Shakespeare Evaluation

Whilst I was waiting to go into the audition, I decided to follow the same exercises as I did for the previous monologues because they were very vocal and shakespeare is also very vocal which benefited me to help me open my mouth. This is because I knew some words in my monologue were very hard to pronounce after one another, for example "Banished the new made bridegroom" I kept finding difficult to get out whilst I was rehearsing which was why I used the exercises.

As I entered the audition room, the panel asked me to tell them about the play and who I was playing. I told them parts of the Romeo and Juliet story however throughout it I was specifying certain parts that would relate to my character. For example when Juliet approaches Friar, instead of just saying that I decided to add on what Friar was feeling at the time and he feels that it is his duty to help her. A benefit of doing this for me is that it helped me get into the character whilst talking instead of taking time to do it, this showed to the panel that I had a great understanding of context and my character.

I then started to perform my monologue, I decided to get into the Priest like persona that the Friar would have and therefore decided to hold my hands to my chest and keep myself very centred whilst talking to the Duke. When my monologue was at its most emotional climax, I decided to drop down to my knees and talking about Romeo and Juliet who were dead on the floor as if I was mourning their death, however this quickly changed when I began to put blame on Capulet, I quickly rose to my feet and rushed across the stage towards this character, but then slowly I came back to that calm persona and gave the impression to the panel that the Friar can't blame him for his own fault. This was effective because it was very realistic to what would happen after a tragedy like this, they would feel very remorseful however also decide to blame others.

After I finished the audition, I was asked a series of questions by the panel about my monologue. The first question they asked was "How did you prepare for the monologue?", the main answer I replied with was that my main challenge was the language barrier, I knew that this was the main challenge because it was very different to how I speak in everyday live, therefore I told them that a technique I used was Iambic Pentameter, I used this to help me get the tempo of my performance and getting every other syllable to put emphasis on certain words. This was effective for me because it helped me get a true understanding of the piece and also what Shakespeares message was.

After this I was then asked to perform my monologue in a different style, the panel asked if I could perform my piece in a Melodramatic way. This was a big challenge for me because a Priest would stereotypically not be exaggerated etc therefore I had to find a way to do it realistically. The way I performed my piece was that I threw my arms about a lot and I become more energetic when moving around the stage. However doing this I found it very hard to keep in that persona and not over exaggerate parts but also not exaggerate parts, for example when bits of true emotion I didn't want to be very energetic when sad, therefore I needed to find a way around this.

Overall I feel that my audition process was successful because the feedback I received was very good in terms of a believable character and the emotions/facial expressions that I was portraying. However the Melodramatic part of my audition I felt was difficult and was my main flaw in my piece, therefore in future I would work on the melodramatic version more just to get the emotion right.

Friar Lawrence Character Profile

• Friar = Priest
• Gives helpful advice to Juliet
• Feels it's his duty to help
• Marries Romeo and Juliet in hope to end family feud
• After Romeo is banished, is approached by Juliet to help her
• He devises a plan of using a sleeping potion that will give the impression of death so she can run away after
• However Romeo is unaware and therefore kills himself then so does Juliet after she awakens
• Becomes the 'Catalyst' for the tragedy
• Feels remorse about what happened and wants to explain his story

3 Versions

In one of our rehearsals, our main aim was getting to know our monologues more and being able to change the way we perform them. This is why after half an hour of focusing on our lines, we were given a task to perform our monologue 3 times but change the way we did it each time.

First Run
The first time we performed our monologues, we performed them in the original style that we have been rehearsing in. This was effective for me because it made sure I had clear understanding of my monologue and knew the parts I wanted to emphasise.

Second Run
The second time we performed our monologues, we performed them in a Melodramatic style. This was essential for us to do because in our audition we will be asked to perform in a different style and this could be one of them. When performing in a melodramatic way, it really helped me see what the key words were in each sentence and what parts are important. I found this challenging to break my comfort zone and go beyond my normal style however once I finished it gave me experience to a new style I could work on.

Final Run
The final run through of our monologue was done without vocals. The purpose of doing our monologue without vocals is so that we have clear knowledge of what our body is doing and to give us the chance to think about my actions instead of just doing gestures randomly.

13/05/13 Discussion Session

In this session we sat down as a group and each individually discussed our ideas and opinions towards our monologues and then finally performed them to each other at the end.

At the start of my discussion I started to talk about the whole play context:

Story about a boy and a girl fall in love and want to get married however is from rival families. Romeo becomes banished from the city because he kills Tybalt after a fight, Juliet's family makes her marry Count Paris. This forces her to approach Friar Lawrence, who gives her a potion to make her appear dead, but Romeo thinks she is really dead causing him to kill himself and so does Juliet after realising he killed himself

I then started to talk about my character/Monologue using these ideas:

Friar Lawrence:

• Becomes emotionally attached
• Wants to end family feud
• After Romeo is banished, he tries to get them back together through the sleeping potion plan
• After tragedy he cannot handle the guilt, to ease his pain he explains the story of what happened to the duke who could banish him.

Why Its Appropriate:

• Different from previous characters
• My previous characters were very comical and exaggerated which is in contrast to Friar who is down to earth
• Different personality 

Challenge of the monologue:

• Not only language barrier but getting emotion of message through
• Physical movements need to be engaging but not exaggerated

10/05/2013 Rehearsal for Shakespeare

Tempo Walking
We used this exercise in one of our rehearsals. In the rehearsal we would all walk around the room reading the monologues aloud, whilst we were reading we would look out for punctuation such as full stops and commas  Whenever one would appear, we would instantly stop turn a sharp angle and walk in another direction. The purpose of this is to understand the pace of our monologues which also helps us discover the moods in which they are presented in. In my Friar Lawrence Monologue, there's a lot of hesitation at the start of the scene with the short sentences. This is because he is unsure whether to say what he is about to due to the fact it may come across wrong, however as it progressed into the story, the sentences began to become longer and therefore represents Friar as becoming more relaxed about telling the story.

The next technique we used was adding gestures to a word within a sentence which we felt stood out the most. For example in one of my sentences I felt the key word was "My", this is because he is talking about how he provided Juliet with the potion etc. The gesture I added to this was bring my to my hand up in front of me then pulling to my chest, this was to emphasise the emotion that was coming through Friar and how he dreads of the fact that he had a part in what happened

Iambic Pentameter

The Iambic Pentameter, also known as the "aB" technique, was the first exercise that we used when we first chose our Shakespeare monologues. Usually Shakespeare's sentence would have 10-11 syllables and followed a similar pattern when they were being presented. As the speaker would say the lines, on every other syllable the actor would rise in tone to put emphasis on that specific word to signify the importance of that word. This is what we started to do when reading through our monologue, we would read each line and highlight every other syllable where we would rise in tone. The purpose of this technique is to really bring out the true meaning of each sentence and what is intended by the line that is being said. This is how it turned out:

I will be brief, for my short date of breath

Is not so long as is a tedious tale.

Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet,

And she, there dead, that Romeo’s faithful wife.

I married them, and their stol'n marriage day

Was Tybalt’s doomsday, whose untimely death

Banished the new-made bridegroom from the city—

For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined.

You, to remove that siege of grief from her,

Betrothed and would have married her perforce

To County Paris. Then comes she to me,

And with wild looks bid me devise some mean

To rid her from this second marriage,

Or in my cell there would she kill herself.

Then gave I her, so tutored by my art,

A sleeping potion, which so took effect

As I intended, for it wrought on her

The form of death.

Romeo and Juliet Research

The play that my monologue is from is Romeo and Juliet which was written by William Shakespeare between the years 1591-95. Romeo and Juliet is set in Verona.

Synopsis of Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a love story based on a man and a woman from two rival families. Romeo and Juliet are in love however their families despise one another, therefore cannot fulfill their love. The play follows the love story between these two and their struggles throughout it and with other characters helps wish to get married.

Friar Lawrence
The character that I will be playing is Friar Lawrence (Local priest in Verona). Friar is a well respected man and has very high morales. Hearing Juliet's story he feels it is his duty to help her by offering advice and planning for them to get married, Friar has the best intentions in his plan because his main aim is to end the family feud and make everyone get along with one another. Friar is around 50 years old and of a high status/

My Monologue
The monologue I am performing is just after the tragedy has happened. In the scene Friar is telling his story to the Duke and Capulet who could banish him from the city so he wants to relieve his guilt. As he is telling his story he has very mixed emotions from remorse, sadness, guilt and anger and what has happened and also what he has done.

My Shakespeare Monologue- Friar Lawrence from Romeo And Juliet

This was taken from http://nfs.sparknotes.com/romeojuliet/page_280.html and this shows my monologue and the modern day meaning.

FRIAR LAWRENCE I will be brief, for my short date of breath Is not so long as is a tedious tale. Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet, And she, there dead, that Romeo’s faithful wife. I married them, and their stol'n marriage day Was Tybalt’s doomsday, whose untimely death Banished the new-made bridegroom from the city— For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined. You, to remove that siege of grief from her, Betrothed and would have married her perforce To County Paris. Then comes she to me, And with wild looks bid me devise some mean To rid her from this second marriage, Or in my cell there would she kill herself. Then gave I her, so tutored by my art, A sleeping potion, which so took effect As I intended, for it wrought on her The form of death.

FRIAR LAWRENCE I will be brief because I'm not going to live long enough to tell a boring story. Romeo, who lies there dead, was the husband of that Juliet. And she, who lies there dead, was that Romeo’s faithful wife. I married them; their secret wedding day was the day Tybalt died. His untimely death caused the bridegroom to be banished from the city. Juliet was sad because Romeo was gone, not because of Tybalt’s death. To cure her sadness, you arranged a marriage for her with Count Paris. Then she came to me, and, looking wild, she asked me to devise a plan to get her out of this second marriage. She threatened to kill herself in my cell if I didn’t help her. So I gave her a sleeping potion that I had mixed with my special skills. It worked as planned. She seemed to everyone to be dead.

Start of Shakespeare Monologue Assessment.

END OF ASSESSMENT.

Evaluation Of Audition

Before the audition, I decided to do numerous exercises to help me relax and warm my vocals, this ranged from breathing exercises, to humming and full body stretches. This helped me calm my nerves and let my body feel more free.

When I walked into the audition room, I was asked to tell the panel about my two monologues. I introduced by saying the names of both plays, the writer who wrote them and when it was set. After this I went into detail about the whole play context and my character fits into this. This was good to use because it showed my understanding of the play and that I have taken time to think about the play. This then nicely lead me on to discussing my characters and their background, I decided to place this bit of information just before I started my monologues because it helped me get into the mindset of that character.

I then proceeded to perform my monologues, the first monologue i performed was Oggy Moxon. Straight from the start I showed clear transition into the character by doing an exaggerated shoulder roll which links to that hard man style which Oggy has. As I performed this monologue, I used a variety of gestures that highlighted key moments and brought out the humour. For example when i was talking about dancing with Mrs Prime. I said that " My hand slipped down her back and felt that arse", to show this, I mimed I was actually dancing with her and grabbing her arse. This links to the persona of Oggy because he doesn't care about who's watching or what he's doing. I kept this hardman persona going throughout and ended the monologue with me miming a cigarette throw straight at the panel so it is given that forward address.

I then went out to start performing my second monologue, Mark, as I was about to start the piece, I took a moment and showed a clear change in costume but undoing all my buttons to get into that changing room environment which the scene is set. Throughout the monologue I kept referring to a specific spot on stage because in this piece I am talking to Barry, my best friend. As well as this, I would also refer to all the people that were around me because I am talking about certain people which are in the room with me. I felt this was effective because it made the scene realistic Nearer the end of the scene, my costume started to get more and more done up because it was linking with that changing room scenario, I finished the piece by saying "Never become a teacher", I didn't do this as Mark, because he is talking about what his dad say's to him so I thought it would be effective to link to that mockery side which a teenager has and mock his father.

After both monologues, I was asked by the panel why I felt these two monologues/characters contrasted. I felt that the characters both contrasted in their attitudes. Even though they are both teenagers, they have two different persona's. Oggy doesn't care about friends he just wants to be top dog of the school and not care, where as Mark wants that attention from people and loves being a joker amongst the group for example when in the changing room making jokes with Barry.

I feel that my performance was successful because I feel that my progression from the start of the assessment to the end was very effective i.e. development of my scenes. The main parts I liked about my monologues was the amount of gestures that I could include within the piece and how much I could bring the humour out more. I felt this was my biggest strength in my piece.
However some aspects of my piece I felt I could of done better on, for example nearer end of my Oggy piece I started to lose the amount of gestures that I was doing and therefore lost a bit of that hardman person of thrusting his weight around. This was similar to my Mark piece where because I was in a changing up, i was limited to the gestures I could do due the fact I was in a realistic scenario.

Overall I feel that my performance was a success due to the fact I showed a good progression from my first performance at the start of the assessment to my end at my audition. I also enjoyed the roles I performed and was fun to be placed in a different character to my own personality.

Improvisation Practice

Because we knew that in our audition we would need to spontaneously improvise with another actor. This scene can be from the play or a completely new scenario which the examiner would give. Therefore in one of our lessons, we decided to split into pairs and start to act out a scene that could possibly come up in the audition. For my improvisation I decided to focus on Oggy Moxon and place my partner as a teacher trying to make me stop smoking. As she came over, I ignore her, however as she continued to hassle me, I turned and walked close up to her face, I made straight eye contact and held this whilst still smoking, as she talked I threatened her by saying " i think you better leave love before you get hurt" then I continued this arrogant persona my blowing the cigarette smoke in her face etc. The scene ended with me leaving whilst throwing the cigarette at her feet.
I felt that this was an effective exercise to do because it helped me explore Oggy beyond the script and let me adapt to how he would act in everyday scenarios rather than a written scene. I also felt it was effective because it got me into that mindset of being this obnoxious character that has no fear.