Post on the website either a short response to the performance of Henry V (especially concerning what we read in class) or a response to the ending of the play (if you were not able to see the school performance).

-- Anonymous, November 15, 2004

Answers

When you guys respond, please include any suggestions for what could have been better, what the actors/actresses need to work on, any improvements we need on the technical side, etc. General suggestions can help us do better next year.

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2004

Hey guys, I thought the preformance was VERY impressive! Especially the fact that it was all in Shakespearian and French! Seeing the play cleared up it's story line emensly and after a while you didn't even notice the language because the actions were so expressive. 5 STARS! Can't wait till the next one.

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2004

I thought the play was very interesting. My favorite scene had to have been the tennis ball scene. It was acted out very well and was easy to interpret for the people who had not read the play. For some reason I had pictured in my head a bigger box, but I guess that wasn't a major problem. When King Henry threw the ball at the mirror I was extremely surprised. My favorite actor was T.J. because he had the guts to wear tights and that blue robe, and Dexter sang well also. All in all, the performance was very good.

P.S. Was the tennis ball a baseball?

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2004

I thought the play went very well, but I guess I have a bias, don't I? Perhaps next year we should choose an easier-to-follow play. My sister and her friend watched it, and couldnt follow the story line, but did get a few jokes, so I suppose it went alright.

P.S. Yes, it was a baseball, can you break a mirror with a tennis ball?

P.P.S. Way to mack it up with that senior Norah Byrd! hahaha

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2004

to describe thge play in one word: AMAZINGPERFORMANCEBYALLTHEACTORSANDCREW!!!

i had no ieda there were so many good actors at our school!!!! TJ-u were grrrrreat!!! you WERE the charactor, it wa awesome Dexter-y didnt you tell us u had such a great voice?!?!? great singing, you should join chorus

as for my response to the plot and what not-very good i loved the ending, it really closed things, especially with chorus coming on with the 'epilogue'. my favorite parts-the few monty python jokes and the broken mirror.

finally id like to say that it is a shame that carlton and the guy who played henry are seniors, casue i wish i could see them in next years play as well

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2004

*bounces up and down* Fifty gold stars to the actors!! I thought everyone did a great job with the Shakespearean English: it was easy to understand what was going on even if it was hard sometimes to tell exactly what was being said.

The Dead Beats were great, too...I thought their last song was a good background to Mike and Carlton reconciling and Nora being carted off.

Did "the Boy" remind anyone else of Gavroche from Les Miserables? Gavroche sort of had a similar role, following the fighting men around and being cheeky before he died (along with the rest of the Les Miz cast).

Oh, and I loved Ilya's interpretation of the Dauphin as a spoiled gay prince. The horse part was *really* hilarious, even better than when we read it in class. And there was Ilya's trademark striptease, of course...

I did notice that some of the actors toned down or mangled their accents a little towards the end (on Saturday). Other than that, though...FAN-FRICKEN'-TASTIC PERFORMANCE, GUYS!! It was really boss.

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2004

Wow. How can anyone memorize so many lines...*Shakespearean* (did I butcher that spelling?) lines...when it takes me a month to memorize a five line poem? Anyhoo, super-uber-freaking-duperly awesome sauce job! Especially the French...

...how?!

Marie--YES! She even wore the same hat! And the part where she got carried off stage... *sob*

Whew.

Gorsh, the tennis/baseball-meets-mirror thing made me jump.

Snaps for TJ and Dexter!

Nora was awesome.

Hooray for short, choppy sentences!

Oh, one other thing: how did Jessica not choke? That looked kinda painful and not fun. Like, ouch.

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2004

Indeed the play was boss. Although it was difficult to hear and difficult to understand, I liked it. The actors spoke really fast, which made it hard to hear, but other than that it was fantabulous. Reading the play in class certainly helped. Kudos to T.J. and Dexter for a job well done. I forsee great plays in both of your futures...

Did the baseball break the mirror? I saw the Friday play and I don't remember it breaking the mirror.

Again good job and I'm looking forward to the next play!

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2004

1. The mirror did not break at preview or on Friday (very frustrating) 2. Indigo was not actually hung. That was our amazing special effect 3. Comments, jokes, concerns, etc. about male actors wearing tights are hereby banned. Thanks for coming to the show, glad you enjoyed it.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

I kinda regret not being able to see the play. =( I had a lot of friends who were actors, including Mike (Henry V, if you didn't know) who happens to be my best friend in one of my math classes.

The way the play ended was in some ways fairly surprising, which I'll put in list format.

- The way the boy spoke of how he must leave the wicked Pistol/Nim/Bardolph group highlights his innocence, and then you learn that all the pages are killed (including him). This was the only part of the play I noticed that highlights how awful war is.

- Pistol's fate. I can't decide if he deserved that or not.

- The outcome of the battle of Agincourt... oh wait, maybe this shouldn't go in this list, since I'm only listing surprising things. =p I suppose if I saw the play when it first came out (way back in time), the concept of the protagonists winning the climactic battle against overwhelming odds wouldn't have already been beaten to death. It was probably dramatic back then.

- Henry V's monologue about the position of the king. Unless Shakespeare himself wrote about Henry V dishonestly, a monologue is when you see a person's character, without any deceit or bias to cover up one's own shortcomings to other people. Considering his past, that was quite surprising. Throughout the whole play I figured he still enjoyed his youth at heart, but merely changed his ways to fit his position as king.

Hmm... I hope that's enough. Again, really wish I saw it. =(

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

I was sadly not able to catch the play and I wont try to make excuses for myself. The ending of this play, while not my favorite (I'm a fan of synical endings), was very well drawn out and happily brought the play to a close. I felt much of the play to be predictable. Earlier in the play I was able to predict that henry would end up with Katherine. I also thought that the french were first unrealisticly submissive to henry's demands. A part that did catch me by suprise was the tragic fate of the boy who seemed to be the only kind character. In the end I did enjoy the play and my critiques are my way of appreciation. Of all the Shakespeare's I've read this was my favorite.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

sorry about the block style of my posting. The spacing for some reason didnt follow through. That alwys drives me crazy and I'm sure it bothers as well.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

I really liked the "happily ever after" end of the story, but there is one thing that I don't understand. Correct me if I am wrong, but how do the French lose 10,000 men and the British lose only about 30? Anyway, I think that it is disappointing that you don't hear more about what happens after the war. Also, I think that Henry V should have became the king of France. By the way, does the epilogue mean that his son becomes the king of France and Britain? Overall, I really enjoyed the story.

Sincerely, Garrett

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

I truly am sorry for missing the play, I heard it was great and TJ and Dexter I'm sure you guys rocked hard. DUe to the reading of the play in my head, it seem much less dramatic, but the ending still took me by surprise. I knew that there was a reason for Katharine and Alice to be in the middle of the play. It also seemed very odd to me that the boy hated Pistol so much, when Pistol showed mercy to the man and only took his money, not his life. I also agree with GArrett and his comment of how skewed the fatalites seem to be between the two sides. MY final commment is about how similar this play seemed to be with "The Iliad", I imagine that is one of the reasons we read them so close together, and again I am sorry for missing the performance.

Peace, Taylor L.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

To begin my response, I would like to voice my belief that all of the actors did an excellent job: the play was excellent. T.J., Dexter, Bravo! I did attend the performance on Friday, and was also surprised about the mirror’s miraculous ability to remain intact. My opinion on the portrayal is this: he was not a competent adversary for Henry, but I can easily see the difficulty in portraying him as intelligent, his supreme lack thereof shown in his early on foreign policy outreaches toward King Henry of England. But moreover, I reiterate my congratulations to everyone involved for a superb performance.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

It is my opinion on the portrayal of the Dauphin, if you hadn't guessed.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

"sorry about the block style of my posting. The spacing for some reason didnt follow through. That alwys drives me crazy and I'm sure it bothers as well." (Nat)

Apparently, the posts are in HTML format, which means that even if you type in 100 spaces in the post, you'll only see one. You'll have to use line breaks to avoid the "block style" of post. =/

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

"By the way, does the epilogue mean that his son becomes the king of France and Britain?"

I think so. It would make sense because Henry married an important Frenchie.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

Sadly I didn't get to see the play, so I spent the weekend trying to decipher the script. Once I got used to the language it was prety easy to get through. I liked all the subtle humor that was integrated into the story, espically the part about the horses that we read in class. As for the end, it's the classic underdog story with the brits winning aginst all odds and Henry gaining the throne of France and a beautiful wife to go along with it.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

I finally convinced my parents to drive an hour to take me to see the play, and I'm glad I did. All of the actors performed beautifully. (I know I couldn't memorize all of those lines) and it opened new doors to a Shakesperian imagination. I liked the ending, though it did come at a great cost. They could have just fallen in love in the beginning and everyything would have turned out fine, without the carnage. But, then there wouldn't be a play at all, would there?

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

First of all, I'd like to say that no, I didn't get a chance to go see the play. I wanted to, but plans changed and I couldn't. Finishing the play was ok, but I think I would've enjoyed it more having seen it.

I agree with what most everyone has said (except about the performance, seeing as how I wasn't there). The part where the boy is killed, the one nice and innocent person (or at least that we get to know) was surprising...it seemed to represent just how bad war is, and how no good comes out of it.

What happened to Pistol was not entirely unexpected, though like Palmer I'm not sure whether he deserved it or not. I think it depends on your point of view.

I did enjoy..um I let me check, ok yeah it was Act IV, Scene I...this is when Henry V gets his chance to talk as if he is someone else, and tell of the 'King.' I didn't expect him to be so...mature I guess, after how he was as a kid. People change, though, and I suppose that that's what happened. Unless he was saying that to reinforce the image he's trying to have people see...hm, interesting...

That's about all the insight I have on the play, except for the fact that reading it for me was difficult...I would read the words but not take them in. I wish I could've seen the play though. Congrats to everyone in it! =]

Liz

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

Oh, and one more thing...King Henry falling in love with Katharine was a bit obvious, seeing as how it's a Shakespeare play.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2004

This play is probably one of my new favorite Shakespearean (sorry if it is spelled incorrectly) plays. I thoroughly enjoyed reading through the script though i regret to say that I was unable to see the play which judging by other peoples comments was excellent. While reading it, I had to kind of tear down my initial impressions of some of the characters such as Pistol and Bardoph and such just being there for comic relief or Henry being absolutely heartless. Im glad that Shakespeare added more than just one level of depth to these characters although I really do not understand why he snuffed the boy. Twas really kinda sad. Well, I really really liked this play, especially the armour part. I hope we can do more Shakespeare in yonder future!

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2004