Actors
The performance of Shakespeare has fascinated me for years. The
writing of Shakespeare, being several centuries old, has several
grammatical differences with contemporary English, despite being
considered the same language. It is difficult for some people to
understand what the characters in a Shakespeare play are saying
unless the acting is done well enough to convey or suggest the
meaning where the audience's book-knowledge of renaissance grammar
falls short. Shakespeare gives actors a gift, though, when it comes
to memorization: many of his characters' speeches are unrhymed verse
written in iambic pentameter.
Backstage
Of course, being an actor isn't all fun and games. You do have to
spend a lot of time silent backstage, waiting for your cue. And with
Shakespeare, my experience reminds me of a lot of people missing
their cues.
Caesar's
Corpse
How
a director handles corpses is a tricky question. It is not always
practical to the story to drag a corpse offstage, and if the
character was slain onstage, a dummy will not work either. When I
played the title character in the Palouse Highland Players' 2011
production of Julius
Caesar,
I learned firsthand how it is required of the actor playing that
role, after the stabbing scene, to lie on stage stone-cold dead for
fifteen minutes, as the conspirators bathe their hands and swords in
the fallen dictator's blood and discuss their next plan of action. I
got an itchy nose after a while.
Dancing
At
the cast party for Macbeth,
I learned swing dancing from some actresses there who knew it. Swing
dancing is an artful social activity, and my knowledge of it has
proved a good skill to have ever since.
Epic
An
oft forgotten form of poetry is the heroic epic. It is tragic that
modern writers no longer treat the epic as a form of art for the
ages, a type of story meant to be a masterpiece. Some of the finest
writing in the English language comes from Milton's Paradise
Lost,
and Homer's tales of the Trojan War served as the founding mythos of
the ancient Greeks and Romans. It was G.K.Chesterton, the great
British writer, who wrote the Ballad of the White Horse in modern
times, the epic of Alfred the Great, the famed English king who
battled against the Danes. The epic combines the beauty of verse with
the recounting of a tale of inspiration and virtue, and stretches to
the length of a full novel. The bards, in times where literacy was
rare, certainly spent much effort into remembering the words of epic
poetry, that it might be remembered by future generations.
Forest
The forest of the Kaniksu country, the Selkirk Crest, in the far
north of Idaho is vast and wondrous. It is that sort of place that
creates a budding romanticism in the writer, a longing for a lost
beauty. It is there that one can peer into and see a little of that
which is truly wild, can smell the dust and the dew on the leaves.
Mushrooms grow, brown and white, along the forest floor, while the
soft needles of fallen spruces are squelched by the feet of
travelers. All is silent, the wind the only song to which the birches
dance.
A small pond lies in the hills, a fishing hole, where small trout
are caught by campers. The leaf-bedecked path leads to the muddy
banks, where the bushes spread above the shallows. Dragonflies and
water-striders skim across the surface of the pool, while beyond a
miniature island stands, completely covered in gnarled trees. Beyond
it lies a fallen log, a bridge under which the fishes swim, and near
it a tiny trickle of water pours into the pond. Around the pond lie
cold swamps of sorts, pools here and there guarded by the pillars of
mossy stumps. It is truly a peaceful place.
Glory
But it is not merely nature that inspires the romanticist. It is the
glory of the deeds of great men, the tales of those who came before.
What sort of inspiration can be drawn from this? There is a
philosophy to this, which one might weigh and consider before
venturing too far into romanticism's realm.
For there are some wish for their thoughts of wonder to be founded
upon emotion, that their minds might dwell in emotion and be guided
by it. It is often such feelings that lead to rash decisions, the
weaknesses that caused the great heroes of the past to fall: the
wrath of Achilles, the sorrow of Alexander. But for the poet who does
not merely feel, but thinks, and strengthens his thinking through his
emotion, the heroism of the past creates inspiration to not falter or
let one's spirit be spoiled by the affluence of modern society. It is
to look past illusions of civilization and to see the indisputable
hardships of life that no amount of technology can hold back, but not
to give up, but rather to endure and still have joy. For those who
truly understand the inevitable troubles of the world, and have a
path to greatness laid before them, for them there is a chance at
glory, to live up to and repeat the deeds of the hero.
Hero
What is a hero, one may ask? Many people are called “heroes” for
being willing to sacrifice themselves for others. But is that all
there is to heroism? Or is there more to it than that? Who is it from
times long past that are still remembered in our age as heroes? Great
men who shaped the future with their actions. Figures whose lives
played out as well-written epics, who formed their own legends in
their time, and many myths sprang up around them in future
generations. George Washington is a Hero; a farmer, warrior, and
philosopher, a king even in the first modern republic. Napoleon,
although an enemy to the rest of the world, was certainly a hero to
his people. The life of Alexander the Great was a life of victory,
yet filled with the same longing held by the romanticist, the
ineffable yearning for something lost. “Pothos” the Greeks called
it. Alexander united all the known world in his youth, but fell so
far into the depths of his own sorrow that he died too young to rule
what he had conquered. It is this that was one of the classical
definitions of tragedy held by the Greeks and by many later
playwrights, the fall of the hero not by the hands of others, but
rather by his own moral failings and weakness.
Iambic
Pentameter
Iambic Pentameter is a poetic form consisting of ten-syllable lines.
It is used by Shakespeare in his plays and sonnets. It has just
enough space to squeeze a thought into a line or two, while retaining
a poetic, easily memorizable rhythm. Indeed, some Shakespearean
actors are said to have learned this meter so well that should one of
them fail to remember their lines or cue, they are able to continue
impromptu while allowing their language to completely imitate that of
Shakespeare's own writing: a slight modification of sorts to the
script.
A more natural sounding form of poetry, closer to the rhythm of
prosaic speech, is the traditional Ballad form: eight syllables in
the first line, and then six more syllables in the second. Or all
fourteen at once: then it is called Iambic Heptameter.
Jazz
Festival
Theatre and writing were not my only experiences with the arts. I
have also over time learned various forms of music, a type of
entertainment which I enjoy watching and partaking in, although I am
by no means an expert in its performance. I can play classical piano
with reasonable proficiency, and sang for two years in Bella Jazz
Ensemble while in High School. We competed in the Lionel Hampton Jazz
Festival at the University of Idaho, but did not win in our division
in either of those years.
It was around this time that I began to appreciate the older styles
of jazz music. Swing dancing is quite easy and natural when one is a
fan of the music being danced to. Singing, of course, is very similar
to poetry: each relies on rhyme and meter, and many poems are sung as
songs, or songs recited as poetry. Although many more modern
musicians do not always indulge in the art of their lyrics, the epic
poems were often sung or accompanied by instruments in their rhymes.
Singing can be a form of poetry given twice the life through twice
the beauty.
Kaniksu
I was raised in Idaho. It is a unique place, a corner of the world
often unthought of, between the rich and rainy coast and the Great
Plains. It is the West of the West, an eternal frontier. It is here
that rugged individualism still remains in the hearts of many. The
mountains are high and dotted with trees, an untold number of lakes
and streams nestled away in their heights. Atop the Selkirk Crest,
gazing down from Mount Roothaan, a vast canyon lies below, elk
country, filled with little creeks and marsh-ponds, yellow grass all
around. Across the expanse lies Idaho's own Chimney Rock, a hundred
yards high, a landmark visible for miles around. In the other
direction, downwards along the mountain slope, the deep blue of
Priest Lake is visible in the distance. It is these sorts of reveries
that have often sparked the Muse within me, urging me to write poems
and legends.
Limerick
I wrote a limerick for a poetry
competition once, while I was in 6th
grade. I actually didn't even realize it would be entered in a
competition. It didn't win.
Macbeth
The
legends of Shakespeare say that Macbeth
is a cursed play. To speak the word “Macbeth” aloud in a theatre,
other than when reciting one's lines, is to invite sure calamity upon
the performance. Many superstitious actors speak of Macbeth and Lady
Macbeth only as “Mr. and Mrs. M.,” and the play itself as the
“Scottish Play,” lest they invite the curse upon themselves. If
“Macbeth” is spoken aloud by accident, one must perform strange
rituals, often involving reciting quotes from Hamlet
and spitting over one's shoulder, before it is too late.
North
The romantic image of “North” is a powerful one. It is from the
North that the Vikings come to pillage, clad in furs and steel helms,
bringing war and legend with them as their footprints. Wild beasts
stalk the woods, and it is difficult to grow the best crops. The
North is a frozen place, of snow, where one must endure through
strength and perseverance. Hardship, with glory to those who
overcome, are the meaning of the North. The United States has its own
North: Alaska, and the heights of northern Idaho and western Montana.
Onstage
“Stage
Fright” has always been something I've gotten over easily. Having
to speak in front of an audience is a part of life that everyone will
have to get used to, be it for class presentations, political
speeches, or discussions and proposals at one's job. Of course,
there's plenty of bad things that can happen onstage other than stage
fright. I remember being onstage in the final scene of The
Taming of the Shrew
when an actress forgot her cue entirely, leaving the entire scene
drowned in a rather awkward silence for at least a minute, before
someone finally remembered the order of events in the scene and
covered for her. I've had my own blunders, too. Second performances
of plays that last three nights in a row tend to be the weakest, due
to overconfidence from the first night, yet no motivation to do
things perfectly for a final time. The second performance of Julius
Caesar
was no exception to this rule. As Caesar's ghost, haunting Brutus, I
walked backwards at one point to drift off the stage. My incorporeal
form collided into a Greco-Roman column with a solid thud.
It is a good thing that the third and final performance went better.
While the middle performances are usually riddled with incompetence,
the final performances tend to be the best of all, where actors dive
into their roles with all their vim and vigor. If lines are said
wrong, they are covered up immediately with extempore phrases or
extrapolations. All the mistakes of previous nights are watched for,
and actors tend to stretch themselves to their limits to give the
audience as great a show as they can hope to grant them. The final
performances of plays are often the ones where the actors have the
most fun, and which come across to the audience as the most
entertaining. It is therefore recommended for anyone wishing to see
an amateur theatre production to make a point of going to watch it on
its final night.
Pilgrim's
Regress
C.S.
Lewis' The
Pilgrim's Regress
describes
the journey of the romanticist, and in a way, Lewis' own journey,
towards the lost beauty that is always sought. He represents this
beauty in a wondrous island that can always just be seen through the
trees, but always at the rarest and most precious of times, and only
when it is not chased after through illicit means. In the manner of
Bunyan's Pilgrim's
Progress,
the protagonist searches across a land of allegory to find this
island, to grasp fully this lost loveliness of life. At the end of
this weary journey, after trying to have many false things become
that beauty and failing, he finds that the beauty is an aspect of God
to be sought by all mortals. The longing of the romanticist, the The
Pilgrim's Regress
suggests
through its allegories, is to be cherished, and fulfilled by the
happiness of the trials and triumphs of a life physically fading
away, a life yet still made eternal with good faith. The beauty
sought by the romanticist is the perfect essence of the place God has
given us in the cosmos.
Quill
In the olden days, before the invention of the pen, quills dipped in
ink were used for handwriting. Many famous poems, plays and other
literary works must certainly have been originally written by quill.
Risks
Is it strange to fear failure? One must take risks in life, learning
from mistakes while rejoicing in successes. To be a hero, or even to
write of the heroism of others with proper honor and longing, to
embrace one's potential and one's place in the cosmos, to become a
chapter in the beauteous tale longed after but never found: what if
one fails at this? Then that is that person's tale, however meager it
may be. But a life lived well is still worth continuing by all means;
for although one may falter, if he cannot be a hero, do not other
contentments still remain? So let each and every man who would aspire
to greatness never despair in his failure, but rather fight on, being
all that he can be.
Sonnet
Shakespeare wrote over a hundred sonnets in his day. The Elizabethan
Sonnet, the style that he wrote, is often considered a stringent form
of poetry. It is written in Iambic Pentameter, with fourteen lines
each and a specific rhyme scheme.
Troubles
How often have myself and others felt great anger over tiny things?
This is certainly a flaw of character. Why should one give note to a
mere inconvenience? In former centuries, there was true hardship in
life; death and suffering were commonplace. Now we feel sorrow at the
slightest nuisance, and pure shock and horror at greater things. For
how long can such a society endure, a people who do not know pain
until it is too late?
Undefeated
It is said the Alexander the Great never lost a battle. He is truly
a tragic figure in the poetic sense; a brilliant man, whose deeds
changed the world forever, yet who died sorrowful in the prime of his
years.
Vast
The world is unimaginably vast. And one man is but a tiny sliver of
all that exists. It is this burden that is placed on the shoulders of
the aspiring hero; to alter a cosmos far greater than himself. This
task is grave to the degree that it is attempted; if Alexander seeks
to rule the world, than every threat in the world may come at him. To
die is the fate of every human being; only a fool believes himself
invincible in the face of all that exists. The successful hero must
therefore acquire true strength to master the threats that come his
way, and not be swayed along the way by the temptations and
weaknesses of character that hammer away at the rock of his spirit.
Wrath
In
the Iliad,
it is the wrath of Achilles that is his undoing. His anger at
Agamemnon's slighting of him leads him to fight no longer, and invoke
the gods themselves in treachery against his own brothers in arms.
The Greeks come within a hair's breadth of defeat, and Achilles'
closest friend Patroklos even falls in battle while fighting in
Achilles' place. It is only then that Achilles arises, and with great
fury battles the Trojans, slaying the great prince Hektor to avenge
Patroklos.
It is wise to master one's flaws. The classical means by which a
hero enters a state of tragedy, the sins of wrath and hubris, will
bring about the fall of every great figure who keeps them too long.
Indeed, should one carry such flaws before their time of greatness
even comes, they may even burden themselves down, living a life of
misery and never accomplishing that which they sought in the first
place. Those who would seek to carry heroism of similar gravity must
cast aside the trivial worries of contemporary life and embrace
personal strength.
Xenophon
The Greek hero Xenophon wrote down a long and true story of his
adventures: trapped in a distant land with his army, he fought back,
tooth and nail, for years, to make his return. Though his name is not
well known, his strength was very real.
Year
It is strange to think that as I write this, I am a quarter of the
way, at the most, through my life on this earth. I have been given
this time; how will I spend it?
Zephyr
The whirls of the wind are a music in their own way. Even they can
inspire the poet.
