A Proposal for an Integrated Rehearsal Methodology for Shakespeare (And Others) Combining Active Analysis and Viewpoints

“UNPACK MY HEART WITH WORDS”: A Proposal for an Integrated Rehearsal Methodology for Shakespeare (and Others) Combining Active Analysis and Viewpoints by GERALD P. SKELTON, JR. BSc, MFA, MA A practice-based thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of Kingston University in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2016 I hereby declare that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Gerald P. Skelton, Jr. ABSTRACT The performance of Shakespeare represents a distinct challenge for actors versed in the naturalistic approach to acting as influenced by Stanislavsky. As John Barton suggests, this tradition is not readily compatible with the language-based tradition of Elizabethan players. He states that playing Shakespeare constitutes a collision of “the Two Traditions” (1984, p. 3). The current training-based literature provides many guidelines on analysing and speaking dramatic verse by Shakespeare and others, but few texts include practical ways for contemporary performers to embrace both traditions specifically in a rehearsal context. This research seeks to develop a new actor-centred rehearsal methodology to help modern theatre artists create performances that balance the spontaneity and psychological insight that can be gained from a Stanislavsky-based approach with the textual clarity necessary for Shakespearean drama, and a physical rigour which, I will argue, helps root the voice within the body. The thesis establishes what practitioner Patsy Rodenburg (2005, p. 3) refers to as the need for words, or the impulse to respond to events primarily through language, as the key challenge that contemporary performers steeped in textual naturalism confront when approaching Shakespeare and other classical playwrights. The research offers a rehearsal methodology to meet this challenge. The methodology synthesises Stanislavsky’s late-career extension of the “system” referred to as Active Analysis, and Viewpoints, a technique of movement improvisation derived from contemporary dance by choreographer Mary Overlie and further adapted by directors Anne Bogart and Tina Landau. Active Analysis is an innovative method of textual analysis that centres on a series of improvisations, or études, which serve as successive blueprints toward performance. Viewpoints is a technique that offers a clear and accessible vocabulary related to principles of time and space as a way to create and evaluate stage movement. My study illustrates how these two techniques might be used in tandem to invite actors to discover the need for words in a rehearsal context. This combined methodology was developed through a series of three practical research laboratories related to The Comedy of Errors, As You Like It, and Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare. A fourth laboratory served to extend the combined methodology to a pre-Shakespearean classical text by focusing on the 2 unattributed medieval morality play Mankind. Accounts of these laboratories are used to illustrate a “director’s anatomy” of the development and implementation of the methodology. The thesis concludes with my proposal for an integrated rehearsal practice that can help contemporary actors experience the language-based performance tradition related to Shakespeare and other classical playwrights. The research contributes to the current literature on playing Shakespeare and others by offering a set of principles and a responsive rehearsal model informed by those principles, whilst also providing illustrations of how they might be employed in the production process. The methodology can be utilised in both educational and professional settings. My deep engagement with Active Analysis and Viewpoints means that I am able to contribute to practice, training and scholarship related to each, extending previous enquiries into these systems. The findings can also be applied more generally to the literature and practice of acting, directing and textual analysis. 3 CONTENTS Acknowledgements 5 List of Illustrations 6 Introduction: I. The Origins of the Research 7 II. Overall Research Methodology 12 III. Literature Review 13 Thesis Statement 27 Chapter 1: The Two Traditions 28 I. The Elizabethan Tradition 28 II. The Modern Tradition 33 III. Creative Principles for Rehearsal and Performance 35 IV. Summary 40 Chapter 2: Active Analysis and Viewpoints 42 I. Active Analysis 42 II. Viewpoints 55 III. Summary 63 Chapter 3: Research Laboratories 65 I. Research Laboratory Methodology 65 II. The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare 74 III. As You Like It by William Shakespeare 87 IV. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare 103 V. Mankind by Unknown 113 Conclusion 128 Endnotes 132 Appendices A. Model of Concepts, Principles and Practices 134 B. The Process of Active Analysis 136 C. Viewpoints 138 D. Materials: The Comedy of Errors 140 E. Materials: As You Like It 157 F. Materials: Romeo and Juliet 164 G. Materials: Mankind 170 H. Final Integrated Rehearsal and Performance Plan 179 I. Participant Interviews 181 Bibliography 232 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The journey to create this body of work has been by its nature a collaborative effort, and I could not have reached this point without the constant support of many people. Foremost, I would like to thank my supervisors, Prof. Jackie Smart and Dr. Alex Mermikides, for their patience, enthusiasm and expertise throughout this research project. I’d like especially to mention Prof. Ian Brown who suggested I take this journey in the first place and who provided welcome doses of tea and sympathy when they were most needed. I would also like to extend my thanks to Kingston University for supporting this project financially and to all at the Department of Drama and Dance for providing a warm and encouraging environment in which to work. I owe a tremendous amount of gratitude to all the participants who took part in this study by offering their time, talent and willingness to explore uncharted waters together. Their contributions are the heart and soul of the research. My thanks go to Jennifer King, colleague and friend, whose support for this research took many forms. I could not have navigated the past four years without her observant eye or her passion for the project. I would also like to thank my mother, Carol, and my father, Jerry, for their love and financial help. The physical distance between us did not dim their proximity to every step in the process. Lastly, heartfelt thanks to my husband, Colin Chan, who provided practical and emotional support in equal measure, and to whom this thesis is dedicated. 5 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. Creative Principles for Rehearsal and Performance 36 Figure 2. Model of Concepts, Principles and Practices 41 Figure 3. The Process of Active Analysis 49 Figure 4. Viewpoints 58 Figure 5. Outline of Rehearsal and Performance Plan 70 Figure 6. Rehearsal and Performance Plan: The Comedy of Errors 74 Figure 7. Sample List of Facts and Intuits: The Comedy of Errors 76 Figure 8. Rehearsal and Performance Plan: As You Like It 88 Figure 9. Rehearsal Plan: Romeo and Juliet 104 Figure 10. Rehearsal and Performance Plan: Mankind 114 6 INTRODUCTION I. THE ORIGINS OF THE RESEARCH I am directing a production of Cymbeline (2010) by William Shakespeare for the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, the professional theatre in residence at the University of Notre Dame. I am in my fifth year of serving as the festival’s Producing Artistic Director. We are in a rehearsal room in a large arts complex on campus. It is the first morning of our second week and we are revisiting 1.4, during which the characters of Iachimo and Posthumus have a very public confrontation. In the spirit of bold physicality, I ask Kevin, the actor playing Iachimo, to stand literally nose to nose with the actor playing Posthumus to create a decidedly theatrical confrontation. Kevin instead asks me when I am going to drop my “concept” and “start directing the show”. He argues that “no one stands like this” in everyday life and that our time should rather be focused on making these characters “real people” for the actors and the audience. The moment I describe precipitated two strands of enquiry that have occupied me for several years; namely, the efficacy of our modern, naturalistic tradition of acting to address the particular demands of Shakespeare, and whether there were different ways to approach these plays that could help actors balance spontaneity, psychological insight, physical rigour and textual clarity. Kevin was seeking a return to the common air that he and all contemporary actors and directors breathe; that is to say, standard Western rehearsal methodology as influenced by the “system”, which was developed by Russian actor, director and teacher Constantin Stanislavsky during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The “system” (in quotes and using the lower case as Stanislavsky preferred) operates on the principle that Stanislavsky historian and biographer Jean Benedetti (1998, p. 2) states is “our understanding of the way we behave in our daily lives” and “that the actor most likely to affect an audience profoundly is the actor who behaves most like a complete human being.” The core of the “system” is what Stanislavsky refers to as psycho-physicality; that our every physical action contains psychology and our every psychological action contains physicality. However, a disproportionate focus on the psychological aspect of training and performance, especially in the United States during the twentieth century,

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