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Friday, September 13, 2024
‘It’s three hours, but it’s action-packed’: How the cast of Cymbeline navigates one of Shakespeare’s most eventful plays
Intermission Magazine: A lot happens in Cymbeline.
If asked to recount the plot of the mammoth Shakespeare romance after a single viewing, I’d wager most audience members would forget at least one major element — whether it’s the beheading, the visit from Jupiter, the vial of poison that’s actually a sleeping potion, or the full-on Roman war.
Cymbeline sounds like a very fun show to work on. It's really cool to see how each of the actors built the backstories for their characters and what they felt about playing them. I also found it cool how they said they had to build up the stamina to perform for three hours, just like working out a muscle. While we do get a lot of info about the acting side of the challenges of this three-hour play, I'd be really interested to hear what the crew has to say about this titan. I'd be interested to hear what challenges a play of this size would offer that I'm not aware of. I'd definitely be curious to see what their policy is when something breaks or goes wrong on stage, since depending on when the thing breaks, there might still be a long while until intermission. I was so interested in this play, I googled where it was at to see if I could get tickets, but unfortunately it is too far away in Canada for me to go see.
Cymbeline seems like an action-packed play, even for a work of Shakespeare. The article alludes to quite a bit of drama in only a three-hour timespan, though by some that would be excessive time, such as: beheading, poisoning, manipulation, marriage, more violence, visits from gods, war, etc. The note about not letting the character ‘slip into passivity’ is vital from an actor’s perspective, I’m sure- as a stage actor rehearses and performs finite scenes a seemingly infinite number of times, it would be difficult to continuously bring new life and high emotion to the character. The power Allison Edwards-Crewe mentions in having a strong female lead understanding the injustices of her world as injustices and not as circumstances in which she is the victim, is powerful in and of itself. This play, overall, seems like a fun but challenging play to work on, especially for castmembers.
The amount of stamina it takes to do three hours of intense, high-action Shakespeare is insane to me. Especially for Cymbeline, we’re not just talking physical stamina but mental stamina as well. So many of the characters are both mentally and emotionally taxing, with a lot to them and their stories. I can only imagine that embodying them as an actor takes a lot. The point that was made about it taking a lot of hydration to do the show made me start thinking about the health part of performing that you don’t hear discussed very often. As someone who doesn’t perform, it makes me wonder what kind of self care has to happen by the actors in order for them to perform at that level. I wonder what kind of things they have to do the day before or day of performance, or every day in general, in order for them to stay healthy and able to perform at their best, especially when the show is as taxing as Cymbeline.
3 comments:
Cymbeline sounds like a very fun show to work on. It's really cool to see how each of the actors built the backstories for their characters and what they felt about playing them. I also found it cool how they said they had to build up the stamina to perform for three hours, just like working out a muscle. While we do get a lot of info about the acting side of the challenges of this three-hour play, I'd be really interested to hear what the crew has to say about this titan. I'd be interested to hear what challenges a play of this size would offer that I'm not aware of. I'd definitely be curious to see what their policy is when something breaks or goes wrong on stage, since depending on when the thing breaks, there might still be a long while until intermission. I was so interested in this play, I googled where it was at to see if I could get tickets, but unfortunately it is too far away in Canada for me to go see.
Cymbeline seems like an action-packed play, even for a work of Shakespeare. The article alludes to quite a bit of drama in only a three-hour timespan, though by some that would be excessive time, such as: beheading, poisoning, manipulation, marriage, more violence, visits from gods, war, etc. The note about not letting the character ‘slip into passivity’ is vital from an actor’s perspective, I’m sure- as a stage actor rehearses and performs finite scenes a seemingly infinite number of times, it would be difficult to continuously bring new life and high emotion to the character. The power Allison Edwards-Crewe mentions in having a strong female lead understanding the injustices of her world as injustices and not as circumstances in which she is the victim, is powerful in and of itself. This play, overall, seems like a fun but challenging play to work on, especially for castmembers.
The amount of stamina it takes to do three hours of intense, high-action Shakespeare is insane to me. Especially for Cymbeline, we’re not just talking physical stamina but mental stamina as well. So many of the characters are both mentally and emotionally taxing, with a lot to them and their stories. I can only imagine that embodying them as an actor takes a lot. The point that was made about it taking a lot of hydration to do the show made me start thinking about the health part of performing that you don’t hear discussed very often. As someone who doesn’t perform, it makes me wonder what kind of self care has to happen by the actors in order for them to perform at that level. I wonder what kind of things they have to do the day before or day of performance, or every day in general, in order for them to stay healthy and able to perform at their best, especially when the show is as taxing as Cymbeline.
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