I've been borrowing the BBC Arkangel recordings from our local library when we do a Shakespeare play, following the audio alongside a written guide to the play. I wasn't able to get a BBC copy of The Tempest but I did find a Naxos recording (ISBN 13: 9789626343081) which has been very good. We've noticed a few times that the male voices on one or two of the Arkangel recordings were sometimes difficult to distinguish from one another but the Naxos recording didn't have that problem and the dramatisation was excellent. It's unabridged and lasts for about 2 hours and 8 minutes.
I did a 10 week schedule for the play, dividing the audio into about 15 minutes listening time each week. This leaves some time to watch a movie version of The Tempest. We'd previously read the adapted story versions of The Tempest in The Enchanted Island by Ian Serraillier and Tales From Shakespeare by the Lambs.
Week 1
Act 1: Scene 1 and Scene 2 up to Enter ARIEL.
Week 2
Act 1: Scene 2 from ARIEL 'All hail, reat Master, grave sir, Hail!'
Act 1: Scene 2 to CALIBAN exits
Act 1: Scene 2 Enter FERDINAND; and ARIEL, invisible, playing and singing, "Come into these yellow sands..' up to end of Scene 2.
Week 4
Act 2: Scene 1 from Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN, FRANCISCO, and others up to enter ARIEL, invisible, with music and song.
Week 5
Act 2 : Scene 1 continue until end of Scene 1 and continue on to end of Scene 2
Week 6
Act 3: Scene 1 Enter FERDINAND continue until the end of Act 3: Scene 2
Week 7
Act 3: Scene 3 Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN, FRANCISCO, etc
Complete Scene 3
Act 4: Scene 1 Up to Enter CERES
Week 8
Act 4: Scene 1 From CERES until the end of Scene 1
Week 9
Act 5: Scene 1 Enter PROSPERO and ARIEL - up to 'Here Prospero discovers Ferdinand and Miranda playing at chess.'
Week 10
Continue Act 5: Scene 1 to the end of the play
Did you know that the 27 moons of Uranus are named after characters in Shakespeare's plays (except for a couple taken from the writings of Alexander Pope)? And of those, 10 are named after the characters in The Tempest.
You can download the script of the play here or read it online here.
A possible movie option has been done by the Stratford Festival - I haven't seen it but thought it looked like it might be quite good.
3 comments:
We're doing "The Taming of the Shrew." You remind me that we need to find a good version to watch. Thank you for sharing your plans!
The animated Shakespeare version of the Shrew is a bit of fun, especially for younger children. Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor acted together in one version which was good but needs editing mainly at the beginning - even though it's G rated.
The BBC versions are pricey but worth it. We studied Julius Caesar last year. We are now working our way through MacBeth. :-)
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