Today we finally started to work on the act 4 scene 2, where Malvolio is captures and Feste gets to play around with him. I have been reading the scene on my own and we have experimented with the cage a bit before, but today Andy and Siou gave me their time to work on the acting and blocking of scene. The blocking is quite simple, Malvolio(Michael) is stated in the cage, where as I get to go around him and use the stage. Andy gave me a very good note to really play with it, and even play a game where I do not want to be seen by Michael. I want to experiment this more next week, now that I am getting more comfortable with the lines, and hopefully I will be able to be memorized to fully use my body to my advantage.
Also, finding the character of Sir Topas was in discussion. When I first went over the lines in character, I made him very large, masculine and threatening, but as Andy pointed out, it isn't clear enough transition from Feste. So, I did then show a different version I have been working on, more of an old character that is even a little patronizing towards Malvolio. Why I was afraid of this version at first was because it uses a a nasally voice with a slight lisp, so it make the lines very unclear and using diction even more important. This was also pointed out to me, especially since our space will be bigger there the annunciation might get muffled easily. To work through this, I should work on doing the lines more in this character, to find all the difficult words and phrases that would be easily lost and do tongue twister such as "She stood upon the balistrated balcony""Sheila found a seashell on the seashore" to work on my clarity. Both of these tongue twisters have different S's that sound usually the same with a lisp. It will help me to focus on the speech and clarity of it, while still maintaining the hilarity of Sir Topas.
Next time, I'd like to really start working with Michael to find some humour between the two characters and explore with the physical possibilities of Malvolio. I feel that working together on Michaels characters is also important to me, since it will help me to perhaps have Feste make fun of him, but also create some humour together for the audience to laugh at. Even though it is a lot about how Feste is on the stage,it is also important to find a balance between these two characters and their actions.
We ran the whole beginning of the play today, with the movement in the beginning, song with all the Feste's, Orsino's speech and Orsino's talk about Olivia. We hadn't done the movement piece for awhile, so it was a little bit off, and got told about that, People are still getting their steps wrong and I think some are unsure where and when are they supposed to do things. I would like to put up a video of this here,but our tutor hasn't put it up on YouTube yet. With this movement piece, I think it is important to stay in character, the high status royalty that we are supposed to represent, but also incorporate the movement of the sea to create the storm. I've learned that during this movement piece that even if I mess up, it is more important to stay focused and not show the mess up to the audience and just pick up with others.
The song is getting better and better every time we do it. I feel we still need to be connecting with the others and eventually the audience more during the song, but otherwise we are singing it well acapella and in unison. The speech is going better as well. Where before my group had trouble with the lines, having me basically leading everyone, now people were actually speaking up and being more confident with the lines.
We've also continues this scene with Greta rising from the ground as Orsino. The others will ask him in unison "Will you go hunt, my lord" playing as Curio. Orsino then continues to talk about his love towards Olivia, which we have to react to appropriately. We are shocked when Orsino compares himself to a hart and right after relief'd. There is also many sexual innuendos within Orsinos speech such as "When the rich golden shaft" which we have to laugh at gently, remembering that these people are graceful and completely relaxed.
I have received a lot of direction, what have I learned from it?
A lot of the direction we received today was about the movement piece, which we have been working on for a while now. I think we all really need to start listening to our director's better, since the movement should be going a lot better already, where as people are still stumbling, because they are not either present or listening. Also, using my own imagination to create the scene in my head helps a lot with creating the mood for the whole scene and I want to explore the scene more with active imagination exercises, such as trying to do a relaxing exercise right before going trough this scene. I'm also going to be working on my imagination with the other scenes as well.
We were missing quite a lot of people today in class, so we decided to start working on the cage in 4.2., where Feste fools Malvolio to think he is indeed crazy. Siou had told us that she wanted Michael to be very physical, and so the cage should enable movement and freedom to express. We decided that perhaps using the canes would work, since with them it is possible to make any shape we desire with some help from other people. This way the audience could also see Michael's body easily and he will have more room to explore.
Max suggested at the start point a very extreme kind of cage. So we tried out having Malvolio in the middle and canes keeping him on his place by having them around him all the way, even having canes on this throat and capturing his legs. This looked absolutely fantastic, but it wouldn't give Michael any space to move. After this explored A LOT of different ways to have the cage. We tried having the canes in a circle around Malvolio, but this was way too simple and not clear enough as a cage, This was a problem in most of the suggestions, for example having the canes form a sort of a roof on top of Malvolio. It needs to be clear in this scene that Malvolio is captured and cannot see for the whole scene to be funny. Greta's idea about simply having the canes in a horizontal line was the best idea today, since it was simple but effective. We explored in the ways we could play around with this idea, spacing the canes differently, having them in different distances from Malvolio, but also with the possibility that Feste could perhaps open it and move it during the scene to play around with Malvolio. The only problem with this was that it does require quite a lot of people holding the canes and so takes focus away from Malvolio in the actual cage. We agreed to work on this more once we have Michael present and we can explore more with his movements and the interaction with the cage.
What I need to work on?
I am still worried about the cage. Doing it with the canes means that there has to be about 4 extra people on the stage holding canes, taking focus on Malvolio and restricting the space. I would like to have Michael here to do the scene with me with some of the different variations of the cage, to see how he moves and how much space does he really need. I also want to be able to do the scene with Michael and the cage to block my movements as Feste and Sir Topas.
I think today was very useful for me, considering my character as Feste. After the warm up, me cracked on with out scenes. Unfortunately Jade wasn't here, so me and Greta didn't get to do too much work with the scene itself. We've wanted to get a bit more playful with the scene and more physical for a while now, but it is hard to do when one of our main actors in the scene isn't here. Instead, we tried to explore the relationship between Orsino and Feste a little.
I think Orsino very much thinks of Feste just as a normal jester, someone who entertains and makes a couple of jokes after, which honestly, he does. But Feste also sees through Orsino, and sees how he has feelings towards Cesario(Viola). In 2.4., Feste doens't have so many lines in this scene, but he gets to make a very important point in it; he sees how Orsino's privilege gives him the possibility to pick and choose how he likes, but Feste criticizes this privilege by calling him out on his floozy decision making and changing his mind so quickly. I still feel that I could have been more playful with Greta, but the game we played later on in the class helped a lot with this. I think our target with this scene, is to get to run it off-book, but also to have Jade with us, so we can get the playfulness and the physical connection between Orsino and Viola on point.
So, later in class, rather than continuing with our scenes, we continued to explore our characters with the other people playing the same character. The task was to pick one line that is said by the character and create a gesture or way of saying it that embodies the character. There is three Festes in our play; me, Zac and Helen. I think all of us have quite different Festes in mind, but all have a whimsical nature to him. We decided to play around with the line "No pains, sir, I take pleasure in singing, sir. ". We thought this line was the perfect one to describe Feste, since it tells about his profession, jesting, but also how many different meanings one line might have. In context, Feste has just played a song for Viola and Orsino, who have shared a moment with each other. With this line, Feste is basically refusing to accept money from Orsino, because he has already been paid in knowledge, but also just doing what he loves. I thought that there should probably be some sort of simple and subtle gesture to show the audience, that Feste indeed is teasing with this line, So I thought a small wink would do it, but to connect it with a bow truly shows how playful Feste is. It first shows to be just a bow of respect and thankfulness, but truly it is just part of the joke. Zac also added miming a hat, since in those times it would have been polite to take of your hat when bowing, but this could also show Feste's tricks, by rolling the hat as you put it back on. We had to perform these to everyone in the class and just keep improvising different ways of saying the line, but still remaining the same character. I got a point from Andy, that I was very open in my body language and in character, and I feel this is something I have been trying to work on for a while now. I want Feste to be very much an open person. But this exercise also helped me to discover the playfulness of Feste, since you didn't have time to think your actions but just go with it. I noticed to that I played with the by making it more sarcastic or sincere, pretending to play with my instrument or actually taking the money off of Orsino. I think I should play around like this with the different lines more, to help me with my character.
As a group, our next target should be to really play with these lines and the different ways physicalize them, to create the different relationships between the characters. We can definitely use this game within our group, since it can help explore a meaning we haven't thought of before.
Today in class with Andy we started to shoot our soap opera scenes. We only managed to shoot two scenes, but it didn't mean that everyone else was just sitting around. We got the chance to operate the camera, mark places and operate the microphone. I got to do some camera work and marking places.
As an actor, it is important to learn the basics of film and TV work, even behind the scenes, since it is something we probably will end up doing at some point in our career. Here are some of the things we learned today:
You shoot with 180 degrees(a semi circle), so that the characters in the scene remain in the same places and won't confuse the audience. This way you can't see the crew filming neither
the sound technician, or mic operator, much keep looking at the scene themselves, to see, where they are in shot or when they need to move to keep away from being on camera
Hold the mic in a 45 degree angle from the actors to get the voice best(also just how to hold the mic the best)
TV acting is a lot slower than stage acting, it is important to take it easy, because they can speed the scene up in editing, but not slow it down. So, an actor must take their time to first listen, react and then say their line.
The editing will edit to get the best story, not necessarily caring about minor details, like which way the pen is on the table.
My first job was to mark places. This was quite simple. After watching the scene first we then went trough all the marks in the scene, meaning the places people would move into. Then, as the actor stands in their mark, I would go and make a T-shaped mark in between their feet. This helps with the lighting, but also the balance of the shot. The actor must hit the mark, so that the light hits their face from the right angle. Andy also told us, that it wasn't so important if one of your feet wasn't exactly on place, you just need to have the balance of your body at the mark. This job also included me watching the actors(Jenny and Sophie) and looking out if they hit their marks or not. This was a easy job for me, since both of the girls were very good with their marks, and didn't miss them once.
I also tried out being behind the camera, which was harder, but I did enjoy it too. I filmed a scene with Sav, Yunusa, Jade and Harry, so I feel it was a little bit more complicated than filming the previous scene, simply because the amount of people on camera. We took three different shots; Establishing shot, Medium shot with Yunusa and Sav and Medium shot with Jade and Harry. What I found difficulty with, was that I didn't first really know where to center the shot and Andy taught me that when filming one person on medium shot, leaving 2/3 of the shot clear looks good. Even with two people this looks better, but then you can also center them. It was interesting to find out that you really do need to control the camera constantly, moving the camera to keep people in focus and everyone in shot, but also to make the scene look good. When moving the camera, the movement should be slow and steady, so that it leaves more room for editing.
We had our presentations on different subjects all surrounding Shakespeare today, and we were asked to take notes on others presentations. Then, for blog we were asked to identify some pieces of info that can influence our scenes and research further. Here is the information I gathered during the presentations and what I have further research on the topics:
Harry's presentation was about the actors of Shakespeare's time and I felt this information could be very useful for me with Feste's character. He's the fool and during that time, a lot of the jesters also worked or had worked as actors or playwrights. This explains how well Feste is able to take on the role of Sir Tobias, when fooling Malvolio. Most likely, Feste would have received the same kind of training as an actor would have, which meant he would have followed a fellow actor to learn their talents. Actors were often multi-talented, since they had to do their own stunts, including sword fights and convincing falls. But actors job wasn't exactly honorable, they were often thought to be on the same level with robbers and treated with suspicion. This really helps me with some of the reactions from the characters in the play towards Feste. Even though most act very familiar around him, since they have probably known him for a long time, some, like Malvolio, are more distant and suspicious of him.
From Sav's presentation I found more about puritans and their relationship with the theatre, especially how they wanted to shut them all down. Even though Feste isn't straight on actor, nor does he necessarily work at theaters, he still sees his profession as an art. I can use this information to work on the relationship between Malvolio and Feste and how Feste views Malvolio.
After today's lesson, I started to think, what should be the style of Feste in our adaptation? We do not really have a set era of time, but as Andy said "era of not this time". I think we might be going for sort of 'timeless' look, and so, should Feste be as well. I think Feste's character is very much timeless and ageless in a way. He is obviously older than some characters, he has been around, but he also has a youthfulness in him, that requires the actor to find the balance between these two. For the style of Feste, if we would go with the get up of the time, it would probably end up being very colourful and over-the-top. Fools' outfit was usually as funny as they were entertaining, representing their profession. Checker patterns paired with donkey-like hat emphasizes the jester side of Fetse, but I feel that out adaptation should be more timeless, and so less obvious and ridiculous. This doesn't mean the costume should be boring or plain, but I'd like to see something that could work in modern era, but also somewhere earlier in time. We have also seen two adaptations of this play where Feste had more of a traveler look, that consisted of coats, boots and relaxed worn out clothes. I'd see Feste as something in between, mitch-matching fabrics, as if all of the clothes he had picked out on his travels, and just wearing what he happens to acquire. I bit messy and worn out is something I see my Feste definitely wearing, and maybe a hat.
I have started to work on and do some research on the songs I am going to sing as Feste in the play. The four songs that I will be singing are 'Come Away Death' in 2.4., part of 'Hey Robin, Jolly Robin' in 4.2., 'I am Gone' in 4.2., and 'The Rain it Raineth Every Day' in 5.1..
I'll talk about the last song first, since I have been working on it with other people as well, and I have a clearer image of it. Last Wednesday(14.1.), me and and some other musical people from the group got together with Helen to work on this song and create a base for us all to work towards. Since pretty much everyone had their own instruments, it was a lot of independent thought on how to follow the rhythm and what kind of tune to follow. We decided to follow the example of the movies version of the song(video above), that is very up beat and quite happy, just like the ending of the play. We are playing and singing in the key of C, that gave us all a starting point to figure out how to play the tune, since even though at the end of the play it has the notes for the song, every instrument is individual and to create a coherent song, each instrument needs to find their own voice, but also work together as one. After listening to the song a couple of times, we tried out just creating a beat and me and Helen singing to that beat together. People also started to try out simply basking, or creating tunes with their instruments to hear, what sounds good. I also got to try out my ukulele. I figured on my own that C and F chords fit the song, but I wanted to make it a bit more complex than that. I found chords online for a version of this song that goes like this:
C
When that I was a little tiny boy
C
With a hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
C
A foolish thing was but a toy
FC
For the rain it raineth every day
Now, this version only uses C and F. Spike figured out that the main keys for this song could be C, A, G and C, and after trying this out a couple of times on my ukulele, I created my own version for the chords:
C
When that I was a little tiny boy
F C
With a hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
C
A foolish thing was but a toy
AF
For the rain it raineth every day
It is a bit different, but I felt that this captured the whimsical melody of the song. This also follows my singing better, which makes it easier for me to play and sing along at the same time. I cannot really talk about the process for the other instruments, but I felt by the end of the lesson everyone had a clear idea what they need to work on and how to do it. I definitely need to memorize the song so that I can focus on my singing and the higher notes better, rather than focusing on the words. Words such as knaves and to wive were unfamiliar on pronunciation for me than before and I notice that I messed up on those bits. I ended up either missing those words or thinking about pronouncing them right and would then completely forget to sing the next part. With repetition I will hammer down these words and the next from this would be to nail singing and playing the ukulele at the same time. As a group, I think after everyone knows their own parts our goal is to get the rhythm down and start working on possible solo bits for each instrument and perhaps get some choir to sing in it as well, to make the song a whole a more interesting end piece to the play.
'Come away death' is a bit more complicated song for me. The song is sang by Feste to Orsino and Viola and it reflects on the melancholy feelings of Orsino, who has been turned down by Olivia. The song is about death and wanting to die, which makes it to be a very sad and emotional song. The subject isn't that much the difficult part, but finding the melody. I first turned to the version that the movie has, but soon realized that this sin't exactly the same song that in the play, They have changed the words quite a bit and cut some of the parts. The back of the play also doesn't have notes for this song. I tried looking for a good version to this song on YouTube, only to come to one conclusion; every version is different.
Here is a couple of examples that I found and all of them sound very different. Of course they are all in different styles, but I couldn't find versions that were very similar to each other in style or melody. I also tried to do some research on the song and the history of it, but unfortunately I couldn't find anything that would have solved this mystery song. It seems, that the song has as many versions as many versions there are of the play.
FC
Come away, come away, death
DmBb
And in sad cypress let me be laid.
FC
Fly away, fly away, breath;
DmBb
I am slain by a fair cruel maid
FC
My shroud of white, stuck all with yew
Bb
O, prepare it
FC
My part of death, no one so true
Bb
Did share it
I did find these chords for the song, but after trying them on my ukulele on couple of these version, I didn't find them very fitting. Honestly, I am still very much in the dark with this song. I think I should ask for some help from Andy, Siou or Helen, considering the melody and style of it. Right now, I see my options to be either find a version I like and adapt it to my liking, and fitting for the style of music we are after in our adaptation of the play, or creating a whole new version of the song myself.
The two other song I will be singing are both in the same scene where Feste fools Malvolio to think Malvolio is insane. The first one, 'Hey Robin, Jolly Robin' Feste sings to annoy Malvolio, but to also show it is the fool that has arrived. Only a little bit of this song is sang, since Feste soon starts a conversation with Malvolio.The other one, 'I am gone', ends the scene and isn't such a long song either.
I found these two version to just help me with the melody. It is quite a simple song, especially since I will be only singing the first part of it. It is a three part catch by William Cornysh. The second version, that I found has some fun choir added to it, almost gospel like, which I thought could be a fun way to spice up the song a little, if we feel like it needs to be more complicated. For me, I do not think it'll take me too long to learn it, but next I should try and find some chords for this and perhaps try it on my ukulele.
These two are very much contrasting versions of "I am Gone" song, the first a very cordial and the second more of a rock and roll version of it. I think both work, I like the first one better, but I think I could incorporate some of the attitude to Feste from the rock version to spice it up a little.
For now, I will be focusing on more on the two first songs, since both of them I have already started to work on and with my first group we are working on act 2 scene 4, which contains 'Come away Death'. I really want to make it a special version of it, something that will touch the audiences hearts and create the perfect mood for the scene.
There was a incredible lack of focus in class today. I understand that it is a bit harder to do work and focus in a such a large group of ours, especially now that the 1st and 2nd years have classes together, but there should be a certain amount of respect towards our tutors and peers, or at least try. And this, I think, is the problem with some of the people in the class. They do not feel that they need to be focusing all the time, but that they can go and sit in a group talking about their own things, waiting for something to happen. But here is the thing; something is happening all the time. You never know when new information will come forward and you need to be listening. In the real world, directors and bosses won't repeat the task for you, but you need to figure it out yourself. Also, it makes everyone look very unprofessional if a group of people are talking over the teacher. I do not know if people realize, but we do not actually have that much time until the show, about a month with half-term a week before the show!
Luckily, we were able to finish the opening of the play, the storm scene. It still needs some work of course, we need to keep going over it, but the choreographing is done.
We start in two rows, both in a semicircle formation. Everyone is standing shoulder-to-shoulder with each other and we start the piece with making sound of the sea and swaying right to left, creating this image of waves and the moving surface of the sea. Everyone will bounce on their place once as the drums come in. The two groups on the sides, green and blue, will move to the sides, as the middle group keeps with the on their place.
The next sequence is everyone doing a ballet like skipping movement with a pair, similar to step ball change. I am in the middle group and doing the one sequence of the steps, the front row of the middle section splits into two, and moves to follow the back row, still doing the step as we move. The two group on the sides start "crashing into each other" in a wave like matter, making the waves with their hands, and then going back to our places. They will also do a circling motion once the middle group begin to move forward
The people in the middle group will begin to move forward with a version of the earlier skipping steps, pairing up as they go. When everyone is on place, in the middle of the two group on the sides, the people of the middle group will turn towards the people on the sides. Everyone will start doing the same kind of wave motion with their hands and bodies, as done before, for four times, and then at the last bit of the sequence, jump up and scatter around the stage, representing lighting and thunder.
This start a unison piece of choreography, where everyone does the same movements. It starts by going right, then left, and when going back to right everyone does a whole circle turn and repeat the steps in the opposite direction.
Everyone will then rush to the front of the stage into a huddle, that we divided into four groups. Each group will then, in order, go out of the huddle with a movement that represents the waves hitting on rocks. We tried couple of different things with this, going in order twice or only once and then everyone together going off and doing the movement. But as we looked the time we had, we soon realized that we needed more time on the next bit, and so decided to only do it once everyone in order and then move on.
We then move on to the lifts. We have two lifts happening at the same time, and we have Spike and Cat being lifted, since they are playing the roles of Sebastian and Viola. So, they represent the twins being separated by the storm. I am one of the group that lifts Spike. The people who are not lifting, will be around the lifters, trying to pull the twins down in to depths of the sea and representing the waves. These two lifting groups will travel from each side of the stage to the center and put down the twins
In the centre, everyone will gather around the two twins, trying to keep them apart and pull them into the sea. As the music builds up towards the end, we will start falling to the ground and with the last boom, fall down, with the twins following soon after.
I feel the parts that need the most work, are the lifts and simply getting the beats down and hit the marks. I definitely want to go over the lifts, since I am one the lifters, just to make it smooth and quick. To the audience, it shouldn't seem like we are lifting Spike, but rather that the waves are taking him with them, which should have a flow in it, even in storm. I also need some work with the steps, since for me, I seem to mess up coming in. Otherwise i feel quite confident with the piece.
We started the class by talking about our presentation on Friday, and how we can self-reflect on them to make them as good as possible. We talked about how the points of the presentation should be quite simple and clear and you should know the presentation, so that you can connect with the audience, rather than just reading the slides. I feel that from last year I can improve on the length of the presentation, since it was very long and got a bit boring after a while. I need to keep to the most important points, rather than going on into too much detail. This way, I also leave room for questions and do not overwhelm the audience.
Today's agenda was to really start working on our first scene and get some blocking done for it. With this scene, we especially wanted to focus on the relationship between Viola and Orsino, since Viola, pretending to be Cesario, is still Orsino's servant, but still as a closer connection with him. A lot of this will be shown by the characters kind of pulsing from each other, getting closer, but then going further away from each other, in the fright of their own emotions. So, the scene starts with Orsino laying on his chair, all blue and sad, and Viola standing with Curio more stage-right, a safe distance away from Orsino. But as Curio leaves, Viola start gradually moving closer to Orsino, highlighting when Feste comes to sing his song. But after realizing, what they have almost done, they both start avoiding each other. They share a connection again when Viola tells about her family, but Orsino soon forgets anyone else but Olivia and orders Cesario to go and visit her again.
A(very bad) diagram of the blocking in the scene. V= Viola O= Orsino C= Curio F= Feste
I think we still need to tweak this quite a lot, since a lot of the action at the moment it happening stage left around the sofa. We could use a lot more of the stage to our advantage, that we are not doing right now. I still like the fact that Viola keeps gravitating towards Orsino, or kind of hang around his favourite spot, since she is obviously in love and this shows her affection towards him.
What next?
Next, I feel I should be memorizing my lines for this scene since I do not have that many lines, but also to be able to sing the song when doing the scene, since it will affect the length of the scene. I need to figure out the melody for the song by researching the different versions and either find the right one, or choose the one I like the sound of and adapt it into our scene.
"An actor needs a free body from tension that can be used to create and experience a role." Tension
Locate tension
----> sub-conscious - watch ourself
-----> relax
-----> free imagination
2 Types
Build up over the course of our lives unknowingly
From circumstances we are in
We started to explore tension in different exercises. The first exercise we had everyone sit on a chair around the chair. Then everyone, one by one, would pick up the chair and walk with it to another space and then come back and sit back on the chair. Here, we would examine everyone and their tensions, but also try to feel where our own tensions were. For me, tension was very much in the hands and arms, but also knees and my back.
The second exercise we had to imagine we were painting the Sussex downs. We had to imagine in details the actions of a painter and then pretend to paint on an canvas, after a while we went to the floor to lay down for 5 minutes and relaxed our body. Then we did the painting exercise again, now more relaxed. The idea was that the second time imagining the situation should be easier, and I did find this to be true.
Starting to work on the Scenes
Next we started to work on the scenes. Our task was to choose 5 moments in the scenes that were very important, and would show the story clearly. Then we would have to choose 5 lines to represent these moments and create a physical scene based on these lines. Mine, Greta's and Jade's scene was act 2 scene 4, where Orsino and Viola(as Cesario) have a moment with each other and talk about love. The were the lines we chose:
"That old and antic song we heard last night: Methought it did relieve my passion much,"
This line sets the mood of Orsino, who is sad from getting rejected by Olivia
"What kind of woman is't?" "Of your complexion"
Shows the audience Violas feelings towards Orsino, by telling him that the 'woman' she loves looks like Orsino
"Truly sir, and pleasure will be paid, one time or another."
Feste is in this scene to play a song to the two, but also sees the connection between them and before leaving, he plays around with Orsino, even mocking him for changing his love interests so quickly
"But if she cannot love you, sir" " I cannot be so answered."
Viola tries to get Orsino change his mind about Olivia, but is blatantly denied this option.
"But indeed our shows are more than will, for still we prove much in our vows but little in our love"
Viola tells her story disguised as 'her sisters story' to Orsino, but also her view on love and men
"say My love can give no place, bide no denay"
After Violas attempt to change Orsinos mind about love and Olivia, Orsino orders Viola to go to Olivia and basically tell his love towards her once again.
What do you do to achieve "free body" & "active imagination"?
I feel that it is very hard for me to relax. I fidget a lot and there is a lot of tension in my body, especially in my neck, knees, back and my jaws. I haven't really found a way for me to find this relaxed state, since after relaxation exercises I often feel sleepy and unable to focus, which affect my imagination. Usually focusing on my breathing helps, since I have used this to help with my panic attacks. I imagine this picture in my head that move in a certain slow speed and I need to breath with it.
Feste is an interesting character, because he doesn't have a clear character objective. He lives in the moment, and is not concerned about the future or the past. He roams around between two houses, and seems to be only character who is free from obligations. In many of the scenes he makes fun of the characters, not straight forwardly insulting them, but playing around with them and showing that he knows more than others would think. And he does; Feste seems to have knowledge over the other characters much more than he should and he is almost a mythical character that way. 2.4 In this scene Orsino and Viola have a discussion about love, especially the connection between Orsino and Olivia, but also Cesario's mysterious love(that actually is Orsino). Feste doesn't have a huge role in this scene, he comes in to amuse Orsino by singing a song, and notices the chemistry between Orsino and Viola. He then mocks Orsino for his quick changes in love interests and his melancholy mood before leaving the scene.
2.4.49 "Are you ready, sir?"
This is Feste's first line in this scene, after entering and listening to Orsino's long speech about the song and how it tells a simple truth about love. I feel Feste might have seen this as Orsino's poetic pleading and his line could be said in a sarccastical way as in "Are finally done with your oh so deep thoughts???". But it also shows Feste's respect and knowledge of his position as a lower cast than Orsino.
2.4.69 "No pains sir, I take pleasure in singing, sir."
Feste truly lives in the moment and enjoys what he does. But during singing the song, he also has seen the connection between Orsino and Cesario, and I feel the pure sight of this is payment enough for Feste. This line is very much starting to play around with Orsino.
2.4.73 "Now the melancholy god protect thee, and the tailor make thy doublet of changeable taffeta, for thy mind is a very opal. I would have men of such constancy put to sea, that their business might be everything and their intent everywhere, for that's it that always makes a good voyage of nothing. Farewell."
This whole line is Feste mocking Orsino and his melancholic over-the-top emotions and the fact that Orsino says he loves Olivia, but then has this very intimate moment with Cesario.
4.2
In this scene Malvolio has been locked up in a dark rook and Maria asks Feste to pretend to be a priest and play around with Malvolio. Feste goes on to make Malvolio believe that he is insane and mislead him. Yet, Sir Tobias and Maria get nervous of this prank and send Feste back to Malvolio, as both the priest and as himself to hear what Malvolio wants.
4.2.4 "Well, I’ll put it on, and I will dissemble myself in ’t, and I would I were the first that ever dissembled in such a gown.I am not tall enough to become the function well, nor lean enough to be thought a good student, but to be said an honest man and a good housekeeper goes as fairly as to say a careful man and a great scholar. The competitors enter."
Maria has asked Feste to put on the disguise, which, as saying this line, Feste is putting on. He is already making fun of the situation, by saying that he wished he'd be the first to pretend to be a priest. He also makes fun of himself, by stating that he isn't really the stature to be a priest, but as he is mostly an honest man, he should be able o give out that vibe.
4.2.12 "Bonos dies, Sir Toby. For, as the old hermit of Prague, that never saw pen and ink, very wittily said to a niece of King Gorboduc, “That that is is.” So I, being Master Parson, am Master Parson. For, what is “that” but “that,” and “is” but “is”?"
This is Feste sort of getting into character. For the Clowns at that time, actors job was included into their repertoire, and so this might be sign that he has done some acting before. He says this line in the character of Sir Topas and playing around with logical analysis.
4.2.18 "What ho, I say! Peace in this prison!"
Now Feste is getting full on into character, playing around with the idea that priests must go to the house of peace, aka hospital, to the sick, and he is going to Malvolio who is insane, but the plpace he is in is indeed a prison of sort.
4.2.21 "Sir Topas the curate, who comes to visit Malvolio the lunatic."
Introduces himself to Malvolio
4.2.25 "Out, hyperbolical fiend! How vexest thou this man! Talkest thou nothing but of ladies?"
Malvolio has asked for Topas to go to Olivia, and Feste is now saying for him to basically go to hell and judging him for only thinking about women and not the 'obvious' presence of the devil.
4.2.31 "Fie, thou dishonest Satan! I call thee by the most modest terms, for I am one of those gentle ones that will use the devil himself with courtesy. Sayest thou that house is dark?"
4.2.36 "Why, it hath bay windows transparent as barricadoes, and the clerestories toward the south-north are as lustrous as ebony. And yet complainest thou of obstruction?"
4.2.42 "Madman, thou errest. I say, there is no darkness but ignorance, in which thou art more puzzled than the Egyptians in their fog."
Now Feste has very much started to play around with Malvolio, by making him believe, that the room Malvolio is in, is actually full of light and windows, and so the darkness Malvolio sees is simply he being insane. Feste almost wants to make Malvolio more insane, or to believe he is.
4.2.49 "What is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wildfowl?"
4.2.53 "What thinkest thou of his opinion?"
4.2.56 "Fare thee well. Remain thou still in darkness. Thou shalt hold the opinion of Pythagoras ere I will allow of thy wits, and fear to kill a woodcock lest thou dispossess the soul of thy grandam. Fare thee well."
This is Feste setting a trap for Malvolio by asking him questions. Malvolio does answer the questions right in a way, but Feste makes him seem as if he is wrong and also calls him stupid at the same go. He then leaves, feeling that he has succeeded in his mission to fool Malvolio.
4.2.62 "Nay, I am for all waters."
After coming back to Sir Toby and Maria, he is basically saying he is satisfied with his performance, perhaps even gloating a little.
After Sir Toby asks Feste to go back, Feste sings a song as himself to Malvolio, to show Malvolio who he is but also to annoy him.
The rest of the scene Feste plays around with Malvolio by switching between himself and playing the priest to make fun of him, but also promises to get Malvolio the ink and paper he asked for. This is showing mercy to poor Malvolio, but also listening to Sir Toby's wishes to not see this prank meet it's end by it's own.
5.1.
This is the last scene of the play. In this scene everything comes together, all the secrets are told and the story comes to an end. Fabian and Feste open the scene by wanting to read the letter that Malvolio wrote for Olivia, but Feste doesn't them have the pleasure. He also talks iwith Orisno in the beginning, playing around with him, but also explaining his position as a fool and get some money off of him. Later, Feste comes back in to read the letter Malvolio wrote to Olivia, humiliating him completely.
"The stage is like an operation with a scalpel knife and acting in front of a camera is like an operation with a laser."
We started talking about type casting and film acting in a bit more detail today. Film acting is mainly naturalistic, after the US became the biggest producer of films in the 1940's. Yet, there is a lot more into it, than just naturalistic acting, for example cheating your body towards the camera.
Types casting, as bad as it sound, is a part of being an actor. This is when you are cast on the base you look like, and it often might follow you throughout your career. This is because people have certain visual expectations of certain characters and so it is important for film makers to withhold that, to meet the audiences expectations(of course there are exceptions). By type casting, the film maker will also be quite sure of the fact that the actor will do their part well, since they have done something similar before.
Continuity is making sure that the shots of the one scene do not look different but follow it continuously. For example, if a pen is on the table, when taking another shot the pen should be on the same spot.
We also learned about the different kind of shots there is to take of an scene. The first one, is the Master shot, also known as the Establishing shot. This shot shows the audience where we are, who is in the scene, but also is good for editing, since it shows the scene as a whole and is a place look back to when trying to get continuity right in the more detailed shots. In this shot, you can either see the actors from head to toe, or most of them.
Shot A and B show two different kind of shots, focusing on either actor. The first one is called Medium shot, or sometimes Over the shoulder medium shot. This shot usually focuses on on side of the scene, showing the reactions and expressions of a certain actor. The extreme of this is the Close up, where the shot is focused on one actor and framed very very close to their face to see the smallest of changes in their expressions. The Cover, is called the basic shots needed to take for the editing to have a good amount of footage to work on.
TYPE CASTING SHEET
We started also looking at our own type casting. So, Andy divided us into groups and gave a sheet to fill out with our partners. The task was to figure out, what we could be typecast as , after answering a series of questions:
What is your full name?
Where are you from?
Tell us something funny or embarrassing about your childhood
What is the difference between acting for stage and acting for camera?
What is your favourite film and why?
Tell us a secret about yourself...
This is how I was typecast as:
What is their age range? : 18-25
City or Country?: City
Upper class or working class: Working Class
Where in the world?: Anywhere
What roles could they play?: Lawyer, therapist, teacher, a really troubled person who builts up their emotions before exploding
My reaction: I do not really see myself as a lawyer, but I have been typecast before as a therapist and a teacher. I feel that I have been often typecast with caring and somehow motherly characters. I would have wanted to know details about where int he world I could have come from, since the answer I received wasn't very specific! Also, I thought I could have passed as a little bit younger than 18.
Anything else? one of my partners said this as a reason why I could come from anywhere: "you have a certain openness that makes everyone be comfortable around you, like someone who travels the world."
We have also seen two adaptations of this play where Feste had more of a traveler look, that consisted of coats, boots and relaxed worn out clothes. I'd see Feste as something in between, mitch-matching fabrics, as if all of the clothes he had picked out on his travels, and just wearing what he happens to acquire. I bit messy and worn out is something I see my Feste definitely wearing, and maybe a hat.
