THE FOOL - Research

  I got cast as Feste, who is more commonly referred to as the fool in the play. I thought it would be helpful for me to do some research on the jester's and fool's of Shakespearean time, what their job was and what was their place in the society. Hopefully, this will help me with my character development, but also just helping me to construct a coherent image of Feste's life.

THE FOOL

• Court Jesters date back before the Medieval era 
• Job was to bring smile to the face of the master and entertain
• Female fools were rare, though have been mentioned(Lucretia the Tumbler and Jane The Fool)
• Only one who really had freedom of speech - could say anything to the king/queen, because of their eccentricity and state as the fool, who as a job mocks people
• Some achieved considerable fame, but many were common in court
• often worked also as actors or playwrights
• "Natural fool" was someone who was born with a foolish nature, in other words they were mentally disabled. Society found mental illness(madness) entertaining, and if one was clever or lucky enough to use their simplicity as a advantage, they  could make a living out of it. 
• "Artificial Fool" purposely acted simple, odd, or eccentric to entertain and sometimes even to indirectly to give advice.  
• The first costumes of court fool show their hats to have had ears of an ass, the tail being added later. This then moved on to colourful and humorous attire. 
• Feste was originally probably played by Robert Armin, a goldsmiths turned actor and author, who is listed as one of the 'principal actors' in Shakespeare's plays. He also wrote three jest-books.

19.12.14 - Konstantin Stanislavski

"As actors we use our imagination to visualise everything from the circumstances of the play, what we want, how we will achieve it, our characters past to the events of the play"

Given Circumstances

• Information
• Script
• Stage Direction
• Character Interaction
• Text
• What people say
• What people don't say
• Research
• Director

Imagination

• Passive imagination - seeing ourselves from the audience point of view
• Active imagination - seeing yourself through your own(actor's) eyes
• Stanislavski's aim for an actor
• Actors must use the imagination actively so we can experience " I am being" the character

Exercises

1. We started by walking around the room in neutral, opening ourselves to what ever we would have to imagine. Andy would then describe a place for us we would adapt ourselves into that situation and imagine ourselves in those places. The three places describes were a church wedding, walking on the downs and busy London rushing to see your mother. All of these different situation were very different for me, since I have different connections to each scenario. Church one made me feel a bit imitated and very awkward after it was told we were at a wedding we weren't invited to. I am not religious, so I felt out of place in a church, but still respectful. I could imagine all the art and beautiful architecture, but also felt that I shouldn't be there. This exercise was very much about imagination and training yourself to imagine different situation, but also connecting them with your past experiences.
2. Second exercise was much about concentration and how quickly imagination can be broken, but also created. We were told to imagine ourselves in our kitchen cooking. We had to imagine the space, the table tops and cupboards . Then, Siou gave us a math equation to solve and suddenly, the imaginative kitchen disappeared and the math problem appeared in front of me. Then we had to go back to that kitchen, but it was harder now because we had been distracted. 
3. At the end of the class we did a exercises we did multiple times last year. In this exercise two people were chose and each were given a different objective and then they had to improvise a scene with their objective in mind, but not show the other person what the objective is. As an audience, we had to try and figure out what the objectives were. This really trained us how to use the objectives to create character and emotions, without blatantly saying THIS IS WHAT WANT, but be more subtle about it

Units & Objectives

• Units are specific points in the play that each contain an individual motive for the character 
• Helps the actor reference each emotions and create character
• Objectives are goals that the character wants to achieve
• action oriented

17.12.14

   Today we were working with the 1st year on the first scene and especially the opening monologue of Orsino's. We did a lot of similar exercises we have done with the 2nd years before, such as reading the monologue line by line together as a group and then each choosing four words from their line to define it. This exercise helps to find meaning in the monologue, by identifying the important words and creating a mood for it. We also realized, that the first few lines basically define the entire play: If music be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it, that surfeting The appetite may sicken and so die. The play is pretty much about love, music and the excess of love.

After this we started to experiment and play around with the set of the beginning. We started by simply walking around the room and as Siou would clap her hands, everyone would go on their tippy toes breathing in and on the out breath fall into a direction and keep walking, This was to declare the momentum and explore the release that the monologue sort of has. Then, we changed it to simply fall to the ground and start to say the poem in unison.
 Orsino is very much a person of free love and we all agreed he probably has had and still has multiple lovers, and so the beginning could be some sort of a harem type of set, where everyone is laying around with each other, relaxing and enjoying their times. We were told to use the first three lines and change positions between each lines to create different connections with the people around us. At first, it was hard for people to be so close each other, but soon everyone started to relax, and I felt quite connected with the group.

Assessment week Research

Shakespeare Research – Twelfth Night

The hyperlinks will give you a first source for the answers to the questions.

When was Twelfth Night written? What else was happening around this time? Who was in power in England? What do you know about this ruler?

The play 'Tweltfh Night' was believed to be written in 1601-1602 and commissioned for entertainment to close off the Christmas season, also known as the twelfth night, where the play got its name. The play was written near the end of Elizabethan era, meaning that the person in power at this time was none other than Elizabeth I, also known as The Virgin Queen. At this time, England was still very much a conservative kingdom, meaning that Elizabeth was constantly been pressured to marry. Instead, she used being single as an advantage; European monarchs who were hopeful to marry this fine lady were less of a threat. This way Elizabeth wouldn't also face the danger of dying because of childbirth, but also not lose her authority to her husband. Yet, it was said that the queen was walking on a very thin line, creating tensions between the numerous rivaling suitors. After rejecting the Spanish Kings, Philip Iis, proposal, Spain and England became rivals themselves, ending in war between these countries in the late 1580's.

What is the alternative title of the play? Why does it have two titles?

The play got its name Twelfth night for being commissioned to be performed on the 12th night of Christmas, ending the Christmas season. The other name this play is known as is 'What you Will' which might have been the original or Shakespeare's own title to the play. It is believed that it was changed to 'Twelfth Night', because at the time there was a another famous play called What You Will, which would have created confusion and separate from the John Marston's play. Another reason for two titles might have been the simple fact that during the Elizabethan era, subtitles were very fashionable.

What are the main themes of the play?

The main themes of the play are duality, disguises, gender, and love – especially what it thrives us to do and see. The three first themes tie in together pretty well, and are often used to strengthen each other. You can see these themes especially in the character Viola, who pretends to be a man called Cesario to survive in Illyria and to work for Orsino. The fat that Viola lives as a man, and even has Olivia fall in love with her, brings out the question of gender and representation, but also disguise, themes that are found in Shakespeares other plays as well(e.g. As You Like It and Merchant of Venice). This brings out a certain homoerotic messages from the play, that aren't actually that subtle or rare. There is obvious affections from Orsino towards Viola in her male disguise, but also Viola Twin brother and Antonio have a connection that feels like something more than just connection between friends. Sebastian and Viola as twins also bring the duality out in the play, there is also references to darkness and light, and some characters, such as Malvolio(puritan) and Feste(the fool) contrast each other. Disguise is also a reoccurring theme, obviously with Viola dressing up as a man, but also characters fooling others(mainly Malvolio) by pretending to be someone they are not. For example Feste dressing up as a priest to fool Malvolio and Maria writing a letter in Olivia's handwriting to play a trick on, you guessed it, Malvolio. Love is an obvious theme, but I feel that in this particular play it isn't just simple as everyone falling in love, but rather the love being unrequited. It seems that every character has some kind of connection with this, by Orsino loving Olivia but Olivia loving Cesario, but Viola instead is in love with Orsino. This is a perfect example of a love triangle. Other desperate lovers are Malvolio and Sir Andrew, who both want the affection of Olivia, but also Antonio, who obviously has feelings for Sebastian, who instead ends up with Olivia.

What are the main differences & similarities between Shakespeare’s Tragedies and Comedies?

The main difference of Tragedies and Comedies is found from the names; tragedies end in death and sorrow, where as comedies end with pretty much everyone of the main characters getting happily married. In both genres the stories often focus on love, or have some subplot about love. The difference in these is that in tragedies, it is usually forbidden because of rivaling families or a feud between friends, and often ends badly, where as in comedies the fight for love ends happily and isn't as tragic, but rather funny in most cases. Still, both styles contain an element of humour and sadness, but the balance of these moods vary. Also, comedies often include some sort of trickery, often harmless and jokes-like, but tragedies use deception to gain power and use murder as a tool.

Name one of the characters in the play and write short character profile.

MALVOLIO Malvolio might seem like a minor character at first, only bringing a little amusement to the love triangle of Viola-Olivia-Orsino, but as the play gies in, he grows more interesting. Malvolio is the steward or main servant of Olivia's household, and is often seen as the main antagonist, who is tricked multiple times by other characters(mainly Maria, Feste, Sir Toby and Sir Andrew), creating the humour to this play. He is described as a puritan, fitting to his stiff manners and hates all that is fun by others. He is extremely self-righteous and dreams of some day marrying Olivia, and rise above his social class. This ambition is revealed by a trick played on him by Sir Tovy and Maria, who forge a letter from Olivia, 'confessing her love towards Malvolio'. This letter is the only thing that brings joy into Malvolio, which in when we see a different side of him, who wants to please Olivia on any way possible, only resulting gin people thinking he is mad. He almost does become mad as he is confined to a dark room for a night by Maria and Toby, which does bring the audiences pity on him. You could even argue him being a slightly tragic character, as in the end he comes to a celebration of love and happiness that has nothing to do with him and ends up leaving with revenge in mind because no one seems willing to offer him a real apology. This is a down note to otherwise happy ending. I think his place in this play, as well as a comedic character, is to show that someone must suffer while everyone else is happy.

Malvolio is described as a “Puritan” by Sir Toby Belch– who and what is a puritan?

Puritans were a minority group of Protestants who were especially unpleased by the Elizabethan Settlement, that tried to create a balance between Protestants and Catholics. Their name comes from the word “pure-itan” and how they wanted a simpler and the 'pure' form of Church practice, but were rather scorned for self-righteousness. They wanted , and were successful, to censor all writings before publishing. They also opposed theatres and wanted to close(which the Puritan Parlament succeeded in 1643), which led to multiple parodies of them on the stage. Malvolio is one of these caricatures, by being highly religious, uptight, and seen as 'the bad guy'in the play.

Shakespeare introduced more than 1700 common words to the English Language. Name 5 of them.

Blanket Arouse Elbow Mimic Puking I chose these because to me, they simply seem such ordinary words, that it is quite hard to believe they were invented by Shakespeare!

2.12.14

Today we learned about Minou dancing, which was the court dance of 17th century France. It was a dance that would inspire ballet dancing and some its characteristics were floating, galloping, patterning and a skipping like movement. In Minou, patterning meant creating shapes between the dancers, such as squares. It had men and women pairings, but no touching or too close encounters with the pairs. Every song had their own set dance and these dances were performed to the king in court.

We also created our little Minou dance to one of the songs from the play, using these characteristics. It was a fun way to discover something about the period, how people might have danced and held themselves. We split the class into two lines and started to created pathways and journeys through the lines which was basically weaving between the other partners. In partners, we also had to create a 16 beat dance movement and we chose the best to add to the dance. I think we could use this dance in the play at some point, as long as we keep rehearsing it.

28.11.14

- worked on monologue from twelfth night, exploring how we can understand it
- themes of the play

  Today we started to look at the themes and relationships of Twelfth Night. We have already watched the movie version, so everyone had an idea of what the play is about, but today's class was to go into little bit more detail.

LOVE & DUALITY

• The plays main theme is love, more specifically, exchanging different kinds of love

In this graph I've shown all of the different kinds of love connections happening in the play

• Orsino, Sir Andrew and Malvolio are all in love with Olivia. Olivia is in the middle of this love drama, but she herself technically only has feelings for one person, Cesario or Viola in disguise. After the reveal that Viola is a woman, Olivia is automatically in love Sebastian, who she had a brief relations when she thought he was Cesario. 
• Viola has quite simple love relationships, she of course loves her brother, but also falls in love with Orsino, who is chasing Olivia's heart. In the end Orsino and Viola do find each other
• Orsino has a very 'free love' kind of attitude, and he seems to have the affections of many, which I think is the reason why Olivia wants nothing to do with him. And perhaps this challenges only makes him want her more. In the play, you can see Orsino, developing emotions towards Cesario, a man, and doesn't seem to have a problem with it. In the end he falls in love with Viola
• Sebastian is seen first with Antonio, who saved him from the seas. Antonio clearly has love towards Sebastian, but Sebastian doesn't seem to have such strong emotions towards him. As Olivia think Sebastian is Cesario and has a loving moment with him, Sebastian seems to fall head over heels in love with her immediately. 
• The relationship between Maria and Sir Toby Belch is a bit more complicated, since there is chemistry, but it isn't obviously love. Even if the movie has adapted it so, it could be adapted differently. 
• Shakespeare has been thought to be bisexual or gay, since in a lot of his plays there is love between men and a lot of women disguising as men.

During a discussion about duality, we realized that Feste is kind of a third force. He has no money, but at the same time he has everything, He is very much a mystical character in a way, since it seems he is free from lust and knows all and tells the truth. He has insight to the characters and happening more than others, but still seems to be there only to have fun himself. He very much lives in the moment.

Compearing movie and stage versions

We have now watched both movie and stage adaptation of  Twelfth night, and I thought it would be nice to a little comparison between the two. I will start by talking about the movie, since we did see it first, and then move on to the stage adaptation.


   I won't go into too much detail about the plot, since I am sure once we actually start reading the play I will have to go over it more in detail. But shortly, the story is about a woman called Viola who, after losing her twin brother in a storm, decides to disguise herself as a man to survive in the land of Illyria. She ends working for, and falling in love with Duke Orsino, who instead is in love with Olivia who after meeting Viola dressed as Cesario, falls in love with her. This mess of unrequited love gets more complicated once Viola's twin brother arrives.
   Watching the movie really cleared up some of the character relationships and the plot over all. This way, once we start reading the play as a group, it'll be easier to picture the different scenes and understand the language.
   The movie was done in a fairly naturalistic style, but set in a later century than the play was written. This was pointed out to us, that a lot of Shakespeare's plays are very adaptable, meaning they can be set in different times era's , without jeopardizing the meaning and story of the play. I think this is something we can really play with once we stand thinking about, how we want to do the play, since we will have more freedom on the setting and costumes.
   The set of the play, and so the movie, is in Illyria, a made up land that is in war with the land that Viola and Sebastian come from. After watching the film, I thought it would be good to do some research in this land and I found some interesting things.

• An ancient region of the Western Balkans whose coast covered the coasts of modern Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro and Albania
• Description of this land was purely fiction to create a mysterious setting for the play
•  Used in Shakespeare's other plays as well, e.g. Henry VI, as a place of pirates. 

It also has connections to an Italian play, which is probably why a lot of the characters have Italian names Still, some of the places and names connect very strongly to England that creates an interesting contrast.


The stage adaptation took a much more stylistic approach to the play, though still keeping the acting quite naturalistic. They had decided to set it in the 40's, at least that was how the different character's were dressed like. Also, since it was on stage, the director had made an interesting decision to have set be a one room, that changes slightly when characters move or bring on furniture. Lighting was also used to create mood and different situations, such as the storm.
    One of the biggest differences between these two adaptations was their approach on 'love' or rather 'affection' between the different characters. A perfect example would be relationship between Cesario(Viola) and Olivia. In the movie, the love Olivia has towards Cesario is innocent and  in a way pure, she doesn't have any other to be in love other than being in love and she truly wants to marry him. But the play, where first of all the actress of Olivia is notably older than in the movie, it seems as if Cesario is a way for her to have fun or perhaps she wants to get married soon because of her age. At the end, when Cesario is revealed to be Viola, Olivia still takes her with her off-stage, because now Viola is this woman who dresses as a man, a scandal of sort and amusement for this rich and powerful older woman. So, the stage adaptation definitely addresses more the nature of the people with higher status and how all this money and power leaves them with just wanting more and more fun.
   In the original play, there is definitely some undertones to homosexuality, or attraction between people of the same gender. After saving Sebastian, Antonio obviously has some feeling for him. In the movie this wasn't directly shown, but the stage adaptation showed them kissing goodbyes, showing a clear relationship between them. Also Cesario's and Orsino's complicated relationship was shown more sexual than in the movie.

Commedia dell'arte

Commedia dell'arte is a form of theatre originating from Italy. It was performed right next to the audience, usually in marketplaces and other busy areas, and to draw attention, but also make it clearer for people far away, the actors would use masks to show different stock characters. It was also very important for the actors to be completely physical to connect with the audience. The stories  are focused on the relationships between masters and servants, where everyone is credulous and cunning, motivated by money, sex/love, and food/drink.

For class, Siou had brought us some of the masks to explore some of the different characters, and later we were introduced to this graph, about the ranking of the different characters:

1. Magnifico
   - 'the master of masters'
   - eagle like physicality
   - when Magnifico dies, a new one appears immediately
   - large presence, takes space

2&3. 1st Actor&Actress
   - no mask
   - take space
   - mysterious, might have dead spouses in their past etc.

4. The Witch
   - supernatural character
   - free from class

5. Pantalone
   - master
   - first one of the 'old men'
       - the old men were like Magnifico, but have then lost their teeth
   - womanizer
   - miser, needy
   - fiddles a lot

6. Doctor
   - master
   - second 'old man'
   - always fighting with Pantalone
   - thinks he knows everything
   - turkey-like physicality

7. Columbina
   - only female servant
   - moves like Harlequino, but is clever

8. Prughella
   - highest ranking servant
   - cunning
   - charismatic
 
9.  Harlequino
   - non-moral, in the way that he doesn't understand the difference
   - pig/monkey physicality
   - over-reacting
   - stupid

10. The Captain
   - pretends to be brave, when is really a coward
   - soldier

11. Zanni
   - lowest cast
   - the servant who comes from the country
   - everything is new and exciting

We explored some of these characters, like Harlequino, Pantalone, Columbina and the Doctor more in detail in class, by improv exercises. Siou would give us the scene and a group of people with assigned roles would play it out. We also explored each characters physicality, which was very interesting. This year, I really want to find a balance between naturalistic acting and physical acting, and so this workshop was extremely useful for me. Every exercise really pushed me to use my entire body to create the character, but also to not think so much during improvisation. These improvisation were very heavily focused on the themes that Commedia Dell'arte performances usually were about, such as how to lay a trap to get the girl, to get money, and/or to get food/drink. With these our class really learned what we needed to do in order to achieve these over-the-top characters - to not have ANY barriers. Later we watched a film that showed some drama school student having a workshop in Commedia dell'arte as well, and I could see how every one of them were ready to to just try things and not worry about looking ridiculous. This is something we should all aspire to be like in our acting, and this workshop really gave us the nudge to do so. It will also help us with toggling on with Shakespeare, since he uses a lot of these stock characters as well.

19.11.14

We started looking at Shakespeare today, but instead of going straight into Twelfth Night, the play we are going to turn into a performance, we started by working on our voice and the way we say Shakespearean text with a text from 'A Midsummer Nights Dream'. We started by only looking at these two lines : "I love thee not, therefore pursue me not" and "You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant". With these lines we did several exercise, such as just trying to say the lines with different inflections and ways. We also tried telling the lines to each other, by only mouthing the words and using our bodies to show our meaning. I personally really found this exercise helpful, since I am not the most physical in my acting. But this way we had to use our bodies and to make our gesture big, so that they can be seen. The follow up to this particular exercise was to start saying the lines, but now, with each word we had to do a gesture either pointing at ourselves, to our counter partner or outside, referring to people and things. Other two exercises we did had more to do with, how the meaning of the text changes as you try different distances from each, moving forwards or backwards, or by touching your partner with each line.  

I felt that today was very important for when we actually start to look at our text, since it taught us different ways we can change and look at our lines, but also to help us understand, what the text is about. With Shakespeare's text, that was written several hundred of years ago, not everyone can simply read it and understand what is going on, especially since the text is in iambic pentameter. But using these different ways of reading the text and responding to it, or by just simply cutting the lines into smaller parts, we can understand the text and the characters easier.