Tuesday, 13/9/16:
So today we started our work on our production of "A Mid-Summer Nights Dream" by William Shakespeare adapted for children. Before it was announced we would be doing this play I hadn't heard of it seeing as I'm not a fan of Shakespeare overall even though I do respect him and his plays and definitely acknowledge that there are some great aspects to them, I had a mixed feeling about doing this unit.
We went to see a production of the play at The Globe theatre in London and I was some what disappointed with what I saw. This was only because of the fact I was expecting a direct interpretation of the original script but there was a lot of modern elements thrown in such as "Dabbing" and throwing in a Beyonce song which just seemed very distracting and out of place for me. My main issue with the play is that it is too long and at times lost my interest especially with some of the distracting elements. Although the highlight of the play for me is definitely the cast, they were amazing and in my opinion did justice to the material given to them, they really held the play up for me and made me enjoy it overall despite a slight bit of disappointment. So that in itself did make me more keen for project. The character that I really wanted to play after seeing it was Theseus due to how stern or kind he could be in the play and he just seemed interesting to play although I'd probably have fun playing someone like Puck but I don't think that would suit me if I'm honest. Again my issue isn't that I disliked it, it just wasn't what I expected to see and in general it's not my cup of tea although with any style I take on I will treat it with respect especially considering it's historical and cultural significance.
Having seen the globe version and having a few mild issues with it I watched the version we would be doing which is done for children by the channel "Cbeebies". To be honest this version seemed to fix my problems with the version we saw at the globe since it condensed the 3 hour play to only fifty minutes and it removed the weird elements. Even though it added other elements in such as the characters "Cook" and "Line" it made perfect sense considering their audience was children and they need someone to explain the plot and add a bit more suitable humour. This made the plot flow better for me and since the tone seemed to be more fun especially with the elements added in which I think fit much better. Since this version is the one we're actually doing I was actually quite excited to perform the play in the style presented after seeing it especially since I've never done this before.
Before seeing either plays I had looked up the story line and characters of the play to provide some context to what was going on since I'm not the best at understanding Shakespeare plays. After that amount of limited info I had no idea who to play except with a slight interest in Theseus since he seemed to be an antagonist of sorts although only slightly. When I saw the Globe version I really wanted to play him due to the way the actor played him with such a degree of confidence, dignity and status but to be honest he was really the only one I had any interest in but after seeing this I actually wouldn't mind playing Shakespeare because of how kind and happy he is and it just seems so appealing to play. It seems as though he was genuinely fun and I want to try and do that but since I saw this after the audition process I doubt I'll get it.
My audition for Theseus could've gone better in my opinion. It was fairly bland even though I was trying to convey a sense of dignity or at the very least some confidence to suggest my position/status since that's usually quite important for Shakespearean characters that I've seen but I don't think it I did it too well. My script was falling apart on stage which was a little distracting and I don't think I had done my vocal warm up so the delivery was a bit flat and overall didn't feel like the character so I'm honestly not sure if I'll get him.
We also did a complete read though of our version of the script. It overall went well and surprisingly fast. It's now made me a little worried however since I realised I'm terrible at reading Shakespearean English. There was not a single line in the read through that I said properly, there was always stuttering, mixing up words or just not being able to read them. Of course the delivery was fairly wooden but that's not overly worrying since it's usual for a first read and I have little idea of what the words mean yet. Hopefully when we get cast and I practice I'll get much better at it.
Wednesday, 14/9/16:
Today's session was going to start with a continuation of the audition session from yesterday to hear some people sing to determine who could be Shakespeare or Puck and while I was up for it didn't end up happening which overall I don't mind since I'm not the strongest singer exactly.
Today's session was heavily focused on Shakespearean English. We were asked what flaws we have with Shakespeare in general and I was going to say the length and pacing of his plays since I do find them to be overly long but that's really my only issue with them. Most people said the language but I wouldn't say I have a problem with the language itself, it's just harder to understand nowadays and can sound vague in meaning if not expressed properly. When seeing Shakespearean English performed properly it's something that I can see as very rich and genuinely beautiful due to it's poetic nature. I do however have issues portraying the language properly and this session was to help us with it since the majority of us aren't too well versed in Shakespeare.
We went through a couple of exercises to help us get familiar with it. The first one was where we had to get into pairs and write up a 10 line conversation and then had to translate it into Shakespearean English with a sheet we were given. It started simple, we had to replace "You" with "Thou" and "Your" with "Thy" and so on. It was actually quite funny and interesting to try out. Something I noticed is that the contrast between the language types somehow made the average conversation seem more dignified in a sense or gave it an air or confidence.
The next exercise was to insult each other in the style. We were given sheets with some very old and very articulated insults or segments from conversations. This included phrases like "Away! Thou art poison to my blood." and "Beg that thou may have leave to hang thyself". We were then given a big sheet with rows and rows of insulting words and had to pick 3 to say sequentially. An example is "Infectious hell-hated codpiece". We had to pick them quickly and some did flow and fit better than others but it was quite amusing and I can see the potential if done correctly for some real drama or comedy depending on how you arrange it.
The language is obviously very different and the sentence structure is a little different which results in the lines being longer or at least that's what I feel. The main point of this exercise was to help us understand how to say these types of lines with the clarity of voice and emotion to properly convey them. I will say that this session definitely taught me the importance of the delivery and how it has to also convey the meaning of the sentence and not just the sentence itself as in the meaning behind it has to be made clear through emotion sop it makes the language clearer. That's true with any performance but due to poetic structure and the fact it's hard to understand it. You need to the right degree of anger and with the right emphasis on certain parts such as any "P" or "T" in the words to give them more impact. It gives more of a punch to the sentence so that even if the audience doesn't understand the language they still fully grasp the intent of it.
Thursday, 15/9/16:
Today we got our parts for both casts. We have two casts called "Liquorice" and "Sherbet" and between the 2 I have three parts. In Liquorice I was cast as Lysander and in Sherbet I was cast as Theseus and Flute the Mechanical. Overall I'm quite surprised but still very happy about the roles I've got because they're quite contrasting and I feel are quite interesting as well as seeming a challenge for me, especially Theseus. I'm really looking forward to looking into him since I've not played someone like him before.
I am a little concerned since as of now I have no idea how to play any of theses characters. I do have ideas for all of them but nothing concrete yet which is good since I'll have to try things out.
My idea for Lysander is that he is a sort of hopeless romantic along the lines of Romeo from "Romeo and Juliet" where more or less every line he says is said with utter passion or hatred like his feelings are exaggerated. I feel that would work due to the play being a comedy and (I need to confirm this) that Shakespeare productions often are heightened so it seems as though it would fit.
My idea for Theseus is that he is someone sees himself as very dignified and that he enjoys his power although not in a way that conveys petty greed. I want him to have confident presence, as of now I'm thinking of him having a tall authoritative posture. I'm not too sure yet of what kind of voice I'll do for him, I'm imagining something that either conveys power or a sense of humanity and not just a status/figure of authority so either a deep voice or a slightly heightened version of my own.
For now I have no idea how to play Flute other than that he has a lot of energy since he's with a group of wacky bumbling actors. Probably quite upbeat since he's with what I'm assuming are a group of friends doing a play. Just from the idea of doing a play for children with this character context to play him any other way seems wrong in my opinion, Even if I were to play a character that wasn't happy for example I would still need a good sense of energy in order to make that interesting to children. But flute does seem happy from what I can tell for now so like I said I will try something happy and fairly upbeat.
So my standpoint on everything as of now is that I need to experiment with ideas since I'm dealing with two combined styles that I'm not really at all familiar with which means this is probably gonna be fun, certainly interesting. I feel that I will have a good understanding of everything soon I just have to do some research into the play, both styles (Shakespeare and theatre for children) and obviously keep going over my script to get a better idea of the events of the story. I did understand the basic plot in videos and plot summaries but going over this script again I was confused so that will do me some good.
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