Preparing for Shakespeare Posted 6/7/2007 9:02:47 PM I've written before about looking up words and letting the cues in the First Folio text guide the actor (and director) about what to emphasize, when to move, how to pace the delivery, etc. But before all of that one must begin with breath and strength. To play any role in Shakespeare, you need a lot of breath. You must be able to carry through a line, maybe two or three before breathing; otherwise, you risk breaking the sense of the sentence, or at the very least you limit your flexibility in being able to deliver the line in different ways. You need more breath to speak difficult words so that they can be understood. You need more breath to stress or color individual words to make them stand out so the audience can really get the essence of the line or passage, even if they don't immediately recognize a particular word. This means, that you have to be in shape (cut back on the smoking and drinking and junk food--I know, but it makes a difference). You need to maximize your breath even if you are just standing still, but Shakespeare's plays are not (or should not be) static! So, you need even more breath for a sword fight or a wild romp (Taming of the Shrew, for example) or a dance or a scamper up to the balcony. As a director, I believe in fast entrances and exits, so save some breath for those too! You need to be physically strong, for all the above reasons, and because so often you are carrying around extra heavy fabric and swords, have to stand through long scenes (never enough sitting in Shakespeare in my opinion), and unless your character is killed or disappears early in the play, you have to maintain your energy level and focus for a lot longer than most modern plays. As an exercise, I like to do what I call my Shakespeare Workout, trying to deliver as many lines as possible in one breath without losing articulation, speaking a speech while I'm on the treadmill or elliptical, experiment with adjusting volume and tone and see how long a breath lasts. In an upcoming post I'll go into more detail about "working out with Willy". (2) Comments

Scenes from Shakespeare Posted 5/17/2007 4:38:05 PM For their annual Shakespeare presentation, the Hilo Community Players will be doing a variety of scenes, speeches and sonnets, instead of producing a full play. There are some advantages of this, for the organization, for the actors and directors, and for the audience. We get to see the breadth and depth of Shakespeare, get a shot at playing diverse roles, both comedy and tragedy, or taking a different direction with different plays, exploring the poetry with greater focus, and perhaps worrying less about all the props, costumes, and set pieces that audiences come to expect from a whole play. I am one of the directors and one of the actors in this mini-rep ensemble. I am directing three scenes from As You Like It and a scene from Hamlet. I am performing as a witch from Macbeth and as Richard III for his opening speech. So I get to work on four plays this summer instead of one, and I get to devote more attention to these few scenes than I would get to devote to a whole play or whole role. We have five other directors and an ensemble of about 15 actors who get to play a variety of roles. We are doing scenes or speeches from 9 or 10 plays and doing 3 or 4 sonnets. I hope the audience will enjoy getting to experience the variety. I am a bit concerned that it will seem a bit too various and each piece not fully contextualized, but I am hoping the audience can "go with it". More on this as we go along... Oh, I should also add that I'm playing the infamous bear from "exit pursued by a bear" in The Winter's Tale, so I have several acting challenges, getting to play a supernatural woman, a deformed man (there's considerable discussion to be had about the nature of Richard's deformity), and a wild (and I submit, tortured) animal, and also working with Hamlet and the ghost of his father, and Rosalind (disguised as Ganymede), Orlando, Phebe and Silvius in some very funny scenes, so I really shouldn't complain that the work ahead isn't going to be "big" enough... (1) Comments

Women in Shakespeare Posted 3/15/2007 5:55:10 PM I was asked recently what role I most wanted to play in Shakespeare, and found it a tough question to answer, mostly because Shakespeare's best female roles are for young women--Viola, Portia, Kate, Ophelia, Desdemona, even Juliet--these are truly great roles. And part of the reason they are so great is that they need the best combination of freshly youthful and wisely mature. I'm getting too old to play Lady Macbeth or Tamora, though I would still love to have the occasion to play Tamora (Titus Andronicus). It might be kind of strange casting since I am a big fat character actress, so would be challenged to convince the audience of the wild and sexy aspects of the character, but still... I guess the two best roles for a woman of age and size are the Nurse in Romeo & Juliet and Margaret in Richard III (I played the Duchess of York--Richard's mother--in the latter, which is a big part, but not a lot of fun). The witches in Macbeth are fabulous parts, and I would recommend any of those witch roles to those of us who have aged past Lady Mac whether or not we like to admit it, because they really are much more fun to play. Gotta love a good cackle! More on the subject of women in Shakespeare in the future, since I haven't even taken up the often debated issues of feminism/chauvinism in Shakespeare... (1) Comments

More on Contemporary Shakespeare: Slings and Arrows Posted 3/2/2007 6:47:42 PM There's a wonderful series on the Sundance channel, a dramady about a Canadian Shakespeare theatre festival. Each "season" of six (I think) episodes traces the key characters involved in putting on a theatre season concentrating primarily on one Shakespeare play (though there are other things in rehearsal or production as well). Right now they are working on Lear, but they also did Hamlet and Macbeth. I assume it's sort of a send-up of the Stratford (Ontario) festival, but I love the explorations of the Shakespearean stories, characters and themes. The artistic director is haunted (and comforted) by the ghost of the former artistic director, and the business manager (played by Mark McKinney of Kids in the Hall fame), although he is good at the financials, really just wants to be involved in a musical. Sometimes just listening to a good actor speak Shakespeare's lines clearly and simply in a rehearsal or performance scene is just fabulous! And for those theatre buffs, it's a fun behind-the-scenes look at what are surely similar comedies and tragedies in the operations of regional theatres. (0) Comments

Shakespeare Behind Bars Posted 2/9/2007 5:37:43 PM I saw an interesting documentary called Shakespeare Behind Bars about a program at a Kentucky minimum security prison where inmates work on a Shakespeare play pretty much all year long, then perform it for friends and family, their fellow inmates, and even take it on tour to other prisons. They were working on The Tempest, particularly appropriate because the play has much to do with be imprisoned, seeking redemption, earning freedom, overcoming the past, and reconciling relationships. The actor who played Prospero had killed his wife and was now (understandably) estranged from his daughter. A lot of his process with the character had to do with understanding the father-daughter relationship. The interviews with each inmate shed light on their crimes, their rehabilitation process, and how Shakespeare teaches them. It provides the viewer some wonderful insights into character and themes in the play, as well as being a great acting workshop. I recommend the documentary--I saw it on Sundance or the Independent Film Channel (I can't remember which now), but it was a BBC production. I probably will post further on this subject, but I just wanted to share here how powerful I thought it was. Until next time... (0) Comments

Witches, Ghosts, Soothsayers Posted 11/6/2006 4:51:45 PM Well, I was going to post on Halloween a tribute to the witches in Macbeth--eye of newt and toe of frog, wing of bat and tongue of dog--but I didn't get around to it. It did get me to thinking about the presence of witches, ghosts and soothsayers in Shakespeare's plays. Macbeth has the wonderful weird sisters and the ghost of Banquo. And the witches act as soothsayers. In Hamlet, the ghost of Hamlet's father brings a message from beyond. The Soothsayer in both Antony & Cleopatra and Julius Caesar is absolutely crucial to the furtherance of the plot. Witches and ghosts certainly were not to be trusted in Shakespeare's day. And even though soothsayers (fortune tellers of various types) actually existed, they were very much on the fringes of society, and of course not Christian. But in Shakespeare's plays, all these characters speak the truth (sooth means truth), even though the other characters in the play should have every reason to doubt their voracity. So, really, any good play ought to have at least one ghost, witch or soothsayer in it. Who else speaks the truth 100% of the time? (0) Comments

Acting Shakespeare Posted 10/16/2006 9:13:01 PM I haven't posted for awhile, because I've been busy acting, though not in Shakespeare (I play Miss Hannigan in a production of "Annie"). But during the rehearsal process some of the other actors in the play asked how I developed my craft, and although I'm sure I came up with some flippant answer, it really goes to Shakespeare. The First Folio pretty much tells an actor how to deliver a line, when and how to move, which emotions to convey, how to react to another character, and even what to wear. Contemporary actors often spend more time trying to create subtext or guess what to do (or some actually do rely on the director to tell them what to do), but we need to remind ourselves that the text of the play (whether it's Shakespeare or any other really good script) gives us a lot of help. I think most people spend too much time just trying to figure out what a line (or word) means, instead of truly hearing what it is saying about character and situation. Hamlet opens with "Who's there?" Meaning isn't really a problem here. It's not a "foreign" language. Who's there means who's there. The thing is, it's not the guy who is standing watch who says it, but the guy coming to relieve him. Surely Barnardo knows Francisco is waiting there to be relieved, but he is spooked because he saw a ghost the night before. Francisco didn't see the ghost before, so he isn't spooked and doesn't feel a need to call out. This tells us a lot about what might be rotten in the state of Denmark, all in a short, simple first line. It tells the actor playing Barnardo much about how to approach and how to deliver the line. It tells Francisco (who doesn't even say the line) a lot about how to react (what's that Barnardo so spooked about?). This also suggests to the director that the actor playing Francisco maybe should be quite a bit younger than Barnardo, or if not young, at least naive, oblivious. He is at the very least new to being a palace guard... These are my thoughts today. More to come! (1) Comments

Shakespeare Adaptations Posted 8/15/2006 6:15:06 PM Just a quick posting to recommend a series on BBC America running right now: "ShakespeaRe-Told". So far I have seen contemporary adaptations of "Much Ado" and "Macbeth," and coming up is "Midsummer". They have preserved the essential story and characters and a little of the language. "Much Ado," was set in a small town news studio: Beatrice and Benedick are co-anchors, and Claudius (Claude)does sports and Hero does weather. Leonardo (Leonard) is the station owner. Don John (Don) is a slightly different character in that he is hopelessly in love with Hero and that's his motivation for setting her up and ruining her wedding. It all works pretty well, so whatever I may have said negatively about concept Shakespeare, I don't apply to this sort of adaptation. It's not like you're trying to watch a Shakespeare play and they're messing with it; instead it's inspired by the play, and just shows us how enduring the stories and characters really are. The "Macbeth" was about a chef who kills the figurehead chef (Duncan). And the whole thing was a nice bloody story about the cutthroat restaurant business (it would have been a good setting for Titus Andronicus as well). I did miss the royal elements, but still thought they did a good job on that one too. So I recommend this series! Check it out. (0) Comments

More on The Tempest Posted 7/17/2006 8:24:32 PM I saw the annual Shakespeare-in-the-Rain production of The Tempest in Hilo, Hawaii, fortunately without the rain. I had commented earlier that I don't particularly care for "concept Shakespeare," but as long as the new context is fully developed, then it still can work. I believed too that devoting full attention to the magical elements in The Tempest, is absolutely essential to a good production. Well, this production of The Tempest had a woman playing Prospero (or Prospera) and an Antonia instead of Antonio. Surprisingly, although it creates a very different dynamic, I don't think it hurt the play at all. Mother-daughter is different from Father-daughter, and two powerful sisters in a feud is different from brothers, but all that worked pretty well. I didn't care for the dance numbers (modern dance interpretation by the "spirits" in bad black body suits), but the idea of using dancers to play the spirits had potential. While the magic was certainly given its due in this production, the dancer-spirits were not ethereal or other-worldly enough. The play was set in the round, which I liked, but it seemed to increase the wandering of all the actors (not just the dancers) around the space. They were absolutely the best when they planted their feet and spoke to include the whole audience, and much weaker, when they were circling around and still trying to deliver the good speeches. However, I would still recommend this production. Last 3 performances are July 22, 23, 24 at 7:30 p.m. in Kalakaua Park in downtown Hilo! (0) Comments

The Tempest Posted 7/3/2006 7:16:38 PM If anyone is in the Hilo, Hawaii area for the next three weekends, the Hilo Community Players are putting on the annual Shakespeare-in-the-rain production, this time it's The Tempest. Even though I have pretty much condemned modernizing Shakespeare, this modernized production of the play looks to be a pretty good one. It is doing the most important thing (in my opinion) that has to be done with this play, focusing on the "magical realm". Like Midsummer, Tempest relies on the audience accepting and expecting magic to happen. I believe it's downright wrong-headed to push either of these plays to be more "real," to make Prospero simply a displaced duke and overprotective father (in the Hilo production, it's mother--hey, it can work...)while minimizing the wizardry; or making Oberon and Titania simply disgruntled lovers. In fact, the presence of magic in Shakespeare's plays is pervasive, and shouldn't be ignored. (1) Comments

Speaking Shakespeare Posted 6/21/2006 9:05:20 PM Even the best actors sometimes struggle with Shakespeare, because it seems like a foreign language, or the edition they are using doesn't help them because the punctuation is all wrong, or the footnotes are insufficient, misleading, or completely incorrect. One mistake those who try to speak Shakespeare often make is to put too much emphasis on pronouns and adjectives. As a guideline, emphasis should be put on the strong nouns and verbs. That will help almost any line come out better, make more sense. I usually suggest that an actor sit down with a good Shakespeare lexicon and/or the Oxford English Dictionary and look up absolutely every word he or she is to speak, even those words that seem obvious (they might have been used much differently or maybe just a shade differently in Shakespeare's time). If you really know what you are saying the audience is much more likely to understand too, even if they don't get every historical reference. It's a good idea for an actor to look up words which are spoken to or about him or her too. Also, if you use the First Folio text, you can get some hints about what words should be emphasized, because some that you wouldn't expect to be capitalized, are. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that the word should take on special emphasis, but it's worth a try to see if that helps make a line or stanza make more sense. The words in Shakespeare really aren't that strange (most of them), but the way we attempt to pound them into submission makes them seem very strange to most modern American ears. More on this later... (0) Comments

About "Concept Shakespeare" Posted 6/13/2006 4:50:00 PM It's almost impossible to go to a Shakespeare festival or even see an individual production of Shakespeare done "traditionally". Everyone feels they have to do a "concept," setting the play in a different place or time, costuming and set decoration suited to a new context, and sometimes even changing the lines, swapping the order of scenes, cutting large pieces or characters, adding pieces or characters, giving a different character a speech traditionally spoken by another. I saw a production some years ago of "Taming of the Shrew" in which the great speech by Kate at the end "...my hand is ready, may it do him ease..." was given instead to Sly, the drunkard who has been watching the play within the play. Often that role that frames the play is cut out altogether, so I liked the idea of the production including him, but it was just WRONG to give that speech to anyone else. Some people might say that doing the play in any costume other than that which is consistent with the time and place in which the play is being performed would be doing a concept. Shakespeare costumed all his plays in "dressed up" versions of contemporary English Renaissance dress, even those plays set in Medieval times, in the Italian countryside, in ancient Greece or Rome, although he did give some characters a piece or two to suggest that time or place. So doing Hamlet true to 11th century Denmark is actually more of a concept than doing it in contemporary dress suited to the locale of the audience. Well, I think the plays were written to evoke a particular time and a place, and changing anything that changes that, is creating a new context. Having a new context is okay, maybe even creating a lot of new possibilities for insight into the plays and reminding us just how universal and still relevant the plays are, but the task then is for everything in the play to be consistent with that new context. The Baz Luhrman Romeo and Juliet did a pretty good job of that, but that doesn't mean that every production of R&J should avoid the Italian Renaissance... These are my thoughts today... (2) Comments

More on Hamlet Posted 6/8/2006 3:17:34 PM I've been thinking more about Hamlet. One thing that seems true is that Hamlet is often alone, and Claudius almost never is (except in the scene when he is praying--and even then Hamlet is observing). Claudius surrounds himself with people, perhaps to suppress his guilt, perhaps because he needs others to aid in his efforts to retain and wield power, perhaps to determine where allegiances lie and keep his enemies close. Hamlet has friends, but some he can't trust, and those he could trust, he can't really depend on them for help, because in this he really must be alone. He can't really trust the ghost of his father, because a ghost in that time (and in Shakespeare's time) was no "Casper". It was assumed to be evil. He can't trust his mother, for she betrayed him (by betraying his father) when she married Claudius so soon. He can't trust Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern, because it's clear early on that they were sent by Claudius. He sees that Ophelia and Polonius (even though they themselves don't realize it) have become pawns of Claudius. He can trust Horatio, but can't lean on him. After all, Hamlet is Prince, son of a murdered and unavenged King. It's his job... Well, these are the things I'm exploring just now. More later. (0) Comments

On the First Folio Posted 5/5/2006 4:46:03 PM I'm a great believer in using the First Folio for studying, and especially for acting, Shakespeare. The text, based on the way the plays were actually performed by Shakespeare's company, actually helps the reader speak the lines the way they should be spoken. It just takes a few hints about how to use the punctuation, etc. to advantage. There are few stage directions, but when they are there, they really mean something ("Exit pursued by a bear"). There are very few exclamation points, so when you see one, it usually means you really should exclaim (modern editions often fill passages with exclamation points and thereby "cry wolf" so often that there is no real impact when it's truly needed). The colon and semi-colon (which are often minimized or even switched in modern editions) are very important. A colon suggests that what comes after it should be bigger than what precedes it. The actor maybe should take a big breath at that colon and really give a punch to what follows. In a passage with a lot of colons, there is created a breathless quality, a sense of urgency or building up. Look at some such sections and see if that doesn't make sense with the situation. A semi-colon is the opposite. That which follows a semi-colon should usually be taken down a step. A series of semi-colons might create a fading away, a hushed quality. This occurs rarely, but when it does... A comma (used way too often in modern editions--when in doubt, throw in a comma) does not equal "pause". There are fewer true pauses in Shakespeare's great speeches than actors often give them. Well, more on all this later. In general, I have found that using the punctuation of the First Folio has made it possible for me to do a better cold reading, to improve my understanding of troublesome sections, and to find appropriate action (the lines just tell you what you should be doing). I welcome comments and suggestions on this topic, if anyone is out there. (0) Comments

On directing Hamlet Posted 4/5/2006 5:20:26 PM So, I'm hoping to direct a production of "Hamlet," some time in the next couple of years. I don't want to do a "concept" production (setting it in a different time or place or casting Hamlet as a woman or making the cast parade around naked...), but I do want to make some good decisions to make the show as solid as possible. Some of these include keeping the cast as small as reasonably possible through doubling and tripling (not by cutting out Fortenbras or reducing the two gravediggers to one or some such wrong-headed way of managing casting and time issues). I do want to make the show come in under three hours, something very hard to do without making a lot of cuts. My biggest concern is of course in casting the title role. I believe I will need to have a separate casting call for Hamlet only, at least a month (if not more) before the rest of the cast. I'll need to start him on fencing training (if he has no previous background), and he'll need to start working his speeches well ahead of the rest of the cast learning lines. Problem: there is no pay for this, a fairly small (albeit rich) talent pool, and the actor will be performing in the rain... On another subject, is it too weird to have the same actor playing Claudius also play the ghost? (0) Comments

Some good links Posted 3/28/2006 6:39:11 PM For directors or others associated with mounting productions of Shakespeare plays, here are some good links that might help. Sometimes it's tough when you're on an island in the middle of the Pacific to find a good pair of men's tights or a sword suitable for stage combat. Here are some websites that were a great help to me on my production of "Twelfth Night". If you have any others to share, I'm always looking... For things like boots, belts, some clothing, some weapons: www.allthingsrenaissance.com For tights and some shirts: www.seamlyne.com For nice (rather expensive) period clothing, swords, weapon accessories: www.swordofhonor.com For “sheet” music, midi files, etc. on lots of period and other music: http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/index.html For First Folio (and other versions) text of Shakespeare’s plays: http://ise.uvic.ca/Annex/DraftTxt/index.html A good site for the text and a little other info on each play: http://www.shakespeare-literature.com (0) Comments

Introduction Posted 3/28/2006 4:34:04 PM I started this blog to share information, opinion, wild ideas about Shakespeare with those who study, perform, direct, question, wonder about him and his work. While I have a PhD in English, I try not to use it unless I really have to. My interest (and expertise, or what you will) in Shakespeare stems from many years of acting and directing the plays in the Hilo Community Players annual Shakespeare-in-the-park (or Shakespeare-in-the-rain) productions. Last summer I directed "Twelfth Night". My favorite play is "Hamlet". I think it's interesting to perform Shakespeare's plays in Hawaii, since it's the only state in the nation that has such a close relationship with royalty, such that really Hawaiians have a better understanding of that aspect of the plays than other Americans. So, this is my beginning. I hope you are able to find this blog. Please comment, ask, share. I feel like an old broad in a young world, but then some might say the same of Shakespeare... (0) Comments

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General Comments magicalmysterytour Posted 10/13/2008 10:04:59 AM happy birthday. Did you know that there's a reference to Act 4, sc vi. of "King Lear" in the Beatles' "I Am the Walrus">? Lazybones Posted 1/8/2007 3:56:05 PM hey! i'm a fan of Shakespeare to (prolly cuz my degree's in english too). nice to meet you Please login to post a comment.