Viola - Twelfth Night - Scripts

Script one contains all the beats and lots of ideas for objectives, in script two I removed the stressed and unstressed syllables so I could read the text better and script three is very plain with only the objectives, marks of thought change and given circumstances. I have found it difficult to learn my Shakespeare but I am slowly getting their by using the tip to read and learn a line then learn the next line but repeat the line before alongside it.

Script One

 Script Two

 Script Three

Working with Classical Text

Last lesson we began to look at our classical monologue. We learnt how to break our script down into stressed and unstressed syllables so that we could find the correct rhythm for our monologue to be spoken in. As a class we looked at Hamlets speech and picked up from tips. We underlined the words we did not understand so that we could find the meaning because we need to know what we are saying, we also marked in the breaths because most on the sentences were very long so we marked in where we needed to take a big breath. Hamlet taught us to speak smoothly and not go over the top, to only use hand gestures when needed and to let the words flow out so it is natural. we learnt also not to under do it, to have the objectives prepared and to be completely naturalistic.

We then took our own scripts and started looking at them, putting in syllables and objectives and thinking about what our given circumstances where (being given a ring, working out that Olivia loves her). In addition we noticed that the scene notes where in the text, so that the lines tell the audience what the scene is like so the answers are in the words that are spoken, this is why there are very few stage directions only entrance and exits, but there is plenty of punctuation and description.

Settings

1) Original - Cliff top, work for duke (as the story is written)

2)WW1 - (Inspired by Mulan) Good Jobs, have to be a man to fight, Olivia nurse/Matron, Duke - sergeant, dress up as man to fight.

3) Future - men dictator, women seen as little, viola becomes man, falls in love with dictator.

4) Kitty's Idea - '1950's' - women bad jobs, England, fall in love with boss.

I think I am going to choose the war version because I can relate to it more and it is my favourite Idea out of the four.

Notes from the lesson:

Learn that it's okay to get it wrong so you can learn from the mistakes
When the line comes you live through the objective through body and voice connected

Justification for Classical monologue

I decided to choose Viola from Twelfth Night because after reading the other monologues I liked this one best. I like the way she is very confused but also impressed that she can be seen as attractive to someone. I believe using this monologue I can show different emotions and it will contrast with my contemporary monologue. Furthermore this was one of the plays that I wasn't very familiar with so I really enjoyed reading the whole play and also watching a film adaptation of the play. After seeing these I knew this was the play for me because I think I will do well playing a character at a lower status and who is panicking about what to do because this character fits into my cast ability range.

Today's lesson 29-9-14

In this lesson we continued the rehearsal process of our contemporary scenes but we began to tone down the objectives to bring them down from the heigh state to a more natural state that would fit our characters given circumstances. This meant that  we had already explored the different ways of playing the objective so we just had to find a way to portray these objectives in our monologue. I did find it difficult because I felt that I was losing energy however I did feel as though I was portraying the objectives making my scene more believable. I have focused a lot on the beginning of my script so I need to make sure I go into detail with Eleanor help in the latter which we will do when we go to our Thursday and Friday rehearsal. When watching others being directed I noted some tips that I also need to use in my piece:

- Lines Arrive in breath, I should take an in breath when my though changes because it shows I have an inspiration to change my idea.
- I need to mark who I am speaking about at the beginning of the line to make it clear for the audience (I, you, your, he, she).
- I need to think and know my objectives rather than thinking about the lines so that the lines come naturally.
- I should play the objective before speaking and saying my line so you can see the reason behind why the line is being said.
- I need to remember to learn my lines cold otherwise it will mean I am stuck in a certain rhythm so if I try to change up the scene and explore the objective I will be more likely to forget my line.
- Only do an accent if you do the accent well.

I am going to apply these notes to both my contemporary and classical monologue so that I can get the best performance possible.

Objectives and Directing

In our last lesson we got into pairs and begun working on our monologues. Sir also directed Charlie's and Sams in front of the class and from that we could see the real development and from them originally pretending to them finally letting their instincts control the piece. Some of the tips sir gave me were see what you are saying. This helps us feel something towards the place we are talking about and changes our mood and the way we say it. I also need to work on using my voice and body together because sometimes my body was doing one thing and my voice wasn't working with it, however by the end of the lesson my instincts began to take over and my voice and body worked as one. I also need to not worry about getting in right and I shouldn't restrict my self with one body part to present the objective we should play with objective with different parts of the body and with different energy levels so we can find the one that fits the piece the best.

When we partnered up I chose to go with Eleanor because I knew she would direct me well and would give me constructive criticism. We began by splitting the text into thoughts and then writing the objective for each thought change. This gave my characters lines a purpose and meant that I understood what the character was feeling in each section.

To allow our instincts to take over we played with the objective saying for example 'To Admit' using different parts of the body and different placements of the voice. By doing this we were exploring the extremes so that when we had to do it for our real monologue it would be easy to still give enough energy but to dial it down. I really enjoyed this exercise as it allowed me to see if my objectives were correct or should be changed for example I changed 'to hide' because when experimenting with it when I added the line after my instincts had kicked in it wasn't working so I tried 'to protect' and that worked a lot better. By doing this exercise I was able to build up to my line and I think Eleanor really helped me by telling me when I was pretending and pushing me even though it was tiring so I could achieve the best I could.

I also found directing Eleanor extremely useful because I was able to take her mistakes and improve them for example when saying her line she stopped playing her objective. I saw this occur and it made the monologue feel disconnected so I helped her with it and also made sure I wasn't doing it in my piece. Also seeing her perform inspired my choice of objectives and it allowed me to witness the difference between pretending and using instinct. Experimenting and playing with the objectives allowed the line to come naturally and meant that I was living through the objectives. I only felt the lines necessary when I was playing the objective right and when the lines were incorporated they flowed with the objective. This made the piece a lot more natural and I now know I have chosen the correct objectives.

Stages

Step one - Mark out thought changes
Step Two - Add objectives for each thought change
Step Three - Play the objective to the extremes, let your instincts take over, use different parts of the body and let the voice and body work as one
Stage Four - Allow the line to come Naturally and continue playing the objective when it is said
Stage Five - Make the objective the right level so that it fits the performance

Kelly - Scripts

Creating three different copies of the script was extremely helpful because it allowed me to alter my objectives and thought changes. On script one I had lots of different ideas and thoughts which I later condensed into script 2.  I ended up changing some of objectives at the end because when I was practising the objectives didn't feel natural so script 3 just shows my final decision of objectives.

Script 1

Script 2

Script 3 

Approaching your Script – Viola (Twelfth Night – Shakespeare)

Fact and Opinion

Fact:

- She is a woman pretending to be a man

- She thinks her brother is dead

- She is a twin

- She is in love with the duke

- She is confused when her brother returns

- She is happy when the duke marries her

- She survived a shipwreck

- She worked for the duke as a boy

- She looks like her brother

- She is ‘desperate’ for her ‘masters love’

- Her father died

- She believes her brother drowned

- She gets what she wants

- She doesn’t give up

- She is loyal to her master

- Her master is the person she loves the most

- She is Orsino’s messenger

Opinion:

- She thinks Olivia is mad for giving her a ring

- She believes Olivia to be silly for not accepting the duke

- She thinks she is bad for wearing a disguise

- She feels sorry for Olivia

- She is scared when she had to fight

- She is very pretty

- She thinks Olivia is deluded

- She believes Olivia loves her

- She believes in true love

- She is not interested in status

- She is a complex character – woos a women for a man who she loves.



Who am I?
I am a young women called Viola and I am not married. I was part of a shipwreck and my brother

drowned. So that I could live well I disguised myself as a boy so that I could work for the duke. I had to try and makes his love Olivia fall in love with him but I slowly started to fall in love with him myself. I believe in true love so it was hard for me when Olivia began to fall in love with me because I loved Orsino and it wasn’t fair to her. When my brother returned I was extremely happy he fell in love with Olivia and I revealed my true self and the duke asked me to be his wife. I know live with duke and everything that happened can now be forgotten.


What is the present situation?

My monologue occurs after Viola has just met Olivia. During this meeting Olivia has started to feel love towards Viola but Viola is not aware of this. The present situation in which the monologue occurs is viola walking back to tell the duke of the bad news that Olivia does not love him. The purpose of the monologue is to realise what a mess she has made of things and to confirm the audiences suspicion that Olivia was falling in love with her. She is quite confused and shocked by receiving the ring and does not know what to do in this situation.

Where am I?

In this scene she is walking back to the duke’s house. I believe she is by the cost on the Clift walking quite slowly. Due to knowledge of a shipwreck having occurring it is quite windy and cold however it is also sunny and bright. This play is probably set in the late 1500 and I believe it to be occurring around Easter time. The air is fresh and it is a nice walk for viola to be doing, she can hear the waves and no one is nearby to be able to hear her thoughts.


Costume

For this costume because she is pretending to be a man I think I should have my hair back in a ponytail and be wearing a kind of officer uniform – trousers and a blazer so that I look like a messenger for Orsino.

Given Circumstances

Before this scene Viola has just been with Olivia confessing Orsino’s love for her. This has not been successful so viola needs to go and tell the duke what has happened. She is walking back to the duke’s house when Malvolio turns up and gives her a ring which she had apparently thrown to Olivia. This is not true viola didn't give Olivia a ring from the duke, this is Olivia’s ring and in this monologue Olivia is trying to figure out the meaning of this.


I watched Twelfth Night on DVD and I believe this has helped me gain a much better understanding of the whole play and I have now seen my character portrayed on screen which will help me when I am becoming the character.

http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/event/twelfth-night-14/ (Source 5)

http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/twelfthnight/ (Source 4)