Week 2 - Acting the Role: Beatrice - The Rehearsal Room

The Working Actor's Journey

🏁 This week, the group watched a few different versions of the opening scene and discussed the various takes on performances by Catherine Tate and David Tennant (Wyndham's), Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh (Branagh's film), Danielle Brooks and Grantham Coleman (Public Theatre), and Dame Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens (Zeffirelli's film). They discussed the significance of food references and the implications of being "too cursed." They explored the Elizabethan context, character dynamics, and the rhythm and meaning of the text, with an emphasis on understanding Beatrice's perspective, her humor, repartee with Benedick, and her stance on marriage and men.

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🎭 CREATIVE TEAM - DIRECTOR: Erika Rolfsrud -DRAMATURG: Cathleen Sheehan -And the PLAYERS: Juls Hoover, Anu Bhatt, and Shannon Lee Clair

More about this group: https://workingactorsjourney.com/workshop/july-2024-acting-the-role-beatrice

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😮 THE SCENES Our group will be working on various sections from Shakespeare’s "Much Ado About Nothing": -First scene group: Act I, Scene I, lines 30-92 and Act I, Scene I, lines 111-143 -Second scene group: Act II, Scene I, lines 1-81 and Act II, Scene I, lines 123-152 -Third scene group: Act IV, Scene I, lines 269-350

Much Ado scenes from the Folger Shakespeare Library: https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/much-ado-about-nothing/read/1/1 https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/much-ado-about-nothing/read/2/1 https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/much-ado-about-nothing/read/4/1

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📚 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: One of our dramaturgs, Dr. Gideon Rappaport, has written three books on Shakespeare: -Appreciating Shakespeare: https://amzn.to/3XjY6Pe -Shakespeare’s Rhetorical Figures: An Outline: https://amzn.to/3KEzyZK -William Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Edited and Annotated: https://amzn.to/3xdt012

#workingactor #rehearsal #beatrice #muchado #shakespeare

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The WAJ podcast is designed to show you HOW the work is done, WHAT the realities of the working actor life are like, and to share all the different ways actors have come to this career. There is no one path and no single answer. We want to learn from all of those further down the road, to shorten the learning curve and to discover what helps and what doesn’t when it comes to having a lifelong career as an actor.