Take the 7-Day Shakespeare Challenge!

Join me for a week-long SHAKESPEARE CHALLENGE!
I'll be working my way through Timon of Athens, but feel free to pick any play you'd like.

If you want a day-by-day breakdown, here's an idea:

Day 1: Choose your play, tag a friend to be your accountability partner, and read Act 1!

Day 2: Read Act 2 and check in with your friend to see how they're doing!
 
Day 3: Read Act 3 and let me know who your favorite character is so far!
 
Day 4: Read Act 4 and let me know what's happened that has surprised you!
 
Day 5: Finish reading the play and check in with your friend to see how they're doing!
 
Day 6: If you've fallen behind with your reading, catch up today! Then find a film version of the play on YouTube and watch the first half of it.
 
Day 7: Finish watching the play and CONGRATULATE yourself and your partner for getting your Shakes together this week!

Join me on Facebook and Instagram and let me know which play you chose!

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Breaking Down the Bard - Sonnets

If you've ever wondered what a sonnet is, I'm gonna break it down for you right now!

Simply put, a sonnet is a type of poem, following a set structure. There are many kinds of sonnets (which this Wikipedia article details). It doesn't necessarily have to be about love, but a lot of them are, because love is a wonderfully rich and complicated topic! We're going to look at the type of sonnet Shakespeare is famous for, called the English Sonnet, the Elizabethan* Sonnet, or the Shakespearean Sonnet.

*Elizabeth I was Queen of England during much of Shakespeare's life, and he wrote many plays and poems during the Elizabethan era.

 

 

The basic structure for this type of sonnet is three quatrains and a couplet - click the links if you missed those or need a reminder. This type of sonnet is typically in iambic pentameter and has a total of fourteen lines. One way to think of the rhyme scheme is this:

- - - - - - - - A

- - - - - - - - B

- - - - - - - - A

- - - - - - - - B

- - - - - - - - - C

- - - - - - - - - D

- - - - - - - - - C

- - - - - - - - - D

- - - - - - - - - - E

- - - - - - - - - - F

- - - - - - - - - - E

- - - - - - - - - - F

- - - - - - - - - - - G

- - - - - - - - - - - G

Let's look at Sonnet 91:

 

 

And here's the same sonnet, but I've shown where the quatrains and the couplet each start and end:

 

 

In the first quatrain, we see that "skill" in the first line rhymes with "ill" in the third line, and "force" in the second line rhymes with "horse" in the fourth. This is contrasted by the couplet that ends the sonnet, where two lines immediately rhyme with each other, "take" and "make".

Another noteworthy Sonnet by Shakespeare is in Romeo and Juliet. The very first time the young lovers speak to each other, they share lines that form a sonnet! Check it out:

 

 

Here, I've marked the structure so that you can easily see the Sonnet form that's hidden in Act I, Scene 5:

 

 

I think it's really cool that Shakespeare had his two star-crossed lovers so on the same page that they could improvise a Sonnet together at their very first meeting!

Shakespeare is not the only person to try his hand at the Elizabethan Sonnet - in fact, many others did, too - but he wrote at least 154 of them, and now you know what makes them tick!

What's your favorite sonnet? Let me know in the comments!

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Breaking Down the Bard - Quatrains

Last week on Breaking Down the Bard, I explained couplets, or two lines of verse in a row which have an ending rhyme. This week, we'll be looking at another popular rhyme structure in Shakespeare's works: quatrains.

Luciana (The Comedy of Errors)
If you did wed my sister for her wealth,
Then for her wealth's sake, use her with more kindness:
Or if you like elsewhere, do it by stealth,
Muffle your false love with some show of blindness

See how "wealth" rhymes with "stealth" in the first and third lines, and "kindness" with "blindness" in the second and fourth lines? These four lines of alternating ending rhymes make a quatrain.

Here's another way to visualize it:
___________ A
______________B
____________A
______________B   

Lysander (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
Fair love, you faint with wand'ring in the wood:
And to speak troth I have forgot our way.
We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good,
And tarry for the comfort of the day.

Getting the hang of this? "Wood" rhymes with "good," and "way" rhymes with "day."

Quatrains can even be shared among characters:

Romeo (Romeo and Juliet)
Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?

Juliet
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.

Romeo
O then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do,
They pray - grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. 

Romeo and Juliet are so in tune with each other that they can rhyme while they flirt! 

Now you can identify what a quatrain is, and you're going to impress everyone when you're doing tablework for your next show!

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Breaking Down the Bard - Lady Capulet

One of the things I love about Shakespeare is that he gave us such unique and individual characters in his plays. Some of them are so fleshed out that they seem to be real people; with histories, favorite things, enemies, habits, and speech patterns that make them who they are. Shakespeare doesn't always spell everything out for us, the way we might see in a modern play's character list. Instead, we have to mine the text for clues as to who these characters really are, so that when we present them onstage, we are showing them as multi-faceted, relatable, human beings. Today, I want to take a look at a character that I feel is performed a lot (although not yet by me), that many people don't give a lot of attention to, but who I still find wildly fascinating: Lady Capulet from Romeo & Juliet.

I feel like Lady C is overlooked, and I want to shine a little light on her, because this chick is so interesting! First of all, she's in ten scenes in the play (a few she just kind of makes an appearance and isn't the focus), but only speaks 114 lines of verse, which is not a lot. The Nurse speaks about twice as much, and even Benvolio and Mercutio each speak more than Lady Capulet - and Mercutio dies halfway through the play! She's a major presence, but we don't hear all that much from her, so we need to follow the clues to understand her as much as we can as a character, then use our own imaginations as actors to fill in the blanks. Shakespeare gave us more info than you might expect, though, so let's play text detectives and see what we can learn about this Real Housewife of Verona!

Lady Capulet is YOUNG. I would say she's probably about 26. 

How did I come up with that number? We hear from the Nurse in Act I, scene 3 that Juliet is 13, about two weeks away from turning 14. Then Lady Capulet chimes in:

I was your mother much upon these years

That you are now a maid.

Time for some basic math, right? If Juliet is 13, and Lady Capulet was around that same age when Juliet was born, that would make her right around 26. Her husband is significantly older, although we can't be sure of his age. In Act I, scene 1, when he wants to grab a sword and start fighting, Lady Capulet says:

A crutch! A crutch! Why call you for a sword?

And when Lord Capulet and his cousin, Old Capulet, are enjoying the party in Act I, scene 5, they're bickering over whether it was 25 or 30 years since they were in the "dancing days" of their youth. Bringing up Capulet's age so closely to when we discover Lady Capulet's age only highlights how young she is, and the age gap between them. 

Lady Capulet might be barren because she had Juliet when she was so young. This exchange in Act I, scene 2 makes me wonder if Capulet is speaking of his wife's experience:

Paris

Younger than she are happy mothers made.

Capulet

And too soon marr'd are those so early made.

The earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she...

Whoa whoa whoa... Hold the phone! This looks like a MAJOR piece of information! It seems like Capulet doesn't want Juliet to suffer the same fate as her mom, which we can pretty clearly interpret here as having a baby very young, and not being able to have any more healthy kids. "The earth hath swallowed all my hopes" might be a metaphor, but he might be talking about miscarriages or children that died in infancy. That's absolutely tragic for the Capulets. Lord Capulet makes it extra clear that Juliet is their only child later, in Act III, scene 5, in a heated moment:

Wife, we scarce thought us blest

That God had lent us but this only child...

So Lord and Lady Capulet wanted more kids, but couldn't have any. Maybe that's why Lady Capulet really loved Tybalt (or she's putting on a big show for some reason). Lady Capulet is outspoken about her affection for her nephew, Tybalt. She immediately seeks revenge after his death in Act III, scene 1:

I beg for justice, which thou, Prince, must give:

Romeo slew Tybalt, Romeo must not live.

It's unclear if Tybalt was the son of Lord Capulet's brother or Lady Capulet's brother, as they both separately call him "my brother's son" after his passing (Lady Capulet in Act III, scene 1 and Lord Capulet in Act III, scene 5). It's common for Shakespeare's characters to leave out any "in law" clarification, so it's unlikely that Lord and Lady Capulet are brother and sister as well as husband and wife - but if someone stages that production, I want a ticket.

And in Act III, scene 2, the Nurse tells Juliet her parents are "Weeping and wailing over Tybalt's corse."

However, only hours later, in the early morning of the next day in Act III, scene 5, Lady Capulet tells Juliet not to cry for Tybalt any more:

Evermore weeping for your cousin's death?
What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears?
And if thou couldst, thou couldst not make him live;
Therefore have done. Some grief shows much of love,
But much of grief shows still some want of wit.

Well, she got over that quickly! Maybe she's putting on a brave face, knowing she's about to break the news of Juliet's arranged marriage to Paris, or maybe her wailing over Tybalt was an act, or perhaps she is just out of tears to cry. 

Lady Capulet may seem passive in some scenes, letting her husband lead the charge when Juliet objects to marrying Paris in Act III, scene 5:

Here comes your father, tell him so yourself;

And see how he will take it at your hands.

But she seems to at least think of herself as a woman of action, devising a plan to poison Romeo in Mantua, where he is banished, earlier in the same scene. How serious she is about that is entirely dependent upon the production and the actor cast as Lady Capulet, but maybe she has ties to dangerous people in Mantua... Or maybe she's all talk.

When Lord Capulet starts hurling insults at Juliet and things are getting heated in Act III, scene 5, she tries to diffuse the situation:

Fie, fie, what, are you mad?

But ultimately sides with her husband on the matter in that scene, and shuts Juliet down like this:

Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word.
Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.

So, my big question here is whose side is she on? Does she really think Juliet is being unreasonable, or that her husband is being abusive, or is it something more nuanced? Does she want to be the peacemaker, or does she just want to go back to crying over Tybalt's death?

When Juliet asks for forgiveness, Lady Capulet doesn't say anything, and lets her husband do the talking. Instead, her next five lines (over three scenes) are entirely about wedding planning. Granted, this already rushed event got moved up a few days, so Lady Capulet has a lot to do, but it makes me wonder if she was ever really angry at Juliet, or if she forgives quickly, or is covering up her feelings by keeping busy.

And then, in Act IV, scene 5, when Juliet's sleeping potion has convinced everyone that she is dead, Lady Capulet grieves in the way you might expect from a woman who has lost her only child:

But one, poor one, one poor and loving child,
But one thing to rejoice and solace in,
And cruel Death hath catch'd it from my sight!

You may have noticed that most of what I've dissected hasn't shown a "right" or "wrong" way to play Lady Capulet - I've just uncovered some of the options that are available when tackling such a rich and interesting character! Shakespeare gives us so much juicy material to work with, and it's our job as actors to find what works for our interpretation in each individual production to really bring these characters to life!

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Breaking Down the Bard - WTF is a Soliloquy?

The soliloquy. It's a crazy word that theatre peeps (and others not in the biz) throw around, knowing full well that it's going to go over the heads of some people, and then they, the person saying "soliloquy", will hopefully sound really, really smart for using this high-earning Scrabble word. I'm going to demystify this term, by letting you know what it means and some ways you can do it effectively onstage!

A soliloquy (pronounced suh-LIL-uh-kwee), is the sibling of the monologue. A monologue, in theatre, is generally defined as a prolonged speech by one character to another in a scene. A soliloquy is when one character is speaking while or as if they are alone. Macbeth's "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" speech is a monologue, because he is speaking to Seyton. However, Viola's "I left no ring with her. What means this lady?" in Twelfth Night is a soliloquy because Malvolio has made his exit and Viola is left onstage to discover that Olivia is mistakenly in love with her. In a soliloquy, the character might reveal more private thoughts than they would in the presence of others; I would argue that characters in Shakespeare do not lie to the audience, though they may lie to each other. If a character is alone onstage, they are speaking truthfully.

Shakespeare gives many of his characters these private moments to discuss their thoughts, and there are generally two different methods of attack when deciding how to stage these tricky speeches:

1. The actor is talking to him/herself, and is unaware of the audience.

The "fourth wall" is a concept that most theatregoers are familiar with, whether they know it or not. The actors on the stage are in their own little world of make-believe, and we watch them. They talk to the other actors onstage, but pretend we, the audience, don't exist - even when we laugh at their jokes or a cell phones rings from the 7th row during a climactic moment. That being said, this first performance option has gained popularity in the last 100 years or so, as audiences grow to expect the action onstage to be removed from the reality that there is, in fact, an audience in the same room as the actors. If the actor is talking to him or herself, they are usually trying to sort out a plan, or what to do next, which can be effective for certain speeches (Hamlet's "To be or not to be" is an obvious example).

2. The actor is speaking directly to one or more members of the audience.

In this scenario, which is considered to be more appropriate to the environment of Shakespeare's plays when they were written and originally performed, the actor delivering the soliloquy speaks to the audience. The audience is acknowledged as being "in on" the action of the play; they see everything, and therefore are often privy to insider info. When Richard III shares his plan to undo his brother, George, and to marry the newly-widowed Anne at the end of Act I, Scene 1, and then gloats to us in another soliloquy at the end of the next scene ("Was ever woman in this humor woo'd? Was ever woman in this humor won? I'll have her, but I will not keep her long."), we are made co-conspirators to his wicked plans - and it's a lot of fun to root for the bad guy! And when Prince Hal tells us of his plan to redeem himself from his wild ways at the end of Act I, Scene 2 in Henry IV Part 1, we are given an intimate view of the prodigal prince that he doesn't show to Falstaff or his father, the king!

There are other ways to tackle the soliloquy that can be surprising:

In 1988, Sir Derek Jacobi directed a production of Hamlet and had Kenneth Branagh deliver "To be or not to be" directly to Sophie Thompson, who played Ophelia, bringing her onstage before her traditional entrance at the end of the speech. Turning the soliloquy into a scene between Hamlet and Ophelia was an inventive way to stage this insanely famous speech.

Turning a soliloquy into a voice-over can also be an effective storytelling tool, particularly in film. We can get the idea that we are inside the character's mind while they continue about their business onstage (or onscreen) and their voice relays their inmost thoughts.

So, how do you know the best way to handle your soliloquy? My best advice is to try it out in rehearsal every way you can think of!

Benedick's "This can be no trick" in Much Ado About Nothing, Act II, Scene 3 could be to himself, or to the audience, who has just witnessed the ridiculous plot laid by his friends to convince Benedick of his love for Beatrice. If the show is being played as a particularly broad comedy, it might be better to involve the audience in this conversation - but it depends entirely on the production!

On the other hand, when the novice nun Isabella weighs her choices about how to proceed when she is propositioned by Angelo to save her condemned brother's life in Act II, Scene 4 of Measure for Measure, it might not serve her so well to ask the audience "Did I tell this, who would believe me?" because we would believe her - we were there! Again, this is something to test in rehearsal to see what works best for that individual production, taking into account the pros and cons of talking to oneself or to the audience!

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The 10 Most Gruesome Deaths in Shakespeare

Stabbed. Poisoned. Drowned. Hanged. Beheaded.

There are some gory ways to die in Shakespeare's plays. Even George R. R. Martin, the author of Game of Thrones and the rest of the A Song of Ice and Fire series admits that Shakespeare's kill-count exceeds the bloody world of Westeros, and I would have to agree with him! Here are some of the Bard's most cringe-worthy deaths:

10 - George, Duke of Clarence (Richard III)
Drowned in Wine

"You shall have wine enough, my lord, anon."
- 2nd Murderer

George seemed like an obstacle to his brother Richard in his plans for becoming the King of England. After convincing their elder brother, King Edward IV, that George was a threat, Richard had two murderers visit George's cell in the Tower of London. The murderers stab George and finish the job by drowning him in the "malmsey-butt" (approximately 252 gallons of wine) in the next room.

9 - Joan la Pucelle (Henry VI Part 1)
Burned at the Stake

"Break thou in pieces and consume to ashes,
Thou foul accursed minister of hell!"
- York

Shakespeare's Joan of Arc was hardly a saint. She is a skilled but cocky warrior who claims to be aided by the Virgin Mary but is actually assisted by demons. She insists she was nobly born, calling her Shepherd father a liar to his face. When she is sentenced to burn, she tries to save herself by switching her story: the virgin is now pregnant, and the question of who the father is turns into a scene to rival an episode of Maury Povich. 

8 - Arcite (The Two Noble Kinsmen)
Crushed by his Horse

"Backward the jade comes o'er, and his full poise
Becomes the rider's load."
- Pirithous

Arcite and his cousin Palamon both love the noble Emilia (who can't choose between them), and since they are both technically prisoners of war, an agreement is made that they will have a fight. The winner lives and weds Emilia, and the loser will die. Arcite's victory over Palamon is short-lived, as his horse crushes him during his celebratory parade. Palamon is allowed to live and wed Emilia, since this seems to be the Gods' will.

7 - Desdemona (Othello)
Smothered 

"Kill me tomorrow, let me live tonight!"
- Desdemona

Othello mistakenly believes that his lovely and loyal wife, Desdemona has been cheating on him with his subordinate, Michael Cassio. Iago, the criminal mastermind, works Othello up to a murderous rage using nothing but a handkerchief and manipulation. The jealousy that consumes Othello leads him to smother Desdemona in their bed (though the text never mentions a pillow). With her dying words, she claims Othello was blameless in her murder. When Othello realizes he's been tricked, he stabs himself and dies.

6 - Julius Caesar and Coriolanus, respectively
Stabbed by Conspirators

"Let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully;
Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods..."
- Brutus


"Cut me to pieces, Volsces, men and lads,
Stain all your edges on me."
- Coriolanus


Since their deaths are remarkably similar, I've decided that this one's a tie!

In Julius Caesar, despite warnings from a soothsayer and his wife, Calpurnia, Caesar goes to the Capitol and is stabbed repeatedly by Brutus, Cassius, Casca, and the other conspirators who fear he has grown too powerful.

A decorated war hero and elected official, Coriolanus loses favor in Rome due to his arrogance, hot temper, and inability to flatter. Upon being banished, Coriolanus joins with his former enemy, Aufidius and the Volsces, seeking revenge on Rome and its people. Coriolanus decides to spare Rome instead of sacking it when he has the chance, and the envious Aufidius labels him a traitor and convinces the Volsces to join him in stabbing Coriolanus to death.

5 - Portia (Julius Caesar)
Swallowed Fire

"With this she fell distract,
And (her attendants absent) swallow'd fire."
- Brutus

Portia is probably at least a little unstable to begin with. In Act II, Scene 1, she shows her husband, Brutus, that she has voluntarily given herself a wound on her thigh to show how tough she is so that he'll share his secrets with her. After killing Julius Caesar and inciting a civil war, Brutus hasn't been home in a long time, and his absence, coupled with the news of the strength of his allies, pushes Portia over the edge.

4 - Cloten (Cymbeline)
Beheaded

"With his own sword,
Which he did wave against my throat, I have ta'en
His head from him."
- Guiderius

The term "asshat" was invented for people like Cloten (though not by Shakespeare). This stupid, stinky, spoiled brat can't understand why his stepsister Imogen, who is already married, wouldn't want to marry him. He threatens to kill Imogen's husband and rape her... the dude has it coming. When he picks a fight with Guiderius, his head is separated from his body pretty quickly. He certainly isn't the only Shakespearean character to be beheaded - far from it - but it's a memorable exit for such a loathsome character.

3 - Aaron the Moor (Titus Andronicus)
Buried Alive 

"Set him breast-deep in the earth and famish him,
There let him stand and rave and cry for food.
If any one relieves or pities him,
For the offense he dies."
- Lucius

Aaron the Moor is a wholly unrepentant criminal mastermind. He works with his lover, Tamora, to pick off members of Titus Andronicus' family one by one. This play is Shakespeare's most bloody, with murders, rape, mutilation, and people being baked into pies and fed to their mother at a dinner party. While most of the characters die by a blade, Aaron's anticipated slow death is unique.

2 - Antigonus (The Winter's Tale)
Eaten by a Bear

"I'll go see if the bear be gone from the gentleman and how much he hath eaten."
- Clown 

Antigonus got the unenviable job of taking the king's infant daughter to a deserted place and abandoning her to the elements. Of course, he doesn't want to leave a baby alone to die in a storm, but the other option was throwing her in the fire. He lays down the baby, and then is chased offstage with Shakespeare's most famous stage direction: Exit, pursued by a bear. In case we weren't sure of poor Antigonus' fate, the clown sees the bear enjoying his dinner, and comes in to tell his father (who found the baby) all about it.

1 - Cinna the Poet (Julius Caesar)
Torn Apart by an Angry Mob

"Tear him to pieces, he's a conspirator."
- 1st Plebeian 

Unfortunately, there were two men named Cinna in Rome. Cinna the Poet is questioned by a group of Roman citizens, and when they find out his name is Cinna, they tear him limb from limb. The misguided Plebeians think he is the same Cinna that helped to murder Julius Caesar, and the innocent poet meets a grisly end.

Did any of these deaths surprise you?

Who do you think should have made the list?

Let me know in the comments! 

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