Talk about English - Language, literature and acting pt1 | Текст песни

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• Talk about English
• Language, literature and acting pt1

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Callum: Hello, I'm Callum Robertson. And this is the Talk about English webcast
coming live from the offices of BBC Learning English in Bush House, London.

In the programme today English language and literature. We hear about a new
poetry website and we focus on William Shakespeare, his theatre and his
language.

And we'll also be answering some of your questions about English.

Joining me today, our guests are Nuala O'Sullivan, who'll be looking at some
of the language you've used to talk about Shakespeare and also answering
some questions on the English language, hello Nuala.

Nuala: (Greets)

Callum: And also joining us is actor, David Thorpe

(chat with David about his work)

Callum: If you would like to ask David a question about being an actor, or if you would
like to talk to us about your experiences of acting or Shakespeare then send us
an email to talkaboutenglish@bbc.co.uk

And David, you have the question for this week's competition.

David: This is a question about Shakespeare and superstition – for actors in the theatre
it is said to be bad luck to say the name of this play. It is usually called the
Scottish Play instead. What is this play?

Callum: You will hear the answer later in the programme. And when you think you
know the answer send it to us at talkaboutenglish@bbc.co.uk – David will pick
out the winner at the end of the programme.

We're also running a vote during this webcast. How would you prefer to
experience a Shakespeare play – by reading it, by seeing a play, by seeing a
film or not at all! Vote now on the website and we'll give you the result also at
the end of the programme.

Now we're going to hear from our colleague Amber Barnfather about a new
website which you can use to help with your listening and also your knowledge
of poetry in English.


Amber: Hello, I'm Amber, and in the programme today we hear about The Poetry
Archive - a brilliant new website to stretch your listening skills! The site was
launched at the end of last year at the British Library in London.
At www.poetryarchive.co.uk you’ll find readings by contemporary English-
language poets – like Wendy Cope and Seamus Heaney - and poets from the
past – like Siegfried Sassoon, who reads one of his haunting poems about the
First World War.

Andrew Motion, the UK Poet Laureate, is one of the founders of the project.
He’ll be explaining why The Poetry Archive is such an exciting and useful on-
line library.
So, what’s special about listening to a poem read by the poet who wrote it?
Andrew Motion makes three points: He says it’s fascinating to hear what a
poet’s voice sounds like. And it can help you to understand a poem. And the
third point? See if you can catch one, or both, of the expressions he uses to
describe how poems make sense.
He does speak very quickly but we’ll repeat the extracts from his interview.

Andrew Motion
“There is a level of fascination about what people’s voices are like, there’s a level of
understanding that becomes available when you hear them aloud, and there is the absolutely
fundamental point that the sound-sense and page-sense can’t be separated.’

Amber: There is the important point that poems communicate through ‘sound-sense’
(through rhythm and rhyme, for example) – and through what Andrew Motion
calls ‘page-sense’ – (the way the words are arranged on the page). Listen again.

Andrew Motion
“There is a level of fascination about what people’s voices are like, there’s a level of
understanding that becomes available when you hear them aloud, and there is the absolutely
fundamental point that the sound-sense and page-sense can’t be separated.’

Amber: Sound-sense and page-sense - two useful compound words for describing how
we absorb the meaning of a poem. Sound-sense and page-sense.
Next, we asked Andrew Motion to talk about what you can do at The Poetry
Archive beside listen to poems.

Andrew Motion

“Well, it depends who you are. If you’re a primary school child there is a dimension of the
site which is especially for you, there’s a site for teachers, there’s a site for secondary school
children with a great deal of supplementary material added to it – lesson plans, and advice
about listening, and interviews with the poets (not all the poets, but some of the poets), and so
on and so on. There’s a mass of stuff there – I think if you laid it end to end it would be about
a sort-of 150 page book – but it’s all good stuff!”

Amber: So The Poetry Archive is really like lots of websites within one big website,
and for students and teachers of English as a foreign or second language, there
should be plenty of interesting material. What do you think would be useful for
you? Listen again.

Andrew Motion
“Well, it depends who you are. If you’re a primary school child there is a dimension of the
site which is especially for you, there’s a site for teachers, there’s a site for secondary school
children with a great deal of supplementary material added to it – lesson plans, and advice
about listening, and interviews with the poets (not all the poets, but some of the poets), and so
on and so on. There’s a mass of stuff there – I think if you laid it end to end it would be about
a sort-of 150 page book – but it’s all good stuff!”

Amber: To end our glimpse inside The Poetry Archive, Andrew Motion explains his
hopes for the project. He says he wants it to work like a magnet, drawing
people to listen to poetry, even if they don’t know much about it – yet!

Andrew Motion
‘I hope it gathers together a lot of the important things that anybody interested in poetry -
who already knows something about it - would find valuable, and also, of course, I hope it’s a
magnet for people who don’t yet know very much about poems, or feel unconfident about
poems. I mean, I think it’s an important thing.’

Amber: So dive in to www.poetryarchive.co.uk. Then if you don’t know where to
start, try searching for a poem by theme – here are a few of the subjects you
can choose from: the sea, money, mothers, flowers, childhood, animals, ghosts,
dreams …
Happy listening.


Callum: That was Amber Barnfather.

(quick discussion – are we poetry fans? Move on to Shakespeare – today's topic,)

David:
Shakespeare regarded as perhaps greatest English writer
1564 – 1616
Wrote about 38 plays – comedies, tragedies and histories, also a large number of sonnets.
Popular in his lifetime and after – huge influence on the English language –

Callum: We asked you to write in about Shakespeare, have you seen any of his plays?
What do you think of them – Nuala, I think you've been looking at some of the
responses.

Nuala: (Some comments)


Callum: One theatre that famous was particularly associated with was the Globe
Theatre. He even referred to it in his plays. In Henry V he called it – This
wooden O

The original theatre doesn't exist anymore but there is a reconstruction on the
South Bank of the river Thames. I spoke to Patrick Spottiswoode who is the


Director of Globe Education to find out more about the theatre and
Shakespeare's connection to it. First I asked him why Shakespeare called it,
This Wooden O. Listen out for the answer.

Patrick Spottiswoode
It is a round building. It is in fact a twenty-sided wooden O, a polygonal O. And it is made of
oak in the main, and it's an open air O so people gather round in the theatre to hear a play. I
mean in English we say 'gather round' we don't say 'gather square'. And you gather round to
get close to hear a story. And these were great story-telling venues and thousands of people
would want to get close to the actors. So the circle enables you to get close to the actor.

Callum: Shakespeare referred to the Globe as this Wooden O because it was made out
of wood and it was round, a circle, like the letter O – although in fact it actually
had twenty sides. The audience liked to be able to gather round and get close to
the actors – to gather round – a verb which we use when want people to come
close together to listen to something, gather round. The audience like to be
close to the actors. David, as an actor, do you like to be close to the audience?

David: (replies)

Callum: We'll be discovering more of the history of the Globe Theatre a little later on,
but now it's time to speak to someone on the phone.

CALLER – Adam from Poland

Callum: You're listening to Talk about English, live from London. With me today are
Nuala O'Sullivan and actor David Thorpe. We've been talking about William
Shakespeare – Nuala, what have people been writing.

Nuala: (Comment – Macbeth)

Callum: Macbeth is one of my favourite plays, David I think as an actor th

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