Much Ado About Social Media

Way back when in July 2013 I enrolled as a full-time university student and I was a good little Mature Ager and I plotted out my study plan and swiftly realised that a semester is three months and a year is six months and Sweet Baby Cheeses what was I to do for the rest of the year? Someone could get hurt! And lo! I discovered summer subjects. And winter subjects. And they were fun and good and no-one was hurt.

Since then I have completed six summer/winter courses covering topics as diverse as Brazilian history, writers’ festivals, time on Country, virtual museums and Sheffield music. This has meant that not only have I been able to knock off my degree a full semester early but that I have also been able to meet students from all five of La Trobe’s campuses around Victoria and consequently, suck from them their youth, vitality and good ideas. One of the best collaborations was my first.

Catherine Tate & David Tennant as Beatrice & Benedick
in the 2011 stage production of Much Ado About Nothing.

For the subject “Shakespeare and the Moving Image” we were required to watch a heap of adaptations of the Bard’s plays, talk about it and then do some writing. Piss easy. Except that the main ‘in-class’ assessment was group work. I am not a fan of group work. In fact I really quite hate it. I won’t go into why but it probably has something to with years of high school bullying combined with my benevolent dictatorship style of leading - if everyone just did what I told them to do everything would be good.

Leonarado de Caprio and Clare Danes as Romeo and Juliet
in the Baz Lurham 1996 R+J

Imagine my delight when the group I was lumped with appeared to be as pedantic and uptight as I, but in the corporate 'result-driven team-work' good way. One might think this would generate more tension than usual, but as it turned out we were all over-achievers focussed on getting an A. We knew what it would take and so we just got on with it. I like to think that what we came up with, given we had less than a week to push it out, was pretty damned special.

Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson in Branagh's 1993 film adaption.

The reaction from the class when we presented it in the main theatre of ACMI on our final day, was exactly what we were after. The lecturers especially understood what we were trying to achieve and most importantly, laughed in all the right places. Because nothing is more important than getting a few cheap laughs worked into an assessment while being rewarded for it. 

Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker in Joss Whedon's 2013 film adaption.

And so, enjoy the opening scene of Much Ado About Nothing as a Twitter discussion and the Ballroom scene of Romeo and Juliet on Facebook and Instagram. We got an A.

(In bizarrely unusual circumstances for group work we all contributed relatively equal amounts of similar work. This work is credited equally to my fellow student collaborators M.Flynn, S.Farquarson and S.David.)