PERFORMANCE:
Them Bare Necessities-
1. Mathematics – rhythm, pace, measure, time passing
2. Beauty – language, poetry, tone of voice
3. Drama – body, senses and wits, mood, emotions
4. Philosophy – mind , history, abstract + concrete thought
BALANCE + INTENT:
When reciting a sonnet, your mind, body and voice unite!
You juggle the 4 aspects of performance into a momentary vision of how you do your sonnet.
In effect you are re-creating the same balancing act the author intended to be forever present.
MASTER OF THE VERSE:
If someone is talking BEFORE you are speaking:
STOP and STARE in the direction of the sound.
When it is SILENT, continue.
Hop on to the verse at the first syllable, and
don’t stop riding until the last syllable ends,
some 140 to 154 syllables later.
COMMAND THE STAGE:
Challenge your audience to dare to interrupt your performance.
Remember Macbeth’s lines:
‘Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.’
SILENCE + YOUR REACTION TO IT:
Remember it’s the same silence
when you are memorising the lines of your sonnet,
(a silence so deep, you can hear pins drop);
as when you are onstage and forget your next line,
(a silence so abysmally deep, you’re like to implode).
FEAR:
Make it your friend.
Any negative has a positive i.e. it’s of a dual nature.
See it as a step by step,
breath by breath challenge,
not a paralysing, debilitating chaos.
Be afraid and do it anyway,
especially as you have to do it anyway!
COURAGE:
Don’t just be a strong actor,
BE COURAGEOUS
i.e. play from the heart not the mind.
Essentially when you start to learn a sonnet,
you are memorising it, so you can forget it.
If your mind is stuck thinking of the next line;
this is the mind at work.
If you trust the next line will appear;
this is the mind at play.
INTERPRETATION:
Make of it what you will.
Historicall. tragicall, comicall, pastoral,
po-mo deconstructionist, Dorothy from Oz,
whatever.
Just be true to the verse.
Remember, it’ll outlive our puny memories.
HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU’VE MEMORISED YOUR SONNET?
A good indicator is that if you’ve done something
108 times, you’ve learned it.
WILL WISHETH THE WELL-WISHING ADVENTURER IN SETTING FORTH