Tom Stoppard and Arcadia

 We continue our reading of Arcadia - getting deeper into the mystery of Byron - the duel - and the hermit.  Benard is elated to find out that Byron actually was at Sidley Hall - and Thomasina discovers fractals and the Chaos Theory - and her book is not lost.  We finish reading through Act 1.  This is the period A recording of our reading.

  Our second day of a workshop-style reading of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia.  This time the action has shifted to the present day.  Unlike the first day - today's reading has a lot more exposition - and the laughs are fewer, but the mysteries deepen.  We meet Benard, Hannah, Valentine, Gus and Chloe.  We also see some items, including 3 letters tucked into a book of bad poetry, that we were introduced to in yesterday's reading.  We also get to the first two pages of Scene 3 - back to the Romantic Era - and Byron gets mentioned for the first time.

We begin Arcadia and are able to read through all of scene 1 - using the same reading technique we used with Shakespeare (a student "owns" the character for one page).  Great reaction to a very funny play.  In this scene Septimas is accused of having an affair with Mrs Chater - while Thomasina makes a very brilliant discovery about the nature of jam stirred into rice pudding.  We also begin Scene 2 - getting to through the first page (to try and give the students a feel for the two time periods).  This is the Period A reading of the play.

 We continue our in-class "workshop" reading of Arcadia - today we read and talk about the second part of Scene 7.

Our next to the last reading of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia.  The two worlds - the modern and the Romantic Era keep coming closer and closer and more and more is revealed about what happened (and more questions pop up as well).  By now the students (and this teacher) are keenly aware that Thomasina's fate is approaching - and their is a huge anticipation for the play's resolution.  This is the 9th period discussion for this year.