I'm playing Helena in a Midsummer Night's Dream. Do you have any tips to playing the part? And remembering names? I keep calling Lysander Lancaster. >< And I'm always forgetting Demetrius's name.
2007-09-29 08:18:38 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Theater & Acting
I was just memorizing a bit of Helena's lines for fun a few weeks ago, but I was also having trouble. I found that it was a lot easier to go to sparknotes.com and read the lines in No Fear Shakespeare and then it was easier to understand what Helena was saying. Once you really understand it, it's A LOT easier to understand.
2007-09-29 15:58:00 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The name biz is your not concentrating and just letting your mouth work without thought. BAD ACTOR! Play the part as written, Will put everything you need to know about her in the script, just look for what she says and does and how she goes about doing it and what others say about her (although they may lie) The very best tip anyone ever gets about playing Shakespeare is to use the punctuation to phrase your speech so you make sense out of the lines. Also the characters speak the way they do on purpose, if they rhyme, it is because they want to rhyme, if they speak prose, it is the same but also the sign of lower classes, upper classes speak poetry. And have fun, it's a comedy, done for entertainment value, and should be exaggerated as much as the director allows. Oh, and read Hamlet's advice to the players, Act III Sc 2. and follow it. break a leg
2007-09-29 08:33:50 · answer #2 · answered by Theatre Doc 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Lysander told you LIES. His name should be pronounced as LIES and er. That should help there.
Demetrius has a dream for us? Except that the us is him and Hermia.
Anyway--she is lovestruck. She never gets any of Puck and Oberon's potion put on her, because she did it to herself. She knows she's foolish for loving Lysander, but she can't help it. This turns to fury when she thinks she's being mocked. But when she finally believes it, she finds her love as like a jewel, her own and not her own.
She is one of the greatest roles in the world, Have fun, go big, let yourself go, and tell your director you rely on him or her to not let yourself look too foolish.
But you don't need to worry about it. That's their job.
2007-09-29 10:54:34 · answer #3 · answered by Bucky 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
NEVER produce ur lines "sing songy" or else it starts to get anyoing, trust me
2007-09-29 13:24:55 · answer #4 · answered by smartschickrenee 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋