Greetings again. I really should be memorizing my lines right now, but I love you all so much I am trying to catch up on my blog. As ever, the days are completely full and its been hard to find to process everything.
On Thursday we had our second class with Glynn. This time we worked on the four elements and the physical cycle between all four. This was a fabulous warm up exercise- again different than I have used the elements in the past. With these the sense of breath is key. Once you can identify the breath by experiencing the element (through the cycle) you can use that breath to develop the elemental nature of your characters. Net we did an adaptation of a Soufi exercise that I have done in the past, the arrow. The arrow is an exercise to help you to focus every muscle group to prepare for focused play. It involves tension and precision movement. It is a great way to build up energy and to experience how one takes built up energy and applies it conversation, attack, wooing etc. it would be a great way to help students free themselves physically when speaking because it gives an action to their words. To finish the morning we repeated and reviewed the 4 archetypes.
At 12:30 we were brought across the way by a Globe Educator (Nicholas) to the archeological site uncovered in 1989 of The Rose theatre. (see pictures, the red lines delineate the stage and outside walls) The Rose was the first theatre on the south bank and it was one of the theatres (in addition to The Theatre and The Curtain) that Shakespeare’s plays were performed in until The Globe opened in 1598. He foundations were discovered in ’89 when a site was being prepared for a new office building. One of the amazing things about the historical respect in England is that before any site can be built on the builders must pay for an archeological survey of the site. The archeologist at The College of London had 2 months to “dig and see.” Interestingly enough the site was directly next to some of the current Globe offices (even though there was no Globe yet they had an office to head up the fund raising etc) and each day the employees would ask they had found anything and each day received a “no.” Then 6 weeks in they found a bear skull (a good sign due to prevalence of bear baiting)! And the next day they had found the foundations to the Rose. Unfortunately they only had 2 weeks left until they had to stop and allow the bulldozers to continue. The staff of the Globe encouraged actors and other people of import from around the world to protest the building going on top of the site. Laurence Olivier wrote a letter, Dustin Hoffman was there, Dame Judy Dench etc and finally a last minute call from Dame Peggy Ashcroft to the Minister of the Environment and told him that if he didn’t stop the bulldozers from destroying a historical landmark that she (who was 81 at the time) would lie down in front of them! The matter was soon resolved and the building was re-planed so that the site would be preserved and capped for future excavation. Nicholas had several of interesting facts about the site (see picture of site. The red lines delineate the outer walls and the stage). For example there was an open sewage line that ran past the theatre; in fact there was a small bridge over the sewage “moat” that you had to cross to enter the theatre. Knowing this, the line “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet…” has a double meaning! Of course it s still that romantic lovely idea of Juliet not caring about Romeo’s lineage, but at the same time to Elizabethan audiences it was also a not so subtle joke of Shakespeare’s about The Rose. Another example of Elizabethan local knowledge making its way into the plays comes form 12th Night when two of the characters talk about meeting at a good pub called “The Elephant.” While the play is set in an Italian style area- there is still loads of English sensibilities and references. The Elephant pub was actually just down the road! Perhaps the first example of product placement and sponsorship! ;-)
In the research of the first Elizabethean theatres there has been work done on how the actors procured the costumes of the time. Clothes, especially those denoting high status could be quite expensive in this time. It has been found that the rich would give their “worn out” garments to their servants. There is a problem with this in that there was a law called Sumptuary Laws. These laws restricted luxuries to enforce the class system. They restricted the wearing of certain colors and fabrics to only the upper class. So fat lot of good these clothes did the servants right? So these clever servants would sell the clothes to the different theatres to be used as costumes- and they often fetched a good amount.
Another interesting fact that Nicholas shared with us was the origin of the term “roll” for a character part. I have to say it never occurred to me before to ask fro where the term came! If you think about the time, it wasn’t as though playwrights could transpose 15 or 20 scripts to give to the actors etc. There was usually only one complete manuscript. Actors were given a “role” of parchment that had only their lines and the three words before (their cues). Thus, their roles! In order to keep up with the play there would be a summary of the play by scene so that the actors could see what was next etc. As a side note a company called “The Original Shakespeare Company has done several performances trying to duplicate the exact circumstances in which Shakespeare’s plays would have been preformed. These actors learned their roles off the same style of parchment rolls of Elizabethan England. During one of the plays rehearsals they found that there were several times a character repeated the same three words that were in fact (at one certain point) a cue line. What they surmised from this is that it was intended that this character got continually interrupted! It’s a joke on the actor and the character as well as the playwright’s manner of creating a character tick. It’s interesting to think of what other puns and nuances have been lost over the years. Shakespeare of course wrote for his players, his time. He could never have foreseen the centuries of following that he would receive.
An additional antic dote I have to share (and I can’t say these are bible and verse truth, only that this is what I was told by the head of the program- a man who has spent his entire professional career studying and teaching Shakespeare…) Apparently a gentleman called John was a member of The Chamberlain’s Men. He too was a playwright, but he acted in many of Shakespeare’s plays; usually playing the put upon father whose daughters didn’t listen. He played Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, Egus in Mid Summer (and several others) and of course Polonius in Hamlet. Polonius has the speech in Act 2 sc 2 when he comes to tell Hamlet that the actors have arrived. Hamlet has a line “then come each actor on his ass.” (Which is cheeky in its own right!) To which Polonuis answers in order to prove that he has brought the best actors possible “The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastorical-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable or poem unlimited. Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light.” Now of course knowing nothing of the original players this is funny in its own right. Some might even see the joke that Shakespeare is speaking of his own company with mockery and flattery. However what you need to know is that John had a well known stammer. Shakespeare wrote this part for him and this speech knowing how it would sound. Reread the speech imagining the stutter- I am sure the audience by the time he got through it was rolling. Then in Act 3 sc2 Polonius shows up again with an interesting line. The family is seated waiting for the play to begin when Hamlet asks Polonius if he had ever acted at University. Polonius responds (do keep the stutter in mind here as well) “That I did, my lord, and was accounted a god actor. I did enact Julius Caesar. I was killed I’th’ Capitol. Brutus killed me.” Of course hearing him say he was accounted a g-g-g-good actor must have gotten a laugh, but there was again a more topical joke. John had just acted in Julius Caesar two weeks prior and the actor playing Hamlet had played Brutus in that performance. Here was the man who had killed him, and in Act 3 sc 4 he is about to do it again!
After our tour and discussion of the Rose (I didn’t really mention much did I? It was an interesting talk and to stand in the feet of that theatre was magical.) We walked down to Burrough Market for lunch. (See pics of glorius food!) The market is open Thursday through Sunday and is full of amazing fresh foods cheeses turkish delight... everything you can imagine.
On Thursday we had our second class with Glynn. This time we worked on the four elements and the physical cycle between all four. This was a fabulous warm up exercise- again different than I have used the elements in the past. With these the sense of breath is key. Once you can identify the breath by experiencing the element (through the cycle) you can use that breath to develop the elemental nature of your characters. Net we did an adaptation of a Soufi exercise that I have done in the past, the arrow. The arrow is an exercise to help you to focus every muscle group to prepare for focused play. It involves tension and precision movement. It is a great way to build up energy and to experience how one takes built up energy and applies it conversation, attack, wooing etc. it would be a great way to help students free themselves physically when speaking because it gives an action to their words. To finish the morning we repeated and reviewed the 4 archetypes.
At 12:30 we were brought across the way by a Globe Educator (Nicholas) to the archeological site uncovered in 1989 of The Rose theatre. (see pictures, the red lines delineate the stage and outside walls) The Rose was the first theatre on the south bank and it was one of the theatres (in addition to The Theatre and The Curtain) that Shakespeare’s plays were performed in until The Globe opened in 1598. He foundations were discovered in ’89 when a site was being prepared for a new office building. One of the amazing things about the historical respect in England is that before any site can be built on the builders must pay for an archeological survey of the site. The archeologist at The College of London had 2 months to “dig and see.” Interestingly enough the site was directly next to some of the current Globe offices (even though there was no Globe yet they had an office to head up the fund raising etc) and each day the employees would ask they had found anything and each day received a “no.” Then 6 weeks in they found a bear skull (a good sign due to prevalence of bear baiting)! And the next day they had found the foundations to the Rose. Unfortunately they only had 2 weeks left until they had to stop and allow the bulldozers to continue. The staff of the Globe encouraged actors and other people of import from around the world to protest the building going on top of the site. Laurence Olivier wrote a letter, Dustin Hoffman was there, Dame Judy Dench etc and finally a last minute call from Dame Peggy Ashcroft to the Minister of the Environment and told him that if he didn’t stop the bulldozers from destroying a historical landmark that she (who was 81 at the time) would lie down in front of them! The matter was soon resolved and the building was re-planed so that the site would be preserved and capped for future excavation. Nicholas had several of interesting facts about the site (see picture of site. The red lines delineate the outer walls and the stage). For example there was an open sewage line that ran past the theatre; in fact there was a small bridge over the sewage “moat” that you had to cross to enter the theatre. Knowing this, the line “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet…” has a double meaning! Of course it s still that romantic lovely idea of Juliet not caring about Romeo’s lineage, but at the same time to Elizabethan audiences it was also a not so subtle joke of Shakespeare’s about The Rose. Another example of Elizabethan local knowledge making its way into the plays comes form 12th Night when two of the characters talk about meeting at a good pub called “The Elephant.” While the play is set in an Italian style area- there is still loads of English sensibilities and references. The Elephant pub was actually just down the road! Perhaps the first example of product placement and sponsorship! ;-)
In the research of the first Elizabethean theatres there has been work done on how the actors procured the costumes of the time. Clothes, especially those denoting high status could be quite expensive in this time. It has been found that the rich would give their “worn out” garments to their servants. There is a problem with this in that there was a law called Sumptuary Laws. These laws restricted luxuries to enforce the class system. They restricted the wearing of certain colors and fabrics to only the upper class. So fat lot of good these clothes did the servants right? So these clever servants would sell the clothes to the different theatres to be used as costumes- and they often fetched a good amount.
Another interesting fact that Nicholas shared with us was the origin of the term “roll” for a character part. I have to say it never occurred to me before to ask fro where the term came! If you think about the time, it wasn’t as though playwrights could transpose 15 or 20 scripts to give to the actors etc. There was usually only one complete manuscript. Actors were given a “role” of parchment that had only their lines and the three words before (their cues). Thus, their roles! In order to keep up with the play there would be a summary of the play by scene so that the actors could see what was next etc. As a side note a company called “The Original Shakespeare Company has done several performances trying to duplicate the exact circumstances in which Shakespeare’s plays would have been preformed. These actors learned their roles off the same style of parchment rolls of Elizabethan England. During one of the plays rehearsals they found that there were several times a character repeated the same three words that were in fact (at one certain point) a cue line. What they surmised from this is that it was intended that this character got continually interrupted! It’s a joke on the actor and the character as well as the playwright’s manner of creating a character tick. It’s interesting to think of what other puns and nuances have been lost over the years. Shakespeare of course wrote for his players, his time. He could never have foreseen the centuries of following that he would receive.
An additional antic dote I have to share (and I can’t say these are bible and verse truth, only that this is what I was told by the head of the program- a man who has spent his entire professional career studying and teaching Shakespeare…) Apparently a gentleman called John was a member of The Chamberlain’s Men. He too was a playwright, but he acted in many of Shakespeare’s plays; usually playing the put upon father whose daughters didn’t listen. He played Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, Egus in Mid Summer (and several others) and of course Polonius in Hamlet. Polonius has the speech in Act 2 sc 2 when he comes to tell Hamlet that the actors have arrived. Hamlet has a line “then come each actor on his ass.” (Which is cheeky in its own right!) To which Polonuis answers in order to prove that he has brought the best actors possible “The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastorical-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable or poem unlimited. Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light.” Now of course knowing nothing of the original players this is funny in its own right. Some might even see the joke that Shakespeare is speaking of his own company with mockery and flattery. However what you need to know is that John had a well known stammer. Shakespeare wrote this part for him and this speech knowing how it would sound. Reread the speech imagining the stutter- I am sure the audience by the time he got through it was rolling. Then in Act 3 sc2 Polonius shows up again with an interesting line. The family is seated waiting for the play to begin when Hamlet asks Polonius if he had ever acted at University. Polonius responds (do keep the stutter in mind here as well) “That I did, my lord, and was accounted a god actor. I did enact Julius Caesar. I was killed I’th’ Capitol. Brutus killed me.” Of course hearing him say he was accounted a g-g-g-good actor must have gotten a laugh, but there was again a more topical joke. John had just acted in Julius Caesar two weeks prior and the actor playing Hamlet had played Brutus in that performance. Here was the man who had killed him, and in Act 3 sc 4 he is about to do it again!
After our tour and discussion of the Rose (I didn’t really mention much did I? It was an interesting talk and to stand in the feet of that theatre was magical.) We walked down to Burrough Market for lunch. (See pics of glorius food!) The market is open Thursday through Sunday and is full of amazing fresh foods cheeses turkish delight... everything you can imagine.
After lunch we met again with Yolanda. Her class is lovely because you get to play all of the marvelous acting games. Some are new t me and some I had forgotten about! We warmed up with an exercise called “The Tempest” which got everyone working on focused movement. Following this we played an old game about changing status and then incorporated it with the level game (kneel sit stand) to work on a scene from The Temepst. It was interesting to play with farcing people to change their status.
After what was a long day we headed to dinner to discuss and get ready for our first of the four shows we will be seeing, the touring production of Mid Summer Night’s Dream. I had a seat in the lower gallery for this production. The show was set in the 1920s with deck chairs and umbrellas, flapper costumes etc. (I described it to one friend as Anything Goes meets Shakespeare). The actors doubled and tripled up on roles which for the most part worked well. The energy level was fabulous and the cuts were good. There were some problems with delineating the Arden Wood from the town and the Puck character was in my mind a problem. First she was clearly female which bothers me because a Puck, Robin Goodfellow should be changeable. Everyone should be attracted to Puck. In this production Puck is like Bob Fosse meets Betty Boop. She wore sequin hot pants and a white dinner jacket. In fact there seemed to be a sexual relationship between her and Oberon which I thought undercut the fairy kingdom story. On to the good. The actor playing Bottom was fabulous. The Mechanicals (possibly my favorite of all Shakespeare’s characters) were played perfectly with the right amount of sincerity and ridiculousness. Titania/Hipolyta had a wonderful stage presence. She could whisper and all eyes would be on her. After the show some of us headed back into the Swan (the bar/restaurant attached to the Globe Centre) to chat and have a drink. Very soon the actors came in as well and we ended up talking with them for several hours. Interestingly enough the Puck character hadn’t really been solidified until 2 weeks before the show- which seems to me to be directly related to the shallow character values. The actors had such excellent research. They also did a considerable amount of text work. It is exciting how much time the directors have to play with text analysis and movement and technique.
We got to bed that night around 1am. It’s so exciting to talk with other theatre people and discuss the plays. Of course Friday morning was a bit tiring… Till next time!
After what was a long day we headed to dinner to discuss and get ready for our first of the four shows we will be seeing, the touring production of Mid Summer Night’s Dream. I had a seat in the lower gallery for this production. The show was set in the 1920s with deck chairs and umbrellas, flapper costumes etc. (I described it to one friend as Anything Goes meets Shakespeare). The actors doubled and tripled up on roles which for the most part worked well. The energy level was fabulous and the cuts were good. There were some problems with delineating the Arden Wood from the town and the Puck character was in my mind a problem. First she was clearly female which bothers me because a Puck, Robin Goodfellow should be changeable. Everyone should be attracted to Puck. In this production Puck is like Bob Fosse meets Betty Boop. She wore sequin hot pants and a white dinner jacket. In fact there seemed to be a sexual relationship between her and Oberon which I thought undercut the fairy kingdom story. On to the good. The actor playing Bottom was fabulous. The Mechanicals (possibly my favorite of all Shakespeare’s characters) were played perfectly with the right amount of sincerity and ridiculousness. Titania/Hipolyta had a wonderful stage presence. She could whisper and all eyes would be on her. After the show some of us headed back into the Swan (the bar/restaurant attached to the Globe Centre) to chat and have a drink. Very soon the actors came in as well and we ended up talking with them for several hours. Interestingly enough the Puck character hadn’t really been solidified until 2 weeks before the show- which seems to me to be directly related to the shallow character values. The actors had such excellent research. They also did a considerable amount of text work. It is exciting how much time the directors have to play with text analysis and movement and technique.
We got to bed that night around 1am. It’s so exciting to talk with other theatre people and discuss the plays. Of course Friday morning was a bit tiring… Till next time!
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