Dispute not with her: she is lunatic.

Val/she/hers/21. Documenting the progress of my painfully ambitious production of Richard III.

[221boyfriends]

let’s play murder

[forahorse]

More Benny inspo

[his-quietus-make]

Oh hey, so I went on a backstage tour of Shakespeare’s Globe...

…and I totally forgot to upload the photos til now.

Let’s start in the ‘heavens’ right up top, where the cast pour libations for Dionysus before each run:

There’s also a bell made by the same company that made the original Globe’s bell, and a trap that goes right down to the stage. Someone fell down there during the opening season and broke their leg, and there followed a spate of leg/foot-related injuries until Mark Rylance called in a shaman, made a little paper replica of the Globe (complete with teeny paper players) and performed a secret ceremony before hiding the whole thing in the rafters. It’s still there, apparently, but no one knows where it is. 

(Spot the gold confetti leftover from Charles Edward’s Richard II… It’s EVERYWHERE.)

View from the musician’s balcony. In the original theatre, wealthy playgoers could sit up here to show off their outfits to the audience. Ditto in the pretty painted boxes to the immediate left and right of the balcony:

Next: backstage. Are you ready? 

(There are grease-stains above those little square windows because actors lean their foreheads against them to peek out at the stage, listening for their cue…)

View from the stage. Imagine the yard filled with groundlings…

The fucking detail…

I wanted to stroke the walls. And hump a pillar. And lie on the stage and cry. But I restrained myself. I am a professional. 

Then we went down into ‘hell’, under the stage, where no one has swept since forever and there is still SO MUCH RICHARD II GLITTER. 

(The tour guide told a great story about logistics of rigging up plastic drainpipes that stretched to each of the four corners of the stage so that Hamlet’s ghost could be lowered down into the trap and deliver his “SWEAR!” lines from different locations without having to scurry about under the stage. It is TIGHT under there.)

Finally: props department. I tried to hide behind a stack of shoes so that I’d get left behind and could live out my days as a little Globe hermit but they found me.

 We got to feel up some of the costumes though - all made by hand with authentic materials and techniques of Shakespeare’s time - aaand none of them can be washed (vodka and febreeze ftw). Each principle actor gets a handmade, tailored outfit of their very own to the cost of about £3,000 each. Rylance’s Prospero robes cost EIGHTEEN FUCKING GRAND. 

Oh look, fancy gloves:

I fucking love the Globe. 

[forahorse]

4/5/17 Director’s Notes

What happened to March? Beats me!

Let’s try this again. Sorry for being MIA. Things have been INSANE. On top of rehearsals and memorizing lines and, oh yeah, *acting*, I’ve had to figure out the logistics of showtimes, costumes, and making a program. I would love it if this was my only project this semester, but unfortunately, there’s this little thing called school. Oh, and graduation is in 46 DAYS. I wish I could just run away from all of my responsibilities and start a feminist Shakespeare troupe.

The saving grace has been my amazing cast and crew. That’s right, crew! Because I got not one, but TWO stage managers!!! And seriously, why didn’t I do this before? I can actually focus on acting and directing rather than also knowing every single detail of blocking and being on book. I’m convinced stage managers have a special spot in heaven.

As I get more confident with the production and connect more with my cast, directing has become easier. I think my cast is getting more confident with their characters, too. They’ve been insanely patient with me through all this, and don’t hold my inexperience against me. I’m gonna have to throw them a kick-ass cast party after this is all over. Maybe like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkjjtX83-Cc

[forahorse]

Made a group chat!

[forahorse]

“Et tu, Brute?” My design for Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar

On this blog, I’m meant to feature some of my other theatre experiences at Gettysburg College. This was from my stage design class in which I came up with a set for JC to hypothetically be put in Stevens Theater, our black box (Which is where Richard will be!). Look how smol it is. Some of the design choices are as follows:

A surrealist style, as evidenced by all the funky angles. This was because of the themes of dreams and the supernatural in the play. Also omens, which I made into a sort of Google Image fresco.

Red platform because blood (I was young, cut me some slack)

The mirrors were inspired by the line, “it is very much lamented, Brutus,/That you have no such mirrors as will turn/Your hidden worthiness into your eye/That you might see your shadow.” They are also meant to reflect (pun intended) how the characters fail to address their own feelings and actions.

I was a bab, but this was lots of fun to make, and I’m still rather happy with it.

[forahorse]

A Summary of Henry VI Parts 1-3

For anyone who wants to read/perform/watch Richard III, but doesn’t want to deal with three other Shakespeare histories:

When King Henry V dies, the kingdom is in turmoil. His son and heir, Henry VI, is only 9 months old. As such, the Duke of Gloucester (not to be confused with Gloucester from Richard) is Lord Protector. This means that he looks out for the baby king and makes the decisions until Henry VI comes of age. Winchester doesn’t like Gloucester because he thinks he’s power-hungry and the two fight a lot. Richard Plantagenet and Somerset are also fighting because Plantagenet recently learned that his ancestors were in line for the throne before they were killed. He wants to reclaim his birthright and become king. Somerset is not into that idea. Plantagenet is a York and Somerset is a Lancaster. There’s this very symbolic scene where people on the side of the Yorks pick white roses in the garden and people on the side of the Lancasters pick red roses. Thus begins the Wars of the Roses.

An older Henry VI gives Plantagenet the title of Duke of York to appease him. This only helps a little bit because Henry is a Lancaster and low-key on Somerset's side.

Oh, and England's been at war with France this whole time. Joan of Arc is in the play, too, which is pretty dope, but not really relevant to Richard. A French noblewoman, Margaret, (sound familiar?) captures the attention of this English guy, Suffolk. But Suffolk is sad because he is married, so he convinces King Henry to marry her instead. This way, he can be her secret lover. Gloucester disapproves of the marriage, and tells the king that he should marry a Frenchwoman of a higher status to unite the countries. Henry basically has a typical teenage meltdown and says he's going to make decisions for himself because he's a big boy. As a result, England loses the French territory that Henry V had won.

In Part 2, Gloucester is killed because everybody has plotted against him (except Henry, who is clueless). York is asked to lead the charge to stop a rebellion in Ireland. York is really happy about this, because now he has an army to take the throne. Suffolk and Winchester die at some point (they're not important, though Margaret doesn't appreciate the death of her secret lover). York begins to battle with King Henry’s army, and his sons Edward and Richard help him (Yes, this is our Richard!!). Richard kills his father’s rival, Somerset. The Yorks win the battle.

In Part 3, Henry makes a deal with York to allow Henry to rule as long as he is alive. Upon his death, the Yorks can take control. People are not happy with Henry about this decision, for he’s denied his own son (Prince Edward) his birthright. Not cool, bro. Margaret gets real pissed. She decides to take matters into her own hands and leads an army to confront York. York’s young son, Rutland, is killed, and York himself is captured shortly afterwards. Margaret offers him a handkerchief dipped in Rutland’s blood to wipe his tears. Then, she stabs him.

Meanwhile, Edward and Richard are chilling and see a vision of three suns (“This sun of York”). Edward says that it means that the three brothers (Clarence is somewhere, presumably) must unite as one. Richard secretly doubts this, believing that he must stand alone. He has an awesome soliloquy, the longest monologue in the play. Richard casually steals the show. The brothers soon hear news of their father’s death, and go to battle once more.

Lots of battle stuff… Margaret gets troops from France because Edward decided to marry Lady Grey instead of King Louis’s sister, and Lou is Offended. More battle stuff in which Edward kills other Edward and Richard kills King Henry. Finally, Edward ascends the throne.

“Now is the winter of our discontent...”

[caitalittlin]

Why I love Shakespeare (and why you should too)

Have you ever read Shakespeare and thought, “This is stupid.  I don’t understand a word of this”? 

Hey, me too! The first work of Shakespeare I ever read was Romeo and Juliet as a freshman in high school, and I remember thinking, I know this is a classic story and all, but why do people think this is so good?  A couple of teenagers fall so madly in love in a matter of days that they make a bunch of stupid decisions that gets themselves and a few other people killed.  

Wow.  We should probably market this as the greatest love story of all time.  

I just didn’t get it.

Within the next few years I read Julius Caesar, which definitely impressed me more, and then I read Hamlet, which I legitimately enjoyed, but there was still something missing.  I’d come to appreciate Shakespeare, but I just couldn't love Shakespeare.  

And then something happened that made all that change.  Something that changed my outlook on everything I’ve ever heard about Shakespeare’s plays.

I saw one performed.  

I know, I know, revolutionary, right?  I saw a freaking play.  But here’s why it was so amazing for me.

To preface, I read the play beforehand, and wasn’t impressed.  The play I’m talking about is Comedy of Errors, which I’d actually never heard of before reading it.  It’s one of Shakespeare’s earlier works.  It’s a comedy about identical twins who happen to have identical twin servants who get separated basically at birth.  They take the same name, as do the servants who have been with them since birth, so you end up with two guys names Antipholus with two servants named Dromio.  They come to the same town (now adults) and everybody gets everybody else mixed up.  

Upon reading the play, I chuckled maybe a couple times, but it wasn’t all that funny.  Then I went and saw it, and it’s probably the second funniest play I’ve seen in my entire life.  I laughed so hard.  The whole thing was hilarious.  

And it was in that moment, walking out of the Globe theatre after my first Shakespeare production, that I started to love it.  

An epiphany of understanding: Think of it this way.  Imagine your favorite book.  A book that makes you laugh and cry and want to be a better person.  A book that inspires you.  Now imagine the sparknotes version of that book.  Raw, basic plot with none of the flourishes and nuances that make that book what it is.  Sparknotes will tell you what happens, but that’s it.  

If you read Sparknotes, would that still be your favorite book?  Probably not.  Mostly because it wouldn’t mean anything to you.  

Reading a Shakespeare play is like reading the Sparknotes version of a book.You get dialogue.  That’s it.  The bare basics with nothing that makes it truly incredible.  

No wonder so many people hate Shakespeare!  They have no idea what Shakespeare even is!

A few weeks after my wonderful first encounter, I returned to the Globe to see Julius Caesar.  Remember how I’ve read this one before?  I liked it before.  But just wait.  

I stand in the Globe as a groundling, just as a working class citizen would have in Shakespeare’s day.  Midway through the play, I lean against the stage in the front row and watch the fake blood flow as Caesar is stabbed again and again.  The conspirators, soaked to their elbows in blood, threaten Mark Antony, a supporter of Caesar’s who has walked in to see their heinous  act.  Antony claims to mean them no harm, and they leave him for a moment alone with Caesar, who lies dead in a pool of crimson.  The murderers exit, and Mark Antony stands alone on the stage.  He stumbles to Caesar’s body, falls to his knees, and weeps.  

“O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,” Antony whispers through his tears to Caesar, “that I am meek and gentle with these butchers.  Thou art the ruins of the noblest man that ever lived in the tide of times.”

He raises his hands upward to heaven, now dripping with Caesar’s blood, his face streaked with tears. “Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!”  His voice echoes across the hundreds of silent people who suddenly feel as if they have intruded on this grieved and pained man as he weeps over his dead friend.  

A tear slides from my own eye.  

No longer words on a page, Shakespeare is alive.  The words are no longer ancient and out-of-date, but natural and beautiful.  

Shakespeare was not of an age, but for all time, as Ben Jonson said.  

I love Shakespeare.  I love Shakespeare.  Not because I’ve read most of his plays, which I haven’t.  Not because I’ve seen many of his plays, because I haven’t.  

I love Shakespeare because I’ve seen the plays come to life on stage in the way they were meant to.  Plays are meant to be seen, not read.  

So don’t hate Shakespeare because you don’t understand it.  Stop reading and start watching.  Maybe you’ll fall in love, too.  

[forahorse]

2/26/17 Actor’s Notes

Got into the space for the Lady Anne scene the other day. It’s always so fun to work with Daphne (playing LA). We did the scene for my directing project last semester, so it felt very familiar to get back into it. I was pleasantly surprised by how many lines I remembered. 

The space is a lot narrower this time around. We’re back in the alleyway configuration, but there’s only about 4 feet between the risers. While I was initially concerned about this, Daph was very enthusiastic about being able to play with the space and immediately climbed on to a window ledge. As one does.

We mostly focused on playing with movement; we’re allowing ourselves to get very experimental in this scene. With a floor space that’s only 4 feet wide, we invade the audience’s space, walking along the edge of the risers and placing Henry VI’s tombstone (our only set piece) in the aisle. Daphne and I have also made use of the stairs that lead to the booth, and, of course, the window ledge. We want it to play like a fly caught in a spider’s web, hence the acrobatics. I’m trying to stay graceful, cool and collected, confident. Lazily watching Lady Anne fall apart and then suddenly coming in for the kill. I lounge on Henry VI’s tombstone as she laments his and her husband’s deaths, but when she moves to leave, I quickly block her path. 

We definitely need to do the scene with people in the seats, because I’m not sure how much of our movements will be possible with feet in the way. And that’s a logistical thing that I really don’t feel like obsessively worrying over.

[forahorse]

2/23/17 Director’s Notes

I noticed during one rehearsal that my actors didn’t seem connected to the scene, particularly physically. Therefore, and to my horror, I implemented an exercise used frequently in my theatre classes: Viewpoints. After covering the bases, guiding the actors through the usual categories and having them become aware of their bodies and the space, I asked them to consider their characters within this context. How does Hastings occupy a space? If he dominates the room, how does this show in his tempo, shape, etc? This was especially helpful for the actor actually playing Hastings, as she is a woman and I didn’t want to gender-bend the part (I imagine Hastings as the stereotypical “fuck boy,” for lack of a better term). By the end of the exercise, her footsteps were heavier, her stance was wider, and she was leading with her groin.

At the end of the exercise, I asked the actors to return to the table and begin the scene again, without breaking character. There was a noticeable shift in tone. The physicality choices were so much stronger. The actor playing Catesby found a new approach to the character: twitchy and nervous, for Catesby is the middleman between Richard’s enemies and allies. Buckingham played her character more poised than she originally had, and you could tell that she was confident in her physicality as an actor as well.

I suppose Viewpoints does have some merits as something other than a semi-awkward class exercise.

[cumberbatchlives]

Benedict as Richard III (The Hollow Crown: The Wars of Roses)

[prepared-todoanything]

Source: Twitter ntlive

[yourewelcomechris]

On October 15, Barbican’s Hamlet was streamed live across the world. This allowed those outside London to have available and affordable access to Shakespeare, thus continuing the Bard’s legacy.

[forahorse]

A year and a half ago, I did another Tumblr project on a different Shakespearean masterpiece, Hamlet. In particular, I focused on how mainstream productions of Shakespeare (the Barbican Hamlet with Benedict Cumberbatch) impacted the theatre world.

[anniebolton-blog]

[forahorse]

Richard Inspo

[emotionalsabotage]

The soul wanders in the dark, until it finds love, and so, wherever our love goes, there we find our soul.

Mary Zimmerman, Metamorphoses (via emotionalsabotage)

[forahorse]

2/19/17 Actor’s Notes

Presented my first scene for my advanced acting class on Thursday. It went really well and my partner and I worked very hard on it, but I was given a few things to work on: physicality and personal connection to the character. I was playing Phaeton in Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses. The sun god’s son in this characterization is a very angsty teenage boy. He has big dreams to make an impact on the world, and more importantly, he wants to make his estranged father proud. Because I was lying down on a therapist’s couch, I didn’t really pay attention to the mannerisms that come with teenage angst. I also didn’t fully connect with the character of Phaeton on a personal level. While actors should maintain a separation between themselves and their characters (we don’t want to end up like Heath Ledger, now do we?) a character will feel much more realistic with an element of personal experience. 

How can I be mindful of these struggles with Richard? Firstly, how should the character be manifested in my body? She is probably always conscious of being smaller than her peers, both physically and in terms of social status. Perhaps she keeps her back ramrod straight to try to offset this. Yet she also should have an air of relaxation about her, for Richard finds no fault in her murderous actions and easily bends others to her will.The more difficult challenge for myself will be trying to find a personal connection to the character through the evil acts and Shakespearean language. I will need to access in my personal experience instances of discrimination, ambition, delusion, self-hate, etc.

[forahorse]

2/15/17 Director’s Notes

I met with Travis, my technical director @r3td, on Sunday and Monday. I’m going to have to tweak my director’s concept a bit because we’ve decided to move away from Ancient Greek influences and instead have more aspects of Medieval architecture. This will provide an interesting juxtaposition with the modern elements we plan to introduce: the crumbling, asymmetric, stone archway signifies the entrance into a broken and corrupt world. This archway will also act as a proscenium, framed on both sides by raised platforms/stages. With these elements, Travis and I hope to utilize Brecht's Verfremdungseffekt, reminding audiences of the fact that they are watching a play. This, we believe, will be useful to highlight Richard’s role as an actor/master manipulator.

There is a catch, however, and one that I couldn’t publish until a decision had been made. On Monday, Travis and I were told of the possibility of performing on Kline, our main stage, rather than in the black box, Steven’s. I was shocked, because we were told from the very beginning that this would not possible (and still isn’t, as it turns out). Our student musical theatre group (hilariously called SMuT) needs a space for their production of Heathers: The Musical around the same time as Richard. Sharing the space will be a challenge. 

The department met today and ended up voting that I would stay in Stevens; however the possibility of using Kline allowed me to consider the pros and cons of different performance spaces.

Pros of using Kline:

More space for audience- This one was huge, as in Steven’s we will only be able to fit about 60 people.

Larger stage and thus more flexibility in set and lighting design

Higher prestige, particularly on Travis’s part (see above)

More room for stage combat

Cons:

Less intimacy and thus less of a distancing effect

Seats can’t move- A large factor of the current design relies on moving seats. Travis and I had the plan to begin the show in a three-quarter configuration and then change to an alleyway set-up for Lady Anne’s scene. This would require us to move the seats with people on them! This vision (and Travis’s baby) would be impossible to implement in Kline.

It was a short-lived possibility, and all-in-all, I’m content to remain in Steven’s. There will certainly be challenges (namely, sharing the space with SMuT and seating everyone), but I’m confident in my team’s ability to figure it all out.

[forahorse]

Stage Combat

I have next to no experience in stage combat. I understand the basic concept--the person being “attacked” is the one in charge--but that’s about it. Luckily, one of my cast members, Ellie, seems to have quite a lot of knowledge on the subject. But then comes the question of weapons. In the modern context, guns make sense, but with such close quarters, that would make for a very boring battle. Due to the political nature of the production, picket signs were suggested. Though I feared that would make a caricature of the battle, I couldn’t get the idea out of my head. After consulting with my cast, my capstone supervisor, and Travis, my technical director, @r3td, the following concept was developed:

Protest signs will not be a feature within the play, due to conflicting language and unintentional comedic effect. However, they will be displayed throughout the lobby and maybe even outside for advertising. Some will be traditional protest signs (#notmyking) and some will be instructional (i.e. Please turn off your cell phones)

During the battle, the wooden bits of the picket signs will make a reappearance. But these won’t be the only weapons...

Richard’s army will wield police batons and shields.

Richmond’s army will have pickets, switchblades, fists.

The final blow that kills Richard will be by a picket sign.

Thus, the battle will make a political commentary on police brutality. Richard, to get ahead, had to play into the corrupt system that initially Othered her. But it is this corruption of herself that is her downfall.

[forahorse]

But should I change “king” to say queen?

[forahorse]

Nope! Richie is gonna get more masculine as time goes on, so I think “king” works, like she is appropriating the word.