JC
Who better to teach us about Shakespeare than the tornado-like Charli XCX? Her ‘brat’ project propelled her to pop stardom – just as your own work is about to thrust you towards the cusp of GCSE or A-Level success!
Whenever students get the chance to write a speech, one of the things they’re most likely to talk about is how they don’t learn ‘real life’ skills in the classroom. They’ll ask questions like: What’s the point of knowing what a simile is when we don’t know how to put up a shelf? Why is understanding William Blake’s poetry more important than understanding how to manage our finances? And although I might argue that these young people should be seizing the opportunity to indulge in more ethereal, abstract aspects of education while they can – that enough of their lives later on will be committed to gathering that kind of practical information – I do understand where they’re coming from.
And the Sound of Pen project has actually always been fuelled in part by the hope that I can get students to really see the purpose of what they’re studying in the English classroom. I don’t think we meet every single day just so they can pass some exams – and I do want them to understand how what we’re working on in each lesson is relevant to their ambitions outside of school.
One person who has helped me articulate the value of English lessons is the luminous Charli XCX. She’s given interviews during which she’s talked about how important her English studies were, and her ‘brat’ campaign was clearly ignited by the kind of creative energy we should definitely be facilitating in the classroom. It’s an energy that Charlotte Aitchison has harnessed to such great effect and I want students to feel inspired by her.
Thus, this project, which is aimed at:
- Securing students’ ability to write persuasively
- Enhancing their understanding of Shakespeare’s characters
- Highlighting the essay writing process as a persuasive process
- Connecting the classroom work to ‘real-life’ skills
At the same time as interrogating the motivations of characters like Lady Capulet and Romeo, students will learn how to deliver their ideas with the same originality that made ‘brat’ such a visible ‘product’. Basically, I want my students to know that having an original essay idea is important in ‘real life’ terms. It’s an opportunity to practice the kind of innovative idea sharing that can serve as a platform for success at university or in the workplace.
When students start this Shakespeare project, they need to have at least started reading (or watching) the play. Each character needs to have been established. In an ideal world, everyone concerned will have read (or seen) the whole play.
ACTIVITY 1
Read this intro to Charli XCX and ‘brat’.
ACTIVITY 2
Watch the 3 interview clips below. They will open up an important conversation. What is Charli suggesting is important about art? Also, consider what she tells us about how marketing works.
Watch the first 1min 50secs of the video below. It’s a good intro to the ‘brat’ project. In your discussion, you might focus on:
- niche being good!
- individuality being good!
- creativity being good!
Now watch 3.51-4.50. Focus on the power of sticking to your ideals and being you!
Now watch 14: 45 – 21:47. The ‘brat’ colour is a sickly green and the font is retro and low quality. Focus on originality! Be crazy! Create discussion! Work with what you have! Later, your job will be to “create desire” and market some kind of product on behalf of a Shakespeare character of your choice.
ACTIVITY 3
Watch video (just 30 secs or 1 min will be enough) to get a sense of how big the ‘brat’ project became and how effective the vision/marketing was. Charli took over Times Square!
ACTIVITY 4
For a further sense of brat’s impact, read this BBC article.
ACTIVITY 5
Read this summary of ‘brat’’s success.
ACTIVITY 6
It’s time now to reflect on what we have seen and heard. Based on ideas explored so far, what makes a good product? What makes a good marketing campaign? Create a checklist.
ACTIVITY 7
You will now begin your own project. Pick a character and decide what they want to ‘achieve’ (e.g. Romeo releases a book of poetry and wants it to sell!; Tybalt runs for Prince’s job and wants to create an effective campaign; the witches in ‘Macbeth’ are opening a spell shop and they want to attract lots of customers!). Charli xcx was selling ‘brat’ – what will your character sell? Charli wanted to be the no. 1 pop star – ‘brat’ was her platform/idea to get there. Pick a character with a goal – e.g. Tybalt wants to be in charge of Verona; Lady Macbeth wants to be queen. Design a campaign that will swing the public in their favour.
Decide how you are going to present your product. Your decisions should be informed by your character’s context. Think about Charli: she thought her messiness would appeal to a ‘messy’ world; her retro font serves as a rejection of tech and too much progress; the lurid green would be noticeable but also a rejection of the Barbie pink/female stereotype etc.
ACTIVITY 8
You will create a ‘campaign’ for your character and their product.
- Create a poster promoting your product/campaign.
- Write an interview between a presenter – could be another character or someone invented – and your character in which you explain your project and all the details of it. Why have you chosen certain colours? Why a certain font? Why did you choose the slogan you did? What does your product represent and why is it relevant and needed in this time period? Could be a written piece but an audio piece – with a friend as presenter – might be more fun.
- Create a storyboard for a television advert – or make/record an actual television/YouTube advert.
- Create a social media campaign. You might consider how excited Charli felt by Lana Del Rey’s Insatgram account – you coudn’t just follow like you can with all other popstars. You have to be invited. It made it feel more special.
- Create any other tools/resources you think might be useful!
While planning and creating, do think about how you think the different characters really would try to market themselves and their interests. Also, what criticism might they face? Maybe their ideas seem controversial to Shakespeare’s audience (or the other characters in the text). How has history shown us that ideas they had – that might have seemed weird at the time – were actually important?
Think about the vocabulary you’re using and what word choices will appeal to your audience or grab their attention.
Don’t be afraid of being yourself! Charli XCX’s appeal is largely built on how raw and real she is…