Macbeth
Context Blog
Shakespeare was writing for the theatre during the times of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. The plays he wrote around the time Queen Elizabeth contain themes of confidence,happiness and love such midsummer's night's dream However, the plays he wrote during the reign of King James such as Macbeth were much more cynical and dark reflecting the insecurities of King James I.
In the Shakespearen era Witches were associated with the dark and death and England was a Christian country.It was said by many Christian countries to be agents of Satan and performing evil acts at night, a lot of woman during that time were accused of being witches or practicing the dark arts and were often burned alive as a punishment.When Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, witchcraft and supernatural happenings were of high interest. King James I was heavily interested with the idea of witchcraft and even wrote a book about the topic.
During the Shakespearen era people believed in the 'great chain of being' in where they belived that God had designed a system for both nature and humankind.
This links to Guy fawkes plotting to blow up parliament with explosives in order to kill King james because he was a Prostestant.
I have learnt that Shakespeare used iambic pentameter to help the characters whenever they felt passionate, momentus, and introspective, this helped me during some of my monologues during macbeth. This really benefited me during my monologue as the messenger delivering the news to lady macduff that her and her childeren are in danger.
Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known,
Though in your state of honour I am perfect.
I doubt some danger does approach you nearly:
If you will take a homely man's advice,
Be not found here; hence, with your little ones.
To fright you thus, methinks, I am too savage;
To do worse to you were fell cruelty,
Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you!
I dare abide no longer. https://youtu.be/SpnSKMyirtQ (This is the link to my performance skip to 39:46 to watch my monologue)
Personally i would use Rupert Goold's setting for my version of Macbeth because i believe that it shows a different variation of the play as it is set in a different time period and a different country. This also inspires me to set my version of the play in modern day 21st century as it would be easier portray the themes of ambition, and power across to today's audience and i would make sure that the audience would be able to relate to whatever is going on in the play, This is so that audience aren't just watching the play but they are within it aswell.
MACBETH
Rehearsals leading up to our performance were not always the best as there would be people missing and I am going to be honest i would be one of those people missing, there was also unorganised rehearsal planning as in we weren't informed of some rehearsals until the morning of the rehearsal, there was also internal conflicts within the group due to wrong information. However when we all made it to a rehearsal we made a lot of work, there would be a few disagreements here and there but we would always find a way to make everything work out.
The collaboration process was good to begin with as i had worked with a some people already and i already knew how there mindset was when it came to coming up with ideas and working together, as a group we all decided that we wanted ours to stand out compared to the two other groups as we believed that our group was the best performing group out of the three. An idea that we came up with that I think worked really well in our performance was that the witches should speak in unison in the opening scene as it shows that even though there is three of them on stage spiritually they're all one.
PERSONAL JOURNEY
The first time I recieved the macbeth script, to be completely honest I wasn't excited for it as it brought back memories of stressfull Gcse's having to memories thousands of quotes.
At first i thought I wasn't going to be able to do it as I struggled to memories quotes for my exams, however as I read through the script on my own and with my peers I slowly started understand the language properly, once I started working practically with my group I finally understood the play fully. To help myself grow as an actor I would often observe anybody else playing the same role as me and often look at them for inspiration but I wouldn't copy their same acting technique, i belive that a skill that I did well in was not breaking character even when i don't have any lines or if im just standing there.
Personally i would use Rupert Goold's setting for my version of Macbeth because i believe that it shows a different variation of the play as it is set in a different time period and a different country. This also inspires me to set my version of the play in modern day 21st century as it would be easier portray the themes of ambition, and power across to today's audience and i would make sure that the audience would be able to relate to whatever is going on in the play, This is so that audience aren't just watching the play but they are within it aswell.
MACBETH
Rehearsals leading up to our performance were not always the best as there would be people missing and I am going to be honest i would be one of those people missing, there was also unorganised rehearsal planning as in we weren't informed of some rehearsals until the morning of the rehearsal, there was also internal conflicts within the group due to wrong information. However when we all made it to a rehearsal we made a lot of work, there would be a few disagreements here and there but we would always find a way to make everything work out.
The collaboration process was good to begin with as i had worked with a some people already and i already knew how there mindset was when it came to coming up with ideas and working together, as a group we all decided that we wanted ours to stand out compared to the two other groups as we believed that our group was the best performing group out of the three. An idea that we came up with that I think worked really well in our performance was that the witches should speak in unison in the opening scene as it shows that even though there is three of them on stage spiritually they're all one.
PERSONAL JOURNEY
The first time I recieved the macbeth script, to be completely honest I wasn't excited for it as it brought back memories of stressfull Gcse's having to memories thousands of quotes.
At first i thought I wasn't going to be able to do it as I struggled to memories quotes for my exams, however as I read through the script on my own and with my peers I slowly started understand the language properly, once I started working practically with my group I finally understood the play fully. To help myself grow as an actor I would often observe anybody else playing the same role as me and often look at them for inspiration but I wouldn't copy their same acting technique, i belive that a skill that I did well in was not breaking character even when i don't have any lines or if im just standing there.
Some interesting thoughts here. You need to take care of your written English as there are spelling and grammar errors, maybe you just need to proof read it again. I would have liked a bit more in the last section.
ReplyDeleteYou have a good presence on stage and I felt you performed well. However, I feel in the future you could be more consistent during rehearsals in order to give yourself time to try out different things. Rehearsals are a time to experiment with characterisation. Keep working on volume and particularly articulation as although you have a very pleasant tone you sometimes can’t be heard.