Midsummer Night's Dream?

Question

I will be playing both Titania and Hippolyta.....any suggestions on how to make each character different? It is a staged reading, and not a full performance, so there can be no costume changes.

Answer 1

Think about the physicality of each character. In all likelihood you won't be moving around much, but if you can discover, while preparing, where the impulse to move comes from for each character, you will be on your way to differentiating them.

Where does the voice of each come from? How does each hold her head? Play with the ideas, but don't do it in front of a mirror. Get the sense of it in your body, not visually.

Have fun

Answer 2

Hippolyta is a woman who is very much of the mortal world; an Amazon, from a tribe of fierce female warriors. She is betrothed to Theseus, but only because Theseus' army conquered her...there appears to be very little real LOVE between them at the beginning of the play.

Titania, on the other hand, is a Queen of the SPIRIT world. When the plays begins, she is involved in a quarrel with her counterpart, Oberon, and their dissension (as Titania says) is fouling up the mortal world. The key to Titania is that, while she REFUSES to give in to Oberon (she will not surrender the "Indian Boy" that was a child of a servant of hers, since deceased), she is trying very hard to repair the relationship. As you work on Titania's speeches, think very hard about how much her association with MORTALS has helped her to understand more about their world, and about herself.

Good luck.

Answer 3

Titania is exotic, vain, self-assured, seductive, somewhat lazy; she's like a spoiled heiress oozing sex.

It all depends how hyppolyta is needing to be played. Historically she was enslaved and given to Theseus as a gift from Hercules and she was the Queen of the Amazons. The Amazons were feminists of their own time and considered (savage). However you must ask the director. Hippolyta could also be played as a demure lady high in Athenian society. E-mail me for info.

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Answer 4

AnArdRi has given you some excellent advice.

Also, pay attention to how each woman treats the people around her, her relationships with them. Both are queens, but very different types of queens. Hippolyta is quite regal and stately. Titania's a wacky tyrant. Hippolyta is (duh) a human and Titania...well, you know. You can use your face and voice to show the audience how each woman feels about the people around her as she's interacting with them.

Good luck!