Classical Theatre Research – Performances
Through my research I have discovered many
fascinating contextual facts concerning William Shakespeare’s classical stage
layout, actor’s performances, and contemporary comparison. In this research blog I will share all my
research and understanding of William Shakespeare’s impact, socially,
culturally, and politically, on classic and modern theatre.
Performances
William Shakespeare’s key trademark is of
course his written language. On paper
many, today, consider the text too confusing and out of date, and even for many
actor the reading text is difficult to process.
Which is why it’s down to all Shakespearean actor to perform in such a
way that makes the text entertaining and all the more understandable. In many cases this hasn’t been to many modern
actor’s likings. But when handled
professionally, todays actors can project such acceptional performances that
homage to the classical performances of the Elizabethan era. But back in the Elizabethan era, what did
performers do that was different to todays standards of acting?
·
Movement – Travelling back in time to the Elizabethan era, audiences to
Shakespeare’s plays were to a some-what dance-like performance. With ‘the Globe Theatre’s’ open air and
circular structure all the performers had to really emphasis their
moements. In particular, gestures to
other characters. Slow hand gstures
implied a sense of grace and love between the characters. But sudden and sharp hand gestures implied a
rivalry and hatred between the characters.
The movements had to be spot on, precise and meaningful because if the
audience couldn’t hear the dialogue they would understand the characters
relationships and progression of the story.
It is a well known fact that female characters back then were played by
male actors, therefore their movements had to be elegant and femenistic, not to
a realistic degree, but to a standard that made the audience see the woman not
the actor.
·
and Speech Variations – Today Shakespearean text is analysed and interpret in many
different fashions by many different people.
But it is these vocal techniques that, may have been produced/plotted by
Shakespeare himself, and are definitely used by today’s professional actors. These techniques are:
-
Iambic Pentameter
-
Alliteration
-
Single Syllables
These techniques in particular
emphasis certain words and sentences with Shakespeares most famous monologues
and soliloquies, and gives the spoken variation a much more accurate and
realistic structure and interpretation.
It is iambic pentameter that
gives it a five heartbeat structure, emphasising certain words and giving the
text a song pacing structure that would intrigue the audience all the more. Here is an example of iambic pentameter in
work: “To be, or not to be: that is the question…” every highlighted word would
be enhanced in spoken variations, giving it a pattern of “up and down, up and
down”. This technique wouldn’t last for
just one sentence it would be continuous throughout the soliloquy, giving an
extremely intirguing performance and an entertaining new basis to the
character.
Alliteration is witten text
technique that many have come across before.
How can you find alliteration in text?
Alliteration is when more that one word in the sentence has the same
first letter, for example; “A bird
of my tongue is better than a beast of yours.” – Beatrice, ‘Much Ado
About Nothing’ Act 1 Scene 1. In today’s
standards alliteration is often ignored, but in spoken Shakespearean language
actors could really embrace the sound of the word, in this case “bee”. Now depending on the purpose of the scene
actors could add a sense of aggression or passion, depending on why the
character is saying this line in particular.
Now single syllables has a true
purpose for the actors. Single syllables
has the performer slow the pacing of their lines to a level that adds depth to
what their characters’ are saying.
Shakespeare used this technique to ensure his audience was truly
intrigued by the characters and the progression of his stories.
Social Impact
Inside the theatre’s/playhouses actors
gave their performances and they were well received by all audiences. However outside the theatre’s the actors,
were not well perceived.
Often referred to as ‘rogues’ and ‘vagabonds’,
actors had to carry papers, or credentials, to be accepted into certain places
and counties. This had a somewhat
concerning affect onto Shakespeare himself.
All Elizabethan plays, at the time, had to go through a series of
reviews to ensure cencorship, making the plays and the performances politically
and religiously appropriate.
Alternativeley an Elizabethan actor’s lifestyle,
if they did their jobs well, could be no different from famous actors
today. As the decades passed in
Elizabethan times, theatres/playhouses became increasingly popular, therefore
the amount of plays produced Shakespeare lead to some incredible performances
that were praised. Popular Elizabethan/Shakespearean
actors list from:
·
Edward Alleyn
·
Richard Burdage
·
Robert Armin
·
Henry Condell
·
Christopher Beeston
·
Nathan Field
·
even William Shakespeare partook
acting role before becoming a playwright.
·
and many more.
Many of these actors became successful,
popular and wealthy men, and were the Elizabethan celebrities. But what mad them such a success?
·
Performing in Theatres – ‘The Globe Theatre’ was constructed, similarly to
famous Roman arenas and collaciams, with a circular formation, open air
presentation, and had to rely heavily on its performers. In today’s standards ‘the Globe Theatre’
often has support via microphones, atmospheric lighting, and smoke
machines. However dating back to the
Elizabethan era, ‘the Globe’ had artistic stage designs to create the
atmosphere and natural lighting so the audience could see. But it was the actors who made the show
real. It was these actors who were trained
to project their full capacity and make Shakespeare’s text entertaining and realistic. Unlike a playhouse, audience memebers couldn’t
always hear the actors, or even understand what was going on in the scene. But through their physical and vocal training
audiences could understand, what was happening in the scene, what the
characters relationships were, and how the play was progressing. All was actives through pure and acceptional
physicality and powerful vocal delivery.
·
Performing in Playhouses – Rival playhouses, to ‘Shakespeare’s Globe’, provided
actors with a much more simple basis, by building a stage with a pub/inn. The results were some entertaining performances,
but tested the actors more on their vocal delivery and memorisation of
text. This brought about a success for
playhouse landlord/ladies and a starting career point for all actors who began
in playhouses.
·
and Performing in Female Roles – As mentioned earlier, all female roles in
Elizabethan times were performed by men, to be more accurate young men. Young actors, with no facial hair, a lower
tone in voice, and a talent for slow and fragile physical movements were
perfect for the role. It was also
cotumes and make-up that completed the image of these young men being women on
stage. They were classically and
professionally trained to give certain physcial gestures to ensure all audience
memebers from the distance wouldn’t mistaken them for men. The performance style of men playing women is
capture exceptionally in the motion picture ‘Stage Beauty’ (motion picture
trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkxo0oqGMwU)
which captures the popularity of performing as a women, yet also hgihlights the
negatives of such a role. The movements
could have be reffered to as “over-the-top” or “meaningless”. Plus the actors make-up was often poisenous
and caused unhealthy results for these young men. But all in all it is a legacy that can be
admired or dreaded. It wasn’t until the
rein of King Charles II that the law was lifted and women could act on stage.
Cultural and Political Impact
Culturally Shakespearean performers have
left a legacy that has brought a Shakespearean school (the Royal Shakespeare
Academy) and with Shakespeare’s many plays future generations have offered
thousands of interpretations of. Not
only that but performance styles and movements, particularly men playing womens
roles, have developed many educations into the wider range of the performing
arts. Shakesprean styles also has a
interrelation with Pantomime and Commedia Dell’Arte with their movement styles
to bring characters to life and entertaining factors.
Politically wise, Shakespeare wasn’t
always free to write what he pleased, he was under the censorship to have near
all his political characters to be powerful, arrogant and often correct. But this is anpother legacy that has
experiements actors abilities to physcially and vocally project an stand out
character that’s offers more to the plays and shows a wider range to the world
that all can enjoy and be entertained by.
Key research link:
Iambic
Pentameter –
Alliteration
–
Shakespearean
Language -
Social
Impact –
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