NYC – Masterclass in OP.
The Crystal Ensemble core members will be doing their thing in NYC in March.
The 16th March they present an evening of songs and sonnets and scenes in OP alongside a group of actors based in NYC. The 3 days prior to the show will be devoted to passing on the knowledge we have learned as an ensemble so far. It promises to be a fantastic experience in one of our favourite cities on the planet. Our host will be the Pearl Theatre.
The 18th March we’ll be doing a one day masterclass for those interested in testing the methodology for themselves. Details are below and places are limited so book now. Who knows? Maybe we’ll meet in NYC in March.
New York – March 2015
Shakespeare Society Event
16th March – Ben Crystal on Original Pronunciation
Ben will lead a three-day workshop in New York with the Shakespeare Society Ambassadors,
on scenes and speeches in Original Pronunciation.
On Monday the 16th of March at the Pearl Theatre, there will be an evening Presentation of the scene work and a discussion of the joys, challenges and rewards of speaking Shakespeare’s words in the earthy and energized, salty and powerful accent of his time.
Following on from our Vancouver Masterclass in January,
Ben Crystal and Warren Rusher will continue our
Passion in Practice International Masterclass Series.
Other ensemble members will also be present.
They will be looking at:
Exploring character relationships within a scene using movement techniques
Technical text work to find the shape of a scene
Speaking verse without fear
Defining the skill set required to perform Shakespeare with minimal rehearsal
Places on this workshop are strictly limited to 14 participants.
When:
Wednesday 18th March
10am – 6pm
Cost:
$175 USD
Location:
Ripley Grier studios
520 Eighth Avenue.
16th Floor,
New York,
NY 10018
so foolish, unreasonable, or out of place as to be amusing; ridiculous.
“it’s ludicrous that I have been fined”
synonyms: absurd, ridiculous, farcical, laughable, risible, preposterous, foolish, mad, insane, idiotic, stupid, inane, silly, asinine, nonsensical;
informal crazy “a ludicrous idea”
antonyms: sensible
Origin
early 17th century (in the sense ‘sportive, intended as a jest’): from Latin ludicrus (probably from ludicrum ‘stage play’) + -ous.
Or even what are the chances of that happening? H-dropped and n-stopped or no in a broad cockney accent with all attendant associations.
Max Richter’s redeployment of the meme that is known as Vivaldi’s 4 seasons (would that he would do the same for Grieg) casting and casts its spell againe and againe. The iconic shattered in icy realms of ear candy in its non-sweetest sense. The soloist the voice, the ensemble his support. Down to the harpsichord solo. One part with multiple roles. The composer(s) hanging us on an instant before resolving into another uplifting flourish or downward spiral. The absolute ability of the musical instruments quality above actors; to pinpoint anguish and exquisite longing for what follows. And damned be the consequences.
Publicly private and privately sold to a public. Publics refined or defined by their mass alike; the two audiences hearing and listening whilst watching, seeing, observing; remarking, judging, approving, disapproving, all one and the same though not felt the same. One soul not enough for a gift so large. Achieved only in conjunction, a re-assemblage of the parts to a whole. What’s in a re-assemblance?
Seems Madam? Nay, t’is.
Ensembles prove to us the necessity of one’s fellowe (in whatever particular madness you follow). The beauty and honesty that only a mulitiple many-layered collective single narrative can tell. On any given night. (Or sunday if that’s more your bag).
Made for one thing. Outlived its use. Now used for another thing. Like the old water pump station now fashionable restaurant we type in OR Vivaldi-Richter-Pericles. Huh? And yet it fit. My opinion not enough, manies opinions mounting to sure thing with question marks as to why. An interplay if you will. (not being facetious or funny, which is my simplistic default state of reaction).
I wasn’t alone in feeling it that night. It suited a dream. It wasn’t, or I would be telling this to my shrink instead of the bloogy warld.
Someone travelled from Bologna to be there that night. We’d travelled and travailed since our arrival working 3 days towards that night. The sound guys in one evening and an afternoon of mere hours working with all mechanical and artisanal skill, approving-disapproving, mixing OP accents from two handfuls of differing accents and channeling it all through giant curving banks of speakers into a single feed. For those faces, bodies and their attendant 5 wits and senses to witness what was done that night.
The musicians as bemused as our audience. To begin with. For to be a part meant to focus on what was happening. Us usurping their place in the spotlights, casting them as shadows to the shadows of characters we created from the words (our notes) and threw away as we moved into the funnel of the play, which leaves Pericles the older with his daughter in a process of discovery. Strike me!
Make a wound so i who have not felt for so long can feel. And to let that feeling resound ever since? From day to day trying to find those moments back, which were as fleeting as the snow that melts outside. Cold weather makes us all react in the same way. just as rain makes us bend though ever so slightly, so the cold sharpens our focus on keeping warm. Not just physically from our extremities to our heart. But to the extremes of our soul’s longing to be a part of the whole. Define.
ex·trem·i·ty
noun
plural noun: extremities
1.
the furthest point or limit of something.
“the peninsula’s western extremity”
synonyms: limit, end, edge, side, farthest point, boundary, border, frontier; More
perimeter, periphery, margin;
literary bourn, marge
“the eastern extremity”
the hands and feet.
“tingling and numbness in the extremities”
synonyms: fingers and toes, hands and feet, limbs
“she lost feeling in her extremities”
2.
the extreme degree or nature of something.
“the extremity of the violence concerns us”
synonyms: intensity, magnitude, acuteness, ferocity, vehemence, fierceness, violence, severity, seriousness, strength, power, powerfulness, vigor, force, forcefulness
“the extremity of the violence”
a condition of extreme adversity or difficulty.
“the terror of an animal in extremity”
synonyms: dire straits, trouble, difficulty, hard times, hardship, adversity, misfortune, distress; More
(a) crisis, an emergency, (a) disaster, (a) catastrophe, calamity;
a predicament, a plight, mess, a dilemma;
informala fix, a pickle, a jam, a spot, a bind, a hole, a sticky situation, hot water, deep water
“in extremity he will send for her”
Origin
late Middle English: from Old French extremite or Latin extremitas, from extremus ‘utmost’ (see extreme).
What happens when two ensembles meet on an opera house stage like the Berwaldhallen?
How ludicrous is this? A 17 member Symphony ensemble from Trondheim with English soloist Daniel Hope plays Max Richter’s 4 seasons by Vivaldi as backdrop to an Original Practice and Pronunciation version of Pericles from Ben Crystal’s ensemble of 13 actors.
It should be a giant fluster cluck. But shouldeva, wouldeva, couldeva. It worked.
Our roles were slight and these pictures will tell our part of the tale.
Let’s start in the rehearsal process.
New Tee-SHirt Ben shouts out and hands over this tee-SHirt. This photo thereof, taken the next day and tweeted by the producer Anna from the Berwaldhallen.
She like everyone else around is obviously uncertain as to what’s going to happen. But she’s clearly enjoying the process. Or at least putting on a brave face. Something all of us are doing. Hindsight is always 20/20. The moment by moment as it is happening allows fears and uncertainties to besiege even the strongest of conviction.
Time contracts and expands as we’ve recorded before. A rehearsal day of 12 hours can span four seasons of experience. A late meal in an excellent fish or italian restaurant with drinks to unwind can wipe the slate clean for the next round. Simultaneously bonding with fellow players and crew.
The essentials of any theatrical experience are not only the people onstage. There are others who are the oil in the machine; they who will not be named and never are. These extra personnel whose essential roles and parts remain undeniably as servants to the arts. They never make the scholarly or theatrical results of performance.
Nathan M. and Sassy S. are our servants to the arts, Anna C. and Kasja H. their Swedish counterparts. Swedish radio and its facilities cannot be bigged up enough. The Berwaldhallen and its technical staff afforded every attendance. The Hotel Hasselbacken and especially night staff Andreas made welcome to rehearsal sodden thesps.
Rehearsals and run-throughs are covered by Louie W. a journo from the Shakespeare Standard. Louie works in the finance world and Shakes is his passion. His review of our Tanner Street experience with Makkers hit the mark. He covers this project in a series of articles.
Here Nathan laughs as we rehearse in one of the studios from the Swedish Radio building. An amazingly comprehensive and well-used facility.
David Crystal as Gower did a re-written Star Wars prologue suiting his words to his costume, his costume to Shakespeare’s words. In honour of one of our cast members btw.
This stick exercise took us (royal we) by surprise. Typical Ben methodology to just launch into something so group unifying.
David C as Goer rehearses in the one and only chance we had to resolve the problems of two ensembles meeting and the resulting amplification troubles. Also typical, a mere two hours before we go up. Flying by the seat of our pants and trusting in the result.
The evening started with David giving his talk on Original Pronunciation whilst the actors onstage behind him warmed up and listened.
Whilst we found an opportunity to show off our role. And get to know our audience a little.
Ben strikes an iconic pose.
Our first part in the telling of the story when the Prince of Tyre is shipwrecked. A spirally choreography devised by Jenny. Live and on film communicates better than on photograph.
Our main role was Simonides, the good King. And we admit it is good to be the King. A spur of the moment thought turned into a fortuitous course of action for his first entrance.
The ensemble playing the music was amazeballs. No but truly amazetestes. Daniel Hope rocks. The Trondheim ensemble rocketh with him. Their amplification dude wasn’t happy with the concessions that inevitably had to be made for comprehension. Miked actors and a music ensemble that requires amplification are a contradiction in terms.
We knew the music Spring 2 was 3 mins and we’d been instructed to play it by ear, preferably sit it out as birthday gift for Thaisa our daughter. So we decided that a throne was necessary. During our rehearsal with the 2 ensembles, the Berwaldhallen techies (all hail) had brought seats for the music ensemble and luckily there was an extra left.
We summoned our manservant from the opposite side of the stage, which he was reluctant to cross whilst another scene was happening. We told our daughter of our intentions, which she negated forcefully, as is her wont with all our decisions. Then we entered the scene, followed by manservant with daughter dancing around over-joyed we’d organised a live ensemble. We ordered the throne just off centre stage and sat and enjoyed a truly royal command performance. Fortunate old Simonides.
‘Come Queene of the feast, For daughter so you are. Here take your place. Martiall the rest as they deserve their grace.’ (Between you and us I fluffed that couplet on the night).
‘Your presence glads our days. Honour we love.
For who hates honour, hates the gods above.’
Simonides realizes Thaisa may be falling for this unknown guest.
Of course just like off-stage she questions our decisions.
‘How? Do as I bid you. Or you’ll move me else.’
We can’t help dissembling with Pericles before accepting him as our son in law.
And sending him to wed and bed our daughter resulting in a grand-child born at sea whom we never see.
Then another storm at sea which seperates Pericles from Thaisa and their daughter Marina (which in OP rhymes with RP vagina)!
Next follow two minor roles, both firsts:
What was our lackey is now my fellow superstitious sailor.
‘Your queen must overboard.’
Then the first of two gentleman of Metaline (which rhymes with Medellin)
‘I’m for anything now that is virtuous. I am out of the road of rutting forever.’
And then unencumbered we got to enjoy the part that everyone agrees belongs to Shakespeare. Acts 4 and 5 are the inverse of the first 3 acts whose expository lengths contrast with the psychological validity of Marina meeting her father. Coming after Marina’s masterfully eloquent defence of her virginity in the brothel to Lysimachus and Bolt.
We acknowledge the solipsistic nature of this post. It should in no way diminish the efforts of our fellowes. We can do what we do only because of our fellowes. And our enjoyment was rapt and attentive. The ensemble beside ours likewise, not one is diminished because she/he had fewer or more notes. Without the parts there is no whole.
The magic is achieved through the efforts of everyone involved. And that we can be a part is humbling and enervating. We ended that night with a discussion mediated by Marcus Nordlund.
We try to say something worthwhile. Daniel Harding jokingly tells us we’re dreaming that the players and the actors work the same way.
Man I’m glad he said yes to this whole thing. It might have been a fluster cluck. And yet it rocked, and we all owned it!
That’s Sassy Smit btw. She is master-mistress of my passion.
Pericles in OP by Shakespeare
A GUEST POST by Ben Crystal-
Interplay #8 – Pericles by Shakespeare in the Original Pronunciation – will be a world premiere – in three very different ways.
It’s the first contemporary production of Shakespeare’s late-play Pericles in Original Pronunciation, the accent his actors spoke in, based on research by the renowned linguist, scholar (and my father) Prof David Crystal, OBE, at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2004.
Original Pronunciation, or OP, is considered by modern audiences to be easier to understand than Shakespeare spoken in a modern English accent. The Tragedy of Pericles, Prince of Tyre was an collaboration with a young colleague of Shakespeare’s in 1608, and an exploration with his actors of voyage, self-discovery, romance and reunion.
Pericles Recomposed
It will be underscored using a modern reworking by Max Richter of one of Vivaldi’s most famous works: a recomposition that remains faithful to the original score, while taking riffs or themes and ‘tinkering’ around with them. My Shakespeare Ensemble has a similar process in theatre: our exploration is to recreate – as fully as we can – a modern incarnation of Shakespeare’s company of actors, who worked together full time for two decades. They would have been Shakespeare’s understanders as has not been seen before or since.
Shakespeare would have adapted his company to today’s laws. An example: in this modern world I believe Shakespeare would have welcomed female actors to his company, illegal in his day. I believe he would have let us cut his text to the best ’two hours’ traffic’ – a time-frame suggested in the Chorus to Romeo and Juliet – just as his own company once did. And I think he would have welcomed faithful innovation to tell his stories as clearly as possible – a quality in our productions we feel counter-balances the concept-driven Shakespeare that has popularised the world. This production of Pericles will not be set on the moon, on a cruise-ship, or in the 1920s: the setting will be the Berwaldhallen, the audience above and around us, with a chamber orchestra nestled with us, on stage.
We will rehearse in our usual manner, as our Elizabethan counterparts used to: each actor only receiving their ‘cue-script’ – the words they say, and their cues for when to say them – but never reading the entire play. So we will rehearse together, but will not speak the play whole to each other until we perform it for the first time in front of our audience on the 29th January.
Instead, we will explore how we can best serve both the music, this new-old accent we call OP, and the text – the latter filled with ‘Dumb-Showes’, non-verbal scenarios of action that takes place, all narrated by the Chorus figure of Gower, the Medieval English poet Shakespeare reincarnates to tell this most wonderful of stories.
Interplay #8
And finally, Interplay #8 will take the name of SRSO conductor Daniel Harding’s Festival, Interplay, quite literally, and explore those magical moments when the musicians follow the actors, the actors follow the musicians, or the rarer times when both are led by something Other, and unwished for, there comes an Interplay between us.
It is going to be quite a night at the Berwaldhallen this January 29th.
My thanks are to Tony Toller and the Rose Trust for allowing this unprecedented gift of being able to recite for a second time all of Shakespeare’s sonnets on his 441st birthday.
This sonnet is a perennial favourite with actors. And the final couplet a masterpiece of words mirroring actions. Plus a fantastic example of the wit and truth he brings to these sonnets.
Q23
AS an unperfect actor on the stage,
Who with his fear is put besides his part,
Or some fierce thing replete with too much rage,
Whose strength’s abundance weakens his own heart;
So I for fear of trust, forget to say,
The perfect ceremony of love’s right,
And in mine own love’s strength seem to decay,
O’ercharg’d with burthen of mine own love’s might:
O let my books be then the eloquence,
And dumb presagers of my speaking breast,
Who plead for love, and look for recompense,
More than that tongue that more hath more express’d.
O learn to read what silent love hath writ,
To hear with eyes belongs to love’s fine wit.
Kings College have produced a facsimile of the Braun and Hogenburg’s map of London from 1572. There are markers on it which lead you to interesting articles. But it is worth noting that the THEATRE in Shoreditch was the first purpose built public theatre in London in 1576. And that was set up by James Burbage, father of Richard the actor whom our Will wrote brilliant characters he could play.
This public theatre is the key to understanding Shakespeare’s position in the Early Modern Theatre world. Veni, vidi, vici!
But what are these?
The excitement mounts and the anticipation is for the next post. i love Shakespeare is going to Sweden.
2014 ends and 2015 begins and We wonder what’s it all about?
It’s been a great year and we could easily bow out of the Shakespeare game a happy puppy and not be missed. That would be scanned. Over on Facebook the group about this blog has become more the blog than the blog is. It’s certainly where much time is spent searching out the story behind the story. And every now and then a scoop appears such as the First Folio find in France in November. Also it allows us to gloat about our own successes which seems to be the raison d’etre of facebook in the first place. Our community is growing and in several years we would love to visit the countries where our members live such as Brasil and sub continental India and the antipodean islands and continent. Our members are participants in the process. Shakespeare is a process. We are nearing 500 members. There are daily links to topics of interest. Should you want to join follow the link and send a request. This blog will continue in its own way.
DECEMBER:
Some yuletide fun but can we call them SHelfies (used already in the twittersphere of people’s bookshelves) ie A selfie of you and Shakespeare in any shape or form. Capitalise the first two letters to set it apart from the shelfie. (BTW we had the idea first and sat on it, then got trumped by the book shelf thing. Timing is everything they say). Here’s mine:
You care because you can make a better one between now and 12th Night and post it to the group or tweet it @yluvsh
Now on to news that doesn’t involve us. Speaking of selfies the blogosphere was up in arms that the Guardian sub-editors used the word to describe portraits of Robert Dudley:
You care because you either care or don’t that they did.
One of my favourite metrical scholars Marina Tarlinskaja publishes her newest tome: Shakespeare and the Versification of English Drama.
You care because it tabulates the metrical styles of Elizabethan and Jacobean scribblers. Additionally it provides non-emotional fuel to the Shakespeare Authorship Question whilst backing up the work of Ward and Valenza doing the same work with databases on computers.
Anthony Sher, one of those excellent actors most people have never heard of, did a live webchat.
You care because the world is full of fantastic actors that are not famous and never will be famous in the superstar sense of fame. Shakespearean theatre practitioners worldwide know that this playwright will allow them to act to the best of their ability knowing the acting creme de la creme has been there and done that before them.
The ever inventive Good Tickle Brain created some christmas carols.
You care because the Shakespearean character letters to Santa on McSweeneys date from 2009.
The Horrible Histories crew have put together a new movie called Bill. Here is the trailer:
You care because it will be one of the funniest takes on the early modern period since the long running and best selling Complete works of Shakespeare.
There’s nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. Someone once said. Holger Schott Syme doesn’t like OP. In fact he micturates vinaigre over the whole concept. It’s uncertain from his blog post if he’s ever seen any. Holger is an Early Modern Scholar and I personally respect his work. He’s also a big fan of the Deutsche Buhne i.e. the German stage and theatre and bemoans the fact that other countries don’t invest as much in theatre as they do. Hear, hear.
Of course I can now fill this blog post with my reply to his whilst it is under moderation. But the reply has been approved and DC has chimed in with his response and a dialogue is building.
Did you see the latest OP production at the SWP? Have you ever seen an OP production? Are you annoyed that the Globe and its staging of OP productions has taken precedence over your attempts in theatrical historiography? How long since you took a voice class to discover different nuances within your own registers?
Where’s your sense of discovery Holger? It’s all a bit; ‘been there, done that’ sounding.
I quite agree that OP will never re-create the conditions of an Elizabethan actor for ALL the reasons you stated. Be it the Queen’s men or the Globe’s. Linguistic and spatial essentialism are new to me, though they seem to confine monarchical concepts in a tiny room.
Your post smacks of reductionism across the different fields. In acting you deny the voice of response to the practice. In directing you belittle the pretenders that dare to bring that which never was. In practice you squeeze any form of discovery into a faulty template for past causality.
And yet the essential aspect of Original Practice is simply theatrical exploration. Original Pronunciation offers a sound system approximating Early Modern English. This sound system united a disparate group of actors with very different regional and national accents. It was a very exciting and visceral experience for those of us who took part because of that alterity.
But hey maybe we’re all fooling ourselves right? The exigencies of theatrical practice in Elizabethan times were dictated by the societal conditions. The fact that actors used cue-scripts had no effect on the writers who knew they did because time, money, lack of paper is the over-riding factor here. Those writers never married their instruction of character into such a part, which then tied back into the whole.
The idea of OP isn’t fixed. There are no rules to go by. Otherwise Renaissance Fairs would have done this work years ago. What we explored was how to create an ensemble working within the strictures of cue-script and the new-old accent of OP to see what the results would be. Those results surprised us and the audience. And in the Q&A afterwards objections like your own were addressed. However that does not negate the experience no matter how much you may pooh-pooh it.
Ahistorical nonsense or no. You are the one claiming equivalence. As a practitioner my feet are firmly planted on that stage giving the best damn performance i can under the conditions that present themselves that night in that place and time. And the next night whether those conditions of place and type of venue have changed or not. Proscenium arch, or thrust, or living room, or bar, or wherever it be. Actors don’t get to choose too often the concepts that are forced on them. And the amount of rubbish I’ve heard about RP and Shakespeare, willst du nicht wissen. I’m not in any kind of denial about OP, or RP, oder Buhne-Sprache. Bring back the repertory system if we can.
But deny OP? Deny the world of theatre. And box it to be poked at and compartmentalised and scorned. You are not alone Holger. Many scholars think the way you do. Let’s hope the actors and directors don’t.
There are other slightly dissenting voices from those who actually experienced it, like Eoin Price here and Lady M here. And the twittysphere responded too.
So OP attracts attention and the scholars and theatre world need to deal with it. Because we the practitioners are going to keep on doing it. And if we can do it in theatres like the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse that’s just schweet!
Ben on the deck. Will on the balcony. SWP being pretty all around us.
The comment I posted was replied to by Holger Schott Syme on his rather excellent blog.
And commendably DC carries on the dialogue without descending into ad hominems as We are wont to do.
So much fun to be able to say I played the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. As did one of our cast Natalie the other morning on the tube when someone asked why she was carrying a baby basket. It’s a prop for a show she said. What in some church hall? No, in the Globe. The reply, Oh.
Obviously she really meant the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse but who knows what that is. The actors do. The directors and producers do. It’s gaining recognition and the word is out on what it’s like to play it. Attitudes about it vary from the bloody uncomfortable of the Kirkville reviews to the oh they’re doing lots of really good music stuff there.
Well we can say we played it twice already with two very different shows. And as I said to our master of the book, Rob the other day who cares how uncomfortable a theatre is as long as the show blows you away. The Globe is one of the most friendly theatres on the block btw with wheel chair access and facilities, even for the SWP. And yes, the pit is positioned with benches facing each other. Anyway audiences immediately angle themselves appropriately to the stage and indeed there are no backs on the front three rows.
My first two hours traffic with this stage happened on the 25th June. We were given a gracious introduction by Patrick and then left in the capable hands of the head of events at Globe Ed, Adam and the candlelician Tony. Allowed free access we explore the length and breadth of the stage, the sight lines, the aural capacities of the room.
Discovery numero uno and most important was the corridor the width of the tiring house door, in which you are visible by everyone in the house. Venture too far stage left or right and for some audience members, you disappear.
Discovery numero due and equally important, the acoustics are fantastic. No need to shout or project anywhere. The voice spreads out and up and wrappingly caresses back at you. Kinda like the stage at the Old Vic, but obviously smaller. The all wood interior in this respect is your friend. One wonders how it will sound once the wood is soaked with voice.
The second aspect being that consonants are of utmost importance. The vowel carries the emotion and the room is emotionally vibrant.
The real test of a room as all performers know is playing it.
Reuben Kaye singing some Feste
The tenth of july was my birthday, and at the same age Shakespeare was when he died, I participated in a David Crystal lecture. If you don’t know DC, a little research will pruv his warth. Suffice to say he is the new (old) voice of OP. His voice on other language matters needs 3 small letters, OBE. I’ve worked stages and rooms mostly in NL for some 20 years now but DC brings a confidence to the lecture room few will achieve. He likes the off-beat humourous approach too.
Here’s the platt of the evening:
Preface to the First Folio, by Ben Jonson
DC Introduction to Original Pronunciation
Twelfe Nighte
Love’s Labour’s Lost
DC
Sir John Harington – new design of privy published in 1596 under the title A new discourse of a stale svbject, called the metamorphosis of Ajax.
King Lear.
As You Like It.
As You Like It.
Troilus and Cressida.
Two Gentlemen of Verona.
Heywood’s proverbs.
Midsummer Night’s Dream.
10 examples of last lines: Taming of the Shrew Merry Wives of Windsor King Lear Hamlet Romeo and Juliet Troilus and Cressida H4pt1 H5
Henry the Fifth.
Richard the Second.
Heminge and Condell, introduction to Folio.
Just yesterday the 17th July we played an evening of Songs and Sonnets in OP.
Here’s the Platt for that:
#Weyward Sisters#
SONNET
SONNET
SONNET
Dad, Will, Ben – LLL & OP
SONNET
#Will He Not Come Again#
Sonnet 20 – Girls
– Reuben
SONNET
#Come Away Death#
SONNET
#Hey Nonny Nonny#
SONNET
SONNET
SONNET
Willow Scene
#Willow Song#
SONNET
#XXIX#
Chorus Sonnet
R&J Sonnet
SONNET
#Fear No More
SONNET
SONNET
SONNET
#ENCORE – Rain it raineth#
Ben wanted to keep the ensemble on its toes to work the cue script process. Everyone had chosen a sonnet that resonated with them. The day before we had finished working the nuts and bolts of the sonnets analysing the form from phonetic and metrical standpoints.
Then Ben worked their contents with incredibly personal results. Seeing as catharsis is the actor’s business, witnessing such in rehearsal without it descending into therapy is gratifying. Information and choices are an actor’s vocabulary and the more we have of both, the better the results.
Those results were explored further during the performance on the 17th in an ordering determined on the spur of the moment. What was fixed were the songs composed by Hazel and her sister. And Sam Amidon a US folk artist, who brought another flavour of folksiness to the songs composition. We sang sonnet 29 to his scoring and boy did it read. Our finale song was Feste’s and with the whole ensemble behind us I felt supported and grateful.
The room when you play it has three god spots. Two on the deck: one downstage centre and the other upstage centre; and one on the balcony, dead centre. You lean back and…
Just got the call ‘Theatre about to go dark’! here at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. Hugely no-real-words-for-it exciting to be in this space today and tomorrow for the sonnet performance at 7pm then saturday at 12 noon for a tech/dress/first try-out of Macbeth and sunday 7pm full read/performance of Macbeth with full complement of cast (4 pros who aren’t part of the ensemble and 16 ensemble whereof 4 or five have other jobs and aren’t always there).
Learning hand over fist about staging and ensemble work. The candlelician (seriously that’s the candle tech’s name) is lowering the chandeliers (sorry candleliers) to different heights for the candle tech run through. The cast is in the audience area spread over the two tiers, either learning lines or songs, or capturing photos which we are strictly contract breakingly NOT allowed to make public.
Our superbly chillax contact from the Globe, Colette is hanging on her computer in the pit. Conveniently out of the way of Stage manager Mike, director Rob and our Ben overseeing the candle-abracadabra but close enough to facilitate when necessary.
The Globe itself is full mid-season with Julius Caesar sold out and Lupercalial feasting in the lobby as audience arrives. The education department is in a separate building over towards the Rose Theatre and provides a constant stream of school kids being introduced to Shakes and capable faculty and actors teaching them. Hail Patrick.
It’s so normal to gush about fellow players and the mutual appreciation society can quickly tilt into factions and cliques. I want to gush about Nick, Alex, Helena, Daiva, and Katrina all recent graduates of E15. Warren, Natalie, and Diana all ensemble members since the inception, Adam, Matthew, John, english yorkshire scottish men with 3 different physiques and skill sets. Reuben, oh Reuben. That’s you named. The rest have been named in previous posts. But what’s in a name?
Just broke off writing because the three wayward sisters hauntingly searched for each other in song (thrice to thine and thrice to mine). Palpable through earphones, one tentatively calling from the pit. Another answered from stage right through the audience and a third through the Up Stage Left door. Spooky and goose bumpy.
And there it is again. That cry. It’s going dark it’s going dark!
Many years ago in Cafe Quelle, Amsterdam I did a sunday afternoon performance in drag. A fruitless 20 minute search for a photo documentation will no doubt please many of our readers. And disappoint a few too. Trust me she was fruity.
The subject was sonnets and I had made hardboard cut-outs of my shadow with eye and heart added.
The performance space was tightly packed and volunteers had joined on stage to be put through their paces and be recited to. Then I started on sonnet 30:
Q30
WHen to the Sessions of sweet silent thought,
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste:
Then can I drown an eye (unus’d to flow)
For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night,
And weep afresh love’s long since cancell’d woe,
And moan th’expense of many a vanish’d sight.
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee (dear friend)
All losses are restor’d, and sorrows end.
That sixth line (Henry) hit home like an emotional ton of bricks and that old familiar catch in the throat choked out ‘death’s dateless night’. And by ‘weep afresh’ I was inwardly weeping and outwardly trying to save my neophyte sonneteer’s butt. After the performance finished my friend Mark P. tall south african albino laughed at me saying ‘he got you there, eh bru?’
Today in rehearsal our ensemble went through their sonnet paces on a chosen sonnet that resonated with them. Everyone had been mechanick-ed using the nuts and bolts of the form by yours truly yesterday. The content being Ben’s domain today. The full complement of players for thursday night happily being fourteen. So we started with Aslam and sonnet 97. Not an easy sonnet but boy did he nail it with an emotional honesty. Which set the tone and the bar for the rest of us.
Ben’s methodology is intuitive and specific to the person speaking it. The stick work we do daily provides an outside focus, which to my mind represents the actor’s text. The person taking the stick for a walk is the driving force. What happens when taking the stick for a walk whether alone or with another, or being shadowed while doing so, or having your stick stolen from you, or giving it to another party, or accepting another stick and walking with two, or chaining up as three or four or five, is where the magic happens. There is no pattern, there are no rules, though there are plenty of discoveries.
Adam got up to do sonnet 30. He delivered it fine and well first time out of the gate. A successful emotionally connected rendition any actor would be proud of. Don’t forget this verse is two days old in his mind. YET every actor knows that in the heat of the crucible and forced to go out of their comfort zone, their memory of that carefully memorised sonnet will start to smell like an anchovy. Sure enough Ben had him fighting for his words soon as he could misplace ‘vanished’. Repeated chasings of another who wouldn’t listen to him around the rehearsal space had him chewing the floorboards in frustration.
Then once that maelstrom of activity ceased and he just delivered the sonnet to the ensemble gathered closely around him with a personal honesty and depth that each line resonated back story or created it in my listening mind. Line six once again played its magic and broke him. And me too, as years have gone by and many more precious friends are now hid in death’s dateless night. (espen greger hagen rip)
That was 2 of 14 amazing personal sonnet journeys today. Those emotional hook-ups are not what the show is about because that would be just indulgent and onanistic to subject an audience to that. A personal and honest accounting is what the show is about. Getting to that point is what rehearsals are for. And every actor knows it. And wishes he or she were a part of doing that.
Time has stopped existing in a linear fashion. Dream time is happening. And you’ll never understand, until you stand where I stand.
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