ELICA MIWA

Tag: Two Gentlemen of Verona

  • One Feast, One House, One Mutual Happiness [Shakespeare For You]

    One Feast, One House, One Mutual Happiness [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭That done, our day of marriage shall be yours; 
    One feast, one house, one mutual happiness.

    —Valentine, Two Gentlemen of Verona 5-4

    [ACTING TIPS]

    This is the closing line of the entire play.

    What a happy celebrating phrase. We can use it on any wedding day!

    The meaning of “that” in “That done” is “Proteus should hear the story of Julia on the way home (Milan).

    The gentlemen of Verona and Duke of Milan are happy.

    For Turio, we may pot his shoulders and say “be a better man”.

    But what about the girls?

    I learned in the 90s, that Shakespeare’s later comedies didn’t feel comedies, for one or two main characters didn’t get their happy ending, and we called them as “Problem comedies”.

    Well, this play has problems!!

    Two ladies witnessed with their own eyes that their boyfriends barter their girlfriends like their property!

    And this is one of his very first plays.  I am going to do “The Taming of th Shrew” next.  It is a problem comedy, too.

    Male audience might have not seen these female characters’ “not truly happy ending” as a problem.  But in this age of 21st century, we know girls also think, feel, and frustrated and have rights to question the male-oriented social system.

    Wow, that’s it!

    The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

    I hope you enjoyed each short beautiful, funny, deep words.

    I enjoyed making the series sooooo much!

    Thank you for your encouragement!

    #shakespeare #english #actingtips #directing #valentine #twogentlemenofverona #lifeinJapan #kimono

  • I Hold Him But A Fool [Shakespeare For You]

    I Hold Him But A Fool [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 I hold him but a fool that will endanger 
    His body for a girl that loves him not.

    — Turio, Two Gentlemen of Verona 5-4

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Turio was just told from Valentine that if he were to claim Silvia, he would be seen as an enemy of Verona.

    Thus he immediately changed his mind and said this.

    He is a petty, trivial man, whom you may know so many of such kind near you.  You know how to play him.

    We also know that he is not in love with Silvia any way, but with the future position of Duke of Milan, by marrying her.

    #shakespeare #english #actingtips #directing #turio #twogentlemenofverona #lifeinJapan #kimono

  • That One Error Fills Him With Faults [Shakespeare For You]

    That One Error Fills Him With Faults [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 That one error 
    Fills him with faults; makes him run through all the sins.
    — Proteus, Two Gentlemen of Verona 5-4

    [ACTING TIPS]

    There is a Japanese proverb; Ichi-ji ga Ban-ji, meaning:  one thing leads to all.
    Proteus realizes the same.

    To play the words, I would say Proteus must be filled with remorse.

    I am not yet quite sure what, for Proteus, is the first “that one error”.

    When I don’t yet know the answer, I try acting all the possibilities.

    Was the first error to leave Verona?
    Or to obey his father?
    Remember the first lines of Act 2, Scene 6, when he counterbalanced the weight of the sins he was about to commit.  

    “O sweet-suggesting Love, if thou hast sinned,
    Teach me, thy tempted subject, to excuse it!”

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

  • 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

  • Women To Change Their Shapes [Shakespeare For You]

    Women To Change Their Shapes [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭. It is the lesser blot, modesty finds,
    Women to change their shapes than men their minds.

    — Julia, Two Gentlemen of Verona 5-4

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Finally Proteus has found out this young boy named Sebastian is Julia in disguise.

    Julia strongly blames how cruel Proteus has been, and says this.q

    Remember, Julia has been acted as a boy.

    Through that, she must have found strength and straightforwardness in her.

    I would perform the scene with my heart hurt, broken, sad, losing hope, and with direct, strong, honesty.

    I may be crying or shedding tears, but never pity-forcing.

    #shakespeare #english #actingtips #directing #julia #twogentlemenofverona #lifeinJapan

  • O Me Unhappy! [Shakespeare For You]

    O Me Unhappy! [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 O me unhappy!

    — Julia, Two Gentlemen of Verona 5-4

    [ACTING TIPS]

    This Act 5, Scene 4 is really not understandable for reasonable people.

    Listening to Valentine, Proteus apologized.

    And what happens?
    Valentine gives Silvia for thanks to his apology.

    Whaaaaaat???!!!

    And Julia says this.
    And she swoons.

    Swoon means one faints out of extreme emotion.
    That’s what we have to act.

    But how?

    How are we going to go through extreme emotion safely on stage?

    Part of us must be really take control over the character.
    By doing so, let the character go.

    Very very difficult.

    There are many safe ways to make extreme emotions.
    If you do not know the safe way, you and the people around you would be in danger (mentally, physically, socially).  

    So, have a proper acting coach during the rehearsal of this kind of scene.

    #shakespeare #english #actingtips #directing #julia #twogentlemenofverona #lifeinJapan #kimono

  • The Private Wound Is Deepest [Shakespeare For You]

    The Private Wound Is Deepest [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 The private wound is deepest:  O time most accurst, 
    ‘Mongst all foes that a friend should be the worst!

    — Valentine, Two Gentlemen of Verona 5-4

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Valentine, hiding in the woods to see Silvia is about to be raped by his best-friend Proteus, jumped out to stop him.

    He means that this is the most hideous time to know his friend is in fact the very enemy.

    There are so many ways to play this scene.  He speaks some lines before saying this, which means he cannot shout all the time.  He appears with shouting, maybe.  But after this, I would try “how am I to tell what I feel”.

    It is not just cascading his awful feeling.

    It is a way to make Proteus understand and see things more clearly so that he could gain his proper mind back.

    In fact, after this line, Proteus says sorry, and it feels too easy for me to grasp the change in his mind.

    If I make the audience feel the same, the play is not successful.

    That’s why I think I need much more time and varied skills to make Proteus really feel sorry, right after Valentine speaks the whole lines.

    However, another way of acting and directing is to make Proteus really a villain and he never feel truly sorry and just give a “sorry” word as if it is a true word for Valentine.  Yes, a type of LOKI.  

  • In Love, Who Respects Friend? [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 Proteus:  In love Who respects friend?  
    Silvia:  All men but Proteus.

    — Proteus & Silvia, Two Gentlemen of Verona 5-4

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Proteus, following Silvia into the woods, and has almost raped her.

    He believes that to get what he wants is more important than respecting friends.

    I believe there are some men think like that.

    Mind you, Proteus at first in the play is a love-sick week, rather feminine man.

    How would I make the shift from that to this, during the course of the play?

    That’s what I need to think and try the balance in rehearsals. 

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

  • Here Can I Sit Alone, Unseen Of Any [Shakespeare For You]

    Here Can I Sit Alone, Unseen Of Any [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 Here can I sit alone, unseen of any,
    And to the nightingale’s complaining notes
    Tune my distresses and record my woes.

    — Valentine, Two Gentlemen of Verona 5-4

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Valentine is not just talking about a nightingale.

    He really misses Silvia, his Love.

    (Valentine has been banished from Milan by Silvia’s father the Duke of Milan, is now the big boss of vagabonds in the woods.)

    Since this is a soliloquy, I will tell my feeling to the audience.

    Never speak as a “talk-to-myself” on stage.  TALK TO THE AUDIENCE DIRECTLY!

    Never speak soliloquy as a poetry or “reading it”, “reciting it”, as if “it is written”.

    Speak it as you just making up or thinking up the lines. 

    Think “how can I express this feeling in words?” and create the phrases as your instincts leads.

    I would play Valentine here, as…

    Cannot sleep, because I miss Silvia so much.

    Being awake, I hear nightingale singing.

    Nightingale’s song is supposed to be nice and beautiful and soothing and bring joy of life, but for me, it is like the bird is complaining the life.

    And I envy the bird can complaining so honestly and freely, which I cannot.

    So I will tune my distress to its song.

    Now I can express the thought with words.

    #shakespeare #english #actingtips #directing #Valentine #twogentlemenofverona #lifeinJapan #kimono

  • How Use Doth Breed A Habit In Man [Shakespeare For You

    How Use Doth Breed A Habit In Man [Shakespeare For You

    🎭 How use doth breed a habit in a man! 

    — Valentine, Two Gentlemen of Verona 5-4

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Valentine, the true Love of Silvia, who has been bannished from Milan by Silvia’s father the Duke of Milan, is now the big boss of vagabonds in the woods.

    We have the same kind of proverb in Japanese:  Where you live becomes your ideal place.

    I will play this either with sadness, or with contempt, but never forget my Love, and terribly missing her.

    #shakespeare #english #actingtips #directing #Valentine #twogentlemenofverona #lifeinJapan #kimono