Analyze? Internalize. Realize!

King Lear: Blocking Day 5 & 6

Oh Shakespeare. You poet. You bard. You fool! All these words you offer and problems you make for our modern day ways of understanding.

There seems to be some serious interpretation issues when translating/relating Shakespeare to a more contemporary audience. I have certainly started feeling this way about my interpretations of France. The character only speaks a few lines but I am not sure of his intentions and who he is speaking to. There are countless ways to interpret these lines and I can only imagine what some of the other actors are going through. It makes for another good dilemma in giving too many options. We must analyze our character’s behavior and interactions with others to begin to whittle down the possibilities for character. In this way, we tend to get very much in our heads while we analyze our way through the text.

As we start to make these choices we must internalize these choices and allow them to resonate inside ourselves, to find some personal connection with them and ultimately available for use. David Dilego made a good point some days ago when he was faced with a challenge about his character’s (Oswald) motivations behind his actions. Oswald is one of the slimiest characters in the play and his actions continually piss people off. David’s approach to playing this is that he finds the good things in Oswald to play. He said, “I can not play all the horrible things the audience sees in my character, I can only play the positive as no one every sees the folly in their own actions”. I think this is the case with playing in to any stereotype. You must justify your character’s actions and be able to empathize with their decisions and motivations.

We also got our fist look at the costumes this weekend. What an insight into character when you can actually see them staring back at you in the mirror. The costume designer, Jenny Fulton, has really hit the nail on the head when it comes to realizing the Edwardian influence Mark is going for. Her color palate and European style jackets give a timeless look that is very identifiable and approachable. I am excited to see all the characters come to life. It was a huge help for me to see the King of France and how he dresses and how that may inform me about his character. I am especially excited for the cloak they have me in and I think it will be fun to explore all the possibilities with it. I think to realize a character you really must walk a mile in their shoes.