Directing « Theatrical Musings

If I gave the impression that directing Shakespeare was going to be easy, I was both right….and wrong.  Doing a Shakespeare show is not very different than directing any other play, but the language makes directing a Shakespeare show akin to directing a musical.

In San Diego, there are not a lot of venues for Actors to do Shakespeare.  There is the Coronado Playhouse, who does a free Shakespeare in the Park every year and The Globe.  That’s it.  For a while we did have a company, Poor Players, who specialized in Shakespeare, but Shakespeare on it’s own isn’t very profitable.  It has to be a part of the mix of any season.

So here we are in San Diego, not a whole lot of Shakespeare going on, and an actor community that is HUNGRY to do some Shakespearean acting.  Coronado has a reputation of casting many of the same people so there is some discouragement there (don’t know if that’s REALLY the case, but the stigma is definately out there), and it’s next to impossible for a working actor to get into a Globe production at the level which most of us are working at.  What would happen if all of a sudden someone new did some Shakespeare?

We decided to find out.  We changed one of our season to A Midsummer Night’s Dream and opened it up to general auditions and we found that the flood gates opened.  These actors WANT to do Shakespeare and all of them came in with good, prepared audition monologues.  Out of 16 People, 13 of them have never performed on our stage which is good as we are trying to build a new audience.

The problem with that statement is that they brought me good AUDITION monologues.  These monologues were worked and the actors knew what they were saying and it was only a minute long.  Now, after they have been cast, there’s 60 pages of dialogue and all sorts of monologues and couplets and “you want me to speak in IAMBIC PENTAMETER?”  Not to mention they have to learn blocking  while on the set of another show as well.  It can be a little intimading.

When I realized what was going on, I panicked.  How am I going to teach Shakespeare?  I have no formal training, no real experience save for the few shows I’ve been in.  What makes me think I can actually do this?  Well, it turned out I can.

Here’s how:

1.  GET A DRAMATURG.  I have a great Dramaturg who is currently going for her masters in Dramaturgy.  She was able to identify the Masters, Intermediate, and Novice levels of doing Shakespeare and has had workshops with those people to go over meaning, breathing, reading the poetry.  She has been instrumental in getting these people where they need to be

2.  THINK ABOUT BEATS AS 100%.  If a period is a beat at 100% pause, then a Colon is 75%, Semi-colons are 50%, commas are 25%, and no punctuation is 0%.  Tell the actors that they shouldn’t stop at the end of every line (which is hard, even for so called experts…the rhyme scheme almost makes you do it) and to use the length of pause as a guide.  It’s the difference between “Either I mistake your shape and making quite……or else you are that rude and knavish sprite…..called Robin Goodfellow.”  and  ”Either I mistake your shape and making quite or else you are that rude and knavish sprite called Robin Goodfellow.” (Say them out loud to see what I mean)

3. WORK EACH SCENE BEAT BY BEAT.  Last Night, I took my lovers and we did the Act III, scene II fight.  It took an hour to do 6 pages, but by the end of it, the actors knew what they were doing…and more importantly what they were saying.  I can safely say that we are “on the road” when it comes to that particular scene.  Not there yet, but we have something to rehearse

4.  DON”T WORRY ABOUT NOT KNOWING THE MEANING OF A PHRASE:  Look it up.  My Theatre has wireless internet and it has been a GODSEND when it comes to looking things up.  If that doesn’t work, read the phrase…work it out, with your cast if necessary.  Last night, my AD figured out the best answer to a question and we went with it (Thanks, Jenna!).  Use all of your brains collectively. The most important thing this does is gets your actors to start thinking.

5.  GET THEM TO SLOW DOWN!  I honestly think that people are afraid of sounding like a overdramatic tool so they spped Shakespeare up to the point where it becomes unintelligible.  Slow them down.  It’s ok it it’s a little slow as long as you know the language and can convey the meaning.  The Audience will go with the actors and they need to know that.

This show has provided me with more challenges than I ever thought possible, but taking a deep breath and thinking before I move has been a godsend to these actors who are learning this language.  Any help you can give them will be repaid infinately.