Themes "The Tempest"

There are many different themes flowing through The Tempest starting with a overlying theme of power and control highlighted In the text through scenes such as Act 1 scene 2 where Prospero admits to sinking the ship highlighting that he has some much power and control to change people’s fates and manipulate the sea through the help of his magic and Ariel.  Also in Act 5 scene 1 where another character Ariel shows his control over people through putting the men to sleep without their consent, causing them to conform to his power.  This theme is still relevant today as there are still people with immense power who control many aspects of our everyday lives such as the government and the queen, just as in those days where they had royalty and dukes. In mine and Dans piece we don't show the theme of power as the scene is a back and fourth between the two characters, originally we had Prospero looking over us displaying his omnipresence and power over the two characters but this was cut as the character wasn't needed in the scene. Obviously we don’t have real magical powers, but this theme of magic is used in many plays and productions today and shows something much more than human capabilities highlighting maximum power and control that humans wish they had. Magic is a theme that will always be used as it is a theme with a wide variety of things you can do with it from fairies to dragons. We don't use magic in out scene as it doesn't call for it but it flows through the play and this in my opinion is why the play is so popular as everyone likes to see the impossible. 

The theme of betrayal is depicted right from the start of the play when Prospero feels betrayed by his own brother after he is banished along with his daughter Miranda. Also the character of Caliban highlights betrayal as is he not only betrayed by Prospero who entices him with kindness but then turn to betray Prospero’s trust through attempting to rape his daughter. Betrayal comes about for all of the characters such as the two drunken men plotting to kill Prospero and also the king’s men’s mutiny with their plot to kill the King in his sleep highlights betrayal. My character Miranda acts as a symbol for betrayal as Prospero attemps to get her with a prince so she can rise above his enemies and show how he will always rise back into power even if he does this through the medium of his daughter. 

Love is a universal theme which is intertwined throughout all Shakespeare plays for example Romeo and Juliet and twelfth night. Love appears in more than one form in The Tempest between Miranda and Ferdinand in my scene which is the obvious love story of the play but a different kind of love is portrayed between Prospero and Miranda as it is a farther and child love which is unconditional and this is shown through Prospero wanting what’s best for her and aiding her to fall in love with the Kings son. Revenge is a small theme in this play as it appears in such a subtle form, Prospero gets revenge on Caliban for trying to rape his daughter through condemning him to be a slave and taunting him with the concept of magical spirits which are always watching him. 

Revenge is in all of the characters provocative but not all are followed through so this theme falls to the waist side a bit as it’s more the idea of revenge rather than the actual act itself. Lastly Forgiveness is the theme which ends the play as all is forgiven between the characters and they basically all live happily ever after. The play basically comes full circle as Prospero had a strong motive to gain his dukedom back and to give his daughter the life she deserves, when all of this comes to fruition he has no motive to be sinister or evil therefore all he can do is forgive people of their actions and going to live the life he had taken away from him by his brother.   All of these themes still stand today and don’t need modernising as they are wide spread in everyday life and heightened in modern television such as the show “Revenge” where the whole plot is based on: love, revenge, forgiveness and betrayal all themes highlighted in “The Tempest.” I don’t think it will be a struggle presenting these themes to a modern audience as they are widely recognised today and would be easily accepted without a need of modernising.  If you watch any modern television program or play you will see many connotations within them connecting to the themes of this play as they are a good platform to create drama and keep a production interesting. 

The opening of the show

After a class debate over linking the two plays "Twelfth night" and "The Tempest" we looked at the two plays to find a common aspect and we found that both plays open with a storm. This allows us to add a physical aspect to our work, we have looked at incorporating a dance into the opening of the play, and I think that it will be very effective id done properly. At the moment i don't think the dance is at the level it can be to create a hard hitting opening but I do think it had potential. I personally think that the movement should be a lot more classical to create a flowing wave like dance, which can become more frantic and physical throughout to show a storm and the chaos that comes with it. At the same time as the dance movement we have added in sailors who come out from the black and start to create sails with the black curtains and to start pulling thick rope to emulate the panic on the ship trying to amend the situation. We will also include the characters Prospero and Ariel to highlight clearly that we are opening with "The Tempest" extracts.

This is how I imagine the movement to look but in a much darker setting as we will be including strobe lights and a fog machine. The use of tech will be very effective is the opening motif as it will contrast what the audience is expecting as it is completely different to Shakespeare's simple approach to his works. We will be using the motif twice in the performance but we will change it for the second section as we will be using it to highlight a change in play and setting. We will do this through taking out Prospero and Ariel from the storm.

11/12/2014
We have kept the bare boned of this concept but over time the storm has changed massively, it has become much less physical in comparison to what we originally started with as we scrapped he dance which we had created and replaced i with freeze frames. Every person now has a number and comes on in order to create a picture on stage of sailors on a boat. Once everyone is on stage we begin to add movement and voice, some shout lines over the sound of the storm such as "Land" and "heave." This is effective as it gives the audience not only something to look at but a reason to constantly change their point of focus throughout, this keeps it interesting and engaging.

character exploration in twelfth night

When looking at my character i have been researching the attitudes of servants to their superiors on Elizabethan times. I found that they would have been very respectful to their superiors as they wouldn't have a lot of money and to lose their job over a snide comment or sly look would be the worst thing in the world. I do think that servants would let their hair down when not working or with other secants as they were normal human beings like anyone else who would have a laugh and joke around with their work friends. I have been told repeatedly that i need to lighten up in this scene and i have been working on my character to accommodate this. Originally i had a very swatty and nerdy character to fit in the school theme but i found that this makes my character sound harsh and serious which i don't want at all. I have tried lots of different types of characters like the school head girl type character which is less stern and more of a kiss ass character than anything. This did make an improvement and mad the character a lot more playful and chummy with the other character Feste, but the in the next rehearsal i tried another character which was a mixture of the two and was told that i had become more angry and stern again so i have decided to go back to the head girl type character who can have a laugh. i went through the script and highlighted all of Feste's jokes as this was a barrier at first to making my character lighter as i didn't pick up on the banter between the two characters so i didn't react in the correct way throughout the piece. I am working on making my character lighter in this through a more open and happy physicality and working on laughing in the correct moments during the performance. I use the set and the cloth in this extract to create more interesting pictures in the scene I use the red cloth as a noose during the line "but, you shall be hanged for being so long absent" and I release it on the line "turned away" this gives me more to do and makes the scene less static as we are making use of the set and props throughout.

11th nov the tempest

Today was a very productive day for me and Dan because we got lots of blocking done which took our piece from being very bland and simple to a lot more lively and interesting for an audience to watch. We have had a very planned and set out blocking for this scene for a while now and in this lesson we developed this and thought about our characters and how they would wove in the space in correlation to their attitude and approach to things. For example my character Miranda is a very free spirit who is very child like and playful in her physicality, after performing our scene to the class i was told in my feedback that i need to be more 'fairy like.' I have been working on this in the lesson and think i have achieved a more flowing and girly physicality through walking with my shoulders held back and being lighter on my feet. In this lesson we added lots of different blocking ideas and i decided to use the set more than we have been in the past, on the line "pray, rest yourself hes safe for these three hours" I jump up onto the stage blocks with my legs swinging and relaxed this created interesting levels in the scene and through me and Dan crossing over in this section it keeps it interesting and makes it less static and awkward like it was the first time we performed it. Also me and Dan have been thinking about our character connection as when we started we acted like two goof friends rather than two young lovers and this makes all the difference in a performing context. To create more of a love connection which comes through clearly in the performance we added playful chasing into the scene and suspense moments where Dan and i get really close to the point were we are almost touching and then one of us walks away. We didn't do those in our performance in front of the class as we are yet to perfect it and feel completely comfortable doing it without bursting out laughing. I still have a long way to go in my characterization and i will be working on the points which i was given in my observation feedback, for example i need to be less breathless in some parts of the scene where i get a bit carried away in the Shakespeare aspect of it all and put on a bit of a Shakespeare voice which i need to stop.

props and costume

 

This is how my character Miranda is usually portrayed when it comes to costume and this that this is quite accurate as she has lived her whole life on an island with no access to new styles. I have thought a lot about my costume and as the class have decided to set this play in a gangsta era how to plan my outfit accordingly. I don't want my costume to be so different that it doesn't fit with the other characters and looks out of place but I don't thin it should follow the gangsta theme as she wouldn't have been exposed to this style as a child. I am planning to wear a simple dress which isn't flashy or showy and doesn't have modern elements to it, I am also going to have bear feet as the character is a very free young woman who is comfortable living a natural life as she has grown up in nature living on an islands with her father.

This is exactly how I see Miranda to look as she looks very natural and young. Her dress is rough and ragged as it would be if you lived in the same clothes nearly every day. I will make my hair look messy and tousled as my character would not have access to modern hair equipment or accessories. I will also wear extremely minimum makeup just so I don't look pale on stage as she would have a sun kissed complexion I she's outside most days.

 

This is the attire that I would expect Maria the maid to wear in the original play as it is simple and dull and your typical maid costume really. As we are setting out Twelfth Night in a school to modernise it I will not be wearing something like this I will be wearing something more along these lines.

The tie will be different depending on what the others in my group are wearing but the simple idea is a black skirt a white shirt and a tie to make it perfectly clear that we are set in a school. I an thinking about getting glasses as my character is following the swatty rout but I haven't fully decided on this yet. And I will also be wearing tights as I have to jump off the staging and I think it will be practical for the sage. I will tie my hair back as I am going for the clean cut student look rather than the rebel like Ryans character the Clown who will be dressed messy and comical to fit his character.

 

The cloth 4th November twelfth night

Today's rehearsal was very productive as we came up with lots of interesting setting ideas and uses for props. To day we looked at a specific section of our script just before Olivia talks about her dead brother. We obtained a long red cloth from upstairs and tied it to the set to cover up a shrine we have created on the stage inside the stage blocks. We decided to use this piece of cloth for more than concealing purposes as it is on the stage anyway so why not use it? We looked at Ryan's lines as the clown ;
Two faults, Madonna, that drink and good counsel
will amend: for give the dry fool drink, then is
the fool not dry: bid the dishonest man mend
himself; if he mend, he is no longer dishonest; if
he cannot, let the botcher mend him. Any thing
that's mended is but patched: virtue that
transgresses is but patched with sin; and sin that
amends is but patched with virtue. If that this
simple syllogism will serve, so; if it will not,
what remedy? As there is no true cuckold but
calamity, so beauty's a flower. The lady bade take
away the fool; therefore, I say again, take her away.

The cloth is used almost entirely in this speech as we thought it was very funny and made this section of out extract interesting and fun to watch, in the first line we added in a cheap joke where Ryan puts two fingers up to Chloe the authority figure in the piece in a rude and disrespectful way then he turns it into a piece sign and gives her a big grin ad the clown character would do. Next he will pick up the ends of the cloth and place them around hos neck to imitate a royal to show his control and power in the situation as he taunts Olivia. During this speech Ryan works the cloth creating different images to fit the speech and what he does is very lyrical movement. For example on the line "virtue that
transgresses is but patched with sin; and sin that amends is but patched with virtue." Ryan created a nun head cover with the cloth and quickly opens it up like a bat on the word "sin." On the line "The lady bade take away the fool; therefore, I say again, take her away." Ryan runs across the stage and is choked by the cloth revealing the shrine behind to allow Chloe to come in as her character grieves for her brother.

the cloth is used later on in the piece and still has many opportunities which we are yet to discover.

The importance of warming up for Shakespeareian work

Today we did a warm up in lesson before we got to work on our scripts. It is very important to warm up for Shakespeare as you need to be relaxed before going into any type of rehearsal, you wouldn't start singing before warming up so why no warm up for acting.

getting yourself physically ready for acing is very important as it prevents injury and allows you to do more physical things in rehearsal, allowing you to explore more concepts for your piece. Heres an example of a drama warm up:

A Theatre Warm-up

Stretch – Your right arm up, up; your left arm up, up. Repeat.
Your right arm to the side; your left arm to the side. Repeat

Roll – Your head to the front, right, back, left. Repeat.
Your shoulders to the front, up, back, down. Repeat

Bend from your waist forward, to the right, back, left. Repeat

Step forward with your right foot (leaving your left foot in place). Stretch. Switch, step forward with your left foot (leaving your right foot in place). Stretch

Shake out your hands, your head and shoulders, your legs
and feet. Shake out your whole body.

Stand quietly with your arms at your sides.

Breathe in to the count of 1,2,3,4 Breathe out to the count of 1,2,3,4 Repeat.

Tongue and lip warm-upsSay very fast 

1. ta, ta, ta, ta
   da, da, da, da
   bah, bah, bah, bah
   ma, ma, ma, ma,

2. Tongue twisters
   Have your teacher or another student read the line first, then as a class repeat it. Be very certain you are really moving your tongue and your lips! You will be practicing good diction.
   • Babbling Baby Bobby
   • Ki-ki, the cuckoo, cuts capers
   • Don didn’t do the difficult dangerous deeds
   • Few folks find the fine flavor
   • Jim, Jill, Jane and Johnny jammed jollily
   • Little Lillian lets lazy lizards lie along the lily pads
   • Nine nice nieces never noticed nine nice nieces noticing nine nice nieces
   • Popular people, people popular places
   • Suzy Sampson is surrounded by her sousaphone
   • Sheila shall surely show her shining seashore shells
   • Little Teddy Tucker toots his tooter toute suite
   • Thick thistles throbbed in Thelma Thimble’s thumb

If the next step is to start your rehearsal, it is a good idea to close your eyes and “see” who you are – as the character. Where are you? What did you just do? What are you going to do?

Now you should be ready to really concentrate on your character and the rehearsal. It is also important to warm-up for a performance

http://artswork.asu.edu/students/lessons/drama_theatre/theatre_book/acting_warmups.php

This is a good warm up as it works of the body, the voice and the breathing which is so important when performing Shakespeare, as you need to be able to take in large quantities of air to project long phrases of text in one breath. The tong twisters and ta da's are very good for Shakespeare as you need good diction and ability to say complicated phrases quickly when saying your lines to an audience, this makes sure they understand what you are saying and can hear it clearly.