Monday, December 2, 2013
TWO posts from Desiree
The Play's The Thing
This week I thought I would just do a broad search on Shakespeare. It seems like others have begun to catch onto moving in order to learn Shakespeare. Fiona Banks has written a new booklet that outlines exercises. She says that, “reading his plays without any form of active engagement, without his words in our mouths and emotions and actions in our bodies, is like trying to engage with a piece of music by looking at the notes on the page but not listening to the music itself – or like reading a television script without watching the programme that was made.” The exercises call for students to not simply look at Shakespeare as being "text" but to encourage them to be actors and play the words. What really made me curious about this new booklet is one of the techniques that is mentioned in the article. I actually remember this from Acting 2-- using the Haka War Cry beat for emphasis. We did this in Acting 2 not with soliloquies but with other pieces of text. This new booklet from the Globe will also occur at the same time that students are getting to see A Midsummer Night's Dream this coming year.
Plays The Thing:
Shakespeare in Bollywood
Those that know me know that I LOVE Bollywood movies! So I couldn't help but put this post up. Shakespeare is still relevant today. This article discusses several Bollywood films that use plays such as Romeo & Juliet in their plot development. Interestingly one of my favorite films, Devdas, is based off of Romeo & Juliet. Vishal Bhardwaj has begun to explore more of Shakespeare's plots and has given them a twist because usually Romeo & JulietI is the play plot of choice. As Bhardwaj said, "I try to identify with the spirit and essence of the play by giving it a twirl that appeals the Indian audience." The attraction to Shakespeare in Bollywood is said to date back to 1935. This article even includes some film posters from some of Bollywood films mentioned in the article. I have personally seen a few of them and they are worth watching if you have some time or just want some colorful entertainment!
Shakespeare In Bollywood:
...also from Inna
I found a link to several essays analyzing the women in Hamlet. Some very interesting points brought up about Ophelia and Gertrude. Also includes some wonderful illustrations. Enjoy!
Here is the link:
from Inna
This is a wonderful essay written by Francis Jacox in 1877, entitled "Horatio: Hamlet's Confidant". It explores the relationship between Horatio and Hamlet - one that is often overlooked. Horatio is often on stage without saying anything. He is a quiet observer and a grounding force for the plot and the prince himself (very different from the characters of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern). One of the most touching and powerful moments of the play is the final exchange between Horatio and Hamlet, before the latter dies. I think it is important for those that play these two characters to look at that exchange and weave it backwards through the play to understand why Horatio and Hamlet act the way they do.
from Zahan
I found this article about Polonius as I was googling some stuff to help me understand him. He's such a contradictory character that, though I've made a decision on what I think of him, I could be completely off base. Anyway, this is an interesting enough read.
from Desiree
As I have previously mentioned I am very fond of images. With the class switching plays I decided it would be a good time to look for images of Hamlet. I began by looking at abstract images of Hamlet in general.
One of the most interesting images I found was of a man on a wall with reflections of images. You almost cannot see him in the midst of the background.
If you decide to search for Yorick's skull you find images like the ones below that vary. I found this colorful image of skull that is quite literal. Then I came across darker images like that if a Grimm reaper looking figure and a the more literall Yorick's skull image. I became most intrigued by the skull images that are found in nature or are made of things that have been broken.
Colorful Skull:
Grimm Reaper:
Skull Rock:
Abstract Crystal:
Double Yorick's Skull:
from Phillip
I've been reading Backwards and Forwards by David Ball for
script analysis this semester, and throughout the book he continually
references Hamlet to apply the techniques he introduces. There's one specific
example that he makes I believe will be helpful to the group in the rehearsal
process. Ball says that something all aspects of a show should adhere to -
acting, direction, design - is to make sure that they do not make choices that
make the audience get ahead of them. It's easy to brand Claudius as the villain
right from the start, as many theatre artists may wind up doing due to the
pervasiveness of the play. That being said, the audience has no evidence that
Claudius is actually guilty of anything (but being a little perverse) until
Hamlet himself receives proof of it in act 3. If we force this assumption of
guilt on the audience too early, we ruin the joy of the first half of the show
for them.
from Desiree
This week I decided to look into how you carry a dagger. It may seem crazy but I really wanted to take a look at how you move with a dagger. I figured that I should first look into stage combat videos. Luckily, I happened upon a video from the Globe Theatre of sword and dagger combat. To make it even better, they were two women! Sorry guys but it does make it a little easier for me to see! Aside from the weird fight music and the fact that it is super bright, the video does show some interesting fight choreography. The dagger gets lost before the first minute is up. Now, thanks to youtube's suggestions on the side I found another video. It is from the British Museum and it is is about Elizabethan Sword Fighting! Alison de Burgh talks an audience through the different swords, what they do, different positions, etc. It is a longer video but it is very interesting to hear about how one would combat certain en garde positions!
Combat at the Globe Theater:
British Museum Lesson:
from Francesca
For this weeks blog post I found an article for the New York Times of Charles Isherwood interviewing a man about his thoughts on Shakespeare. The article, “Too Much Shakespeare? Be Not Cowed,” was mostly boring chatter on the numerous Shakespeare plays coming to New York City this season and why there happen to be so many, however one section about the language really stood out. The interviewer is defending Shakespeare and talking about the complexity of iambic pentameter and what the rhyming does to the meaning of the language. He says, “yes, there’s an occasional rhyming couplet, but most of the poetry in Shakespeare doesn’t sound anything like a nursery rhyme. It’s just a matter of finding a strict form – it’s called iambic pentameter – to channel thought and feeling, and all successful art must find a useful marriage between form and content” (page 2). I have never heard iambic pentameter described in this way, and it makes me develop a new appreciation for the form, and I will think about it more as we work on the Hamlet script. Isherwood also says, “truly gifted actors have a way of making Shakespeare’s verse sound like thoughts sprung immediately from the minds of the characters to their mouths. And when they do, you can follow their thoughts as clearly as if they were your own” (page 2). I really liked this statement because I thought it held a lot of truth. Shakespeare, because of the language structure, can often sound very robotic and unnatural when actors struggle to say their lines. The actor must learn to say the line as if they were thinking it on the spot, not as if they memorized the lines previously.
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