Week 7 - Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

Actioning

To start off this week I really wanted to develop my monologues, and so I started using a technique called Actioning which was created by Max Stafford-Clark. The technique is based around thoughts and what the character wants. This link to the actors objective which was first introduced by Constantin Stanislavski. An Actors objective is what the character wants by the end of the scene, for example Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing wants to confront his feelings for Beatrice and show his love, I feel his obstacles in this scene is mostly himself. An obstacle is what is stopping the character from getting to his objective, and so Benedick is stopping himself from getting to his objective as hes scared he'll be scrutinized for saying how he feels for Beatrice. Both monologues that Benedick has are juxtaposed, in the first monologue he preaches how he is against live but I believe he is in love at this time with Beatrice but won't show it because he is scared that Beatrice won't feel the same. In the second monologue he professes how he loves Beatrice as he has found out she loves him to and so Benedick is not scared to show his love.

To give a more descriptive and detailed performance, I'm going to incorporate Actioning. This technique will help me portray what Shakespeare wanted and how this character feels. Actioning is what your character does to someone else, you find out what your character wants by looking at each thought and thinking of the adjective that best suits the thought. For example if I was to say to my friend 'Lets go to the shops?', I would most likely be trying to persuade them, so before I would deliver this line I would say in my head, 'I persuade you' then deliver the line and it would help me to say the line in a persuasive way. The way the line is said could change though, if I fancied my friend then I could use the Actioning of 'Charm'. So the line would be said in a charming way I would say 'I charm you' in my head then say the line 'Lets go to the shops?' I did this for Benedick as I believe this is the best way for me to get a descriptive emotional portrayal.

I actioned my lines and I will show a part of my first monologue as an example, 'One woman is fair, yet I'm well, another is virtuous, yet I'm well, another wise, yet I am well, but till all graces come in one women, one woman shall not come into my grace'. For this I put the action of assure, so 'I assure you'. In this I am assuring the audience that I will never fall in love, I am also trying to assure myself as it is easier to push this love away then be the hypocrite and fall in love.

I enjoyed actioning this week, next week we are performing and I will get all my feedback together and go over notes before the show.