My group and I had a lot of fun performing scene 3 from Act III of The Winter’s Tale. Although the scene opened with a negative vibe – stormy weather, the Mariner’s words foreshadowing that vicious animals might appear, and the abandonment of an infant – it closed on a positive, cheerful note with the kind-hearted Shepherd and his son taking in the baby.
Performing the scene certainly helped my understanding because usually I would just read the lines silently, not aloud. More importantly, listening to the words being read aloud by other people made a huge difference. From the way my group members read their lines (tone, body language, etc.), I saw how they interpreted the characters and that contributed to my overall understanding of the scene.
I think it’s interesting to actually act out a play because then there’s more to think about than just the words that are spoken. For example, how and when should a prop be used? What lines should be emphasized? How does moving from one end of the stage to the other impact the way that the words are spoken? Acting out a play, I realized, requires a lot of planning along with interpretation.
For example, in one of our rehearsals, Andy accidentally dropped a coin from the little box he was holding right before he was about to say he discovered what he was holding was “gold”. It was a lucky accident, and he managed to incorporate it into the scene, making it perfect timing.
Little changes such as this allow for a better understanding of the play not just the actors, but the audience as well, and enhances the play watching experience.
I think that having to act scenes out really increases your perception of what’s going on in the play because of the analysis involved in figuring out how the acting should be done. For example, when I was preparing for my part as Antigonus, I found myself asking new and more in-depth questions as compared to previous scenes, where I only read the play and didn’t have to act it out. Line by line, I wanted to know what emotions Antigonus was feeling and what he was actually saying – and this needed a lot more analysis than before. But because of this, I felt as if I could almost completely understand what Antigonus said and meant during his long speech. I also understood the scene better as a whole through the group’s process of figuring out how the scene should be done.
I would’t be surprised that anyone who has acted in a Shakespeare play developed an extremely thorough understanding of it.
Acting out, directing, and being an audience for this scene helped me better understand the characters’ personality and what they were saying. Each of my group members did a wonderful job getting into character so that made it easier for me to reread the scene swiftly for the presentation.
I was having trouble with my character’s first lines (The Sherperd) because I just could not comprehend the language. However once I read my lines out loud a few times and acted it out in front of the camera according to specific words that called upon specific emotions, it finally clicked!