Acting Shakespeare

The Shakespeare class is over, so now I can talk about it.

Let me see... it was great.
I learned fun games, fun warm-ups, fun exercises.
I got to play fun parts, difficult parts, and not direct anything.
I saw good teachers in action and was able to learn about teaching from them.
We spoke the words of Shakespeare, which is beautiful.

My favorite game was "Go" because it established a rhythm. One person stood in the middle of a circle created by all the other people. The center person would throw a ball to a person in the circle and they would throw it back. Then, the center person would go to the next person around the circle, and repeat. Once a rhythm was established, anyone in the circle could say "go" and switch with the person in the center. The goal was to switch without breaking the rhythm.

We also learned "Four Minutes" which is an incredible physical warm up. It is a complete body warm-up/exercise done in approximately four minutes. I can't explain it more than that, but if you visit Kindergarten at the end of next year, hopefully we will be doing it.

I love the language of Shakespeare. I love the way it feels in my mouth. We used "Oh for a Muse of Fire" for some warm ups, and it was just fun to say the same thing in different ways, responding to the way others said it. Each student got to prepare a monologue, and we all worked on a scene together. The scene we did was when Prospero introduces Miranda and Ferdinand in "The Tempest." I will say more about the monologue in a minute because it made the class make sense.

The teachers were really good too. They were fun to "play" with and learn from. They didn't allow negative self-critique. When I wanted to say bad things about how I did, they kept pointing me to what I did well, and helped me build from that. When they wanted to point out a way to make it better it was always worded as a discovery: "What would happen if we tried..." or "If your character is thinking... don't you think they would..." and so on.

We talked about centering, vocal registers, bringing the voice to the front of the mouth, blocking actions, but not blocking emotions, placing ourselves in the action, as well as so much more.

It all fell into place when I said my monologue the final time. My monologue was one of Hermione's defense speeches from Act I of A Winter's Tale. I was very frustrating because I didn't get it. I didn't understand what the character was thinking and I was having difficulty putting myself in her place. I felt a complete block when I worked on it. On the final night, they took us to an outdoor stage/band shell. I was able to block it out on my own, then perform it. Just as they taught us, I blocked where I was going to move, but I didn't focus on what I was going to be feeling. I still didn't expect much, but when I got up to present it, I saw the other characters. I saw the king, my husband, condemning me and the lords and ladies looking on with compassion; I knew who I was and what I was thinking it. I felt as Hermione felt, because for a moment I was Hermione. I loved it. And my audience saw her too. They didn't just see me in my Chuck Taylors reciting Shakespeare. They really saw her.

I can't wait till I get to do it again.