Last night we blocked the scene for Richard's coronation. This is a brief scene added by the director. I think it will add depth to the production. A good way to welcome the audience back from intermission.
Once completed, the scene will move right into the section where Buckingham fails Richard's little test about putting the Princes to death, and we ran that several times as well. I have a lot of work to do in that scene to get to where I want to be. I did, however, make some progress last night. Much of it had to do with the director's suggesting to speed up the entire scene. With less time to think about things now, Buckingham can be shocked and stymied. At a loss for words, even, which the director pointed out is not often the case for Buckingham. She is correct. Normally he is quite eloquent.
Another first for my version of Buckingham during this scene is at the end of it. Richard has just refused to give Buckingham the promised Dukedom of Hereford and has walked off. This leaves Buckingham alone to consider this betrayal/abandonment. All of his hopes for retiring in peace back to his home are over now. I allow him to express pure anger for the one and only time in the play. (I wanted to bang my fist into a nearby wall, but it seems that shook the wall too much for the director's liking.) Yet I have kept the yelling as a nice contrast to what we normally see from Buckingham in this production.
Hopefully it will be a stand out moment, because of its rarity. He isn't even yelling right before he is put to death. I have discussed this on the blog before. He is instead calm, and somewhat resigned to it. I presume all anger and despair that may have come with the destruction of his army has happened off stage. So he is somewhat calm, still disgusted, and in general, as I said, resigned. He comes to some realizations about karma during his speech, after embracing the irony of his dying on All Souls Day. Then with head held high, he marches off to his execution. Again, I have covered this in previous entries. Last night, however, during bonus time, I got to play with it a little more.
The actor playing "Ratcliff", (the character responsible for Buckingham's execution), was present. The director wanted to take some extra time to teach him the blocking for the brief scene that we had decided upon last week. So we ran that two or three times. I don't remember how many exactly. I'd still like to slow the speech down somewhat. I hope to allow Buckingham's realization to arrive and sink in as the audience watches. Again, he is perhaps resigned to his death already, but only at this time begins to see the potential justice in the universe. I want to convey this dawning on him, as well as his satisfaction with same. I am not there yet, though there is much time to work on it. I was able to perform the speech off book last night, however. My first bit of rehearsing without the script. I figured the sooner I could do that, the better the end product will be.
Which is true for all sections, of course. I'd estimate that I am just under 50% off book now, with just under two weeks to get totally off book. It is mostly my shorter scenes for which I am off book right now. I must soon tackle my largest scene of the play; it is the scene when Buckingham is pretending to convince Richard to accept the crown. I say a lot in that scene, and haven't yet begun to work it. I think I will begin this very day, or otherwise tomorrow. I usually like to be off book for an entire scene before moving to another, though this has not quite been the case this time. I'm a little nervous for this one, but then again I often am around this time. I will get it, even if I have to call for lines more often than I prefer to.
Rehearsal tonight at 6:00PM-a most distressing time to rehearse given my commute and the traffic. Actually the traffic problem I have all but solved but conceiving a back way to the theatre. It requires 45 minutes, however, so my evening is considerably longer than it otherwise would be. Yet if more work is getting done on the production as a whole, it is worth it.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Poetic "Ending"
For one reason or the other I didn't get around to blogging about what happened at my last rehearsal, which was on Friday. I didn't want to double up tonight, so here is an overview.
I got to go in late for this one. In fact, I will not have the option of going in that late for any remaining rehearsals. But it was only a short scene in which to go over. The scene wherein Buckingham gives his final speech before being led off to execution.
I have been working on this speech for a while, and was already off book for it when we ran through the scene. (Though I kept my book just in case.) The director, by her own admission unused to being so satisfied with a scene upon seeing it acted for the first time, only had me run it a few times.
The interpretation that came out for the scene is pretty close to what I have seen in my head. The question remains; if the director was that happy with it that early, is there any room for change or polishing? I would think there is. She is an open minded director.
I think I delivered the speech a bit too fast. It was slower than the preceding scene, and the director did say my pace would make a nice change of pace from all of the loud, hurried chaos that comes before and after my scene. "A break" for the audience in a way. Still, if permitted, I'd like to deliver the speech at an even slower pace as time goes on. To allow for even more deliberation on the part of Buckingham. I want it to be resigned, but not too casual.
In several ways the director is already treating the death of Buckingham differently than she has treated any of the other deaths that take place at Richard's command. I'm not sure I can reveal all of the ways in which this is true without giving away elements of the production design. But I can say, as I have before, that he will not be "dying" on stage, as many of the other doomed in this play will be doing. This death will also be afforded more "dignity" as it were, some of the frills that accompany the other deaths being left out for that of Buckingham. Having not been directly cursed by Queen Margaret in Act I, the sense the director, and to an extend I want to convey is that there is something different about Buckingham, despite his sins.
The poetic nature of his final speech in Act V would seem to support this, when compared to the more rushed and angry speeches of the other characters as they face death.
This concept will also apply to the character after death, it seems. Though not much was discussed in detail yet, the character is to appeal as "a different kind of ghost". Perhaps he has more free will to come and go as he pleases than do the other ghosts? Perhaps his reasons for coming back to torture Richard are just that much different from the others that his presence is different for some reason. (He is given a rhyming couplet at the end of the ghost barrage, indicative of the end of a sequence but also affording me a convenient out for playing his ghostly presence in a different manner than the others.)
But, as Richard says in this play, "I run before my horse to market." We have yet to run the ghost scene. But I mention it here today as an elaboration on the "there's something about Buckingham" motif that is materializing in my performance in this production.
Tonight we run a coronation scene added by the director.
I got to go in late for this one. In fact, I will not have the option of going in that late for any remaining rehearsals. But it was only a short scene in which to go over. The scene wherein Buckingham gives his final speech before being led off to execution.
I have been working on this speech for a while, and was already off book for it when we ran through the scene. (Though I kept my book just in case.) The director, by her own admission unused to being so satisfied with a scene upon seeing it acted for the first time, only had me run it a few times.
The interpretation that came out for the scene is pretty close to what I have seen in my head. The question remains; if the director was that happy with it that early, is there any room for change or polishing? I would think there is. She is an open minded director.
I think I delivered the speech a bit too fast. It was slower than the preceding scene, and the director did say my pace would make a nice change of pace from all of the loud, hurried chaos that comes before and after my scene. "A break" for the audience in a way. Still, if permitted, I'd like to deliver the speech at an even slower pace as time goes on. To allow for even more deliberation on the part of Buckingham. I want it to be resigned, but not too casual.
In several ways the director is already treating the death of Buckingham differently than she has treated any of the other deaths that take place at Richard's command. I'm not sure I can reveal all of the ways in which this is true without giving away elements of the production design. But I can say, as I have before, that he will not be "dying" on stage, as many of the other doomed in this play will be doing. This death will also be afforded more "dignity" as it were, some of the frills that accompany the other deaths being left out for that of Buckingham. Having not been directly cursed by Queen Margaret in Act I, the sense the director, and to an extend I want to convey is that there is something different about Buckingham, despite his sins.
The poetic nature of his final speech in Act V would seem to support this, when compared to the more rushed and angry speeches of the other characters as they face death.
This concept will also apply to the character after death, it seems. Though not much was discussed in detail yet, the character is to appeal as "a different kind of ghost". Perhaps he has more free will to come and go as he pleases than do the other ghosts? Perhaps his reasons for coming back to torture Richard are just that much different from the others that his presence is different for some reason. (He is given a rhyming couplet at the end of the ghost barrage, indicative of the end of a sequence but also affording me a convenient out for playing his ghostly presence in a different manner than the others.)
But, as Richard says in this play, "I run before my horse to market." We have yet to run the ghost scene. But I mention it here today as an elaboration on the "there's something about Buckingham" motif that is materializing in my performance in this production.
Tonight we run a coronation scene added by the director.
Friday, July 06, 2012
Fitting
That was the gist of what happened at rehearsal last night. I had my measurements taken. I never remember those numbers. Hat size, shoulders, neck, inseam and such. They just go right out of my mind as soon as a costume designer takes the measurements. I hear them, and then think nothing more about them. I remember my shoe size, and that is about it. I don't know why. Probably because I have never owned a suit.
I am uncertain what sort of costume I will be wearing. I speculate that I will not have any costume changes for most of the play. At one point Buckingham is under arrest, so I imagine his outfit might be different, or at least soiled somehow, but I don't know. I would certainly assume that when the character comes back as a ghost, the costume will be altered in some fashion.
On the subject of ghosts I did get the blocking for the very last few seconds of the play last night, wherein I and the other ghosts walk back out on stage after the Battle of Bosworth Field. Those two things were the extent of my rehearsal last night.
However at the start of rehearsal the director did have some words for all of us. At least all of us that were able to come.
1) She needs at least a 24 hour notice if we are going to is a rehearsal. That's fair enough, as far as I am concerned.
2) She issued a stern warning that nobody is to play with the swords and daggers. Which of course is crucial. Wisely she will be locking those up in the office after every rehearsal, as not only are they dangerous despite being blunted (real metal), but also because most of them belong to other theatres. To the best of my knowledge I won't be handling any of them in this production.
Tonight should be quite interesting. We will be working on my character's "death speech". In this case, the speech he delivers before being executed. I am already off book for this short but significant scene. I worked on this speech early so I could start rehearsing it right away without the script in my hand. The significance of the moment for this character I feel demanded I do so. It is not a very long speech, and certainly not famous by Shakespeare standards. Nor is it complex. It is however poetic, and I want it to be a pure, human moment for Buckingham.
His execution is one of the few the director has chosen not to show on stage, and I think that has a bearing on how I will present the speech. I've been practicing it at home, and look forward to seeing how it feels on stage. Check back tonight to find out.
I am uncertain what sort of costume I will be wearing. I speculate that I will not have any costume changes for most of the play. At one point Buckingham is under arrest, so I imagine his outfit might be different, or at least soiled somehow, but I don't know. I would certainly assume that when the character comes back as a ghost, the costume will be altered in some fashion.
On the subject of ghosts I did get the blocking for the very last few seconds of the play last night, wherein I and the other ghosts walk back out on stage after the Battle of Bosworth Field. Those two things were the extent of my rehearsal last night.
However at the start of rehearsal the director did have some words for all of us. At least all of us that were able to come.
1) She needs at least a 24 hour notice if we are going to is a rehearsal. That's fair enough, as far as I am concerned.
2) She issued a stern warning that nobody is to play with the swords and daggers. Which of course is crucial. Wisely she will be locking those up in the office after every rehearsal, as not only are they dangerous despite being blunted (real metal), but also because most of them belong to other theatres. To the best of my knowledge I won't be handling any of them in this production.
Tonight should be quite interesting. We will be working on my character's "death speech". In this case, the speech he delivers before being executed. I am already off book for this short but significant scene. I worked on this speech early so I could start rehearsing it right away without the script in my hand. The significance of the moment for this character I feel demanded I do so. It is not a very long speech, and certainly not famous by Shakespeare standards. Nor is it complex. It is however poetic, and I want it to be a pure, human moment for Buckingham.
His execution is one of the few the director has chosen not to show on stage, and I think that has a bearing on how I will present the speech. I've been practicing it at home, and look forward to seeing how it feels on stage. Check back tonight to find out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
