ELICA MIWA

Tag: quote

  • Shakespeare Insults: The Taming Of The Shrew

    Shakespeare Insults: The Taming Of The Shrew

    The Taming Of The Shrew is full of extraordinary insults.  They are really funny and so good.  Let’s hear it.

    🎭 A pair of stocks, you rogue!

    A stock is a kind of ankle cuff of the time, a wooden bar with a hole and you put the criminal’s ankle in it to hold him.  It must have been used as a pair, so that both ankles were kept locked.  

    The hostess of the inn says, literally like “I’ll lock you at the gate, ankle cuffed, to humiliate in front of everybody, you rogue!

    The second one is:

    🎭 Y’ are a baggage.

    Sly the drunken man answers the Hostess.  A baggage meant a woman who takes in anything, which means a whore.  Hilarious

    The third one is:

    🎭 Let the world slide.

    Sly says “I don’t care”.  If the world slides, let it.  Hmm, some people may think like that to see our world of politics and wars.

    The last one for today is:

    🎭 Go to thy cold bed and warm thee.

    Well, I am not allowed to say or write in this public space.  Your bed is cold.  That means you don’t have a company to sleep with.  Thee means you, which means you must warm yourself.  Yes, this literally means “Go Four-Letter-Word yourself”.

    Would you like to use some of them in quarrel?

    Thank you for warching, from ELICA MIWA.

  • New Series Shakespeare For You: The Taming Of The Shrew

    New Series Shakespeare For You: The Taming Of The Shrew

    Hi, folks!  This is ELICA Miwa, Theatre director, actor, writer in Japan.  I am going to start a new series of One Phrase Shakespeare.  The first season was on The Two Gentlemen of Verona.  We still don’t know which one is Will’s first play.  But we surely know The Taming Of The Shrew is one of the earliest plays he wrote.  Yes, it is a problematic play in this age when many of we women think we should not be suppressed by men.  How can we read the play now?  Is the play still relevant to our age?  Let us think about it together.

    This play has a peculiar form.

    Many of you know Romeo & Juliet has a prologue; it gives us a form of a story-teller telling a story of another time and place.

    The Taming Of The Shrew starts with a drunken man called Sly.　　He falls asleep and tricked by his Lord to believe he is the Lord now, and actors give a play for him:  it is a play about a shrew’s marriage.

    So, the character Sly becomes the audience to watch a play The Taming Of The Shrew, with us the real audience.  Quite strange style to give a play.  I also need to think why Shakespeare needed this structure.

    Anyway, the first word of the play is this:

    I’ll pheeze you, in faith.

    Being kicked out of an inn by the hostess, heavily drunk, and without a penny.

    The hostess left him outside.

    And Sly falls asleep.

    And there comes…  That I will tell you next cast.  See you, Bye!

  • Were Men But Constant [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 O heaven, were man
    But constant, he were perfect.

    — Proteus, Two Gentlemen of Verona 5-4

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Finally!!  Proteus clearly sees his fault and is really sorry.

    But this line also sounds like a joke.

    I would think Shakespeare intends the audience laugh, after succession of harsh, rather dark, tensed scenes.

    Proteus isn’t joking, of course.

    Being serious and funny at the same time acting is quite tricky!

    #shakespeare #english #actingtips #directing #proteus #twogentlemenofverona #lifeinJapan

  • All The World’s A Stage [Shakespeare For You]

    All The World’s A Stage [Shakespeare For You]

    Happy Birthday, My Dear Will!

    Yes, 23rd of April in 1564, he is said to have been born, and died definitely on that day in 1616.

    My acting lesson students wanted to have a monologue/soliloquy presentation, and I also did two speeches.

    Here is one of them, Jaques.  All the world’s a stage.

  • Seal The Bargain With A Holy Kiss [Shakespeare For You]

    Seal The Bargain With A Holy Kiss [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 

    Julia:  Keep this remembrance for thy Julia’s sake. 

    Proteus:  Why then, we’ll make exchange:  here, take you this.  

    Julia:  And seal the bargain with a holy kiss. 

    — Julia & Proteus, Two Gentlemen of Verona 2-2

    [ACTING TIPS]

    The conversation reminds me of Romeo and Juliet.  They exchange holy kiss with their palms.  And the whole love-bonding “ceremony” is lead by Julia, like Juliet takes the lead in the balcony scene.  The exchange of the ring appears in many Shakespeare plays, too.  

    I am amused with the casual feeling of Proteus.  Of course you can play him seriously, but the weight of his words looks lighter than Julia’s.  What do you think?

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  • To You Two Thousand [Shakespeare For You]

    To You Two Thousand [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 Sir Valentine, servant, to you two thousand.

    — Sylvia, Two Gentlemen of Verona 2-1

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Remember my cast yesterday?  Valentine greeted Sylvia:  Madam, and mistress, a thousand good-morrows.  This is her reply.  

    Feel the sense of humour, but keep your serious face with high status.  She loves Valentine, but do not show it yet.  Therefore, play cool.

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  • The Uncertain Glory of An April Day [Shakespeare For You]

    The Uncertain Glory of An April Day [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭O, how this spring of love resembleth
    The uncertain glory of an April day,
    Which now shows all the beauty of the sun,
    And by and by a cloud takes all away.

    — Proteus, Two Gentlemen of Verona 1-3

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Be dramatic, tragic, poetic.  But all the feelings must be real.  Look at the sky.

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  • They Do Not Love [Shakespeare For You]

    They Do Not Love [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭They do not love that do not show their love.

    — Julia, Two Gentlemen of Verona 1-2

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Again, Julia is in love with Proteus (he), and she needs a proof that he is in love with her too.  But Proteus does not show his love enough for her.

    You may act Julia with frustration, fear, or worry.

  • Fire That’s Closest Kept Burns Most Of All [Shakespeare For You]

    Fire That’s Closest Kept Burns Most Of All [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭

    Julia:  His little speaking shows his love but small.  

    Lucetta:  Fire that’s closest kept burns most of all.  

    — Julia, Lucetta, Two Gentlemen of Verona 1-2

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Julia is in love with Proteus (he), and she needs a proof that he is in love with her too.  Lucetta knows that.  

    You may act Julia as stubborn, proud, and showing no love toward him.  Julia will speak her true mind that she is madly in love with him as a monologue later, so be brave to hide it.  

    You may act Lucetta as kind, understanding, nice maid, nursing a stubborn child.

    Try many combination.  Their ages may be quite close, like sisters.

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  • A Woman’s Reason [Shakespeare For You]

    A Woman’s Reason [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 I have no other but a woman’s reason:  I think him so because I think him so.

    — Lucetta, Two Gentlemen of Verona 1-2

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Lucetta the maid says to her mistress.  A “woman’s reason” means there is no reason.  This phrase makes me smile to imagine young Shakespeare was told so from his girlfriend or from his mother, or maybe from one of his house’s maids.  I love to say this for once.  Anyway, act it proudly, positively, and definitely.

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    If you like my cast, LIKE, SHARE, FOLLOW, and SUBSCRIBE!

    And remember me as your actor/director.  Contact me when you want to work with me.