On Tuesday and Wednesday 1st and 2nd December, I took part in a classical performance with the works from William Shakespeare. I took part in two monologues, one being an classical version and one being a contemporary version. For my classical interpretation, I used the character, Shylock, and his monologue 'To bait fish withal' from The Merchant of Venice and for my contemporary interpretation, I was in a group with three other people named Tahlia, Lennox and Kieran. We, as a group, performed a mixture of two texts, one from As You Like It and Hamlet, all written by William Shakespeare. The monologue from As You Like It was 'All the world's a stage', spoken by Jaques. The monologue from Hamlet was 'To be or not to be', spoken by Hamlet.
For my classical interpretation, I presented Shylock's 'To bait fish withal' monologue from The Merchant of Venice. Shylock, name meaning 'loan shark', a stereotypical, wicked, Jewish moneylender who is portrayed as the main antagonist in The Merchant Of Venice'. My interpretation of the character, Shylock, emphasised his description as I portrayed him an evil, a lust of money, who wanted to achieve his goal not just to get his money back from Antonio but list the amount of times he has dishonoured Shylock. I wanted to portray my interpretation of the character as a questioning and patronising character in the way that I speak each line. During the rehearsal process, I developed my character in the way he spoke and the way he walked and also his stage presence whilst being on stage. In the final production, I portrayed my character as a very angry character who wants to punish Antonio. To make my character what I wanted it to be, I need to look at what my character wanted to achieve so in order to achieve that particular goal, I need to develop more research into what my character wanted in that particular scene and not what his aim was in the whole play. There are many themes that are presented in 'The Merchant of Venice'. The first theme is Self Interest vs Love. Shylock is presented in a way that he does not care for anything else except his money. He cares more about his money than his own daughter which presents he is full of greed than full of love. This is a very important theme that defines Shylock in the play, as this makes him an antagonist in the play because he only cares about the well-being of himself, rather than his own daughter and others around him. The next theme is Prejudice and Conflict. In 'The Merchant of Venice', Shylock is well-known for hating Christians because of the way they look on him, but in Act Three Scene 1 (where the monologue comes from), Shylock speaks of his bitterness and anger towards the Christians and how's he treated by Antonio. During the play, there is well-known conflict between Antonio and Shylock and results in both characters going to a court of law. The next theme is Social Injustice. This is conveyed through when Shylock is at the court of law, demanding Antonio a pound of flesh, but loses his battle and in the end, has to give the money to Antonio and convert to Christianity. In my dramatic piece, I researched these themes and tried to use them into speaking my monologue. During the rehearsal process, I used these themes and tried to convey them through emotions in my voice and movements. Whilst performing, I did not use the theme of love and self interest in my monologue which is very key to my character, as he is obsessed with money. A line in the monologue states 'He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million', which in translation means 'He's insulted me and cost me half a million ducats'. Ducats means gold coins, normally used in most European cities, such as Austria, Sweden and, of course, Italy. As a target, I need to research more on what the monologue meant and what different words in the text meant. This target will give me a better understanding of my character and what he brings to the play, 'The Merchant of Venice'. Most of 'The Merchant of Venice' is used in verse, which means it is used poetically and some of the play is used in prose, which means the way we speak normally. In this particular monologue, it is spoken in prose, which explains Shylock isn't the type of character to use poetic language whilst speaking. This monologue is also not a sonnet, which consists of 14 lines, when in fact this monologue consists of 24 lines. I wanted to portray my character of being angered about the way he feels about Antonio and the Christian religion and not his love over anyone. During the rehearsal process, I researched the background context to this particular play and found out that
Jews had lived in England throughout the Middle Ages; they were treated then as property of the King, and were permitted to stay in England, over the protests of the Church, only by his "good graces." In fact, English kings allowed the Jews to remain in England largely for financial reasons: practicing trades, particularly money-lending, that were highly profitable but forbidden to Christians for religious reasons. Jews earned large sums of money, profits that were then, under the burden of equally large taxes, usurped by the King. Eventually, taxation impoverished most English Jews to an extent that they were no longer a source of revenue for the King; at that point, the King, Edward I, expelled the Jews from England in 1290. A few Jews converted to remain in England, but most were banished. Thus, there were essentially no Jews living in Shakespeare's England, making it unlikely that Shakespeare ever even met one. The Merchant of Venice was probably first performed in 1596 or 1597. For my classical interpretation of Shylock's monologue, I focused on what type of voice I could use for this character. In order to understand what the monologue was about, I researched the character and what type of language he used. When he was speaking his monologue, he spoke in a very dramatic way and listed the ways Antonio and the Christians have disgraced him. With this information, I knew that Shylock was very angry and questioning what he had did wrong, so during the rehearsal process, I used different range of voices to convey my character. In the final performance, I conveyed my character's voice as being very angry and wondering what he has done wrong to deserve judgement from another religion. I spoke at a very high volume to create emphasis to the audience that this was happening to me. As a target, I will research different actors portrayal of the character and see what type of voice they used and use it as an influence for my character's portrayal. For my classical interpretation, I was given a level to speak my monologue. Whenever you stepped off the level, I was not allowed to speak, but use movements. Whilst performing, I only stood still on that block, I did not move around or step off the block. I wanted to do this because I wanted the audience to focus on me and to not focus on me from other places in the room whilst walking, because that would be distracting. Although I thought I could have been interactive with the audience a lot more if I moved around so, as a target, I need to move from one level to another, in order to maintain the audience's focus. Also, as the audience was sat spaced out across the theatre, I turned my back and looked at different audience members and I felt that had an effect as a performer because the audience engaged with me and that built my confidence in my performance. I felt like I could have done a lot more movement practice in the rehearsal process, so in the future I will focus on movement and I will research how my character would walk whilst saying this monologue.
For my contemporary interpretation, we were in a group of four and presented Jaques' 'All the world's a stage' and Hamlet's 'To be or not to be' monologues from As You Like It and Hamlet. As a group, we decided to merge the two monologues together to make one whole monologue. Jaques is a lord who accompanies the Duke Senior, who is father to Rosalind, into exile in the Forest of Ardene. He is most known for being the faithful stock character in the play. He is not a fighter, but a person who judges other characters actions. In our group, we split the monologue into different equal parts which made it easier in the rehearsal process. During the rehearsal process, we looked at the monologue and looked at the character, Jaques in detail. Also, during the rehearsal process, I conducted research on different portrayals of the character to give myself a sense of what the character does in the play and what his contribution is. My interpretation of the character, was really similar to the character Jaques, as I wanted to portray him an extremely loyal character, but with a very forgetful past. He is a very sad character, and being sad makes him happy as a character. This was a particular point I wanted to add into my character, as I wanted my portrayal to be extremely sad and I wanted the audience to feel my character. During the rehearsal process, this particular theme of sadness stuck with my character and also relates to the themes of Dementia and Alzheimer's, which are both diseases to make people forget about important things or events or people. As a group, we could have done a lot more research on our character of Jaques, so, as a target, I will instruct my group to conduct research into the play of 'As You Like It' and research the characters that are key in the play, including Jaques, and explain what their goal in the play is. We had to perform our contemporary monologues of 'All The World's A Stage' and 'To Be or not to Be' under a particular theme. Our theme, we got given, was on the topic of Dementia and Alzheimer's. Dementia is a chronic disorder caused by brain disease or by a particular brain injury that can then cause memory loss, difficulties with thinking, problem-solving or language. Alzheimer's is similar to Dementia in the way that it causes memory loss, but can affect more of a middle or older age group. When we got the theme, we, as a group, immediately did research on the topic of Dementia and Alzheimer's. We then came back as a group, discussed what dementia and Alzheimer's was and then started thinking of ideas we could do for our contemporary vision. For my idea and vision, I wanted everyone in our group to say particular parts of 'All The World's A Stage', and mid-way through sentence, forget what they were saying. This particular idea, I created, created a lot of emphasis on the topic of Dementia and Alzheimer's, because the main cause of both diseases are memory loss, so forgetting lines would emphasise this point. Carrying on from my idea, when one of us were speaking our parts of the monologue, the rest of the actors would walk around the room, whispering the words 'To Be Or Not To Be, That IS The Question' and 'To Die, To Sleep' from Hamlet's monologue 'To Be Or Not To Be'. When we whispered these words, we would portray actions of trying to remember what we were saying which also focuses on the subject of Dementia. My idea aimed to get into the minds of the audience with the actors walking around and whispering, which also gives it a sense of eeriness and almost scare the audience. During the rehearsal process, we used my idea and tried to portray different ways we can say the monologue. I felt like, as a group, not many ideas were made so in order to improve in the future, I will organise my group more and make sure we all come up with ideas, instead of myself coming up with the idea, so I will instruct my group to construct background information on the issue of Dementia and Alzheimer's. Also doing the rehearsal process, I felt like my group needed to be focused more with rehearsing, so in order to do this, I will instruct my group to focus more whilst rehearsing our contemporary piece. For my costume idea, I wanted all actors to wear all black clothes. I wanted to use this colour because the colour BLACK is the colour to show the hidden and the secretive, and also gives a sense of mystery, which went well with our performance, and I felt suited the theme of Dementia and Alzheimer's. In the final performance, we all performed very well. I spoke very clearly and everyone was heard and understood by the audience. For my contemporary interpretation of Jaques' 'All The World's A Stage' monologue and 'Hamlet's 'To Be Or Not To Be' monologue, we as a group focused on what type of voice we could use for our characters. Dementia and Alzheimer's are both similar diseases in the way that it makes people, young or old, to forget important things. I then came up with an idea that we should convey our pieces in a particular way like we have forgotten something. During the rehearsal process, we tried to develop our confused, forgotten voices. Tahlia then came up the idea of getting loud at the beginning and then quietly going down in volume as the monologue went on. This also relates to the issue as victims can become scared about certain things by not remembering an important thing. Gradually, as the monologue, we then started having little 'eureka', almost like you've remembered something, but it then goes away, which also relates to the issue. I felt, as a group, we did this well and was very comfortable in the rehearsal process. For my contemporary interpretation, we, as a group, stood on levels. Every time we stepped off the levels, I came up with the idea that we should move around very eerily and whisper the words of Hamlet's monologue. This was meant to scare the audience and give them a sense of excitement of what's going to happen. During the rehearsal process, I did not feel that we focused enough on movement in our performance piece, so, as a target, I will construct background research on past productions of 'As You Like It' and focus on the performer's movements and how they interact with the audience. Whist we were walking around, I came up with the idea of putting actions into the words 'To die, To sleep'. The actions portrayed was putting our fingers across our throats and going to sleep in our hands. I wanted this to emphasise the theme of Dementia because some cases lead to depression and can lead to some patients committing suicide, so I wanted to emphasise the actors walking around, being really upset and achieving a goal.
THEMES OF PERFORMANCE MATERIAL
There are many themes that are presented in 'The Merchant of Venice'. The first theme is Self Interest vs Love. Shylock is presented in a way that he does not care for anything else except his money. He cares more about his money than his own daughter which presents he is full of greed than full of love. This is a very important theme that defines Shylock in the play, as this makes him an antagonist in the play because he only cares about the well-being of himself, rather than his own daughter and others around him. The next theme is Prejudice and Conflict. In 'The Merchant of Venice', Shylock is well-known for hating Christians because of the way they look on him, but in Act Three Scene 1 (where the monologue comes from), Shylock speaks of his bitterness and anger towards the Christians and how's he treated by Antonio. During the play, there is well-known conflict between Antonio and Shylock and results in both characters going to a court of law. The next theme is Social Injustice. This is conveyed through when Shylock is at the court of law, demanding Antonio a pound of flesh, but loses his battle and in the end, has to give the money to Antonio and convert to Christianity. In my dramatic piece, I researched these themes and tried to use them into speaking my monologue. During the rehearsal process, I used these themes and tried to convey them through emotions in my voice and movements. Whilst performing, I did not use the theme of love and self interest in my monologue which is very key to my character, as he is obsessed with money. A line in the monologue states 'He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million', which in translation means 'He's insulted me and cost me half a million ducats'. Ducats means gold coins, normally used in most European cities, such as Austria, Swedan and, of course, Italy. As a target, I need to research more on what the monologue meant and what different words in the text meant. This target will give me a better understanding of my character and what he brings to the play, 'The Merchant of Venice'.
There are many themes that are presented in 'As You Like It' and 'Hamlet' that are very similar.
POTENTIAL CONTEMPORARY STYLE OF PERFORMANCE MATERIAL
We had to perform our contemporary monologues of 'All The World's A Stage' and 'To Be or not to Be' under a particular theme. Our theme, we got given, was on the topic of Dementia and Alzheimer's. Dementia is a chronic disorder caused by brain disease or by a particular brain injury that can then cause memory loss, difficulties with thinking, problem-solving or language. Alzheimer's is similar to Dementia in the way that it causes memory loss, but can affect more of a middle or older age group. When we got the theme, we, as a group, immediately did research on the topic of Dementia and Alzheimer's. We then came back as a group, discussed what dementia and Alzheimer's was and then started thinking of ideas we could do for our contemporary vision. For my idea and vision, I wanted everyone in our group to say particular parts of 'All The World's A Stage', and mid-way through sentence, forget what they were saying. This particular idea, I created, created a lot of emphasis on the topic of Dementia and Alzheimer's, because the main cause of both diseases are memory loss, so forgetting lines would emphasise this point. Carrying on from my idea, when one of us were speaking our parts of the monologue, the rest of the actors would walk around the room, whispering the words 'To Be Or Not To Be, That IS The Question' and 'To Die, To Sleep' from Hamlet's monologue 'To Be Or Not To Be'. When we whispered these words, we would portray actions of trying to remember what we were saying which also focuses on the subject of Dementia. My idea aimed to get into the minds of the audience with the actors walking around and whispering, which also gives it a sense of eeriness and almost scare the audience. During the rehearsal process, we used my idea and tried to portray different ways we can say the monologue. I felt like, as a group, not many ideas were made so in order to improve in the future, I will organise my group more and make sure we all come up with ideas, instead of myself coming up with the idea, so I will instruct my group to construct background information on the issue of Dementia and Alzheimer's. Also doing the rehearsal process, I felt like my group needed to be focused more with rehearsing, so in order to do this, I will instruct my group to focus more whilst rehearsing our contemporary piece. For my costume idea, I wanted all actors to wear all black clothes. I wanted to use this colour because the colour BLACK is the colour to show the hidden and the secretive, and also gives a sense of mystery, which went well with our performance, and I felt suited the theme of Dementia and Alzheimer's. In the final performance, we all performed very well. I spoke very clearly and everyone was heard and understood by the audience.
VOICE
For my classical interpretation of Shylock's monologue, I focused on what type of voice I could use for this character. In order to understand what the monologue was about, I researched the character and what type of language he used. When he was speaking his monologue, he spoke in a very dramatic way and listed the ways Antonio and the Christians have disgraced him. With this information, I knew that Shylock was very angry and questioning what he had did wrong, so during the rehearsal process, I used different range of voices to convey my character. In the final performance, I conveyed my character's voice as being very angry and wondering what he has done wrong to deserve judgement from another religion. I spoke at a very high volume to create emphasis to the audience that this was happening to me. As a target, I will research different actors portrayal of the character and see what type of voice they used and use it as an influence for my character's portrayal.
For my contemporary interpretation of Jaques' 'All The World's A Stage' monologue and 'Hamlet's 'To Be Or Not To Be' monologue, we as a group focused on what type of voice we could use for our characters. Dementia and Alzheimer's are both similar diseases in the way that it makes people, young or old, to forget important things. I then came up with an idea that we should convey our pieces in a particular way like we have forgotten something. During the rehearsal process, we tried to develop our confused, forgotten voices. Tahlia then came up the idea of getting loud at the beginning and then quietly going down in volume as the monologue went on. This also relates to the issue as victims can become scared about certain things by not remembering an important thing. Gradually, as the monologue, we then started having little 'eureka', almost like you've remembered something, but it then goes away, which also relates to the issue. I felt, as a group, we did this well and was very comfortable in the rehearsal process.
MOVEMENT
For my classical interpretation, I was given a level to speak my monologue. Whenever you stepped off the level, I was not allowed to speak, but use movements. Whilst performing, I only stood still on that block, I did not move around or step off the block. I wanted to do this because I wanted the audience to focus on me and to not focus on me from other places in the room whilst walking, because that would be distracting. Although I thought I could have been interactive with the audience a lot more if I moved around so, as a target, I need to move from one level to another, in order to maintain the audience's focus. Also, as the audience was sat spaced out across the theatre, I turned my back and looked at different audience members and I felt that had an effect as a performer because the audience engaged with me and that built my confidence in my performance. I felt like I could have done a lot more movement practice in the rehearsal process, so in the future I will focus on movement and I will research how my character would walk whilst saying this monologue.
For my contemporary interpretation, we, as a group, stood on levels. Every time we stepped off the levels, I came up with the idea that we should move around very eerily and whisper the words of Hamlet's monologue. This was meant to scare the audience and give them a sense of excitement of what's going to happen. During the rehearsal process, I did not feel that we focused enough on movement in our performance piece, so, as a target, I will construct background research on past productions of 'As You Like It' and focus on the performer's movements and how they interact with the audience. Whist we were walking around, I came up with the idea of putting actions into the words 'To die, To sleep'. The actions portrayed was putting our fingers across our throats and going to sleep in our hands. I wanted this to emphasise the theme of Dementia because some cases lead to depression and can lead to some patients committing suicide, so I wanted to emphasise the actors walking around, being really upset and achieving a goal.
