Skit Presentation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth by Students of Second-Semester Japanese

1. Skit Presentation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth by Students of Second-Semester Japanese Yukie Aida, Ph.D. Courtney Combs Drew Underwood Chao En Yang University of Texas at Austin, USA

2. JPN507 Group Skit Presentation Guidelines ･Creating an original skit (not translation) in Japanese to present to the class. ･Each group has freedom to choose the topic of the skit. No offensive language is allowed. ･The performance should last about 4.5-5 minutes (3 student group) or 6 minutes (4 student group). All group members have to equally take part in the performance. ･The skit must include a variety of vocabulary and grammatical structures you have learned so far. Do not include words and grammatical structures unfamiliar to you and your classmates. ･The Japanese dialogue has to be typed double-spaced, and the English translation for each Japanese line should be written directly below each Japanese line. Attach a plot summary in English as well. ･Several group meetings are included in your regular class hours, however expect to meet outside of the class also. Please fill in the log sheet of this project. You need to provide the information as to who attended the meeting and what was achieved in the meeting. ･Your performance will be videotaped and may be shown to the future students of JPN 507 as an example. ･Group presentations will be evaluated based on 1) attendance and participation (meetings, practices, presentation, watching other group’s presentation); b) the quality of the prepared dialogue (all the group members receive the same grade) and c) the quality of the performance (individually assessed).

3. The Schedule of the Skit Project Week 10: April 1st (Th) The first discussion of the skit project. Groups were announced. Brainstorming of skit ideas. Week 11: April 5th (M) 15 min discussion in class April 9th (F) 50 min discussion in class Week 12: April 15th (Th) The first draft due. Week 13: April 19th (M) The first draft was returned. 15 min discussion in class April 23rd (F) 15 min discussion in class Week 14: April 26th (M) The rewrite due. April 30th (F) The rewrite was returned. Rehearsal was conducted. Week 15: May 4th (Tu) Presentation 1 (5 groups) / The final version due. May 6th (Th) Presentation 2 (4 groups) / The final version due.

4. Macbeth Group The first day, we decided a few minutes into our conversation that we wanted to do Macbeth. We wanted to do something overly dramatic and take it very seriously. Courtney brought up the idea of Shakespeare, and Drew suggested Macbeth. The thought did not even occur to us of whether or not we would be able to translate, because our goal was never to translate Shakespeare. At that point in our education of Japanese, we felt like if we needed to say something, we had the capacity to say it, if in a simplistic and not very exciting way.

5. We knew that, because of the nature of the play, there were a lot of subtleties that we simply could not capture in the limited time frame and the limited knowledge of Japanese we had. Because of that, we did have to take the blocking part (sword fight) of the skit very seriously to sort of make up for what we could not say.

6. Item 10: I enjoyed the skit project becauseStudent #1:Reason 1: I got to have room for creative interpretationReason 2: I got to practice writing in Japanese!Reason 3: I was able to work cooperatively with others and get feedback, ideas about how to work and what phrases might go best with the overall presentation.

7. Student #2:Reason 1: It was sort of our project. It was up to us to make it however good or bad we wanted it to be, and when the whole group steps up and agrees to make it great, it becomes particularly enjoyable. It may have been a lot of work, but all the work was enjoyable.Reason 2: It put us in a position where we had to teach ourselves and help each other out as well. It is a very different thing writing a few sentences for quizzes in class and writing a multiple page script, and it really forced us to use everything we knew to make it as good as possible.Reason 3: Working in group projects for school is often frustrating, because it can be difficult to find acceptable times to meet, but once that part is taken care of, it is fun getting to know the people in your group and working with them to accomplish a goal. The skit project would certainly be easier if it was not a group project, but it would be a lot less enjoyable.Reason 4: Showing off our hard work to the rest of the class was probably the best part. We took the time not only to write our script, but to block out the fight scenes and memorize our lines. The best part was certainly the presentation.

8. Student #3:Reason 1: funReason 2: usefulReason 3: group workReason 4: brainstorming

9. The item 11: I did not enjoy the skit project because Student #2 listed two reasons. Reason 1: It was a lot of work. Though the work was generally enjoyable, it would have been easier and a lot less time consuming to just take another test. Towards the end of the semester, a lot of work piles on from a lot of different classes, and even when the work is enjoyable, it can be frustrating. Reason 2: Finding times for all the group members to meet up is always difficult. It was a little easier because there were only three people in our group, but it still meant we could not work on our own time and had to work on the group’s, which was much more valuable because it was much less abundant. Student #3: Reason 1: considerable amount of time spent Student #1 did not list any reasons.

10. The item #12: Did you enjoy watching other groups perform their skits? Student #1: Yes.Some of the stories they wrote were amazing! I enjoy getting to see the creative works of other people and how they can put the same knowledge to use. Also, No. The reason was “Some of them weren’t very entertaining” Student #2: Yes. It was fun seeing the creativity of the other groups. All of us had only two semesters of Japanese skill at the time and we were all forced to come up with very creative ways to say what we wanted to say. Student #3: Yes. It’s interesting to watch another group’s ideas

11. Item 13 & 14: Anxiety Level During preparation During presentation Student #1: Somewhat anxious / Anxious Student #2: Not much anxious / Anxious Student #3: Anxious / Anxious

12. Item #15: What was the most challenging part(s) of the skit project? Student #1: Performing, I have social anxiety and that sometimes takes over when I stand in front of bigger groups. I even forgot a line! I have had time to work on this though and I am so glad that even though I wasn’t necessarily comfortable, I really loved working on this project. Student #2: The most challenging part was writing the dialogue. We picked a particularly ambitious topic about which to write, and saying everything we wanted to say with our minimal knowledge of the language was a challenge. In the end, we did have to leave some things ambiguous and clarify within the blocking of the skit. Student #3: Memorizing my lines, must speak eloquently in front of audiences, and must avoid blanking of the mind and scripts while performing.

13. Item #16: Other comments/suggestions? Student #1: Suggestions: Maybe give some groups with blander storylines a theme, or some suggestions. I know that performing in front of a crowd can make you nervous and isn’t always fun, but it should be fun for them and the class! I hope there’s a way to get other students really motivated to act in that way too. Comments: It was a great project. I loved working with my classmates and writing (even if it wasn’t always the best grammar). Student #2: Providing more class days to work on the skit would be beneficial, and maybe even assigning it earlier to provide as much time as possible. It is difficult to meet outside of class, so having that hour where all the group members would normally be going to class anyway was really helpful. More of those would be great. Student #3: None.

14. Thank you very much for attending this session. Please send your questions or comments to: Yukie Aida y.aida@mail.utexas.edu