Another version of the tempest

I was searching online and found this 'Steampunk' version of The Tempest. I watched the trailer and thinks it looks really good.
http://www.thetempest.com.au/

Shakespeare Workshop on the 26th of April

I took the Professional Opportunities on the 26th with a lady called Chloe Stephens. She is a respected actress, choreographer and teacher after studying at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and told us that she recently worked as Assistant Choreographer at Shakespeare's Globe theatre.
She told us the workshop she had planned wouldn't be 100% useful because it was more tailored towards the start of our Shakespeare process.
It was a workshop on characterization bringing an animal's qualities to our roles. Picking one particular animal to recreate the goddess was hard because I feel that character is complex in her physicality and her origins, so eventually i settle on one single aspect of Iris which I chose to be a swan, due to her power and high position over humans. I thought they are elegant yet strong and suited an element of Iris. It was interesting taking our physicalities from 100% animal 0% human, to about 40% animal 60% human because you really saw the colours of the characters coming through.
It was a good workshop but it wasn't fully appropriate to our stage in the Shakespeare process but oh well
 ( it also made a group of us late for rehearsal with Katie so no brownie points there!)

The Bermuda Shipwreck!

A source of events from the Bermuda shipwreck of 1609

1.   A voyage to Italy within the Mediterranean.

2.   Discord among the participants; the crew against the passengers.

3.   The ship driven by a ‘tempest’. (Physical vs Mental)

4.   Loss of hope.

5.   An angel visits the ship; (compare to Ariel? or Sprites)

6.   Desperate maneuvers to avoid the lee shore of an unknown island.

7.   Detailed description of nautical techniques.

8.   The ship runs aground and splits.

9.   Passengers and crew swim ashore on loose or broken timbers;

 compare to Stephano coming ashore on a butt of sack.

10.  The island has barbarous inhabitants; (compare to Caliban? Or even Prospero          and Miranda?)

11.  Supernatural involvement. ( heavily influencing Shakespeare's work?)

12.  A seeming miracle; St. Paul immune to snakebite.

13.  A safe trip to Italy after a stay on the island.

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There are no exact references or links to this event and no one has ever officially classified it as being a copy but you can't copyright inspiration, as Shakespeare has tested on many of his plays. 

The Globe Sketches

This is a detailed sketch of Shakespeare's Globe theatre.

This is a larger more detailed labelled version of the Globe. Traditionally the richer paying audience members  would sit higher to the top of the gallery. 

First reaction to the theme

I believe African's have a more grounded, natural physicality and movement to the British so this should be interesting to help personify an indigenous character. Being involved with set and costume should be a good way of creating a completely different atmosphere, it will also help greatly in differentiating the nationalities. I like the fact we are able to bring politics to such a mystical and fantasy based story.  

Things will have to work on to be good at Shakespeare:
Articulation and Pronounciation
Line learning - Have a poetic mind, and be able to convince details
Know your objectives and motives
Speak in iambic pentameter
Know where the 'caesura' is
Find antithesis, find the light and dark in each line.

"Every single character on stage should take pride in their scars"
We've all been affected by a chain of events. Take pride in the journey your character took to get to this moment in time.

Sierra Leone and other influences

When Will first mentioned that we where looking at colonization and the influence of the British (Freetown) I have to be honest, I didn't know that much about Sierra Leone. Even when we kept talking about it I got very confused, so I came home and researched what went down there.
I found out that Sierra Leone was first colonized in 1787 when the British founded Freetown ( which is not the capital ) as a place of refuge for the Africans who had been freed from slavery. The 'coastal region' became a British colony in 1808. Independence was achieved in 1961.
The 'black poor' that arrived of the coast of Sierra Leone were accompanied by British tradesmen. 

I think it is important in our piece to contextualize our theme, make sure we give the audience enough information to understand whats going on in our abridged version. With this in mind Will had researched real life people interlinked with the happenings in Freetown and mirrored our characters off them.
Prospero is infused with John Glover, but we also wanted Prospero to be a 'chemist' who emits drugs as his sorcery. Prospero's security is having control with substances.  
Caliban is reflective of Reverend Samuel Crowther: In 1864, Crowther was ordained as the first African bishop of the Anglican Church. In our version we want him to be forced to be in service to Prospero. 
Ariel is usually portrayed as an impish fairy-like creature who is messenger to Prospero and personal companion. In our version we wanted him to be an indigenous Sierra Leone character who had the physicality of a strong African man who could switch and fightback against Prospero (possibly even overthrow)
 

What are the main possible themes for The Tempest?

First lesson we sat and discussed possible themes for Shakespeare's 'Tempest'.
-Arranged Marriage: The planned romance between Miranda and Ferdinand by Prospero
-Magic: The obvious sorcery that is prominent in the plot and manipulation by Pospero, Ariel, and the Spirits
-Ostracized: The shipwrecked get split up and cast away from reality
- Slavery: Ariel and Caliban being subject to slavery from Prospero. Miranda also captive, and the shipwrecked under control.

Will questioned if we were going to give the play a new concept or stage it in a creative way, what would we do. I came up with the theory that the island is Prospero's personal game. He is 'game master' and controls all their journey's round the 'board'. Taking themes from other literary sources like Suzanne Collins' "Hunger Games" and possibly something as lighthearted as "The Truman Show" comes the idea of all shipwrecked men split up and finding their way back together. Just an idea that would be played with further.