This week, with the conclusion of the university term, I actually find myself with some time to take stock. And what a lot of stock there is to take! Recently, we hit a number of milestones worth celebrating: first, we reached the halfway mark in the rehearsal process, with two months down and two months…
Tonight we’ll be blocking the latter part of “Scene 1,” which is our nomenclature for Hamlet’s 1.2. It’s the section after Claudius and the court have exited, and Hamlet soliloquizes (more briefly, in our script), then receives news of the Ghost via Horatio and Marcellus. It’s an exposition-heavy scene, although it’s made a bit more…
Two nights ago, I held the first Hamlet rehearsal with the second round of actors. It was a verse workshop, designed to get new Shakespeareans familiar with the tricks and treats of the Bard’s language. I can’t recreate the entire workshop here (I don’t want to give away all my secrets!), but here are a…
I had thought to append this as an afterthought to my Line By Line post about 1.1.49, but I decided it deserved its own post. You’ll recall how the two shared bits of dialogue that comprise line 49 both provide stage directions for the Ghost’s exit: MARCELLUS: It is offended. BARNARDO: See, it stalks away!…
MARCELLUS: It is offended. BARNARDO: See, it stalks away! This shared line provides the actor playing the Ghost with a brace of remarkably precise acting tips. More than tips, in fact; if a production retains these two lines, they confine the actor to a specific set of choices. It’s a great example of the dramaturgical…
BARNARDO: It would be spoke to. MARCELLUS: Speak to it, Horatio. HORATIO: What art thou that usurp’st this time of night, Together with that fair and warlike form In which the majesty of buried Denmark Did sometimes march? By heaven, I charge thee speak. When last we left our supporting cast — Barnardo the Paranoid,…
I brainstormed for about 40 minutes this afternoon with WJC, who is playing Hamlet. We talked about a lot of aspects, but kept returning to the importance of clarifying relationships, especially Hamlet’s relationships with his two father figures, Claudius and the Ghost. There is plenty of stage time for us to explore the former relationship.…
Auditions for Hamlet and Ophelia are tomorrow, but I’ve already written all I have to say about what/who I’m looking for, so I’m going to distract myself by talking about some more Big Picture stuff. This stems from an email discussion I had with a local artist and fellow Shakesgeek. I’ve already talked about the…
