UNIT 9

Konstantin Stanislavski

Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski (17 January 1863 – 7 August 1938) was a seminal Russian theatre practitioner and actor. He was widely recognised as an outstanding character actor and the many productions that he directed garnered a reputation as one of the leading theatre directors of his generation. His principal fame and influence, however, rests on his 'system' of actor training, preparation, and rehearsal technique.

Stanislavski (his stage name) performed and directed as an amateur until the age of 33, when he co-founded the world-famous Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) company with Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, following a legendary 18-hour discussion. Its influential tours of Europe (1906) and the US (1923—4) and its landmark productions of The Seagull (1898) and Hamlet (1911—12) established his reputation and opened new possibilities for the art of the theatre. By means of the MAT, Stanislavski was instrumental in promoting the new Russian drama of his day—principally the work of Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky, and Mikhail Bulgakov—to audiences in Moscow and around the world; he also staged acclaimed productions of a wide range of classical Russian and European plays.

source: Wikipedia

Stanislavski's Technique

I've been practising this technique since I first started to take acting classes, when I was eleven, without even knowing that it was a technique. I find it the easiest one, the most meaningful for actors, the most important of them all because it requires talent to make it right and it is also my favourite technique of them all. I've read Stanislavski's book about it and I found it really entertaining to go through all of the events with him, to see how he created it step by step. At first I found the naturalism very hard to make, throughout the time I started to love it and now it is the best feeling in the world to do this technique. It is like I can command my brain how to be every day, I learnt how to change my moods in a second and how to cry in maximum 5 minute. This technique involves bringing up from the past the correct memories that you need to create any moment and any character. To be in the skin of the character you have to know him first, to use techniques like the hot seat to understand it better. When you are using Stanislavski's technique you don't pretend that you are a character, you are not you anymore. You are the character. We've also been using this technique to create our characters last year in the play "Much Ado About Nothing" by William Shakespeare, where I played the role of Beatrice, which I found very boring in the beginning but until the end of the whole process she became the best role I've ever played in my whole life, I loved her and I became her.

Uta Hagen

Uta Thyra Hagen (12 June 1919 – 14 January 2004) was an American actress and theatre practitioner. She originated the role of Martha in the 1962 Broadway premiere of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee (who called her "a profoundly truthful actress"). Because Hagen was on the Hollywood blacklist, in part because of her association with Paul Robeson, her film opportunities dwindled and she focused her career on New York theatre.

Noted stage actress who has also done limited work in TV and film. Born in Germany and raised in Madison, Wisconsin, she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. Her Broadway debut was in "The Seagull" in 1938. She won her first Tony (and other awards) in 1950 for Clifford Odets "The Country Girl". Her second Tony was for the role of Martha in Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?".

She later became a highly influential acting teacher at New York's Herbert Berghof Studio and authored best-selling acting texts, Respect for Acting, with Haskel Frankel, and A Challenge for the Actor. Her most substantial contributions to theatre pedagogy were a series of "object exercises" that built on the work of Konstantin Stanislavski and Yevgeny Vakhtangov.

She was elected to the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981. She twice won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play and received a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1999.

source: IMDB & Wikipedia

Uta Hagen's Technique

"Acting is behaving truthfully in imaginary circumstances" - her technique is based on this saying. I think that her technique is similar to Stanislavski's, using the same naturalism in an imaginary background.

These are some of the rules that are defining her technique:

- Know who you are and find your own sense of identity so you can bring about a genuine life for a character.

- Your inner image of yourself may not match your outer; find awareness of total self in all situations.

- Get to know and accept yourself.

- Be able to connect feeling to behaviour; learn to pinpoint your responses and resulting behaviours.

- Fill a warehouse with sources upon which to draw for construction of character. 

- Aim for a cat’s spontaneity; unanticipated involvement in the moment.

- Your own identity and self-knowledge are the main sources for the characters you play.

- You experience most human emotions by age 18.

- Read, visit, look at paintings, to put self into a situation.

- Be self-aware, not self-conscious; don’t be regular.

She also made some useful exercises practiced over the years by all of the drama students that studied her techniques, including me. We received her exercises last year as a homework, I found them super entertaining and extremely helpful in my development process as an actress. We also used her technique for the greek play "Antigone" where I played the role of Antigone which I really enjoyed playing because she was a brave, impulsive and loving character.

Caryl Churchill

Caryl Churchill (born 3 September 1938, London) is a British playwright known for dramatising the abuses of power, for her use of non-naturalistic techniques, and for her exploration of sexual politics and feminist themes.
Her early work developed Bertolt Brecht's modernist dramatic and theatrical techniques of Epic theatre to explore issues of gender and sexuality. From A Mouthful of Birds (1986) onwards, she began to experiment with forms of dance-theatre, incorporating techniques developed from the performance tradition initiated by Antonin Artaud with his 'Theatre of Cruelty'. This move away from a clear Fabel dramaturgy towards increasingly fragmented and surrealistic narratives characterises her work as postmodernist.
Churchill was born in London, England, the daughter of Jan, a fashion model, and Robert Churchill, a political cartoonist.After World War II, her family emigrated to Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Churchill was ten years old. In Montreal, she attended Trafalgar School for Girls. She returned to England to attend university, and in 1960 she graduated from Lady Margaret Hall, a women's college at Oxford University, with a B.A. degree in English Literature. She also began her writing career there. Her four earliest plays, Downstairs (produced 1958), You've No Need to be Frightened, Having a Wonderful Time (1960), and Easy Death (produced 1962) was performed at Oxford by student theatre ensembles.
In 1972, she wrote Owners, a two-act, 14-scene play about an obsession with power. It was her first stage play and "her first major theatrical endeavour"; it was produced in London the same year. Churchill's socialist views are expressed in the play, a critique of the values that most capitalists take for granted: being aggressive, getting ahead, doing well.
Churchill gradually abandoned more conventions of realism, and her loyalty to feminist themes and ideas became a guiding principle in her work. She won an Obie Award for best play with Top Girls (1982), "which deals with women's losing their humanity in order to attain power in a male-dominated environment." It features an all-female cast and focuses on Marlene, who has relinquished a home and family to achieve success in the world of business. Half the action takes place at a celebratory dinner where Marlene mixes with historical, iconic and fictional women who have achieved great stature in a "man's world", but always at great cost. The other half of the play, set a year in the past, focuses on Marlene's family, where the true cost of her "successful" life becomes poignantly and frighteningly apparent.

source: Wikipedia

Churchill's Technique

Before we started to study Churchill's theatre technique, I've read her book, "The Skriker" which confused me and fascinated me so much that I wanted to find out more about this fascinating woman who wrote the only book that made me think about its deepest meanings and discovers biblical and social issues highlighted in a hidden way in all of the Skriker's monologues. We started to learn more about her techniques in college, we had to read her play "Top Girls" and to choose to perform a scene from the play. I chose to be Marlene because I found myself in her workaholic, obsessed with success, selfish and independent character even if she is not portrayed as a good person until the end. It was really fun to play it with my colleagues, we get along, we built up the tension between the two sisters and we made the arguing part between Marlene and Joyce a bit funny for the better understanding and the entertainment of our audience. We enjoyed playing it and we received a good feedback for our short performance. Churchill's technique is a form of epic theatre, meant to vocalise her feminist concerns including sexual conflicts, inequality of genders and violence. Her work features her commitment to the socialist and feminist politics. She encourages the audience to question the roles that she created which are portraying the defamiliarization effect of epic theatre. She takes feminism to another level by introducing the audience into her world, where everyone can evolve and change their mentalities just by asking themselves the questions her plays are planting into the readers head, the ones that stroke around social issues of that time. Her characters are reconstructing the history in a feminist way so that the work can understand that the two genders are equal and that whatever a male can do, can also be done by women in the same or in a better way.

Steven Berkoff

Highly acclaimed English actor, playwright, author and director continues to set the benchmark for stunning, intense performances on both stage and screen. Berkoff was born in Stepney, London in August 1937 and received dramatic arts training in both Paris and London and then moved on to performing with several repertory companies, before he formed the London Theatre Group in 1968. Berkoff had actually been appearing in uncredited roles in UK cinema since 1959 and started to get noticed by casting agents with his performances in Hamlet at Elsinore (1964), Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), A Clockwork Orange (1971) and Barry Lyndon (1975).

Mainstream film fans are probably most familiar with Steven Berkoff via his portrayal of a trio of ice-cold villains in several big budget Hollywood productions of the 1980s. Firstly, he played a rogue general plotting to launch a war in Europe in Octopussy (1983), then a drug smuggling art dealer out to kill Detroit narcotics officer Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop (1984), and thirdly as a sadistic Russian commando officer torturing Sylvester Stallone in Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985).

Berkoff continued to contribute scintillating performances and was quite memorable as Adolf Hitler in War and Remembrance (1988), The Krays (1990) and the haunting The Tell-Tale Heart (1991). Further villainous roles followed for the steely Berkoff in Fair Game (1995) and the Jean-Claude Van Damme kick flick Legionnaire (1998). He excelled in the camp comedy 9 Dead Gay Guys (2002), played UK crime figure Charlie Richardson Snr. in Charlie (2004) and then appeared in the passionate Greek film about mail order brides simply titled, Brides (2004).

His screen performances are but one part of the brilliance of Steven Berkoff, as he has additionally built a formidable reputation for his superb craftsmanship in the theatre. Berkoff has written and performed original plays including "Decadence", "Harry's Christmas Lunch" "Brighton Beach Scumbags" and "Sink the Belgrano", as well as appearing in productions of "Hamlet", "Macbeth" and "Coriolanus" to rapturous audiences right across the globe. Furthermore, he has authored several highly entertaining books on the theatre and his life including "The Theatre of Steven Berkoff", "Coriolanus in Deutschland", "A Prisoner in Rio", "I am Hamlet" and "Meditations on Metamorphosis".

source: IMDB

Berkoff's Technique

We started to study Berkoff's technique in October 2017. At first, we made a research to find out more about him and his technique and then we started to work in groups on a scene from "Metamorphosis".  I played the man/insect that was transforming in our vision, Sara was behind me playing the role of the insect's wings, she was also doing the moves and the sounds of its heartbeat, so the action became really physical and we used exaggerated moves. At the same time, Jessica and Rose were playing the roles of the other characters in the play and were narrating the actions. The scene looked really abstract and kind of scary. We received a good feedback for our creativity. I've learnt that Berkoff's technique is defying the forms of naturalistic theatre, using exaggerated physical moves to take the audience into every play's small journey and put them through the states they need to feel in order to understand the story.

Our research as a group:

Bertolt Brecht

Eugen Bertholt Friedrich 10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956) was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Living in Munich during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes with theatre plays, whose themes were often influenced by his Marxist thought. He was the main proponent of the genre named epic theatre (which he preferred to call "dialectical theatre"). During the Nazi period and World War II, he lived in exile, first in Scandinavia and then in the United States. Returning to East Berlin after the war, he established the theatre company Berliner Ensemble with his wife, long-time collaborator and actress Helene Weigel.

source: Wikipedia

Brecht's Technique

At first we individually made a research about Bertolt Brecht and his theatre technique. I found out some facts about his life, then I started to read about his technique, in order to understand how I should be using it. Brecht's technique or the "Epic Theatre"is meant to highlight important social matters like exploitation and injustice and to make the audience think of a solution while they are watching the play. His plays have the purpose to open the mind of the watcher, making him aware of the fact that what's happening on the stage is not reality, but just the interpretation of it. He says that
“Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.”, we can see in this quote that his intentions are noble, he wants to educate the audience by using his art. One of the key features of his technique is the Alienation Effect, which he says it is "stripping the event of its self-evident, familiar, obvious quality and creating a sense of astonishment and curiosity about them". Also, the technique involves breaking the forth wall as in talking directly to the audience, the use of songs to interrupt the actions and harsh and bright stage lighting, using plaques to show the action or speaking the stage directions out loud. In order to fully understand his technique all of us together prepared a short play in Brecht's style, directed by our teacher that we played in college, in front of an audience.

Repetitions of the play:

Samuel Beckett

One of the twentieth century's most original and important writers, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969, Samuel Beckett was the author of 'Waiting for Godot' (1952), one of the few plays in theatrical history to redefine the possibilities of the medium. Long fascinated by the cinema (especially silent comedies, a major influence on much of his work, including 'Godot'), Beckett apparently approached Sergei M. Eisenstein in the 1930s and offered to work as his assistant, but Eisenstein never replied. Although most of Beckett's work was written for the stage or the page, he did write one original film script, the 20-minute (almost) silent film Film (1965), which starred his idol Buster Keaton in one of his last film appearances. He also wrote or rewrote several plays for television.

Samuel Barclay Beckett (13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, poet, and literary translator who lived in Paris for most of his adult life. He wrote in both English and French. Beckett's work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human existence, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour, and became increasingly minimalist in his later career. He is considered one of the last modernist writers, and one of the key figures in what Martin Esslin called the "Theatre of the Absurd".

source: IMDB & Wikipedia

Beckett's Technique

We started off in groups again, we made a research about Samuel Beckett, learnt some interesting facts about his life then we started the process of understanding his technique. We all remembered the piece of theatre written by Samuel Beckett that we read and watch on YouTube last year when we first started the course,"Waiting for Godot". We had to reproduce a scene from the play in our groups, so we can have a better understanding of the play and technique. Beckett's technique, often associated with the "Theatre of the Absurd", is more theatrical than literary, he uses stage language  (mimesis, imitation of an action). The absurdist fiction of Beckett manages to shock the audience by attacking political or religious certainties aiming to make the audience aware of the issues seen through  the writer's eyes in the same time showing them that the solution to these problems can be painfully easy, making the end of the play funny and absurd.


Our research as a group:

Practice

We used Berkoff's and Beckett's techniques for the independent play we made in groups. We had to make up a 10 minutes long piece of theatre, I was in the same group with Jessica G., Yasemin, Laura and Lauren. We started off with a timeline that made the creative process easier for because it was well organised. We finished a bit sooner than we expected because in the first couple of weeks most of the people in the group were showing up to classes and that was a good thing because we had time to rehearse it more. Our play is called "Cupcakes or knives?" and it is about the danger that kids are exposed to when they are using the internet. The storyline followed a girl from an orphanage that fell in love with an older girl she met online. She lives in an unfair world where she is surrounded by mean girls and falsity. Her name is Olivia. Although she is kind of famous online for the videos that she posts singing, she doesn't have any friends. The girl that she finds online feels like a breath of fresh air in her vision. Later she is betrayed by the same girl and she realises that she can't trust people that she met online, that's when her whole world fell apart.

We created together as a group this piece of theatre. We first started with the idea of the play then we continued with developing the characters by using the hot seat technique with everyone in the group, so we can get to know better our characters, I've had Olivia's role. Later, we started to write the ideas of every single act and scene and when we knew everything that was happening in the play we started to write the script of it. We had some issues when we chose the characters because one of the people in our group felt insecure with her role and she wanted us to change the character from male to female so we had to change everything around. The story changed almost completely one week before our performance but it was not a problem because we kept the key features of the play, the same acting techniques and some of the lines. When we performed the play in our college's theatre one of the people in our group didn't show up so we had to replace her with someone from other group that didn't know anything about the role. The good thing is that no one noticed that she was replacing Lauren, the audience really liked our piece and we got a good feedback as well, despite the fact that we had to replace someone.

For our final assessment we had to perform one more time this piece at Pimlico Academy in front of a younger audience and then to work with them on a workshop made by us. Every single group had different exercises to play with the kids. We had the mirror game, zip-zap game, the freeze frames game and improve in the end. It was an amazing experience to work with younger people, I never imagined it could be so nice to run a workshop, we were really happy about it, their teacher and ours as well.


This is some of our work as a group:

 

UNIT 10

Actor CV

Mihaela Pantea


Contact: 24 Brookdale, London, N11 1BL
Mobile: 07449841399
E-mail: mimi.business@crowdagency.com
Agent: Crowd Media Agency, Piet Heinkade 95B, 1090GM Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Location: London, United Kingdom

Height: 5' Build: Slim Hair: Brown Eyes: Black

Accents: East European, British
Role Playing Ages: 14-24

Skills: full driving licence, singing, computing, editing, filming, directing, writing

Training:

2013-2016: National College of Arts "Dinu Lipatti", Bucharest - 10 classes diploma
2016-2018: Westminster Kingsway College - Undergraduate Diploma - Acting

Credits

Year      Type          Role          Production        Company            Director

Theatre

2015      Musical     citizen        The Hidden         Excelsior         Sandra Mavhima
                                                        City                Theatre,
                                                                                Bucharest

2016      Play          Antigone      Antigone            Westminster     Rob Alexander
                                                                                 Kingsway
                                                                                   College

2016      Play       Ranyevskaya    The  Cherry      Westminster      Rob Alexander
                                                        Orchard            Kingsway
                                                                                   College
                                                   
2017      Play          Beatrice          Much Ado        Westminster     Rob Alexander
                                                   About Nothing       Kingsway
                                                                                    College
                                               
2017      Play          Various            Blackout          Westminster     Rob Alexander
                                                                                  Kingsway
                                                                                    College

2017     Play            Olivia         Cupcakes or         Westminster         the cast
                                                       knives?               Kingsway
                                                                                    College
                                                   
TV&Film

2014   Short film     Mimi           Beneath              Dinu Lipatti       Andrei Stamate
                                                  the surface                students

2015     Film             Carla       What's wrong         Dinu Lipatti       Andrei Stamate
                                                 with teenagers?          students

2016 -  Videoblog    Mimi            Mimi                   YouTube           Mihaela Pantea
present

2017    Short film    Emilia       Betrayed in           Westminster        Dominika
                                                             love                       Kingsway        Tomosvary
                                                                                           College                                                                                      
                                   
                                                     
                                               

My monologue choices

I've chosen Angela's monologue from "Like a virgin" by Gordon Steel as my contemporary monologue choice. When I was reading the book I started crying when I found out that Angela was about to die, I think that this is a real tragedy, that's actually happening in real life as well and it makes me so sad knowing that some kids die because of cancer at such a young age. The reason why I wanted to do Angela's monologue is because I really liked her story and I could've seen myself in her position and the way it was affecting me, helped me fit well in the role of the character. 

I've chosen Rosalind's monologue from "As you like it" by William Shakespeare as my classical monologue choice because I wanted something really contrasting compared to the contemporary monologue and this role was what I needed. Rosalind is a powerful, smart women, very ironic and honest, I can relate to her character and I really liked it. In this monologue she is giving attitude to Phoebe - who is a naive character, full of herself and shallow - because she was mistreating a man who was in love with her. 

Pros and Cons of higher education

Pros of going to drama school

-professional training in acting
-important contacts in the industry
-good exposure
-a degree
-learning more about theatre and acting techniques
-you get to be seen by good talent agents
-extensive culture
-experience in working as an actor

Cons of going to drama school

-busy schedule
-you don't have time to go to castings and to work
-you are constantly stressed because of the busy schedule and high expectations
-it is expensive
-you can't explore other fields of the industry

Pros of going to university

-more relaxed schedule
-it is easier to get accepted in universities than drama schools
-extensive culture
-experience in working as an actor
-a degree
-training in acting
-contacts in the industry
-you are getting an agent when you finish the course
-you can explore other fields of the industry

Cons of going to university

-more theory than practice
-it is expensive
-you don't have time to work
-the training is not as good as in drama school
-the only motivation is the degree
-you are not going to be seen by the best agents

Unit 8 - Final Project

What I developed throughout the course

We started the year with a research about the Greek theatre. I can say that I've already learnt in my country everything that I needed about the beginning of the theatre which helped me with the research because everything that I wrote in my blog about this subject I already knew from 3 years ago when I first studied that. More over, I was so familiar with this subject and with many more, for example I knew Stanislavski's techniques and I practiced it in the past 3 years so I didn't have to read the book again.

Furthermore, when we started to work on our first project, I received the role "Antigone" in a scene from the play with the same name, which was a fight between Antigone and Ismene. It was not the first time when I was working in a pair so I can say that it was easy to do. Although I had some troubles with pronunciation and learning lines because it was my first year in England and it's hard to perform in a different language. Throughout this year I improved my pronunciation and I started to think in English which is really exciting, I can even develop an intense emotion, using Stanislavski's method "Effective Memory".

In my point of view, working in pairs prepared us for working in a team. When we were working with Mr. Rob Alexander at the scene from the play "Antigone", in the same time we were working on scenes from the play "Medea" with Mrs. Sharon. We all had to work together as an ensemble. She split us in groups and gave us the lines and then we had to decide what we were going to do to make it more affective. During the process of the rehearsals I learnt how important it is to be in on time and to not miss because everyone is depending on you when you work in a group and the rehearsals are incomplete if you are not there. I tried to be there in time and to learn my lines in time so I didn't cause troubles to anyone in my group. Even if the scene was not long and it didn't have that many lines, I think that it was really intense because of the scream that I had to do in the end. The feedback that we received for both performances was really good, the opinion of the audience really helped me to build my confidence.

We started to work on the play "The Cherry Orchard" and I received the role "Ranevskaya" which I don't think that really suited me because she is an old woman who lost her child and suffered a lot because of the men in her life. I had to deal with that and to put myself in her character, it was not hard, it was challenging. At the beginning I hated it but then I started to bring my sad memories in the present to feel the pain of a mother loosing her child and it became really fun to play with my emotions and to transpose myself in her character. More over, I received a good feedback again, the only thing that still needed to work on was my pronunciation, which was also improved but still not the best.

The biggest project that we had to do was the play "Much Ado About Nothing" by William Shakespeare. We read the play, we watched other ensembles performing it and we discussed the work that we had to do and the subject of the play. Mr. Rob Alexander directed the play and set up the scenes, the rehearsals went really well and we enjoyed performing it twice with a different audience this time. I developed my use of Stanislavski's and Uta Hagen's techniques. I received the role "Beatrice" and I think that it was suitable for me, I enjoyed performing it on a stage in front of people, this time even more confident and prepared than ever. I've researched on the internet about my role and I put myself in the character's shoes. Again, the feedback that I received from my teacher and from my family this time, was really good. Everyone enjoyed our performance.

The final project that we worked on was "Blackout" by Davey Anderson. I can say that this one was the biggest challenge that I ever had to deal with in my life as an actress. It was more difficult because after Mr. Rob split us in two different groups, we had to deal with all of the work that he was doing until that point. We had to direct and set up the play together as a group. We researched the background of the play and we found out that it was based on a real story, which, I can say that made my life more simple because I can relate to real life stories. We watched different ensembles performing the same play and we also made our research about the ideas that were in the text, so we could have a better understanding of the play. During our rehearsals we had some issues because no one was in on time and it's hard to direct a piece with a lot of people because everyone has a different point of view and a different vision of the entire play. We managed to learn our lines in time and we set up the piece using everyone's suggestions and deciding together which one was better to use. We were happy with the result. The piece was incredibly affective and it showed exactly what we wanted. Even if we had to show to the public that all of us was the same character we managed to do it and the audience understood our point of view and the idea of the piece. The feedback that we received was amazing, everything was improved, even my bad pronunciation become better.

Blackout evaluation

Thanks to this final project I developed my acting skills and built up my confidence. I worked on my articulation and pronunciation, now it's way better than before. I've got used to learning lines and now I can learn them faster, without any effort. I've experienced team working and enjoyed being on a stage as an ensemble with my classmates. I've got rid of the stage fright and started to enjoy being on a scene. I started to feel the power that the audience can give you, it's the best thing in the world! I've tried out the new acting techniques, that I learnt throughout the course, such as Uta Hagen's. I've worked on improving my use of Stanislavski's techniques and showed understanding to the methods he is using. 

We started to work on the play "Blackout" by Davey Anderson, based on a true story, inspired by a 15-year-old who committed a crime because he was bullied since he was a kid. We worked together as an ensemble. Even if arguments came up in our creative process of directing the piece, we found solutions and we showed understanding to each other, considering every idea suggested during the rehearsals and choosing together what was good or bad, in our point of view.

 In our process of understanding the piece we researched online previous performances of the piece, to build up a general idea of how it should look like. These videos inspired and guided us to direct the piece the way it was directed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f3RuKG61Fg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8FzLQi7LPI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZlsOIV4-pc

The themes and ideas of the play were gloomy and a bit scary. I didn't know much about it and I had to make a research for a better understanding of the "Nazi ideology". I found interesting historic facts that fascinated me, about their culture.

National Socialism (German: Nationalsozialismus), more commonly known as Nazism (/ˈnɑːtsɪzəm, ˈnæ-/^[1]), is the ideology and practice associated with the 20th-century German Nazi Party and Nazi Germany, as well as other far-right groups. Usually characterised as a form of fascism that incorporates scientific racism and antisemitism, Nazism developed out of the influences of Pan-Germanism, the Völkisch German nationalist movement and the anti-communist Freikorps paramilitary groups that emerged during the Weimar Republic after German defeat in World War I.

Nazism subscribed to theories of racial hierarchy and Social Darwinism, identifying Germans as part of what Nazis regarded as an Aryan or Nordic master race.^[2] It aimed to overcome social divisions and create a homogeneous society, unified on the basis of "racial purity" (Volksgemeinschaft). The Nazis aimed to unite all Germans living in historically German territory, as well as gain additional lands for German expansion under the doctrine of Lebensraum, while excluding those deemed either to be community aliens or belonging to an "inferior" race. The term "National Socialism" arose out of attempts to create a nationalist redefinition of "socialism", as an alternative to both international socialism and free market capitalism. Nazism rejected the Marxist concept of class struggle, opposed cosmopolitan internationalism, and sought to convince all parts of a new German society to subordinate their personal interests to the "common good" and to accept the priority of political interests in economic organisation.

(Wikipedia, 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism )

I used Stanislavski's technique "Magic If" to put myself in James's character and I had to feel all of the rage and pain that he felt when he was bullied. I can say that I managed that well. Also, I used the "Emotional memory" technique to bring memories from the past to empower the feelings that I already had and to make the character even more real and affective. The "Motivation" technique helped me to channel my anger onto the audience, I was saying everything to affect them, I imagined that they were my bullies when I was breaking the 4th wall. The "Re-education" technique helped me reduce the melodrama from the subtext and to hold myself on the scene, to not overreact. 

To improve our characters we filmed each other when we were rehearsing. The videos helped me to correct my mistakes and to observe the improvement that we made in our process of understanding the play. 

Rehearsals: 
https://youtu.be/Brrm1MogpVI
https://youtu.be/QklQtypxfYM
https://youtu.be/wAwkKFx110s

Coming back to the scenario, I realised the importance of the environment where a kid is raised, I assumed that his childhood was not that good and then I tried to put myself in his shoes because most of my lines were referring to James or were his own words. The play is inspired by a real story and in the introduction of the script, it says that all of the words used as a dialogue or as a monologue were James's words, recorded and then written in the script by the author. Being bullied all the time, James started to have, unconsciously, the wish to kill every single mean kid that ever hurt him, that's why he is comparing himself in a way with Adolf Hitler and starts to love his beliefs and the Nazi ideology.

This project helped us improve our Stanislavski and Uta Hagen techniques, made us work better as an ensemble as well. The concept of the piece is to have James as a voice and not as a character. The physicality that we added to this piece defined the actions. We split the lines randomly between the actors and we tried to make the message of the piece understandable and relatable to the public. This project allows us to put on the stage our ideas and to show to the audience our perspective of James's story. 

I can say that I am proud of myself after I finished this project because I was focused and committed to the work that I had to do. I've known all of my lines in time,I helped the team with ideas and opinions, we performed the piece two times in the same day and the feedback that we received was really good. I achieved my goals, we took our project to the highest standards that we could've possibly reach.

Feedback: https://youtu.be/ojg8Gl7QZjI

UNIT 7 - Preparation for Specialist Study

Where am I ? What skills do I posses ? How I developed this?

This is my first year as a student in the United Kingdom, I used to do Drama in my country as well, the educational system here, in the UK, impressed me, everything it's a lot more easier to understand, every single task that we receive, it's targeted, I know what I'm working for. I am happy that I can understand how every single step that our teachers guides us to take helps us to become the best version of ourselves as future actors. In the past two terms I feel like I gathered knowledge, I read "Uta Hagen" and Stanislavski's book: "An Actor's Work", these books taught me some acting techniques very useful for my future. I strengthened my confidence when I played my first two roles in this college, Antigone from the play "Antigone" by Sophocles and Medea from the play with the same name by Euripide, because after the performance I received a really good feedback from my teachers, colleagues and even from the audience.  I become faster at learning lines and bringing emotions from the past in the moment, it's a lot more easier for me to work with other people or as an ensemble, I developed my sense of humour when I played Beatrice in "Much Ado About Nothing" and I learnt how to play a character that is older than me, with the role of Ranyevskaya from "The Cherry Orchard" by Anton Chekhov. Right now I feel like I am in the right place to be, this experience helped me to realise how important acting is for me and how much I love this industry.

Areas

The feedback that I receive after every single performance from my teachers was that I have to improve my pronunciation, diction and projection but besides that, everything is good. I have to work harder on this, tongue twisters will help me and breathing exercises may help me as well.

The essence of performance for me is...

"Acting is behaving truthfully in imagined circumstances", this is my favourite way to say it. In my point of view, the essence of performance is when you look into the eyes of the audience and you are not afraid anymore, when you see in their eyes that they understand what's happening with your character, when the audience feels the same emotions as your character or as you want them to feel about the character. When you are passionate about it, work hard for it and do it for good purposes, not for fame or wealth, you'll find in yourself where this essence was hidden.

Pathways

I've been through a lot of changes since the first day I came to this college, I can say that some things may have changed. I still love to do acting, I am doing this since I was 11 years old, my biggest dream was to go to Hollywood and to learn from the place where the most beautiful movies were made, as I was growing up I started to realise that my dream was almost impossible and that not everyone can go there. The good part of this story is that I ended up in a better place than LA ! England, Shakespeare's home, I didn't liked him at the beginning but after I played the role "Beatrice" from "Much Ado About Nothing" I've changed my mind, I took the challenge and I feel like I won it because until the end I started to love working on Shakespeare. Now I know that there is no such thing as a boring role, the role depends on who makes it and how it does it. The only change that has been made is that I would rather choose to go university instead of drama school because I want to learn more than just acting, I'm also in love with film production and directing even if I know that my place is on the stage, also, I would love to be a part of the exchanging students programmes so I can see how people do acting in the other sides of the world.

UNIT 5 - Production skills and Context

If I was the director of the play "Much Ado About Nothing" by William Shakespeare, I would place it in the same place as our teacher placed it, in our college, because working with young actors can be really fun, I would let them give me ideas just like our teacher have done with us because it's really important their point of view for me, I want them to have fun and to enjoy what they're doing, I would make it more modern, I would put in there some crazy ideas, like making Beatrice (the role that I had) more foolish and I would make her look like she wants to be smart when, truthfully, she wouldn't be, I would make it a comedy. I would change the Shakespearian language with something that the team could understand, I would let them speak in our days language, I think that this would make it even easier for them to play, I wouldn't want to put them in difficulty.

 I would use the "hot seating" technique with every single actor in the play, that's how I can make sure that everyone knows what's their purpose there and what they're supposed to do, who they are and everything about the role, just like they know everything about themselves and then I would use the "raise or lower stakes" technique to make them understand where I want them and how I want them to be in the play. I would be really serious about it and if anyone can't show that it's really in the character's skin I would replace them and, obviously, I would let them know that I am going to do this before giving them the role because I want them to work hard and to be motivated. I think that you have to be true with your team, if they are not able to do the role I would let them know and I would suggest them to find some passion that would suit them or to work even more until they show me that they are in the right place, because I don't think that acting is for everyone.

I would use costumes that would represent the Shakespearian style, some clothes that people used to wear when Shakespeare wrote the play, big dresses for the girls and nice, old costumes for the boys, I would dress the messenger in some green leggings because the person that were in that role, was playing it like a jester, which I really liked, I think that those pants would definitely represent the character. It would be even funnier, in my point of view, to see people dressed like that using the language we use nowadays and even the slang as long as it is appropriate for the play. I would dress the girls in fancy dresses for both weddings and the bride would have the biggest white dress I could find.

I think that the coloured lighting are not good for this play, I may use red for the transition after the first wedding scene because things got really bad, and dark blue when the night is coming, but I think that those two colours are enough. In the rest of the time I would use the yellow lighting for the mornings and white lighting for simple transitions to other scenes. I would also use the circle lighting for moments when the actors are alone on the scene.

I would use different songs, not like the ones that our teacher used, I think that the piece needs more modern music to entertain the young public, to make them want to see more plays and to enjoy the theatre experience, most of the teenagers are really connected with the music that they listen to and I think that this would make a strong connection between them and the actors. I really liked the fact that our teacher used our idea in the play and made "the mannequin challenge" on the stage, we felt released when he accepted our offer because we didn't had to dance on some latino music in that part of the play, where it was the masquerade, not everyone knows how to dance and some people are not confident enough to dance in front of everyone, even if actors should be able to do everything on the stage, I would not be that strict with young people, they can have confidence issues after, if the dance is not going really well and people start laughing at them and I wouldn't want this to affect their future.

I would use the same props as our teacher used and I would add a big mirror for the scene where Hero was preparing herself for the wedding with Margaret and Beatrice. I would also add some gloves in the same scene because Hero was talking about them but she didn't have some and natural flowers for the bride and bridesmaids. On the wedding scene I would add more people, more benches, more wedding decorations.

In my opinion, our performance went really well. It was really different compared to my original expectations, I was expecting it to be boring because it's Shakespeare and, as bad as it sounds, I am not his biggest fan. I expected it to be hard to learn the lines because the language is too old and I didn't understand a word of what I was reading in there. Even if I researched the meaning of every each line and read the play, watched the movie of the play and searched online for opinions and reviews of the play, I still found it hard to understand, until the end I managed to build a subtext and to learn the old English, I was happy with my role after I knew what I was saying. I think that the lighting, sound, costumes and preps were good and I can't contest the way our teacher directed us because every single director has a different point of view of the play.

It was the first time to perform a whole piece on a stage with audience for me, the experience felt amazing, I am content because the performance went good, I developed my learning lines skills and I'm more confident on the stage now. I learnt my lines in the right time, people enjoyed our performance and the teacher gave us a good feedback, he said that we treat the rehearsals with maturity, that the performance was brilliant and that we should work more on articulation and pronunciation, which I totally agree with.

UNIT 6 - Performance skills and context

Before we started to work on Shakespeare, our group was given different tasks to complete before getting started on the real work. Tasks included reading the description of the plays, the plays as a whole and viewing the video representations of the plays. Our mentor gave us free hand when choosing the desired play and role, but nevertheless chose it for us in the end. I ended up with Beatrice from "Much ado about nothing", and in order to make a connection with the character I did a bit of research on bits and pieces, including Youtube videos and the simplified language play that I have found online. As soon as I began to understand my character's personality and inner thoughts, I came to realise that she was similar to me. I found her to be outspoken, smart, with an independent side to her whilst still keeping the sensible side hidden in her heart.

We got a few days off on half term, before the group rehearsals started, and that is when I began the process of analysing and understanding the character, creating the internal monologue which I kept in my mind every time I was saying my lines. When I was at home, I rehearsed the role saying the lines out loud in my room, to get used to the role and to learn them. I managed to keep the text and subtext in my mind when the official group rehearsals started. The rehearsals went really well, it took us some time to get used to the Shakespearian language and to know our lines by heart, but we helped each other every time and we never forgot to say the key line so we didn't confuse the others. We worked together as an ensemble, we had a lot of fun with our characters in rehearsals, we helped each other to understand the storyline of the play and the story behind the text, also our teachers helped us with understanding where is our place throughout the play, who we are and what is our purpose in there. They also helped us with building the right energy, they listened to our ideas and proposals when they were directing and also added some of our ideas which built our confidence and helped us  enjoy the piece of theatre. Even if it seemed to be old and boring at the beginning, we made it fun and interesting until the end. I am so happy that I've been a part of this project, I learnt how to love every single role that I receive even if I'm not content with it at first sight. I learnt that it doesn't matter what role you have because if you work hard and put emotion into it, you won't only show the audience but to yourself,as well , the best version of your representation of the character.

As part of the advertising area, we have decided to invite families and friends, some of us even posting about it on social media, which increased the chances of more people attending the performance. The college had also invited a theatre company to see us, in order for us to get that real emotion of being on stage in front of strangers and not only family members or friends. We had two performances, of which one in the afternoon, where all the performing arts classes attended, and one in the evening, where our guests and the theatre company were invited. The college had also provided for the guests programmes of the play, handed to each individual when entering the venue.


Research:

Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599, as Shakespeare was approaching the middle of his career. The play was included in the First Folio, published in 1623. Much Ado About Nothing is generally considered one of Shakespeare's best comedies because it combines elements of mistaken identities, love, robust hilarity with more serious meditations on honour, shame, and court politics.

By means of "noting" (which, in Shakespeare's day, sounded similar to "nothing" as in the play's title,^[1][2] and which means gossip, rumour, and overhearing), Benedick and Beatrice are tricked into confessing their love for each other, and Claudio is tricked into rejecting Hero at the altar on the erroneous belief that she has been unfaithful. At the end, Benedick and Beatrice join forces to set things right, and the others join in a dance celebrating the marriages of the two couples.

Summary[edit]

A painting of Beatrice by Frank Dicksee, from The Graphic Gallery of Shakespeare's Heroines

At Messina, a messenger brings news that Don Pedro, a prince from Aragon, will return that night from a successful battle, Claudio being among his soldiers. Beatrice, Leonato's niece, asks the messenger about Benedick and makes sarcastic remarks about his ineptitude as a soldier. Leonato explains that "There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her."^[3]

Upon the arrival of the soldiers, Leonato welcomes Don Pedro and invites him to stay for a month, Benedick and Beatrice resume their "merry war," and Pedro's illegitimate brother Don John is introduced. Claudio's feelings for Hero, Leonato's only daughter, are rekindled upon seeing her, and Claudio soon announces to Benedick his intention to court her. Benedick, who openly despises marriage, tries to dissuade his friend but Don Pedro encourages the marriage. Benedick swears that he will never get married. Don Pedro laughs at him and tells him that when he has found the right person he shall get married.

A masquerade ball is planned in celebration of the end of the war, giving a disguised Don Pedro the opportunity to woo Hero on Claudio's behalf. Don John uses this situation to get revenge on his brother Don Pedro by telling young Claudio that Don Pedro is wooing Hero for himself. A furious Claudio confronts Don Pedro, but the misunderstanding is quickly resolved and Claudio wins Hero's hand in marriage.

Meanwhile, Benedick disguises himself and dances with Beatrice. Beatrice proceeds to tell this "mystery man" that Benedick is "the prince's jester, a very dull fool." Benedick, enraged by her words, swears he will have revenge. Don Pedro and his men, bored at the prospect of waiting a week for the wedding, harbour a plan to match-make between Benedick and Beatrice. They arrange for Benedick to overhear a conversation in which they declare that Beatrice is madly in love with him but afraid to tell him; that their pride is the main impediment to their courtship. Meanwhile, Hero and her maid Ursula ensure Beatrice overhears them discuss Benedick's undying love for her. The tricks have the desired effect: both Benedick and Beatrice are delighted to think they are the object of unrequited love, and both accordingly resolve to mend their faults and reconcile.

Meanwhile, Don Pedro's brother Don John, the "bastard prince", plots to prevent the wedding, embarrass his brother and wreak misery on Leonato and Claudio. He informs Don Pedro and Claudio that Hero is unfaithful, and arranges for them to see John's associate Borachio enter her bedchamber where he has an amorous liaison (actually with Margaret, Hero's chambermaid). Claudio and Don Pedro are taken in, and Claudio vows to humiliate Hero publicly.

Swooning of Hero in the Church scene by Alfred Elmore

At the wedding the next day, Claudio denounces Hero before the stunned guests and storms off with Don Pedro. Hero faints. Her humiliated father Leonato expresses the wish that she would die. The presiding friar intervenes, believing Hero to be innocent. He suggests the family fake Hero's death in order to extract the truth and Claudio's remorse. Prompted by the day's harrowing events, Benedick and Beatrice confess their love for each other. Beatrice then asks Benedick to slay Claudio as proof of his devotion, since he has slandered her kinswoman. Benedick is horrified and at first, denies her request. Leonato and his brother Antonio blame Claudio for Hero's apparent death and challenge him to a duel. Benedick then does the same.

Luckily, on the night of Don John's treachery, the local Watch apprehended Borachio and his ally Conrade. Despite the comic ineptness of the Watch (headed by constable Dogberry, a master of malapropisms), they have overheard the duo discussing their evil plans. The Watch arrest the villains and eventually obtain a confession, informing Leonato of Hero's innocence. Though Don John has fled the city, a force is sent to capture him. Claudio, stricken with remorse at Hero's supposed death, agrees to her father's demand that he marry Antonio's daughter, "almost the copy of my child that's dead"^[3] and carry on the family name.

At the wedding, the bride is revealed to be Hero, still living. Claudio is overjoyed. Beatrice and Benedick, prompted by their friends' interference, finally and publicly confess their love for each other. As the play draws to a close, a messenger arrives with news of Don John's capture – but Benedick proposes to postpone his punishment to another day so that the couples can enjoy their new-found happiness. Don Pedro is lonely because he hasn't found love. Thus Benedick gives him the advice "Get thee a wife."

Sources[edit]

Stories of lovers deceived into believing each other false were common currency in northern Italy in the sixteenth century. Shakespeare's immediate source could have been one of the Novelle ("Tales") by Matteo Bandello of Mantua, dealing with the tribulations of Sir Timbreo and his betrothed Fenicia Lionata in Messina after King Piero's defeat of Charles of Anjou, perhaps through the translation into French by François de Belleforest.^[4] Another version featuring lovers Ariodante and Ginevra, with the servant Dalinda impersonating Ginevra on the balcony, appears in Book V of Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto, published in an English translation in 1591.^[5] The character of Benedick too has a counterpart in a commentary upon marriage in Orlando Furioso,^[6] but the witty wooing of Beatrice and Benedick is original and very unusual in style and syncopation.^[4] One version of the Claudio/Hero plot is told by Edmund Spenser in "The Faerie Queen" (Book II, Canto iv).^[7]

Date and text[edit]

The title page from the first quarto edition of Much Adoe About Nothing, printed in 1600.

The earliest printed text states that Much Ado About Nothing was "sundry times publicly acted" prior to 1600 and it is likely that the play made its debut in the autumn or winter of 1598–1599.^[8] The earliest recorded performances are two that were given at Court in the winter of 1612–1613, during the festivities preceding the marriage of Princess Elizabeth with Frederick V, Elector Palatine (14 February 1613). The play was published in quarto in 1600 by the stationers Andrew Wise and William Aspley. This was the only edition prior to the First Folio in 1623.

Analysis and criticism[edit]

Style[edit]

The play is one of the few in the Shakespeare canon where the majority of the text is written in prose.^[9] The substantial verse sections are used to achieve both courteous decorum, on the one hand, and impulsive energies, on the other.^[10]

Setting[edit]

Much Ado About Nothing is set in Messina, a port on the island of Sicily, which is next to the toe of Italy. Sicily was ruled by Aragon at the time the play was set.^[11] The action of the play takes place mainly at the home and on the grounds of Leonato's Estate.

Themes and motifs[edit]

Gender roles[edit]

Drawing of Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Benedick and Winifred Emery as Beatrice in a 1905 production. Act II, Scene v: "Kill Claudio".

Benedick and Beatrice quickly became the main interest of the play, to the point where they are today considered the leading roles, even though their relationship is given equal or lesser weight in the script than Claudio and Hero's situation. Charles II even wrote 'Benedick and Beatrice' beside the title of the play in his copy of the Second Folio.^[12] The provocative treatment of gender is central to the play and should be considered in its Renaissance context. While this was reflected and emphasised in certain plays of the period, it was also challenged.^[13] Amussen^[14] notes that the destabilising of traditional gender clichés appears to have inflamed anxieties about the erosion of social order. It seems that comic drama could be a means of calming such anxieties. Ironically, we can see through the play's popularity that this only increased people's interest in such behaviour. Benedick wittily gives voice to male anxieties about women's "sharp tongues and proneness to sexual lightness".^[13] In the patriarchal society of the play, the men's loyalties were governed by conventional codes of honour and camaraderie and a sense of superiority to women.^[13] Assumptions that women are by nature prone to inconstancy are shown in the repeated jokes on cuckoldry and partly explain Claudio's readiness to believe the slur against Hero. This stereotype is turned on its head in Balthasar's song, which shows men to be the deceitful and inconstant sex that women must suffer.

Infidelity[edit]

A theme in Shakespeare is cuckoldry or the infidelity of a wife. Several of the characters seem to be obsessed by the idea that a man has no way to know if his wife is faithful and therefore women can take full advantage of that fact. Don John plays upon Claudio's pride and fear of cuckoldry, which leads to the disastrous first wedding. Many of the males easily believe that Hero is impure and even her father readily condemns her with very little proof. This motif runs through the play, often in references to horns, a symbol of cuckoldry.

In contrast, Balthasar's song "Sigh No More" tells women to accept men's infidelity and continue to live joyfully. Some interpretations say that Balthasar sings poorly, undercutting the message. This is supported by Benedick's cynical comments about the song, where he compares it to a howling dog. However, in the 1993 Branagh film Balthasar sings beautifully, the song is also given a prominent role in both the opening and finale and the message appears to be embraced by the women in the film.^[15]

Deception[edit]

In Much Ado About Nothing, there are many examples of deception and self-deception. The games and tricks played on people often have the best intentions—to make people fall in love, to help someone get what they want, or to make someone realise their mistake. However, not all are meant well, such as when Don John convinces Claudio that Don Pedro wants Hero for himself, or when Borachio meets 'Hero' (who is actually Margaret, pretending to be Hero) in Hero's bedroom window.

Masks and mistaken identity[edit]

People are constantly pretending to be others or being mistaken for other people. An example of this is Margaret who is mistaken for Hero, which leads to Hero's public disgrace at her wedding with Claudio. However, during a masked ball in which everyone must wear a mask, Beatrice rants about Benedick to a masked man who turns out to be Benedick himself but Beatrice is unaware of this at the time. During the same celebration, Don Pedro, masked, pretends to be Claudio and courts Hero for him. After Hero is announced "dead," Leonato orders Claudio to marry his "niece," who is actually Hero in disguise.

Noting[edit]

A watercolor by John Sutcliffe: Beatrice overhears Hero and Ursula.

Another motif is the play on the words nothing and noting, which in Shakespeare's day were near-homophones.^[16] Taken literally, the title implies that a great fuss ("much ado") is made of something which is insignificant ("nothing"), such as the unfounded claims of Hero's infidelity and the unfounded claims that Benedick and Beatrice are in love with one another. The title could also be understood as Much Ado About Noting. Much of the action is in interest in and critique of others, written messages, spying, and eavesdropping. This is mentioned several times, particularly concerning "seeming," "fashion," and outward impressions. Nothing is a double entendre; "an O-thing" (or "n othing" or "no thing") was Elizabethan slang for "vagina", evidently derived from the pun of a woman having "nothing" between her legs.^[4][17][18]

Examples of noting as noticing occur in the following instances: (1.1.131–132)

Claudio: Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of Signor Leonato?

Benedick: I noted her not, but I looked on her.

and (4.1.154–157).

Friar: Hear me a little,

For I have only been silent so long
And given way unto this course of fortune
By noting of the lady.

At (3.3.102–104), Borachio indicates that a man's clothing doesn't indicate his character:

Borachio: Thou knowest that the fashion of a doublet, or a hat, or a cloak is nothing to a man.

A triple play on words in which noting signifies noticing, musical notes and nothing occurs at (2.3.47–52):

Don Pedro: Nay pray thee, come;

Or if thou wilt hold longer argument,
Do it in notes.
Balthasar: Note this before my notes:
There's not a note of mine that's worth the noting.
Don Pedro: Why, these are very crotchets that he speaks –
Note notes, forsooth, and nothing!

Don Pedro's last line can be understood to mean, "Pay attention to your music and nothing else!" The complex layers of meaning include a pun on "crotchets," which can mean both "quarter notes" (in music) and whimsical notions.

The following are puns on notes as messages: (2.1.174–176),

Claudio: I pray you leave me.

Benedick: Ho, now you strike like the blind man – 'twas the boy that stole your meat, and you'll beat the post.

in which Benedick plays on the word post as a pole and as mail delivery in a joke reminiscent of Shakespeare's earlier advice "Don't shoot the messenger"; and (2.3.138–142)

Claudio: Now you talk of a sheet of paper, I remember a pretty jest your daughter told us of.

Leonato: O, when she had writ it and was reading it over, she found Benedick and Beatrice between the sheet?

in which Leonato makes a sexual innuendo concerning sheet as a sheet of paper (on which Beatrice's love note to Benedick is to have been written) and a bedsheet.

(Wikipedia, 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Much_Ado_About_Nothing)

Character Analysis Beatrice

Beatrice is one of the most delightful characters in all of Shakespeare — certainly one of the most talkative and witty. She is likely to touch a responsive chord with many readers and playgoers today in light of current social ideas that encourage greater equality and self-assertiveness for women than has been traditional for women of the Western world. The traditional woman of the Elizabethan period, especially of Beatrice's class, is better represented by her cousin Hero — the naive, chaste, and quiet young woman of whom Beatrice is extremely protective. Beatrice is as cunning and forward as Hero is naive and shy.

Beatrice often interrupts or speaks her mind without concern about decorum. Her first line interrupts the conversation between Leonato and the messenger and is loaded with sarcasm and bitterness. Throughout the play, she is very clever with words, displaying considerable intellectual faculty as well as a natural ability for humor. And her way with words is sharpened when the object of her humor is Benedick.

Beatrice's unexplained bitterness toward Benedick is displayed right from the beginning. Then we begin to realize she has been hurt by him. Still stinging from past experiences with him, now she greets him with scorn, wariness, and anger. Eventually we recognize that desire and affection for him are still buried within her. She has learned to use humor and insults to disguise deeper emotions. Yet, when she overhears Hero describing her faults, she is surprised at how she is perceived by others: "Stand I condemned for pride and scorn so much?" She vows to abandon her habits of contempt and pride, and also to let herself love Benedick openly.

Before Beatrice can express her true feelings to Benedick, she may find it so difficult to change her habits of scorn and insult that she has physical symptoms of discomfort: "I am exceeding ill. . . . I am stuffed. . . . I cannot smell." Finally in a moment of high emotion during which she rages over the deception against Hero, she is also able to tell Benedick that she loves him — first tentatively, then without constraint: "I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest." Yet at the end, she must have her last hesitation — joking or not:

Benedick: Do not you love me?
Beatrice: Why no, no more than reason.

And when she finally agrees to marry him, she has her last little gibe on the subject:

Beatrice: I would not deny you. But . . . I yield upon great persuasion, and partly to save your life, for I was told you were in a consumption.

Has Beatrice changed over the week or so of the play's time-line? At the very least, her tongue is not so sharp and belittling; at best, she has let herself love and be loved — a miraculous change in such a strong, independent woman.

(CliffsNotes, 2016, https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/m/much-ado-about-nothing/character-analysis/beatrice)

My targets for the third term were to know my lines after the half term week off and to manage to get into the "character's shoes" before the performance in order to complete my full process of thoughts and actions in Beatrice's role. Also, the performance was recorded and the teachers sent us the YouTube link of the play so we can review our own work. I'm happy to say that I achieved my targets.