Aims
This course aims to:
• make you feel more confident about how to enjoy speaking Shakespeare aloud
• realise how the structure of the verse supports the actor and to recognise figures of speech which help the actor to make choices with confidence
Content
Many lovers of Shakespeare’s plays felt rather daunted at the prospect of speaking his words aloud, possibly because they are not accustomed to reading poetry aloud. The main aim of these practical workshops is to help students to become confident speakers of Shakespeare’s verse and also his prose. We shall see how the verse structure and the imagery, as well as recognising figures of speech help the performer to bring the words off the page and on to the stage.
Romeo and Juliet remains one of Shakespeare\s most popular plays, full of exuberant wordplay and some of the most beautiful love poetry ever written.
There is a surprising amount of bawdy humour as well, right from the start.
Presentation of the course
A series of practical workshops. As these classes require active participation from you we may not follow the lesson plans rigidly. Questions will arise which will open up new ideas and observations. However each class will focus on the form and structure of the verse presented to the actor as a trusted guide to characterisation in performance.
Course sessions
1. Day one. The Prologue
The Chorus introduces the problems facing the town of Verona, where two powerful families are enemies due to an “ancient grudge” which is never explained at any point in the play. We shall use the opening lines of the chorus as a vocal warm up and the verse structure will be analysed so that students can find out what blank verse is and start to see how it works. Questions will be welcome throughout this course. Please bring a copy of the play to each class, including this first one. Shakespeare did not set out to make things difficult for his audiences or his actors. His plays were performed to a very varied large audience and in his own day he was admired and popular. Please read Hamlet’s advice to the troupe of actors visiting Elsinore in Act 3 Scene 2 as this advice may well be Shakespeare’s as well Hamlet’s!
2. Day two. Act 1, Scene 1
We meet Romeo and his cousin Benvolio. What do we learn about Romeo from their conversation? How do they talk? We will look at the wordplay used by both young men as well as the structure of the verse. There is very little prose spoken in this play and this gives us a chance to get to grips with the metre and find how quickly you can engage with the form and structure.
3. Day 3. Act 1, Scene 3
We meet Juliet, her nurse and her mother. How might we describe Juliet here? What do we learn about these women?
4. Day 4. Act 1, Scene 4
We meet Mercutio. A great talker and in this scene he makes a bravura speech of sustained exuberance, invention and imagery. What does the performer need to tackle this long speech, some hundred lines long? How do the actors onstage with him react?
5. Day 5. Act 1,Scene 5
Romeo and his friends gate-crash the feast in the Capulet household. Romeo sees Juliet. They meet. They talk. What happens? Look at the conversation in detail. Everything happens very quickly
6. Day 6. Act 2, scene 2
After leaving the feast, Romeo under cover of darkness, climbs over the orchard wall and enters the Capulet garden. This is the famous “balcony “scene”. Juliet, not knowing that Romeo is in the garden beneath her window, decares her deep love for him and he responds equally passionately. They are physically separate from one another so this is a scene where “the words must do the work”. The verse is ecstatic, full of wonderful wordplay and by the end, they have made plans to marry. We will compare this scene with their first appearances in the play.
7. Day 7. Act 3
We meet Friar Lawrence and look at his role in the play. Romeo confides in him and the priest agrees to marry them, hoping that this “alliance” will lead to a reconciliation between the two households.
8. Day 8. Act 3, scene 2
Juliet’s soliloquy after her marriage before their wedding night. How should the performer play a soliloquy? Her character has come a long way in a very short time!
9. Day 9. Act 3, scene 5
The lovers part in the early hours of the morning after their wedding night as Romeo goes into exile. Juliet despairs as her parents prepare for her imminent marriage to Paris.
10. Day 10
Our last class.
Learning outcomes
You are expected to gain from this series of classroom sessions a greater understanding of the subject and of the core issues and arguments central to the course.
The learning outcomes for this course are:
• to speak the blank verse with more understanding and confidence
• exploring the passion of the play through awareness of the form and structure of the language
• looking at the shifting relationships in the play as the story unfolds
Required reading
* Blakemore Evans, G (editor), Romeo and Juliet (The New Cambridge Shakespeare), (Cambridge University Press, 2003)
