed this week on Thursday (preview), Friday and Saturday. The production ends with the whole cast dancing to Charles Trenet's 'Hop! Hop!'

For those attending, here is a link to a page from the programme, describing the set-up for the plot, and commenting on the play.

Next week, we will post a review of the production by Sophie Haslett, V form.

Below, Ben Russell in full flow preparing for the part of Malvolio, Olivia's steward.

Twelfth Night poster

Term resumes this morning. Congratulations to Gabriella von Bulow, the VI form artist who has won the poster competition for our Twelfth Night production next week.

Twelfth Night update

Rehearsals in the BSR for our forthcoming Shakespeare Society production of Twelfth Night on 17/18 November have been underway for over a month now. Yesterday our costume director, Jann Robinson, arrived from England to start seeing actors and the many 'extras' (including the choir). Choir practices with have been progressing in parallel with the acting rehearsals ; Mrs Malone-Brady has composed some lovely music for Shakespeare's lyrics, and the famous song 'Smoke Gets in Your Eyes' will open the production. After half-term the BSR will be transformed by the art and design team, led by Katie Terres. Patrick Ussher is designing the programme. Our Head of Drama, Jeremy Stone, apart from being lighting director, will also direct the final wedding party dance, to the music of French crooner Charles Trenet.

Twelfth Night poster competition

We are again running a poster competition for the forthcoming Shakespeare Society production of Twelfth Night. The 'theme' of this production is 1920/30s Mediterranean beach society, with setting, costumes and music all reflecting this. Art pupils are invited to take part, and can see here evocative French pictures of the time to inspire them. Please see Mr Watts or Miss Cullen for further details. Entries are due in by half-term (Friday 27th October).

Shakespeare Searched

A new link has been added to our Shakespeare Links sidebar - Shakespeare Searched, a search engine of all his works, particularly useful for VI and V forms studying Leaving Certificate. Search for individual words, clusters of words/ideas/topics, by every individual character, and in every play (plus the sonnets).

In Twelfth Night, our Shakespeare Society production currently in rehearsal, 'love' appears 62 times. In Macbeth, being revised now by VI form, 'love' appears 18 times.

Twelfth Night cast

45 VI and V formers recently auditioned for speaking parts in our forthcoming production of Twelfth Night - far more than the parts available, especially for girls. For the cast list, click here. We will also be using plenty of musicians, singers, dancers, and back-stage workers in due course. Rehearsals begin straight away.

Twelfth Night

Our Shakespeare Society puts on its biennial production on November 16th, 17th and 18th in the Big Schoolroom, following successes in recent years such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice and The Comedy of Errors. Many senior pupils have already expressed interest in acting, singing, dancing, set design and helping backstage. We aim to involve as many people as possible, and to present accessible and enjoyable productions of the works of the world's greatest playwright. We will be holding acting auditions in the first week of term in September. Two years ago we put on As You Like It (pictured), with over 100 pupils involved in a spectacular production. This year should be equally good, given the talent seen in recent drama productions such as Grease, and musical events such as the 2006 Gala Concert.