You Wouldn't Want to Be a Shakespearean Actor!

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You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Shakespearean Actor!

Teachers’ Information Sheet by Nicky Milsted

It is the late 16th century, and the book follows the fortunes of a young boy who aspires to be an actor. He lives just outside London, in Shoreditch, where a new playhouse has just been built by James Burbage for his company of actors. The company also includes an upcoming and talented playwright called William Shakespeare.

After hanging around the theatre and volunteering as an ‘extra’ to play small background roles – much to his parents’ disgust – the boy is offered an apprenticeship with the company. He soon learns, however, that life as part of Burbage’s company is not easy. There are errands to run, costumes to try on, hours of rehearsals and endless lines to learn. The boy is trained to take on the female parts in the plays. He learns to walk, talk and even dress like a lady because women don’t act in the theatre in the 16th century.

An outbreak of plague in 1597 sees the company’s theatre closed to try and halt the spread of the deadly disease; the company takes to the road to try and earn money by putting on plays in other towns. But it is a difficult time for the company. They are turned away from many places and have little to eat and nowhere, other than in barns or underneath their wagon, to sleep. When they return to London, they are thrown out of their theatre and have to club together to build a new theatre, which is called the Globe. This later burns down!

So although on the face of it life on stage sounds glamorous, it is clear that You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Shakespearean Actor!

Who was William Shakespeare?

William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon in England. He remains the most famous writer that has ever produced works in English. He wrote around 38 plays – the exact number is still debated! – and more than 150 sonnets (which are a type of 14-line poem). Shakespeare’s plays have been performed more often than those by any other writer. They have been made into countless films and TV adaptations, as well as inspiring other works of literature and art. Shakespeare’s work has been translated into at least 80 different languages (including Star Trek’s Klingon!).

In the later 16th century, Shakespeare left Stratford-upon-Avon and moved to London, where he joined ‘The Lord Chamberlain’s Men’, the acting company of Richard Burbage. He wrote the majority of the plays performed by the company, as well as appearing in them as an actor too. When James ascended to the throne after the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, the company was given royal patronage and became ‘The King’s Men’. © MMXVI The Salariya Book Company Ltd © MMXVI

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Shakespeare’s plays included history plays about England’s kings, such as Henry V, comedies like As You Like It, and tragedies including Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet.

Shakespeare is credited with introducing a large number of words and phrases into the English language that are still used today. Examples include:

● A foregone conclusion (from Othello) ● A sorry sight (from Hamlet) ● All of a sudden (from The Taming of the Shrew) ● Dash to pieces (from The Tempest) ● Good riddance (from Troilus and Cressida)

Shakespeare retired from his life on the stage and as a playwright in around 1613, and returned to Stratford where he died in 1616. Famously his last will and testament included the gift to his wife, Anne Hathaway, of his ‘second best bed’!

Activity 1: Life as an apprentice

Life as an apprentice in a Tudor theatre would have been hectic. The boy in You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Shakespearean Actor lives with the Burbage family, but has to do chores to earn his keep. Alongside his acting, he spends his time fetching and carrying, moving props around, and helping to clean up the theatre after the performances. He also has lengthy rehearsals to attend, and lots of lines to learn and remember – for between 50 and 100 different roles in as many as 40 different plays! It would be really tricky to remember which lines were from which plays. The boy usually plays women’s roles (because women aren’t allowed to act). This makes costume fittings a particularly long and unpleasant experience; he is forced into a metal corset and a metal-hooped underskirt called a farthingale before donning an elaborate dress and wig!

Challenge your pupils to imagine that they are an apprentice in a Tudor theatre. Ask them to write a letter home to their parents describing their daily life. What do they most enjoy about their life in the theatre? What is the most difficult, boring or unpleasant task that they have to undertake? What do they miss from home?

Your pupils could also prepare an itinerary or daily schedule for an apprentice using the activity sheet. It would have been a day packed with rehearsals, errands and learning lines.

Activity 2: A poster for a play

Publicity is really important when it comes to putting on a play – both in Shakespeare’s times and today. Can your pupils research a Shakespearean play of their choice, and design a poster to advertise a modern performance of it? You may like to provide a selection of recent play posters for your pupils to analyse first. What elements are important on a publicity poster?

Talking point: how do your pupils think that plays may have been advertised in Shakespearean times? (See also Activity 3: The company parade) The Salariya Book Company Ltd © MMXVI

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Extension activity: 2016 is the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death. Challenge your pupils to design a poster or piece of artwork to mark this anniversary.

You could ask your pupils to think of ways that the anniversary could be celebrated – would they want to put on a Shakespeare festival, create a modern musical montage of some of his most famous lines, or nominate ‘National Speak-like-Shakespeare Day’ for charity for example?! Encourage your pupils to be imaginative and creative with their ideas! Can they ‘sell’ their anniversary idea to their classmates?

Activity 3: The company parade

When Shakespeare’s company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, is forced to leave their theatre and London during an outbreak of Bubonic Plague (the Black Death) in 1597, they take their plays on tour. When they arrive in a new town, it is important for the company to make sure that everyone knows they have arrived and create enough excitement to ensure that people living in the town attend their performance.

The members of the company would take part in a company parade through the streets showing off their acting and singing skills. Some of the company may have played musical instruments; others may have juggled or shown off acrobatic skills.

Challenge your class to put on their own company parade! They could work together or in small groups. They might like to compose and perform a song about why people should come and watch them perform. They may like to choreograph a dance routine, or perform lines from one of Shakespeare’s plays.

Why not try… performing your parade for an invited audience of parents?

Activity 4: Shakespeare’s language

Lots of common phrases in the English language today were first used by Shakespeare.

Begin by challenging your pupils to match the modern English explanations of some (or all) with the Shakespearean phrases on the activity sheets. Can they write sentences of their own that include the Shakespearean phrases?

Why not try… a game of Shakespeare phrase bingo? Each pupil should choose nine phrases from the activity sheets to include in their blank grid on the ‘Hark you!’ activity sheet. Read out the Shakespeare phrases one at a time at random to complete a game of bingo. For Shakespearean authenticity, rather than using ‘bingo’ as the winning call, use ‘hark you!’ It was used by Shakespeare in his plays as a means for a character to attract the attention of others. For example, in Hamlet, Hamlet encourages Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to listen to him by saying: “Hark you, Guildenstern – and you too – at each ear a hearer” © MMXVI The Salariya Book Company Ltd © MMXVI

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Extension activity: with more able pupils, or once you have played a simple game of Shakespeare phrase bingo and your pupils are confident that they know the phrases, try using the modern English explanations, rather than the phrases themselves.

When your pupils are very familiar with the phrases, you could even try playing Shakespeare phrase bingo by just calling out the names of Shakespeare’s plays and matching phrases to the plays that they were used in!

Research challenge: Shakespeare wrote large sections of many of his plays using rhyming couplets and iambic pentameter. Can your pupils use the internet to help them to find out what iambic pentameter is? They could even try writing some of their own rhyming couplets in iambic pentameter!

Extension activity: alongside his plays, Shakespeare wrote over 150 sonnets. These are a type of 14-line poem with a structured rhyming pattern, written in iambic pentameter. One of Shakespeare’s most well-known sonnets, known as Sonnet 116, is reproduced below (and on the activity sheet). This poem is still read regularly at weddings today. Can your pupils work out the rhyming pattern? When reading it aloud, can they hear the rhythm of the iambic pentameter?

Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken. Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle’s compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Challenge your pupils to try and write their own sonnets. Remember that they must follow the ‘da dum, da dum, da dum, da dum, da dum’ rhythm of iambic pentameter, and must have a regular rhyming pattern too!

Activity 5: Play scripts

Take a section from a Shakespearean play of your choice and encourage your pupils to look at how play scripts are set out. Can they spot elements such as scene setting and stage directions? How do you know which character says which words? Are there clues about how words should be spoken? © MMXVI The Salariya Book Company Ltd © MMXVI

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Either: challenge your pupils to create their own play script of a simple story (you could pick a well-known fairy story such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears)

Or: ask your pupils to annotate a section from a Shakespearean play, identifying the different elements of the play script. Can they write a play script in modern English retelling the action and dialogue from the section of the Shakespearean play?

Activity 6: Memorising lines

Learning and remembering lines was one of the hardest elements of being a Shakespearean actor. Shakespeare’s plays included long monologues (speeches by one character, often reflecting on their own feelings or motivations) as well as lots of complicated interaction between characters.

Challenge your pupils to memorise a monologue from one of Shakespeare’s plays. A good choice is the ‘Seven ages of man’ speech from As You Like It (Act II Scene VII) which begins with the famous line “All the world’s a stage” (reproduced below, and on the activity sheet).

All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms. Then, the whining school-boy with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then, a soldier, Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then, the justice, In fair round belly, with a good capon lined, With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws, and modern instances, And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slippered pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side, His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything © MMXVI The Salariya Book Company Ltd © MMXVI

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Learning lines is a skill that requires a lot of practice. Our top ten tips below will help your pupils – which method do they find helps them most?!

You Wouldn’t Want to Be… Memorising Lines! – our Top Ten Tips!

1) Read out loud – read the passage that you are trying to memorise out loud. Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat! And then, repeat again!! 2) Add a little bit at a time – don't try to memorise the whole passage at once. Work in small chunks and you'll find it easier to learn. With the ‘Seven ages of man’ speech, you might like to work on each ‘age’ separately. 3) Record your lines – try using an MP3 player, mobile phone or computer to record you saying the lines aloud. Replay this recording to yourself when you are doing other things. 4) Write down your lines – writing and rewriting the lines out on paper by hand (or typing them on a computer repeatedly) can help you to remember them. 5) Move around as you memorise – it is much easier to remember lines if you add in movement at the same time. Use gestures or different movements when you say particular words or phrases. In the ‘Seven ages of man’ speech, you could associate a different gesture or movement with each ‘age’. 6) Use visualisation – think about pictures or people when you are saying your words. Can you imagine the person as each of the seven ages from the speech? What would they look like? Linking a picture in your mind with the words will also help you to remember them. 7) Work from the beginning – start learning your lines from the beginning. When you are confident with the first line, add in the second line, then the third, and so on. See how far you can go without forgetting something! 8) Work from the end – sometimes it can actually help to start at the end of the speech and work backwards! Start with learning the last line of your speech, then add on the line before it, then the one before that, and so on. The advantage with this approach (over working forwards) is that you’ll be saying the newest information first each time as you add more on and working towards the parts that you are really confident with, rather than starting with what you know and working towards what you don’t know! 9) Practice with someone – having someone to listen to you and prompt you can really help, especially when you are confident that you nearly know it all! 10) Try singing your lines – singing, rather than saying, your lines help you to remember them as the tune will help to fix them in your head!

Why not try… performing the monologue(s) to an invited audience of parents? © MMXVI The Salariya Book Company Ltd © MMXVI

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Activity 7: Costume design

Challenge your pupils to design a costume for a character of their choice from a Shakespeare play. They might like to design a costume for a boy playing a woman’s role! They can use the pictures from You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Shakespearean Actor for inspiration.

Extension activity: suggest that your pupils have been invited to design a costume for the same character in a version of the play in a modern setting. How would the costume vary from the one that they designed for the play set in Shakespeare’s time?

Activity 8: Tussy mussys and pomanders

In You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Shakespearean Actor, the company leave London when there is an outbreak of plague. Many people in Shakespeare’s time believed that sweet-smelling herbs could help to fight or prevent the plague.

People carried pomanders – small balls of scented gum or wax – to sniff regularly to try to ward off illnesses.

An alternative to a pomander would have been a simple tussy mussy. There are instructions for making a tussy mussy on the activity sheet. The instructions and photos are reproduced with the kind permission of the Young Archaeologists’ Club (www.yac-uk.org).

Pupils’ pack contents

● ‘Life as an apprentice’ creative writing sheet ● ‘An apprentice’s day’ creative writing sheet ● ‘Shakespeare’s language’ activity sheets (4) ● Shakespeare bingo! grid ● Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare ● ‘Seven ages of man’ from As You Like It by William Shakespeare (Act II Scene VII) ● Costume design ● How to make a tussy mussy ● Blank sheet with the border top and bottom for your pupils’ own artwork and writing © MMXVI The Salariya Book Company Ltd © MMXVI

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Shakespearean Actor! BOOK HOUSE WWW.SALARIYA.COM

Shakespeare’s language

Below you will find the correct explanations for each of the Shakespearean phrases in modern English. There are four sheets of phrases and explanations to mirror the four activity sheets in the pupils’ pack. You can use this phrase list and/or the explanations for your game of Shakespeare bingo. You could even use the play in which Shakespeare used the phrase to make the game really tricky! (Note: there are some plays that feature more than once.)

Sheet 1

A sorry sight Something unwelcome. Nowadays also used to describe Macbeth someone or something that is untidy or messy

All that glisters is not gold* Not everything that looks good is valuable The Merchant of Venice * In modern English this phrase is usually ‘All that glitters...’

All one to me When making a choice between options, any one is as Troilus and Cressida good as another

As cold as stone Very cold Henry V

The be all and end all Something that is the last word or complete solution to an issue Macbeth

As merry as the day is long Used to describe a person who is very happy Much Ado About Nothing

For ever and a day Indefinitely; going on and on The Taming of the Shrew

Foul play Bad or dishonest behaviour. Now often used to describe Love’s Labours Lost violence or rule-breaking in sports

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Shakespeare’s language: Sheet 2

Green-eyed monster A feeling of jealousy The Merchant of Venice

Heart's content Complete satisfaction; being very happy with something Henry VI, Part II

High time The correct time to do something Comedy of Errors

Hot-blooded Having a bad temper The Merry Wives of Windsor

I will wear my heart Not hiding your feelings upon my sleeve Othello

In a pickle To be in a very difficult position; stuck The Tempest

In stitches To laugh and laugh and laugh... Twelfth Night

Lie low To hide or keep yourself away from others’ attention Much Ado About Nothing

More fool you Said to someone who is doing something silly or foolish The Taming of the Shrew © MMXVI The Salariya Book Company Ltd © MMXVI

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Shakespeare’s language: Sheet 3

Off with his head Literally, chop off his head! The phrase was famously used Henry VI Part III by Lewis Carroll in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Out of the jaws of death To be saved or rescued at the very last minute Twelfth Night

Pomp and circumstance With great show or magnificent ceremony Othello

A sea change A complete transformation The Tempest

Send him packing To send someone away, often in disgrace Henry IV, Part I

Short shrift To make short work of something or give it little thought Richard III

The game is afoot The action is happening King Henry IV Part I

This is the short and The plain truth; what something is the long of it The Merry Wives of Windsor

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Shakespeare’s language: Sheet 4

A foregone conclusion An inevitable or obvious result Othello

All of a sudden Suddenly The Taming of the Shrew

Dash to pieces Break into small pieces The Tempest

Fancy free Being without responsibility A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Makes your hair Something that is frightening stand on end Hamlet

Wild goose chase A hopeless or impossible quest Romeo and Juliet

Too much of a good thing Having too much of something can be bad for you As You Like It

Truth will out Whatever is true will eventually be discovered. The Merchant of Venice You cannot hide the truth

Star-crossed lovers A name for two people who are unlucky in love Romeo and Juliet © MMXVI The Salariya Book Company Ltd © MMXVI

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Shakespearean Actor!