Shakespeare Week 2

Our re-creation of Much Ado About Nothing is now picking up in speed as we have all been set our characters and have all had at least one chance to run through scenes/lines with Sally to really understand our characters and the plot more.

Today's lesson mainly consisted of independent rehearsing whilst Sally finished off the group work she had started last week. This meant that we were missing various people from my group throughout the session. To begin with I ran through my lines. Reading and re-reading them, I have found, my best learning mechanism. And so each read through I became a lot quicker on my lines etc. Honestly, I don't think I made the best use of my time as I was aware that I still wanted to translate the rest of my lines but didn't. However, to go against that, I do, now, feel really quite confident on my lines. I've not reached the 'scripts down' stage but I am definitely on the way to that.

Today, being Tuesday's session, I was casted as another character. Coincidentally going by the name as Isabelle. The character of Isabelle was been widely changed from the original character Antonio. Antonio was written as Leonato's elderly brother and Hero's uncle, as well as being Beatrice's father. Antonio, in the Tennant and Tate version of Maan, was changed into an Isabelle but remained Beatrice's mother which obviously still makes her Hero's auntie. Isabelle is the wife of Leonato.
Sally has discussed how she wants us two, myself and Nathan, to play an old, hippy-type couple. As husband and wife, we will act as the two festival managers; in keeping to the festival setting we have decided. We want to make these two characters as eccentric as possible to help build up the picture of these characters being festival managers. We sort of want to create them into past-hippies; whom have really lived the hippy life throughout the 80's etc and who now manage the festivals for the younger generations of themselves. As parents to Hero, it would make sense that Hero is also very hippie-like which helps add to our whole festival setting.

So someone who is Isabelle in one would closely be Jennifer Saunders who plays Edina Monsoon in an award-winning comedy. Saunders plays a drink/drug lover who's aim remains to stay 'young and hip'. She's twice divorced and is extremely eccentric and almost fully relies on the care of her daughter as she goes on living life in the so wild she has been (she's middle-aged)  so far. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAfmM06pVUw Here is a YouTube clip of all of the Absolutely Fabulous 'best bits.' Jennifer Saunders throughout this clip is extremely quick and witty. Her humour is dark and sarcastic; and as many people call my humour sarcastic also, I find her extremely funny. I want to create Isabelle like Edina purely because this would prove a big challenge for me because although I don't see myself as shy but others would say I'm quiet: which comes as the complete opposite to Edina and my creation of Isabelle. 

        From this brief description of Edina, she already fits Isabelle's character beautifully. I can already tell that Isabelle is going to be more a challenge for me to play purely because I want to make her as outgoing as I can. Nathan, as Leonato, will be doing the same to Leonato so it will work well but I want to be able to create my character into a very similar Edina. This will have to be done mainly by her costume, make-up, hair as well as gestures- as Isabelle has very little lines. The lines she does say however, I might try with a loud, boisterous, slightly cockney accent. I want her to be just like Edina purely because I want to make her into a stereotypical festival-goer. Plus I want the challenge of this character; despite only have three lines. 

So, I noted down some small things I want Isabelle to be doing when she's not a big part in the scene: 

In the image above, you can see notes I've made about how I want to create Isabelle. So as said above, I want her to be similar to the Absolutly Fabulous character, Edina whom is loud, eccentric, wild and funny- and possible high on drugs too- as this is the sort of stereotyped festival-type of person. Where Isabelle has little lines in the scene we are focusing on, Act 2, Scene 1, I want her to always be doing something that would naturally fit her personality. My main priority for Isabelle would be that she's smoking in this scene (preferably a cigarette but if need be we can lead the audience into a false belief she is possibly smoking a joint?) This will always give her something to do and that could be something that takes her attention away from the scene when she's not 'needed' as such. Returning back to the stereotype of a festival-goer, I'd want Isabelle to take her time smoking the cigarette and really enjoy it. As though, for the 'hard core' festival people, smoking is a et away from the real world and obviously music helps them with that also. 

A slightly more Edina characteristic would be that Isabelle is painting/ filing her nails, apply lipstick, re-doing her hair (fluffing it up), or re-adjusting her outfit. These sprang to mind purely because I can make them into large movements. So for example, filing her nails could be done with her (sat upright) but sprawled out, with her hand movements (of the left right and motions) being really large and drawn out. (Sort of like if you imagine the arm movement of a violinist.) Or another example could be when she's 're-adjusting' her hair, arms could be waving around her head until eventually her hair seems positively hippy-like in the formation of a messy, messy ponytail or bun. I don't mean to sound like these are things typically someone of a louder nature would do, but you wouldn't nessecarily come across a shy and timid person, fluffing up there hair so boldly. 

Costume wise I want it to shout LOUD AND BOLD (with, of course, the hippy style to it!!) Coincedentally, this character will probably turn out to be very similar to a character I played in '13' by Mike Bartlett. Rachel, the character, was a rioter. She was extremely politically based and fully believed that rioting and protesting was the way forward in getting 'our' voices heard. I dressed Rachel as a hippy, as she had so many of the right beliefs and morals in her. She wore baggy, flowery trousers that floated around her legs. A long, white (with patterns) vest top with a colourful best underneath (the colour clashing with the trousers.) She wore a long and thick knitted cardigan also. To really make her character she wore lots of necklaces and bracelets, rings, earrings etc etc. With big, clunky boots. Similarly this is how I want to dress Isabelle. But probably spice things up more than Rachel did. 

To fully understand Hero and what she says, I further translated her lines in Act 1, Scene 2; in which she is tricking Beatrice into the fact that "Benedick is sick in love with her." 

"See Beatrice run over like a little bird to hear our conversation/ Then we go near her so that she hears every word of the false bait we lay for her/ O God of love... But nature made a woman's heart as proud and as tough as Beatrice'. There is speck and disdain in her eyes and these sparkling eyes dispise of everything they look upon. She values her wit more than anything else. She is so in love with herself/ It's true whenever she meets a man, no matter if he is wise, noble etc. She changes around all his good qualities to look bad. If he has a fair complexion, she'll say he's too pretty and so could be her sister. If he's too dark, the only reason is that nature must have spilled some ink while drawing his foolish face. If he's tall, she'd say he's a spear topped with and odd face. If short, she'd say he were an were an oddly carved miniature. Talkative, he is weathervane. And if silent he's technically a block that cannot be moved at all/ no it's certainly not comendable. If i said something she would laugh me out of myself... So Benedick should conceal his emotions for her, like a fire that gets covered up, and let him waste away. It would be better to die that way/ No instead I'll go to Benedick and advise him to fight his emotions. I'll make up some fake rubbish about Beatrice and ruin her reputation so that it shall 'empoison' his liking towards her/ he is the only man worthy in Italy, apart from my dear Claudio of course/ Tomorrow, then everyday after that. Come choose what I should wear for tomorrow/ If so you never know where love can come from. Cupid gets some lovers with arrows, some he uses traps."

Cupid.

Above and in the image you can see my translation of the rest of Hero's lines; and now seeing them in understandable English; the whole meaning of the scene changes. I get, now some of the lines that she says, especially like "If it prove so then loving goes by haps, some cupid kills with arrows, some with traps."  When first reading this, before translating it, I had no idea what it was meant to mean. I understood the words such as 'cupid' so I guessed that it was clearly something to do with love which means it could only have been about Benedick and Beatrice. But now, after translating it, it reads that 'if it prove so, that we have tricked Beatrice, then one never knows where love comes from. Cupid catches some with arrows (the stereotypical Cupid icon) and some with traps' i.e. the traps being myself and Ursula.

This new knowledge especially applies for her second long monologue in which she speaks of all different types of men, and how they wouldn't be suitable for Beatrice. At first I was really confused as to what it all meant, as in the script I own (a Shakespeare Arden copy) it is very punctuated so, when I first read it; I couldn't understand what each comma meant. I also found it hard to bring the meaning into each new sentence, and then to change the topic in the next etc.  Now that I can see what it all means, I tried running it through (aloud), with a quick pace to make it witty, and it made a whole lot more sense!! As soon as it was translated I knew the pace should be quickened. With all this said, and now that I feel I am beginning to understand Hero; I am also starting to like her. As said earlier, were Hero is also quite a loud and excitable character she will be a challenge for me- purely because I'm not naturally like that. I was also worried about how well our group will take Shakespeare, as all we've ever done is contemporary work.  I tried looking further into her lines, this evening, to begin to properly understand her: In a lot of her opening lines in the scene, she is very much taking the lead by planning what her and Ursula shall say when Beatrice enters. It's quite clear that she isnt doing this in a over-dominant way, but she is definitely placing herself higher up in this whole 'game.' I think this could be because Hero's mum is never introduced nor mentioned throughout the whole piece. For this reason, I can only assume that perhaps her mother left, or died. Arranged marriages was the only way for marriage in the Elizabethan times, so it was very likely Hero's mother was forced to marry Leonato, however contradicting myself, divorce was very rare: so perhaps death to Hero's mother proves the best possibility. Which could also explain as to why she is never mentioned, so perhaps a very recent death?
    However, I was earlier saying Hero has that dominant streak in her, which isnt obviously seen, but this could be because she's been brought up by a single parent. My parents divorced when I was little, so a single parent life has been all that I know, and I no way am saying that they are weaker or do a worse job at raising children up...but I do mean that I think it has a massive effect on the children itself. For me, its made me really quite dominant and I will stand my ground if need be, and I am not a big fan of men who think they lead in the relationship. Whereas my sister will happily go along with anything and will stay quiet, but it has all had a big effect on us. Which is why, with Hero being brought up by Leonato alone, has most probably taught her to big herself up a bit. If she was quiet and took the back seat, chances are she would be bullied for being brought up by a single father (as it wasnt popular.) She was also, probably, brought up to be ruled by her father, "I trust you will be ruled by your father"~Isabelle to Hero [Act 1, Scene 3.] and so she feels if she stands her ground a bit more, she will perhaps get away with being 'ruled by her father.' I still don't think she is overly dominant, but the way she is instructing both Margaret and Ursula on what to do and say when Beatrice enters, proves she has the dominance to keep things her own way-but not in a spoilt way. An example of her dominance could be: "Whisper her ear...Our talk must only be of Benedick..." The two words in bold highlight the main emphasis in which the dominance is seen, its subtle but definitely noticeable. She also has the most to say during the scene, she rambles on with a couple of long paragraphs of speech and sort of leaves Margaret in the position that she has nothing to contribute by the end of it.


But seeing some scene's being blocked today, it's really working well. I saw the first couple of scenes being blocked today and Sally has incorporated a lot on the show, as a group, we have all just gone to see. The show being The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time.

The show is all about an autistic, 15 year old boy Christopher. He sets out to find the murderer of his neighbours dog. With Christopher being the narrator of the play, it is all set out in the life of someone living with autism. So watching it as an audience member, it is almost very high maintenance just to sit and watch; with all the actors busily doing Berkhovian-styled physical theatre sequences, and the staging technology goes wild and the volume of the sounds is raised to beyond a comfort level... But all-in-all it has to be the best thing I have ever seen on stage. The influences Sally has got from watching this is the use of the physical theatre during the 'disco'/masked ball scene in MAAN. Today, we began blocking this scene. All we managed to block today, was a short, choreographed sequence that is festival-relevant. Originally we were all going to do different movements, but we changed this so that we all do the same movements at the same time. Our sequence is miming having a drink, dancing, smoking and taking a selfie (in which we all use our phones in our left hands.) I think, with more practise, this sequence will look really effective; especially when we all master doing it in time! Also in this section, we have a meaningful walk which shuffles around the line formation in which we start in. The first walk, in which we all do with the music, brings Lewis and Phoebe forward. Lewis and Phoebe play Beatrice and Benedick in one scene, so it makes sense that they have a short physical theatre sequence to represent this. On the second walk, Donna and Joe are moved to the front, and with them playing Hero and Claudio in one of the other scenes, there sequence also shows their love.
    The walking scene was influenced by the very busy scenes in The Curious Incident. Unfortunately I can't find a clip of the train station scene in which is something we want to try and achieve. However, the scene had all the actors pacing around the stage in certain walking sequences. The staging technology adds to the atmosphere, as does the loud music. But due to the walking being so purposeful it made the scene so much more frantic (frantic as an adjective, not Frantic Assembly ha!) As we are setting ours in a festival location, we want to create this exact business into our scenes; so this scene is a big influence of ours.

Christopher at the train station

Also, in the show, they used large white boxes which acted as the only props throughout the entire show (slight exaggeration but these were the main props.) These boxes were used for nearly everything that featured in the play. For example they were used to represent suitcases during the train station scene.At one point, Christopher becomes too overwhelmed with the business of the train station, he goes and hides in and on the suitcases at the station. As more and more people come to collect there suitcases, he is left laying on just the middle block (see image on the right.) For our version of Much Ado About Nothing, we are using large black boxes as our props/our prop cupboards. For example, as we are at a festival, we will always have one that acts as the cool box for all the alcohol. Like the white boxes, our black ones all have hinges on so we can store props inside. This 'cool-box' will be used by nearly all of the other actors so it will be a consistent part of the play. It also changes the stereotypical, going off to stage to bring props on stage for the next scene; which I think is great because it makes our piece more contemporary.

I can already tell it's going to be a really interesting take on a very worn-out Shakespeare piece, and it'll be really exciting to watch it progress into something of a very modern take!