Exploring Shakespeare this term is a new arising challenge of Year Twelve. A lot of our focus so far in the year has been based on naturalism, and truthful acting. While Shakespeare isn't necessarily 'non-truthful', it still poses a new style of acting in the sense that you have to obey meters and rhythm, and have to bring a ton of rich language to life in sometimes melodramatic ways. Shakespeare plays aren't half-hearted in the slightest, and they embody quick and dramatic changes to aid the ever developing intricate plots. There a lot of things I anticipate to be challenging in particular, and these include:
1) Verse/Iambic Pentameter
Since I have never truly mastered verse thus far, and I expect it will take me a long time to do so, I think that mastering the rhythm while still making lines embody truth and instinct will be one of the biggest challenges. I hope to conquer this through getting my lines learnt quickly, and engraining them into my memory so that I can focus strictly on the verse meter by practice and subsequently the emotion and intention behind lines without too much thought. Nevertheless, I want to be able to find natural spontaneity and to be able to make the lines my own, as I don't want to be a rigid performer.
2) An Old Fashioned Context
So far in Year 12, we have tackled quite modern and contemporary plays. With Shakespeare now on the periphery, to get a really intricate, rich and three dimensional understanding and development of our characters, we will also have to have a really good understanding of the context of the time in which Shakespeare writes about, and the time he was writing in. The customs, norms and values of the time were definitely different to the ones we have now, and so historical research into this time period is necessary, but might also be challenging since some old fashioned concepts might seem a little bit strange and alien.
3) Language
One of the biggest challenges I believe will be mastering the language ubiquitous in Shakespeare plays. While a lot of it is understandable and isn't too different to the vocabulary we have today, to make these vast descriptive words sound natural and finding the evocative response as we deliver them will be something I will have to work on. Language is quite integral to Shakespeare plays, and is what makes them so special and interesting, and to truly be a good Shakespeare actor, I believe I will have to bring that language to life not just through my voice but through my whole body. If we master the language, then for the audience the play should be easy and enjoyable to follow.
4) Mastering All Aspects of the Voice
Since we will be performing in the New Theatre, I think all of the vocal skills we have acquired over the year will definitely be required to make the production live. These skills include; projection, articulation, breath control, diction, pitch and intonation. Projection will be one of the most important since in a lot of the plays we have worked on so far, we have been catering to much more intimate audiences whereas we are working on a thrust stage where we are performing to a significantly larger audience.
5) Modernisation/Making the Play Our Own
One of the biggest stigmas around Shakespeare is that Shakespeare is outdated, and irrelevant to today's society - which I think puts a lot of people off watching Shakespeare due to the misconception that they won't understand it. I think that this is an ignorant assumption, considering that a lot of the themes and social commentary that Shakespeare presented in his plays are still largely relevant today, presenting themselves in different forms. As a result, I think that one of the challenges of performing Shakespeare in 2018 will also be to make Much Ado About Nothing our own - taking the commentary on gender politics and social customs, and relating it to today. As actors, we will have to find the excitement and authenticity within the production, despite it having been performed millions of times, and to retell it to an audience who can feel challenged and who can draw something thought provoking or interesting from it.
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