Auditions for actors- As You Like It

D1: ANALYSE THE SUITABILITY OF CHOSEN AUDITION MATERIAL FOR AUDITION CONTEXTS

D2: DEVELOP VOCAL AND PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE TECHNIQUE, SHOWING CONSISTENT CONTROL, PHYSICAL EASE AND AN IMAGINATIVE RESPONSE TO CHARACTER AND RESPONDING TO STYLE OF AUDITION TEXT

D3: DEMONSTRATE EFFECTIVE AND CONFIDENT VOCAL AND PHYSICAL TECHNIQUE IN AN AUDITION SITUATION

'As You Like It' by William Shakespeare:

"Think not I love him, though I ask for him.

Tis but a peevish boy, yet he speaks well.

But what care I for words? Yet words do well

When he that speaks them pleases those that hear. [Section 1]

It is a pretty youth, not very pretty;

But sure he's proud; and yet his pride becomes him.[Section 2]

He'll make a proper man. The best thing in him is his complexion;

and faster than his tongue did make offense, his eye did heal it up.[Section 3]

He is not very tall; yet for his years he's tall.

His leg is but so so; and yet tis well. [Section 4]

There was a pretty redness in his lip,

A little riper and more lusty red 

Than that mixed in his cheeks; 'twas just the difference

Betwixt the constant red and mingled damask. [Section 5]

There be some woman, Silvius, had they marked him

in parcels as I did, would have gone near 

To fall in love with him; but, for my part,

I love him not nor hate him not; and yet

I have more cause to hate him than to love him; 

For what had he to do to chide at me?[Section 6]

He said mine eyes were black and my hair black;

And now I am remeb'red scorned at me.

I marvel why I answered no again. [Section 7]

But ommitance is no quittance.

I'll write to him a very taunting letter,

And thou shalt bear it. Wilt thou. Silvius?

Even before I started work on this monologue in terms of character and learning it, I looked into trying to translate it, so I knew what it all meant, with help from http://nfs.sparknotes.com/asyoulikeit/page_160.html :

"Don't think I love him, just because I am asking of and about him.

He's just an annoying boy, but he speaks well.

But I don't care about words, do I? And yet words are a good thing when Ganymede speaks them, because he is so pleasant to listen to. 

He's good looking, but not 'fit'.

He's a bit too proud, but it suits him in a way.

He will become a proper man.

The best thing about him is his complexion, and although he is quick to make offence, his beauty covers it up.

He's not very tall, but for his age he's tall.

His legs aren't brilliant but they're ok.

His lips are beautifully red. They were a nicer red than the colour of his cheeks.

His lips a more pure red and his cheeks perhaps a more pinky colour.

There are many other woman out there, Silvius, that would've fallen in love with him if they had taken proper notice of him.

But I don't love him or hate him.

But I definitely have more reason to hate him! What right did he have to be so rude?

He said my hair and eyes were black and I am very surprised I didn't bite back!

But I will get him back

I'll write a very taunting letter and you can deliver it, won't you, Silvius?"

Translating this into my own words helped significantly for me to understand what it was saying a lot more! I found I could relate to the words a lot more now that I understood them in my modern English language, which meant I felt like, with practise, I could definitely use the words to my advantage in terms of delivery etc. 

So it's fair to say, although I know the script, I didn't know the character and the context of the piece awfully well, which affected my grade in terms of performance. However, moving on from that, I want to introduce you to this blog all about my monologue from 'As You Like It'. Some parts may be research I have done since doing my monologues, because of not knowing my character before hand etc. 

Image 2, Phoebe and Silvius

As You Like it, needs  a detailed synopsis, as it's very much one of those plays that has a lot going on in it:

• Sir Rowland de Bois, father to Oliver and Orlando, dies. The majority of his land gets passed down to Oliver
• With this new found power, Oliver denies his brother the luxuries of an education and other things that were seen as key for becoming a gentleman
• Orlando and Rosalind, Duke Senior's daughter, who has just gone to live in the forest of Ardenne, meet and instantly fall in love
• With danger in sight, Orlando flees, and at the same time, Duke Frederick decides he doesn't want Rosalind to remain the city, and so banishes her just like her father
• She too, flees to the forest, with Celia, Duke Fredericks daughter
• For saftey, both Rosalind and Celia dress as men and common sheperdesses named Ganymede and Aliena
• Duke Frederick doesn't take long to realise that his daughter and Rosalind have both disappeared at the same time as Orlando vanishes
• The Duke orders Oliver to find his daughter and the others
• The two girls, still dressed as their disguises come across Silvius, a lovestruck Shepard who pines for Phoebe
• Orlando comes across Rosalind as Ganymede and begins to express all of his love for Rosalind, without knowledge of the fact Ganymede is Rosalind
• Ganymede promises that he is an expert in this area, and will help Orlando if he now pretends as though Ganymede is Rosalind...little does he know. So the love lessons begin
• The wedding day arrives, and Ganymede sets up all the couples, making Phoebe promise to marry Silvius is something were to mean she can't marry Ganymede, and also making sure the Duke was accepting of, if something were to happen, his daughter could marry Orlando
• As Ganymede and Aliena, they disappear, and Rosalind and Celia re-appear. The marriages all take place 
• Duke Frederick returns in his way, allows them all back into the estate and gives back the throne to Duke Senior.

As you can see, a lot happens in this place. It's possibly one of my favourite Shakespeare pieces because it's so mad but also so subtly clever! Its quite an abstract story line for our time period, however back then it would've been seen as extremely unacceptable! Two daughters running off after a guy but then disguising themselves as common men and living a fake life. Although this doesn't really have much to do with the character I will be playing in my monologue, but in order to understand the piece I needed to understand everything that was happening outside Phoebe's story. 

So this is things about Phoebe that I possibly wasn't quite aware of before performing it this week, however if I were to performed this piece again I would know how to perform it better!

Phoebe, a snobby shepherdess, who thinks she's far too good for Silvius, also a shepherd. Like the typical Shakespeare lover, Silvius is madly inlove with Phoebe but is aware that she will never love him in return, he spends the majority of his stage time complaining about this. She is very, very up herself, she takes Silvius' metaphors literally and takes offense to them and has a very sarcastic edge to her. In the end, she marries Silvius but that's due to Ganymede stitching her up a bit at the end of the play, and if she had any say in the matter, I can't imagine Phoebe would go ahead and marry Silvius. 

With new knowledge of this, I can see just how hurtful this monologue is meant to be delivered. The piece is to be delivered with Silvius on stage, and its about how perfect Ganymede is. How "the best thing in him is his complexion" etc. She is delivering this with full knowledge that Silvius loves her, and that's one of her main character traits: she's nasty.

     I had previously performed this piece without full knowledge of how Phoebe should be. I performed her far too well-spoken for a 'common shepherdess' and far too nice for the snobby, bitchy characteristics we come to learn. I am annoyed that I got such a wrong interpretation of the character, so do understand that this blog post is all about my work for how I performed the monologue, obviously performing it wrong. 

When first working on this monologue, I think I automatically linked Phoebe to Hero from Much Ado About Nothing, a character I have previously played; which is why I messed up the characteristics of Phoebe so much! However, in terms of character development, despite the fact it was all wrong, I worked a lot on trying to create this very perfectly posh character, whom was extremely innocent and simply just in love- exactly like Hero, huh?
I found that I didn't have to change my voice too drastically but I wanted to make it softer and slower in order to allow me to portray this pretty character but also to ensure everything I was saying was audible. Projection obviously came into this, but with it being a monologue and my portrayal of Phoebe being calm and polite, I didn't feel I had to work overly hard on raising my projection levels. However, I worked a lot on my pacing!
As a method of learning the monologue, I cut it down into 7 very clear sections (see above.) These sections were the way in which I could learn the monologue. So I'd learn each section at a time, and then once I'd learnt it all, I could piece it together a little better. I found that this also helped a lot with the speed in which I was saying it. Because it would slow me down every time I got to the next section of the monologue, making my physically slow down in order to remember the next section. I've often been told I speak to fast when on stage so this was really effective for me, and I definitely felt it slowed me down a lot! It allowed me to work more heavily on my articulation too, another thing just as important for performing Shakespeare.

Mean Girls is one of the first things I thought of when began to properly understand Phoebe. The characters in Mean Girls are just as snobby. Everything for them is about looking good and being the most popular girls in the school-with close attention to impressing all the boys they can. They do a lot to make others feel worse about themselves and spend most of the film bitching about one another about each others backs. Phoebe dedicates herself fully to loving Ganymede, she thinks he's perfect but with the perfect amount of hate towards him. Similar to my research with Mrs Loveit, Man Of Mode, Phoebe loves everything about Ganymede one minute, and then suddenly will hate him and bitch about him to Silvius. Its an odd character trait however its surprisingly common in our generation and its apparently the thing to do, to one minute love your boyfriend and then the next hate him; and make him busy himself trying to guess what he's done wrong. I looked into Mean Girls, and I wanted to focus my research on just getting a sense of facial expressions and reactions that read 'bitchy' but not something that becomes too overpowering. 

In this image, you can see how simple they are all sat but you can see the bitchiness from the three main characters. The red haired girl looks most innocent. She is not leaning into any of the other characters. Her hand sits quite calmly on her lips, whereas the other characters hold their hands firmly on their lips, making them appear more bitchy. The firm look they all hold, apart from the red haired character, makes them look more plotting and suspicious; which gives them a more evil look to each of their characters.
I know the film well, and so I observed the odd little facial expressions. They weren't really ones that I could copy for Phoebe however it was just interesting for me to see that even the slight raise of the eyebrow works well. I incorporated these slight moves of my eyebrow in my performances, but it needed to be something a lot more obvious and constant. 

From working on a Shakespeare piece earlier on this year, I was already very aware of the importance of the Iambic Pentameter. The iambic pentameter is a 'verse with five metrical feet, each consisting with one stressed verse.' In Much Ado About Nothing, our previous project at college, I really struggled with these 'stressed verses'. To me, its just emphasis on the correct words in order to put across the right message in the words you are saying. And so when it came to this monologue, I spent a lot of time noting down which words to emphasise and in what way they needed to be emphasised, whether it be with anger or confusion:

"Think not I love him, though I ask for him.

Tis but a peevish boy, yet he speaks well.

But what care I for words? Yet words do well

When he that speaks them pleases those that hear.

It is a pretty youth, not very pretty;

But sure he's proud; and yet his pride becomes him.

He'll make a proper man. The best thing in him is his complexion;

and faster than his tongue did make offense, his eye did heal it up.

He is not very tall; yet for his years he's tall.

His leg is but so so; and yet tis well. 

There was a pretty redness in his lip,

A little riper and more lusty red 

Than that mixed in his cheeks; 'twas just the difference

Betwixt the constant red and mingled damask.

There be some woman, Silvius, had they marked him

in parcels as I did, would have gone near 

To fall in love with him; but, for my part,

I love him not nor hate him not; and yet

I have more cause to hate him than to love him; 

For what had he to do to chide at me?

He said mine eyes were black and my hair black;

And now I am remeb'red scorned at me.

I marvel why I answered no again. 

But ommitance is no quittance.

I'll write to him a very taunting letter,

And thou shalt bear it. Wilt thou. Silvius?

All the words marked in bold are words that I need to pay attention to in terms of emphasis. I understand that the iambic pentameter is something that appears more frequently but I have just marked words that I think need emphasis. For example, like the first 'him'. This needs its emphasis to bring the audience up to speed and so that they can begin to understand that this character is talking about a guy, and which whom she 'love'. The colours she uses to describe Ganymede's 'cheeks' are very descriptive and beautiful so emphasis on these works well in terms of her opinions of Ganymede and his looks; which she very clearly likes. I have added emphasis to every time she says Silvius. I did this just to allow the audience to understand their relationship and also for them to be aware of his presence. Also, their relationship is a tricky one. Phoebe very clearly doesn't like him, and so this needs to be emphasised when she says his name. I wanted to add this kind of reluctance to her voice when saying his name-'there be some woman, Silvius'- because to me, it's almost like she has forgotten he's there. She get's so involved with her thoughts about Ganymede and then out of politeness in a way, she remembers to interact with poor Silvius. Perhaps 'out of politeness' was the wrong way to describe it, as she doesn't strike me as a character who would do this as she's very much all-about-herself!
     Marking all the words I need to emphasise helped me a lot when working on learning this monologue, it felt like I was putting across the right message to the audience but I missed the key bit about Phoebe being a lot more snobby and fiesty as annoyingly I played her extremely polite and posh! 

Love is, I think, the biggest theme in the play! Every little story each character holds, revolves around love! Duke Frederick allows Rosalind to remain in the estate because his daughter, Celia, is close friends with her. If he had banished Rosalind, he would've lost the love of his daughter. Orlando spends his time pining for Rosalind, whom has 'disappeared'. Ganymede (Rosalind disguised) acts as a love lecturer for Orlando and gets Orlando to woo him in preparation for having to woo Rosalind when she returns. Silvuis loves Phoebe, he also spends all his time pining. Phoebe very much dislikes Silvius and loves Ganymede: which could be seen as an act of karma, because Ganymede is Rosalind...little does she know! The story ends with marriages from every corner; so as you can see, love is the biggest running theme during the play! As stereotypical this may be from Shakespeare, it's definitely got a different element to it compared to his other stuff, like Romeo and Juliet.
    I think I need a way in order to show the relationships Phoebe has with both of the men around her: Silvius and Ganymede. For example, in the monologue, I aim to block out the thought of Silvius being in the area and focus on picturing Ganymede. So then when it comes to me mentioning Silvius, you see my character coming out of her little day dream. I think this will show her opinions of Silvius quite well, as you will see her body and facial language drop as she turns to look at Silvius. 

Image 1, body language

I wanted to talk briefly about how I want to change my body language when Phoebe brings herself around to notice Silvius again. I get the impression it would be disappointment, as her day dream has just disappeared and in return stands Silvius. The image here is of someone looking 'disappointed'. Her hands are crossed firmly across her chest. Her face sits quite firmly with her mouth raised to one side. Her shoulders are raised and also firm. I don't plan to go this over the top in my monologue, but the little bits like dipped eyebrows I can do and the tight mouth. 

I wanted to now run you through as to why I picked this monologue. It took me a while to choose all three of my monologues for this assessment and choosing a classical piece was the one I was least looking forward to doing! I can appreciate and love classical pieces but I know I prefer contemporary pieces, which is why I think I performed my two contemporary pieces a lot better than this monologue! Without any proper knowledge, I classed Phoebe as a calm and quiet character and this is how I performed her. This characterisation was wrong however this is exactly what I wanted for my monologues. I didn't want an over the top character because I don't ever think I can push myself enough to perform them well enough. My characterisation of Phoebe was a typical, well-spoken Shakespeare character and I was quite comfortable with that.
But apart from that, I do really like the monologue. I think there are many hidden comedics parts to it that I must admit I continue to hide as very often, for an audition, they don't want mad new ways to perform a well-known monologue like this one. She spends the entire time debating whether she likes him or not, and actually ends the monologue on hating him and 'writing him a very taunting letter'. So here you could make it comedic, she contradicts herself on loving or hating him and this could be done really over dramatically which naturally, would become funny!

Image 3, a modern Phoebe and Ganymede

In terms of audition appropriation, I don't think this would be too good for me because it's too well-known. Audition panels get bored of hearing the same Shakespeare monologues over and over again so I think I would stand a better chance of performing something less common for them, which would then give me the chance to make it into my own piece instead of just following them in the footsteps of the person before etc. However, she is my gender and also of a young enough age for me to play her, which is another key thing the audition process. The scene, like my Like A Virgin monologue, is a simple layout. There is no need for props and although we are aware that Silvius is in the scene, it is not necessary that he is to be seen. I can spend most of this monologue fantasying over Ganymede which can be directed out above the audience, so no need to an extra body on stage for that either.

As part of the rehearsal part to this assignment, we had two short sessions with our lecturer to show the work we have done on our monologues, although unfortunately we didn't get round to letting me show her this monologue. However I do know she approved of the monologue because we sat down and discussed what monologues I was choosing to do etc. This session highlighted to me how much emotion that I need to portray, similar to my Like A Virgin monologue. The emotion is both 'love' and 'hate'. Two very cliched but different emotions to portray. I like the fact that these two emotions are two strong emotions that appear in my Like A Virgin monologue; and although this may not be a good thing as this assessment is all about 'three contrasting monologues' however, the love and hate in this monologue is a very different love and hate that we see in the Like A Virgin monologue. The love and hate, here in As You Like It, is very light. Yes she loves him, but she hates him just as quickly and easily. It all very much feels quite light-hearted and that if Ganymede were to simply apologise for his bad words, he would have Phoebe right back at his feet. Whereas the love and hate coming from Angela in Like A Virgin is a lot more real and serious. She hates herself for being ill and dislikes her mum just as much because of her drinking habit. She hates her friends who 'constantly make excuses for me'. She hates her dad for leaving her and her mum alone, struggling for money. Her mum is going through a divorce, which is the sign of 'loss of love' very possibly causing hate. So although love and hate aren't themes you see immediately when reading the play, they appear in more subtle ways such as the divorce and the character hating herself, whereas you would typically only ever see a character hating another character.


Character profile:
https://www.playshakespeare.com/as-you-like-it/characters/2298-phebe
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/asyoulikeit/

Phoebe is a 'dark featured' shepherdess. She is very sarcastic and snobby! I have aged her in her early twenties, but I can't see her being any older than that anyways. She has to be quite young because of her flittering personality; which I link to people more my age than adults. She is a bit of a player, or so I can only imagine. We see her utterly head-over-heels in love with Ganymede who we see her meeting a quarter through the play. So we can only assume that she was in love with some other man before Ganymede; she's just that sort of girl! Silvius is head-over-heels in love with Phoebe, and being her snobby and bitchy self, she makes sure Silvius is busy trying to win her over and then she'll drop him at any point: she know's she has him wrapped around her little finger! So she's bossy too! Although, the ending surprises me because it's not how I would expect her to react. She goes ahead and marries Silvius, under the vows of agreeing to marry him if Ganymede was perhaps unable to marry. I would expect her to disagree to this vow, although I believe she becomes quickly aware that Ganymede is a woman and so therefore can't break her vow and so therefore marries Silvius. We can understand that Phoebe is perhaps one of those 'physco' girls. In the scene before the monologue, we see Ganymede explaining his hate for her because of the way she uses Silvius:

"Why that were covetousness.

Silvius the time that I hated thee, and yet it is not that I bear thee love

But since that thou canst talk of love so well

Thy company...I will endure , and I'll employ thee too"

Here, Phoebe is saying how, she does not love Silvius, and earlier on she questions that 'thou hast my love. Is not that neighbourly?' (She questions if her friendship is not enough for him and that he should stop being greedy) In the quote above, she says she hated him but now that he has become a man who can talk so well of love, she will keep him around for advice about Ganymede. Which no doubt, makes everything so much harder for poor Silvius. She is a evil character, but this evilness is definitely over seen in parts such as the monologue, and so I need to ensure that I portray this better. 

Phoebe is so very different to any other character I've played, and yes I played her wrong. but I am usually type-casted with nice characters. It's only been recently that I've got character slightly more fiesty and less nice such as Mrs Loveit from Man Of Mode, but before then I got characters such as Hero from Much Ado About Nothing. So this is a good character for me to try and show off a different side to my acting. It would've been beneficial for me to play this character properly, and so if I were to perform this monologue again, I am definitely aware of how bitchy I need to play her, and perhaps look more closely into bitchy characters we see in more contemporary stuff such as Louise from Made In Chelsea.