The Body

Aims:

• To open the body and free it of tension that could restrict the breath, voice, speech; to be centered, alert, aware
• To clear the body to allow the text to pass through unimpeded (redun?)
• To eliminate tensions that block flexibility; hampers the audience's ability to understand
• To remove tensions that will communicate wrong messages to the audience, physically or vocally (physical noise...hm, interesting)
• To achieve a state of readiness: be fully engaged mentally and physically "in order to survive in heightened existence". "Should be the starting point of all rehearsal."

Reasons:

-  Most people today either reflect a complete lack of exercise, or are over-exercised. "Week and uncensored....puffed up in to a rigid shell."
-  weakness leaves you uncentered, unfocused -> uninteresting -> lack of intensity leads to intelligibility
-  "puffed up" leaves you rigid, causes one to occupy the space aggressively (bad?), a "space invader".

- one must understand the character; how that affects the body. The character informs your body, not your habits.

- for various reasons the rule of Shakes' world is to be alert and reactive; matter of survival - everybody carried a weapon and *ish could go down at any moment, circumstances are always worth dying or killing over(take your pick)

- nothing is casual or informal. "swaying, hip-hop walk" (<- judgement, no?)
-  "too casual", cool. denizens of Shake's world weren't casual as the current "style". you can't walk over "rough ground" and be casual. (meaning we of today are babied with paved streets? our composure is indicative of not having to deal with difficult circuimstance?)
- modern cool is about non-engagement, in Shakes' we must always engage and be ready to be engaged (which is, apparently, not the same as "inhabiting the space aggressively")

- avoid "bluffing". The other side of cool is bluffing - attempt to appear heightened. Chest heaved up, rib cage locked, shoulders back and chin forward. Bluffing locks you up, you lose flexibility in movement and communication. An unfocused, general energy is produced by bluffing. It is a state if inefficiency. Bluffing only works if it a tactical choose by the character, not habit of the actor.

"There is a wonderful Shakespearean actor who has a passion for motorcycles - but he seems only to ride to hreahearsal in his motorcycle when playing Shakespeare. For other plays he tends to arrive by car. When I asked him why, he grinned. 'Ridding a motorcycle safely means you have to be alert, awake and in the moment - just what I need in rehearsing Shakespeare. It's my morning wake-up call. I dismount centered for Shakespeare.'" (p. 18)

(and other plays don't need that? Riding a bicycle can do the same, btw)

The Work

-Centering the Body-
Take your time, experiment with moving body out of placement to help feel the difference when it's "in". With practice, centering will take less and less time.

• Connection to the floor: wear shoes that help you feel the floor (toe shoes, jazz shoes maybe?) or take your shoes off (guess which is my preference); shoes with thick soles (athletic, casual) or heels are not helpful.
• Place feet hip-width apart and parallel (toes forward). Avoid feet being too close together  - "denial" - or too far apart - "bluff".
• Feel the the floor and feel the energy slightly forward on the balls of your feet; should feel like you could spring freely into any direction
• Unlock any bracing in the knees, ankles, thighs.
• Place hand just above groin (git low) and try gently to release the abdominal muscles with the breath (breathe down and into the afore mentioned hand). Do not stop it in the stomach or force it; don't push the stomach out or hold it in. Allow the breath to release it. This is the power center of the voice lives; the key to connection to words. Lack of freedom here leaves you uncentered, thus, weak or forced. This is also the center you move from.
• The spine should be up, not rigid or slumped. Slumped = denial, rigid = bluff. Sitting forward on the edge of a chair will help you feel when the spine is in it's natural position (balance between rigid/slumped).
• Keep the chest open but not heaved or sunken in. Hoisting or depression is an indication of how open you are to an audience or to a text. (It also affects what is being communicated to the audience - you will not be read as strong if what you communicate physically is weakness vice/versa).
• Feel where you are tense. The stakes are always high in Shakespeare and the effect of even small tension amplified. The most common problem areas of tension seem to be chest and abdominal
• Release the shoulders: swing the arms around as though you are gently throwing a ball underarm (as in toss with the palm up); can swing arms separately or together. The arms must be allowed to hang from the shoulders freely. Again, a small amount of tension here can become magnified in having to deal with performing long passages and/or existing on stage for hours at a time.
• Feel the center of the body - the rib cage should be moving freely
• The head should be balanced on top of the spine., not pushed forward or tucked back. Let your head fall forward, the chin into the chest and gently swing from shoulder to shoulder (no circles - just from shoulder to shoulder crossing the plane of the chest each time. Let your head fall forward, close eyes and lift your head, open eyes it feels like its back at the top of the spine (<- fun to do with a mirror, sensation and reality can be different)
• The jaw should be released, not clenched. Lips together, but jaw released.
• Flop over at the waist. Make sure the back of your neck is free and jaw unclenched. Shake down through the shoulders and arms. Unlock your knees and stay on the balls of your feet. Release through the spine and breathe in the abdominal area and back ribcage. (Yes. All that is done while released over. And don't stay so long you pass out.)
• Come up through the base of the spine (build the spine, one vertebrae at a time). Allow you shoulders to find there place. The head should return last, balanced at the top of the spine.
• Rock back and forward, if you keep your balance you are centered, if not you are still holding tensions.

Part 1 - Foundation Craft

 - You can't do work as physically intense as Shakespeare until you're physically ready. You must learn what it is you need to be able to do before you can do it; you must practice and become proficient at each aspect before you can perform the whole

 - Novices should start with poetry, language full of imagery THAT IS IMPORTANT TO THEM.... Feel the sensation of speaking intense meaning. You don't really understand what language says until it is spoken - until it takes place in your body.

- Novices must learn how to "easily" memorize by rote - exactly and only what is in the text. The text, as it is written tells you its meaning. Musicians have notes, we have punctuation.

P. 4

"...here the action is in the word - not merely described by it. (The words) must be spoken before they can be acted."

- Understand how lang works. There must be an understanding of language and how it works. Understanding how a thought is built, contrast, metaphor...etc.
- 'penetrated and filled with the power of language' (ecstatic, no?)
- Shakespeare is actor friendly, easier to speak than a screenplay...
- "evidence of the text", "the givens" - be able to recognize and understand what is in the text that is telling you how to play, what cannot be denied (and once you know it is, how it can be manipulated)

 p.5

 -Rules/structure/rhythm

- Acting ON the word, responding quickly, instantly; the text will tell you when to think

p. 6

- the emotion changes as the word does
- the image must be experienced as it is spoken, otherwise one lapses into pattern and habit -> generalizing-> "I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'RE SAYING"

 "Actors who think words are irrelevant have few options in playing Shakespeare."

- This is not naturalism. If treated as such, the audience won't understand it, HEAR it. There are TOO many words in Shakespeare for them to not be SPOKEN to the for the sake of the audience; too easy to get lost...

 p.7

"The movement of the voice called range is merely the physical manifestation of passion in either feeling or thought. The more passionate the idea or excited the feeling, the flexible your voice should (will) be."

"In Shakespeare the word comes first."

Craft

- attempting to do Shakespeare without engaging oneself in the craft is merely pretending to do so.
- What is craft? Daily, diligent work, working alone - as skill that's normal to musicians that actors should learn

Communication

 p. 9

"We're often frightened of committing to any powerful idea or passionate feeling. Our communication grows indirect...we rely more and more on glibness, cyncism or denial."

"The world of Shakespeare is full of inquisitive speakers and attentive listeners."

- His characters use language to do everything: mourn, praise, love, wound, kill......

 - exercise: practice speaking w/o degree modifiers - use the voice to let us know what you mean

p.10

- modern text needs help, Shakes does not ?

 p.11

"We all know more than we think we know."

 - Shakes has an understanding of how we all work in a heightened state
- We are more clear, definitive in a heightened state - Shakes stays heightened.

    * You speak yourself into consciousness
    * You experience the transforming aspects of language
    * The world and you change through the word
    * By the end of every speech, you and the world have changed for better or worse

Preparing the Equipment

   1. Are you prepared to put in the time and energy? (a Shakespeare play is a marathon)
   2. Do you have courage, are you frightened? ( a healthy dose of each is helpful)
   3. Do you have humility? (Open, willing to hear, willing to "be changed")

Preface

"

• To understand any play text fully you have to speak it.
• To release its power fully, you have to commit through the body, breath and word.
• You have to trust the words and know what those words mean (my bold)
• To access the power of a play, you have to know how it's contructed (<-?)
• You can't act Shakespeare until you can speak him.*

"
*(here we go with the Willy worship....)