The Time is Now has been quiet of late, as there has been nothing uplifting to report (aside from some fonting which I have not yet blogged). However, I am pleased to say that one such day has put some of the zing back.
As part of the ALPs production of The Taming of the Shrew (18 to 21 May), we were lucky enough to have a workshop given by voice and text coach to the RSC, Michael Corbidge. I had made the mistake of looking at clips online and it worried me that we would be made to run around the room and do things outside my comfort zone. But I was wrong and the clips were misleading. Mr Corbidge was a wonderfully down to earth, humorous man who we all warmed to. He has worked with loads of famous actors but he never once mentioned this and I didn't like to ask. He was passionate about what he did and his enthusiasm was infectious. He made no apologies for it and this made it easy to throw yourself into it all and not feel self conscious.
We began with a warm-up which involved warming up your body and voice. Possibly actors resist doing this but in fact we could feel the benefit once we had done it. It helps to throw off the worries and thoughts of the day, or yesterday, and then you can be focussed on what you are doing. We stood in a circle and did various movements and made various sounds but none of it felt silly as everyone was doing it and there was a purpose, plus it was as if we had been given permission to do these things so there was no need to feel daft. I quite enjoyed it anyway and afterwards it did help you to feel positive. Michael focussed on posture and the best way for your body to be for speaking - head up, eyes forward, jaw relaxed, and standing on the balls of your feet, the middle point, rather than leaning back or slouching in our normal habits. There was the image of being pulled up by a golden rope through the top of your head.
It was a full and intense day so don't expect me to remember everything but I will try to give you a flavour of what we did. We covered many things such as how words convey their meaning - for example try saying "plain Kate" and making plain sound exciting or interesting. Plain conveys its meaning in the sounds. Michael connected us to the language - something that made a huge difference to me - by saying don't be shy of enjoying the words, enjoy saying them - their consonants, their vowels. And actually, when you start to say every word clearly instead of swallowing it or hurrying it, you start to enjoy it. Shakespeare's language is great and that is one reason the plays have endured - and I'd forgotten that. I know that sounds mad. I have to confess I wasn't really feeling my parts as a servant and a fruit seller, and I wasn't feeling enthused about the humour of the play. But Michael brought me back in touch with what I have always loved at school and beyond: language. Words. And actually for me (maybe hormonal who can tell) it was quite emotional to reconnect.
It is amazing how much he helped us achieve in one day. He had various techniques to help people say their speeches, so the key characters in the play such as Kate and Petruchio, Gremio, Biondello, Lucentio and Tranio, all had a go at saying their speeches. Michael would suggest small changes and ask them to say it again. And then again, with another change, and so on. By the third or fourth time, the speech had been transformed into something much clearer, more engaging, more exciting. Michael helped us to think about the meaning of the words and to bring out the important words, like people's names or places in the opening speech of Lucentio, and the importance of pronouns - I, my, you, your etc. He did exercises to help people respond to what was being said, rather than just saying their line back. He also helped people to say things in a much more natural way - this was through doing something else at the same time, so Kate had to put on a huge pile of jumpers while she was speaking and we all had to give Gremio an item to hold when he was listing his riches. It was a surprisingly effective method: suddenly the speaker had two things to concentrate on and they began to speak in a more natural way so it did not sound like a recited speech. Gremio (Jules) was saying how his brain had been concentrating on the second thing so he was not worrying about the words so much.
There were so many things he touched on, like thinking about the way you say monosyllabic words, or polysyllabic words. And turning things on their head, like getting Petruchio and Kate to have their war of words but to be meaning "I love you" when they were saying it. And softening voices so that you had somewhere to go - higher and louder and more exciting, instead of coming in like that with nowhere to take it. How you have to respond to someone immediately (start thinking of it four or five words before rather than taking a breath and having a pause after their line), how to stop breathing out between lines but perhaps to use sound with breath instead. How not to be afraid of sounds or words. Someone in his past had advised him to think of a blind person, a deaf person and a foreign person sitting up in the gods and he had to make sure they understood the play, so you have to use visuals as well as your voice. A bit like TEFL teaching in fact where you use every means of communication.
Biondello had a long list of things to report which are supposed to be funny, but half the problem is the language now is things we don't understand, about horses and clothing. So he asked Marc to imagine he was a stand up comic live at the Apollo, to tell a funny story, and to put the speech into his own words. He then progressed to miming the story he was telling and it didn't matter that the words were strange because you got the sense from what he was doing. It was perfect for Marc because he never stops telling jokes - I had them all through Season's Greetings where he was my stage husband. So it was great to see him in this role - good casting.
So it was a very productive and positive day. Everyone enjoyed it and got something out of it. I am sure it is going to lift the rehearsals and the production. So do come along. I have now got a small role as a prostitute in one scene as well as fruit seller and servant. (It was bound to happen). For me, he came along just at the right time, after feeling rather demoralised about the job hunting. It gave me a lift and reminded me about what I love and what is important. Sometimes a person crosses your path who is full of enthusiasm and life and energy and it's infectious and they remind you of all the good things and give you a bit of zing back again and you remember actually you must never lose that passion, whatever it is you are passionate about. Fonts, chickens, language, whatever. And he keeps chickens, so what more do you need to know.
