Classical Theatre Performance Assignment –
‘Much Ado About Nothing’
Tuesday 22nd – Friday 25th September
2015
Characters
Assigned to perform/interpret various
selected scenes from ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, and having the casting process
completed, we began this week by looking into our given characters and scenes. I was cast to play Don Pedro in Act 1 Scene 1.
Now from my early understanding of the
play/text, I knew the purpose of this scene was to introduce the setting and
the characters. Beginning the play. In my observations of the David Tennent and
Catherine Tate production of the play, I saw the character of Don Pedro as a
fun, energised, and optimistic Prince.
Previously I found original interpretations, such as Kenneth Branagh’s
movie interpretation, portrayed Don Pedro as a calm, collective, and
well-spoken Prince. I found that to suit
the character, especially considering the character back in the Elizabethan era
would have been a respected upper class master.
While in David Tennant and Catherine Tate’s modernised interpretation
the character seemed to be more down to Earth, relaxed, and fun. This interpretation I preferred.
It was quite a relief to know that we
would be modernising our interpretation of the scenes. Because this would give me no restrictions
when interpreting the character. I would’ve
felt somewhat abolished to make the character a traditional, well-mannered, Elizabethan
Prince, had our assigned been set as performing original text in original
style. Seen as our interpretation will
be modernised I feel the need to ensure that the character is down to Earth,
and more importantly three dimensional.
Thereby adding layers of emotion and likability to the character, plus
showing off an entertaining character to open the entire play.
I thereby have made it a goal of mine to
portray this character to huge and likable standard, in both my physical and
verbal performance.
To get a better understanding of the
significant differences between the original and modern interpretations of the
characters; here are two photographic examples of the same character in
different interpretations:
Understanding the Text
While I know the plays storyline, and the
characters progressions within the story, I do not always understand the
written language. It is a well-known
issue with actors, if they do not understand the script it is going to be a
dull and meaningless story to tell.
Therefore it is extremely essential for Shakespearean actors to learn
and understand their lines. Because it
brings the stories to life, plus it gives true meaning and understanding to a
modern audience’s perspective. Therefore
our next goal was to understand what our characters were saying.
An extremely handy resource is ‘No Fear
Shakespeare’ (http://nfs.sparknotes.com/),
in this website you can look up all of Shakespeare’s texts/plays and the
website translates the text into modern text.
This was my key resource to understanding my text.
Prior to this research I knew a fair
amount of what Don Pedro was saying to his fellow characters. Three lines in particular stood out to me and
this is what I initially believed he was saying:
1)
“Good
Signor Leonato, are you come to meet your trouble?” – My good friend Leonato,
how are you?
2)
“You
have it full, Benedick” – He’s got you there Benedick!
3)
“That
is the sum of all, Leonato.” – That pretty much covers it, Leonato.
These three lines in particular stood out
to me because it somewhat reflects Don Pedro’s likability and charisma amongst
his old friend Leonato, his banter between Benedick, and his planning for
future events with Leonato. That is what
I believed the original text meant, but ‘No Fear Shakespeare’ says differently:
1)
“Good
Signor Leonato, are you come to meet your trouble? The fashion of the world is to avoid cost,
and you encounter it.” – My dear Signor Leonato, hosting my whole army is such
a huge burden, but you accept it – and me – with open arms. Most people choose to avoid trouble, but you
run to it.
2)
“You
have it full, Benedick” – Ah, he got you back, Benedick!
3)
“That
is the sum of all, Leonato.” – And that’s everything, Leonato.
In comparison to what I initially believed
the text to be, I wasn’t far off to ‘No Fear Shakespeare’. I also found the modernised text stated the
obvious, and that’s Don Pedro is a likable character. He is energised, charismatic, and down to
Earth, and has really good chemistry between his friends.
I took note of the entire scenes
modernised text. My goal for future
rehearsal work is to memorise the modernised meaning and embrace the characters
objectives and progressions in this scene to bring Don Pedro to life in a great
manner.
Plan of Progression
This week ended with myself and my fellow
cast members understanding a whole lot more about our scenes, our characters,
and our lines. The plan of progression
came to a rehearsal schedule meaning we could show off all our research and
skills, put into this performance, and bring the characters and story to life
with good, accurate and entertaining intentions.
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