Photographs/sketches

This is what my character will look like in the performance...

Being a drunk butler the clothing suits my character quite well and for me to actually get into my 
character fully I'll be growing my hair rather than cutting it and not method acting because I don't drink but at least try and be drunk while I'm talking to someone casually. 

Visit to the Globe

A few days ago I visited Shakespeare's Globe to watch Romeo and Juliet and while watching this I was able to pick out things, positives and negatives that I can take into consideration while performing The Tempest in a few weeks time.

Watching Romeo and Juliet I was expecting something full of emotion and energy and to me their was hardly anything. This was due to the fact that, tackling a play like Romeo and Juliet you would want to hit each line with some sort of emotion behind it but there was nothing. To me it seemed that they were saying the lines for the sake of it and to keep the story ine going but in my opinion it stopped the storyline because there was no meaning behind what they were saying.

Furthermore, I felt that there were moments where they could project their voices more, especially at key points of the play. When Capulet was told by Tybalt that Romeo was in the same house as them, the actor playing Tybalt was so quiet I believed that he was telling Montague a secret and not something that should've been projected so that audience members who maybe have never read the story could understand. To tie in with this, the physical side of the play wasn't pushed as much as it could have been; with Juliet being much more agressive when in reality her character would be one to be much more subtle with movements and words even.

Last but not least, I've come to take things back which I can use as an advantage to perform well and one factor was voice projection. Throughout the performance I heard people moaning under their breaths saying they couldn't hear and how their corner wasn't getting enough attention so from this I realised that doing a performance in a 3 section seated theatre I need to be polite awareness of the space and to be clear in my voice and actions. Specifically come Brighton Fringe Festival performance day it'll be in front of a huge audience and to address people way at the back will be key to a successful performance too.

In conclusion it was a nice performance to see and to see it go further, the actors would have to commit to whatever they're doing on stage, no holding back. And the energy needs to be much stronger as I saw a few people dropping asleep; if the energy is upped more then the play would definitely attract much more people to go and watch. The ending for me was the best as it was a nice dance sequence to round off the performance. Overall it was a good experience as I learnt many things about the theatre space and what to do more while performing.

 

 

 

As you can see my drawing of Shakespeare's Globe isn't that good but in this picture you can see the stage with three exit doors on the stage. Many levels of seating to give audience members a feel of the space itself and thoughts about what the other audience members are seeing. There's also a place to stand for the audience, back when it was first built the standing was for the people who couldn't afford the price of seating so the ones that were placed down would have a chance to interact with the actors. Usually they would appear drunk and would hurl abuse at the actors; spitting on the floor and stage was common and also urinating on the floor.



A bit about Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in April 23rd 1564 by parents John who was a glove maker, a tanner and a wool dealer. And his mother, Mary Arden who was the daughter of a rich farmer. While owning property in Stratford and being an important figure in the Stratford area, Shakespeare's father believed it was only possible to carry a good name in the family by having many people in the family; Mary having 4 daughters and 4 sons, 3 died in infancy and William was the eldest of the boys.

He was first married at the age of 18, to his wife, Anne Hathaway who was 26 at the time of their marriage. Just like his mother, Anne was the daughter of a rich farmer. They had their first child in May 1583, following that they had twins and two years on, from 1585-1592 it was called 'the lost years' due to the fact that Shakespeare wasn't seen or heard of or any plays being written between those years. 

Researching Shakespeare I learnt that in all of his plays, something that happens in them has some sort of relevance to his own life in some shape or form, for example, his play 'Hamlet' was named after one of his son's name. As per usual, being a writer Shakespeare would have people challenging him and one of many was Robert Greene, the dramatist and writer of a tract called 'Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit' and this tract was said to have launched many attacks towards Shakespeare and against what he wrote and believed in.

Shakespeare's earlier plays consisted of many sonnets that he wrote, mostly to do with Love and Hate, 'Two Gentleman of Verona' and widely known 'Henry V' part 1, 2 and 3.

In 1594 Shakespeare became a founding member, shareholder and an actor in Lord Chamberlains Man company. Throughout his time there he would see out shows either acting in them, directing them or watching from the stands as his fellow actors acted such as Richard Burbridge who played Richard 3rd, Hamlet and King Lea. 

After retiring from writing in 1611, Shakespeare moved back to Stratford with Anne to see out the rest of his life there. Before he passed away on 23 April 1616 his will was signed off and he left a huge legacy behind him and inspired many others in the future. To make his full dream come true, in 1623 two actors from the King's Company published all of his plays and in addition to this, the first folio that contained 36 plays sold for £1 and in those days, that was a lot. 

Workshop 25|03|13

This rehearsal consisted of two things; learning about Shakespeare's history and getting to know our characters in as much depth as possible before the next day of starting the staging with script. Throughout this rehearsal we learnt Shakespeare's background story, the plays he wrote, why he wrote them and what his morales were for the plays that we're published. Throughout the time we were in lesson we had questionnaires being given out about Shakespeare and in all honesty this helped me to really start and kick off my Shakespeare term in terms of knowing much more about the author himself and the life he had while writing his plays.

Throughout this blog I'll be writing up many entries of this Shakespeare term and many more research and content into what this term is about and who Shakespeare is.