William
Shakespeare is generally regarded as one of the most, if not the most influential wordsmiths in the
English Language. And I am not even going to get into the argument about who
actually wrote Shakespeare’s plays and poems. For the purposes of this article
whenever I say Shakespeare I mean whoever Wrote Shakespeare’s stuff regardless
of whether it was Shakespeare, the Earl of Oxford, Francis Bacon, or Queen
Elizabeth. (Though I will say, it is awfully easy to come up with a conspiracy
theory 400 years after the fact when 90% of the evidence that would have shed
light on it has been lost. How come no one was questioning the authorship 400
years ago? But I digress . . .)
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A lot of
people were forced to read Shakespeare in school and hated every minute of it.
If you were one of those people, you probably find it baffling that so much
Shakespeare is still done today. It has
archaic language and half the time even if you understand the words, he is
talking about things for which you have no clue. But if you were forced to read
it, there is a reason that you hated it. First of all anytime you are forced to
do anything, it does not lend itself to being a joyful experience. But the main
reason is: Shakespeare’s plays were not meant to be read. They were meant to be
seen in performance by an audience. It is sort of like reading the lyrics of
your favorite pop song. It is not the same as hearing it performed.
Art is not
necessarily about conveying information. It is really about eliciting an
emotional response from an audience. But how can you get an emotional response
if you don’t know what the blasted words mean? Ah. That’s what the actors are
for. It is the actor’s job to figure out what those words, expressions,
metaphors, and poetical phrases mean. If the actor knows what she/he is saying,
then they can convey that to the audience, sometimes overtly through gestures
and expressions, and sometimes on a more subconscious level. The audience does
not have to understand the literal meaning of every word. Remember that what
the play is going for is an emotional response. The audience needs to
understand on an emotional level what the character is going through.
Figuring out
what everything means is not always easy. It takes homework. First the actor
has to examine the context that the word or phrase is in to try to figure it
out for him/herself. If that doesn’t work there is always the director who may
have an idea. If that doesn’t work, there are books or online resources. But if
you are an actor and you find yourself in one of the rare occasions when
nothing answers the question . . . well, you have to make something up. Because
everything you say has to have meaning. They can’t be just words. Now, you don’t
just make up anything. You have to do
it intelligently. Whatever you make up for the meaning of the word or phrase,
has to be consistent with the character, the scene, the play and the director’s
vision. This situation can happen because Shakespeare was often commenting on
things that were in the news 400 years ago. An Elizabethan audience would have
been keenly aware of a sly reference to the Gunpowder Plot. The Gunpowder Plot
is at least is something the history books are aware of. But how many scandals
or foibles or embarrassments were going on that the Elizabethans knew, but
never made it to the history books? It is like if I were to write a play today
and make a mention of “covfefe”. If someone were performing my play 400 years
from now (I should be so lucky) they would have no clue what I was referring to
(I hope). If you don’t know what covfefe is, look it up on that newfangled
internet thing.
I said the
actor will convey the meaning to the audience, and I think this conveyance
happens more easily in a live performance rather that in a movie. Why? I don’t
know. You would think in a movie the camera can zoom right in to an actor’s
face, so you can see facial expressions and hear the subtlest of voice changes
even better than what an audience can see and hear in a live performance. All I
know is that it works out that way. Perhaps there is a more intangible energy that
a person sitting in the audience can pick up from the actors and even their
fellow audience members. Whatever it is, it is real. Anyone who has ever seen a
live production and has also seen a movie of the same play will tell you the
same thing.
So if you
think you hate Shakespeare based on your school experience, I encourage you to
take in a live performance. If you are already a fan of Shakespeare, the next
time you are enjoying a performance I want you to think about all the work the
actors had to go through to bring it to you.
(My
novel Starliner, which does not have too much to do with
Shakespeare, is now available as an ebook through Copypastapublishing.com, or
Amazon.com. For those who like to turn physical pages, the paperback will be
out in October).
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