Download - Royal Exchange Theatre

Royal
Exchange
Theatre
exchange
education
in
c
by lud
de es
sig or
ne igi
r na
Li l s
z k
A et
sc ch
ro e
ft s
Barclays Theatre Awards
THEATRE OF THE YEAR
“All the world’s a stage...”
Jaques, a Lord in the company of Duke Senior, is a
gloomy, melancholy character. In this speech he paints
a pessimistic view of people and of life. He divides the
ages of men and women into seven stages, starting
from when we are born and ending when we die. He
describes the world as a theatre stage and the people
as actors, dressing up to play their different parts.
JAQUES
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then, a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big, manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange, eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
Act II, scene 7, lines 139 - 166
why not...
?
See if you can spot the ‘seven ages’ Jaques describes. Make a list of
them.Then list your own words to describe your ideas of life in
seven stages. It might be very different from Jaques’!
?
For each stage, write a short vivid description or image. (For
example: ‘The young parent, laden with Tesco bags, pushing a pram
against the chilly wind, singing a lullaby to his milky child’).
?
Brainstorm other ideas for how the world, and the people in it,
could be described, (eg ‘All the world’s a zoo, and all the men and
women merely wild beasts!).
?
?
Try writing the ‘seven ages’ using one of these ideas.
?
Practise your part of Jaques’ speech by walking round the room,
shouting it out loud and clear. If you get really confident, try saying
the whole speech, changing direction every time you come to a full
stop.
?
Try presenting The Seven Ages Of Man (or, better still, of Women).
You can speak the words, or mime, or make a frozen picture
showing each stage of life.Try doing this with the original speech
and your own modern versions.
Then work in seven groups. Each group take one ‘age’ and try out
ways of saying Jaques’ words. Make a list of any words you don’t
understand, and see if you can have a guess what they mean.Think
of some other words we may use instead.
INTERVIEW WITH MARIANNE ELLIOTT,
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Four weeks before the start of rehearsals for As You Like It we talked to
the show’s Director.
You’ve known for some time that you would be directing As
You Like It this summer. Can you tell us a bit about the
behind the scenes preparations that lead to the start of
rehearsals?
Once you’ve chosen a play you want to do you have to get the rights to
perform it. This isn’t a problem with Shakespeare. Then you have to look
at the budget and there will be discussions about whether the theatre
can afford to do a play with the number of actors required. Then we think
about where in the theatre’s season the play will best fit. There are
always lots of discussions before the season is finally fixed.
Once all of this was decided (about a year ago) I began talking to
designers, to find exactly the right designer for this production. I’ve
worked with Liz Ascroft before and I’m delighted she’s designing this
show. This is a play with a strong female core, set in a man’s world. I
knew I wanted a woman designer and I wanted someone I could really
talk over ideas with - a long process of exploring various avenues and
thinking around the epic themes of the play. I knew I could do this with
Liz.
At the same time I had to find the right sound designer, composer,
lighting designer, and choreographer. Every show needs a creative
team who are right, as individuals, for the concept of the particular play
but will also work together as a team. This can be quite tricky to achieve,
as often the individuals don’t know each other in advance.
All of these discussions and meetings take place over several months.
Then, about eight weeks before rehearsals start, I begin work with the
casting director to cast the play. We each come up with a list of
‘possible’ people - sometimes people we’ve seen in other plays, or
people I’ve worked with before, or people who we find by looking
through Spotlight. Actors’ Agents also contact us. We audition a
number of people - quite a complicated process, as we are not only
thinking about how ‘good’ people are as actors but also how ‘right’ they
are for this particular production and in relation to the other actors we
are casting.
The rehearsal period at the Royal Exchange Theatre is five and a half
weeks for Shakespeare (four and a half weeks for all other plays). I
always try to give myself a clear week between casting and rehearsals.
In that week I shut myself away, make no social arrangements, and work
closely on the play. I go through my notes, re-read all the research books
I’ve gathered and go through the script line by line, making sure I’m
completely immersed in the world I want to create. Not that I want
answers to all my questions about the play. I don’t. That would be
disabling for the cast and take away a lot of the creativity of the
rehearsal process. Every time you go through the text something new
comes up. I love that.
During the whole of that week when I’m working on my own I get
recurring anxiety dreams - that I have exams coming up! Also, I’m quite
a sociable person so by the end of that week on my own I can’t wait to
get into the rehearsal room and be with people!
Rights: If less than seventy years have passed since the death of the
playwright, the theatre has to acquire the ‘right’ to perform the play.
This charge is usually 8 - 10% of the box office takings. It is also
possible to buy the rights and thereby prevent anyone else from doing
the play.This is very expensive.
Designers: Although some productions employ two designers, one for
set and one for costume, it is most usual for a theatre designer to
design both.The designer creates a detailed model of the set, (usually
1/25th of the actual size) as well as drawings, costume swatches and
notes.These enable workshop, wardrobe and wigs to create the set and
costumes for the show.
“A designer takes the written word and moves to a 3D reality.
Working in the round pushes that because nothing can be hidden.
With this play we’ve gone even further and opened up the roof
and used the Great Hall.We’ve blurred the lines more than ever
between performers and audience.The audience will be part of
the play, they will be in the same imaginary place as the
performers and they will feel like the performers. Sometimes the
sun will set in the Great Hall and silhouette the audience.
Everything will be more sensory, with wind and smells, snowfalls
and sunsets.”
Liz Ascroft, Designer
Creative Team: The Royal Exchange Theatre has its own sound and
lighting departments and Resident Music and Design Directors.
Sometimes these Royal Exchange staff design the shows; at other times
freelancers are employed.
Casting Director: The Royal Exchange Theatre Casting Department
currently consists of two full time staff who work with the Directors to
cast every Royal Exchange Theatre show.
Spotlight: Spotlight contains photographs and contact details for all
the professional actors in the country.
Why did you choose this play?
Well, first of all, because it feels very, very ‘now’. Very contemporary.
Part of the genius of Shakespeare’s writing is that his plays have felt
‘contemporary’ since the 1500s. Also, I have a great deal of empathy with
Rosalind - she’s a very inspiring woman. I’ve seen a lot of productions of
As You Like It and it only really worked for me once. There are other
things - my middle name’s Phoebe, my Mum played Celia in a very
famous production that my Dad directed - and that made Vanessa
Redgrave famous. (I didn’t see it. I’m too young!) Also my mum’s name is
Rosalind.
I love the play. A lot of productions go for what I call a ‘hey nonny-no’,
rather whimsical reading of it, but I think there’s real foreboding. Out of
travesty, the characters manage to find a triumphant way of living.
Can you talk a bit more about ‘the world of the play’ that you want to
create?
At the beginning of the play, all the Court scenes centred round the King’s
palace seem to me like a warning bell. Given another ten years maybe
this is where we’ll be. The place is steeped in paranoia and intrigue and
tyranny - where brother wants to kill brother, or exile brother, or usurp
brother. People are standing in the shadows, watching each other,
waiting to stab each other in the back.
The forest is the opposite. It’s about growth, nature, living at one with
the universe, understanding. It’s not what man has made - it is its own
place, with its own rule. Man can’t control it. It has a hand in controlling
us. Maybe it’s a metaphor for a place we need to go to in our heads or
emotions or imaginations, a place that releases things for us and in
which we can confront our fears (but within a liberated context), a place
where we can let our wild, bestial, primal sides loose.
I wanted to highlight what it is for a young girl in this Court world to be
liberated.
One way is to change identity. Another way is to go into the forest. She
does this first for very real and practical reasons of survival. Later it
gives her strength and a ticket to explore - to be an exploring,
adventurous, curious person rather than a quiet, prim, ‘speak when
spoken to’ young woman. Eventually she uses it to test the ultimate - how
much Orlando loves her. At the start of the play, Rosalind and Celia are
very young - just girls. They grow up through the forest.
I decided to set the production in the Elizabethan period - a world of
very male men and very feminine women and a world of intrigue and
plots. But, in the forest - which is so magical and spiritual a place - we
move to a non-specific historical period - and location.
Jaques’ All the World’s a Stage speech is centrally important to this.
The forest is a metaphor for this speech. The greater stage manager than
us, the greater understanding than ours, is the forest.
I instinctively felt this couldn’t be an A Midsummer Night’s Dream forest.
No tinkly fairy bells! It’s a bit spooky and knowing. When it wants to get
hot or cold it does; it can bring forth lions, or snakes, or enemies, or
lovers whenever it decides.
Famous Prod: Michael Elliott’s production was for the Royal
Shakespeare Company in 1961. Vanessa Redgrave played Rosalind and
Ian Bannen, Orlando. Rosalind Knight was Celia. Richard Negri, the
designer of the Royal Exchange Theatre, designed the set of this highly
acclaimed production.
Forest: “The magic of the Forest is inside our bellies, hearts and
souls.The magic is really simple things, that would have meant
nothing while you were in the Court because there are more
sparkly things there to distract you.Time is elastic in the Forest,
seasons don’t go in order, things happen at different speeds.The
Forest is more to do with emotions and feelings and instincts.
These are things that Corin just seems to naturally know. Perhaps
from the beginning, he sees through Rosalind’s disguise. He
teaches Rosalind and Celia about love by taking them to watch
other characters falling in love, he helps move the story on.”
Liz Ascroft, Designer
Elizabethan: 1558 - 1603, the reign of Elizabeth, and Shakespeare’s
own time was a world of doublet and hose, ruffs, tall hats, swords,
cloaks and farthingales. For most people in Elizabethan England, the
image of glittering courts and the pastoral idyll is misleading.The reality
of life was harsh and the period is renowned for its intolerance and the
repression of political and religious dissent.
Non-Specific Historical Period: Liz Ascroft used the painters
Pieter Bruegel (Hunters in the Snow and Peasant Wedding Feast) and
Albrecht Durer in her research for the forest costumes.
‘All the World’s a Stage’: See overleaf for this speech and related
activities
How will Liz Ascroft’s design work with this reading of
the play?
We have put all the Court scenes together. They all take place at night as oppressive as possible - stifling and enclosed. She did lots of research
into heraldry and there are lots of showy-off crests, and pageantry, and
the women are emblems of that. Then, we are opening up the roof of
the theatre entirely for the Forest. We’re also opening the blinds
around the theatre so as to have as much light as possible. As the Forest
comes down, the trees will look like the architecture of the building,
gradually transforming into tree. They can be climbed. The whole theatre
becomes the forest. The sky of the theatre is the sky of the forest. The
transformation from Court to Forest will be a scene in itself.
We are planning to have a creaking wood sound that’s used in different
ways through the play. At the start it’s like a calling, a destiny, a sense of
the Forest pushing for action.
Visually, in terms of the direction too, we want to emphasise all the
‘doubles’ and parallels that are going on in the play. I want to look at
keeping certain characters on stage when their scene is followed by one
that echoes or parallels it. For example, Duke Frederick and Oliver have
an argument just after Duke Senior and Orlando have a coming together
scene; Rosalind and Orlando are in a similar situation to each other, so
are Celia and Oliver, and so on.
Do you have a favourite character in the play?
Rosalind is my favourite. She’s very very insecure at the outset and
probably very depressed. And I love her because she finds her way out of
that and becomes inquisitive and curious and energetic and fascinated.
She jumps like a young kid into things that fascinate her yet she is
ultimately very vulnerable. She tests Orlando to the hilt. It’s only when
he’s nearly dead and calls out her name that she thinks to tell him who
she really is. She fights her insecurities with such courage.
You haven’t started rehearsing yet, but what are your plans
for the first week of rehearsals?
It’s really important during that first week for everyone to get to know
each other. I don’t believe you can be creative if you don’t feel safe. So,
we play lots of games - breaking the ice, having fun.
Then we’ll spend some time talking about the play. It’s important that we
all know we’re in the same production - that we can come to a shared
vision of the play. We’ll talk about the Elizabethan period, and we’ll go
through the script with a fine tooth-comb.
Heraldry: In the late sixteenth century, the ordinary citizen
(Shakespeare’s father included) had many problems acquiring a coat of
arms. Liz Ascroft got very interested in heraldry and its rules and
restrictions and used this as the starting point for her design for the
Court. She visited St George’s Chapel,Windsor Castle and Westminster
Abbey for inspiration. She decided to make the space oppressive and
restrictive with everything focused inwards, “a place where you must
marry the right person, do as you’re told, and where women are just
colourful toys.”
Liz Ascroft, Designer
Roof of the Theatre: The IRA bomb on Saturday June 15 1996
made the plans for a refit a necessity. Although the auditorium remains
fundamentally unchanged, the sound, lighting and flying systems have
been redesigned and it is now possible for the roof of the theatre to
open out, like petals, into the great hall. Visually (light coming through
the dome) and acoustically (enhanced reverberation) the auditorium is
greatly improved.
Doubles And Parallels:
Doubleness, parallels and mirror images are recurring themes of As You
Like It.
* Rosalind and Orlando’s situations at the
start of the play.
* The falling in love of Rosalind and Orlando, Phoebe and Silvius,
Touchstone and Audrey,
Celia and Oliver.
* The disguises of Rosalind and Celia.
* The reverse images of Oliver and Orlando, Duke Frederick and Duke
Senior.
* The differing wits of Jaques and Touchstone.
* The vastly different worlds of the Court and the Forest, experienced
not only in the environments but by the transformation of the
characters within them.
why not...
Try some of the following ice breaking games…
?
Get each member of the class to bring in an object. In turn, each must tell
a story about why the object is important to them.They may decide to
make up a story. The rest of the group have to guess whether they are
lying or not.
?
Bring in a pile of different objects. Pass the objects round the circle, each
person has to quickly think of a use for the object which is different from
the use it was made for.
?
Divide into groups of four. Everyone writes four topics on four slips of
paper which are put in the middle. One by one, pick up a piece of paper
and talk for a minute on the given subject. Try with topics relevant to the
play such as: forest, court, disguise.
?
Everyone is given a card with the name of one of the characters on it. They
must not look at it but hold it to their forehead with the name facing
outwards. Everyone walks around the room, reacting to the name that they
see and greeting and chatting accordingly. After five minutes, everyone has
to guess who they think they are in the play and why.
?
Somebody volunteers to go out of the room. While out of earshot the rest
of the group decide which character from the play the volunteer should be.
When the volunteer returns, the group, some of whom are also named
characters, behave towards them as befits their status and relationship. This
is all done in silence. The volunteer must guess his character.
?
A member of the group is one of the characters from the play.The rest of
the group ask them questions about their life, aspirations, family etc. The
character must answer truthfully from the play as far as they know and
make up what they don’t. Encourage the character on the ‘hot seat’ to
answer spontaneously and not to think too much.
Exchange E
ducation
The educat
io
invites peop n programme of th
e
practice of le of all ages to expl Royal Exchange The
or
at
theatre an
d discover e the processes and re
potential.
their own
creative
We’re
•
comm
informs ou itted to work which
r
take owne artistic repertoire an illuminates, reflects an
rship of th
e unique Ro d encourages everyo d
ne
yal Exchan
We offer :
ge Theatre. to
a year roun
d
individuals programme of work
, schools
shops, talks
, courses an
• teaching and learn and colleges;
d events fo
r
ing material
s to suppor
• a partnership sc
t
selected pr
heme, build
colleges;
oductions;
ing closer
links with
local school
• membership of
s and
regular gr
people and
play reading oups including thea
tre projects
sessions fo
r
fo
th
r
young
e
ov
er 50s.
To find ou
tm
672or email ore: call Amanda or
Sarah-Jane
education@
on 0161 93
royalexchan
2 6720 /
ge.co.uk
“Love is merely a madness...”
Orlando has been writing love poems (perhaps a kind of Elizabethan graffiti?) to Rosalind and pinning
them on trees. Celia knows this and tells Rosalind, who is herself in love with Orlando. Rosalind
decides to be very daring. She presents herself to Orlando in her disguise as Ganymede to see
if she can fool him. She wants to be very sure that Orlando really loves her and so creates
the following test where, as Ganymede, she will declare love a ‘madness’ and thus
challenge Orlando’s love for Rosalind.
ROSALIND Love is merely a madness and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen
do; and the reason why they are not so punished and cured is that the lunacy is so ordinary that the
whippers are in love too. Yet I profess curing it by counsel.
ORLANDO Did you ever cure any so?
ROSALIND Yes, one, and in this manner. He was to imagine me his love, his mistress; and I set him every day to
woo me. At which time would I, being but a moonish youth, grieve, be effeminate, changeable, longing and
liking, proud, fantastical, apish, shallow, inconstant, full of tears, full of smiles; for every passion something,
and for no passion truly anything, as boys and women are for the most part cattle of this colour; would now
like him, now loathe him; then entertain him, then forswear him; now weep for him, then spit at him; that I drave
my suitor from his mad humour of love to a living humour of madness - which was, to forswear the full stream of
the world and to live in a nook merely monastic. And thus I cured him, and this way will I take upon me to wash
your liver as clean as a sound sheep’s heart, that there shall not be one spot of love in’t.
ORLANDO
I would not be cured, youth.
ROSALIND I would cure you, if you would but call me ‘Rosalind’, and come every day to my cote, and woo me.
ORLANDO
Now, by the faith of my love, I will. Tell me where it is.
Act III, scene 2, lines 383 - 410
why not...
?
Imagine Rosalind is in your class at school, telling you
how she cured someone of love. Rewrite her speech
into a modern day language and situation.
?
Divide into pairs. Each pair takes a different line from the
section above. Every line must be used. In pairs, look at
your sentence and try to make a physical shape for
every word by using your body. Say the line out loud
together and at the same time as you say each word
make the still image that goes with it. For some of the
images you may need to work together.When you have
rehearsed, the whole class can get together in one long
line, in the right order, to speak and physicalize the
entire section.
?
Think about all the other couples who fall in love in the
play.The director Marianne Elliott feels that in the forest
you can find love ‘in any way that you like’ (just as the
title of the play suggests) and all the characters do fall in
love in different ways.Write Rosalind, Celia, Phoebe and
Audrey down one side of the page and draw a long line
from them to the name of the character that they
eventually marry. On the top of the line write any words
that you can think of that describe how the character on
the right feels about love and about the one she is in
love with. Underneath do the same for him. eg:
Cautious, testing, suspicious, sets traps
Rosalind
Orlando
Pining, extravagant, silly, writes love poems
?
Write a poem about the different worlds of the
forest and the court. Half of the class
brainstorm animals that remind them of the
forest, (you don’t have to be able to find it in
the forest), and the other half brainstorm
animals that reminds them of the court. (eg;
forest - cat and court - peacock). Share your
ideas and choose two.Take your animal and
write underneath it as many words that you
can think of to do with that animal.Your piece
of paper should look something like this:
CATS
creep
sleep
purring
stretching
black
watchful
Begin your poem, The forest is… and use all
your words to describe the forest. You could
begin lines with, The leaves are…, In summer the
forest is…, At night-time the forest is… etc.
Always remember you are thinking of it as if it
is the animal. Read out your poem to the class
and listen to the ones about the Court. Do you
get a good picture of the different worlds?
LOST THE PLOT ?
See if you can find it with this game. Here are the rules:
■ Throw a coin to move. Heads is one space,Tails is two.
■ When the path splits, choose one path to follow.
■ Collect hearts as you land on them. Each heart moves
you forward one square. Save them up and use them to
help you win the game.
■ Read everything out loud – otherwise you’ll lose the
plot!
To get you started…
In the orchard of the late Sir Rowland de Boys, Orlando is angry and upset that his
elder brother Oliver treats him like a servant and has not given him the money set
aside by their father for his upbringing…
■ Now play the game… Toss a coin to start.
Heads chooses a path and has first go.
Celia comforts
Rosalind who
misses her father.
Move forward 1
space if you can
name him.
Duke Frederick has
ousted his younger
brother, Duke
Senior, from power
and sent him into
exile. Duke Senior’s
daughter, Rosalind,
has been allowed to
stay at the court
because of her great
friendship with Celia,
Duke Frederick’s
daughter.
Rosalind is
banished.
Miss a turn.
Orlando wins
the fighting. He
and Rosalind
fall in love.
Orlando is warned he
is in danger. He leaves.
Move forward 1 space
into the forest.
♥♥
Oliver lies to
Charles the fighter
in a plot to get
Orlando killed.
But he has had a
change of heart after
meeting an old religious
man on the way.
Duke Senior is to be
restored to his
lands!
Celebrations, Songs and
Dances! All the visitors
to the forest decide to
return to the Court.
Sing a line from any song in
the play, and you WIN!
Oliver is sent to find
the girls. Move
forward 1 space if
you can name them.
Rosalind, Celia and
Touchstone meet two
shepherds, Silvius and Corin.
R. gives C. money to buy his
master’s house for the
travellers to live in.
Duke Senior and his
friends talk about how
much they enjoy life in the
forest. Miss a turn while
they chat about Jaques,
who is always sad.
Orlando goes in
search of food for his
old servant Adam.
Orlando finds Duke Senior
and demands food. Senior
welcomes him and Adam.
Jaques makes a speech.
Miss a turn while they
listen to him and eat their
dinner.
Silvius tells Corin
he loves Phoebe,
a shepherdess.
Rosalind
has the
last word.
♥
We hear that
Duke Frederick is
coming with plans
to kill Duke Senior.
Miss a turn.
Oliver hasn’t found the girls.
Duke Frederick orders him to
bring Orlando back dead or
alive. He throws Oliver out.
Go back 2 spaces into the
forest.
Orlando pins up love
poems to Rosalind. Move
back a space and miss a
turn as he wanders
through the forest.
♥
They sing a
wedding hymn.
Touchstone is in love
with Audrey, who keeps
goats. They plan to marry.
Miss a turn while they
gather up the goats.
Out of disguise,
Rosalind and Celia
enter. The four pairs
of lovers are
married in a great
celebration.
♥
Corin shows Rosalind how
Silvius is being rejected by
Phoebe. Phoebe falls for
Rosalind – thinking her to
be a boy.
♥
In the presence of the
Duke, Rosalind – still
disguised – arranges
four weddings. Can
you name them?
Collect 1 bonus ♥ if
you can. Miss a turn
if you can’t!
Celia leaves with Rosalind who
disguises herself as a boy (called
Ganymede). Touchstone the fool
goes with them. Move forward 3
spaces into the forest.
Rosalind
promises that
next day
Orlando will
marry his
Rosalind.
Miss a turn
while time
passes slowly.
Rosalind
declares her love
for ‘no woman’.
Orlando yearns for
Rosalind. Move
forward 1 space if
you can remember
her name as a boy.
♥
Phoebe yearns for
‘Ganymede’. Move
forward one space if
you can say who
loves Phoebe.
Silvius declares
his love for
Phoebe.
Rosalind, still disguised
as Ganymede, meets
Orlando and persuades
him to woo her as if she
were Rosalind, in order to
cure him of his love.
Collect a heart to
help Orlando with
his wooing.
♥
Oliver enters. He tells
how Orlando rescued him from being
attacked by a snake and a lion. Orlando
is wounded, and spoke the name
‘Rosalind’ before passing out from
loss of blood.
Oliver and Celia fall in
love. Who are the other
couples who plan to
marry? Move forward
1 place if you can
name one of them.
Rosalind faints.
Miss a turn while she
recovers.
♥
♥
Registered Charity No. 255424
exchange
education