/lit/ - Literature

>>4996378

actorfag here

>Top play?

I'm assuming you mean non-shakespearian. I'd have to go with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Albee. Although Woyczek is right up there as well.

>Top playwright?

TOP playwright besides Willy is probably GB Shaw or something like that. My personal favorite is probably David Mamet. Oleanna is such a wrenching read.

>Top Shakespearean play?

King Lear

>Why is absurdism still the greatest movement in drama?

Because it was responsible for the last great plays, with the exception of Angels in America.

>Epic theatre or naturalism?

A blend of it. I saw "The Master and Margarita" at the Barbican last year. It was fantastic.

>>4996378

Also, I think RnJ is widely hated because most people are exposed to it as their first Shakespeare play, when they're too young to really "get" Shakespeare plays. People don't understand the beauty of the language, and they get frustrated with Romeo, when Mercutio is really the one you should be focusing on.

>>4996407
You're ok, a little faggy, but I'd tolerate you in my presence whilst drinking wine at a table.

>>4996414

What's your taste, then, nurd?

>>4996417
You're a fag because you appeal to authority rather than have your own opinion.

You say king lear is your fav shakespeare play? If I pressed you to explain why, you'd give me bollocks. Most likey the reason you say Lear is your fav, is because people who have gone beyond entry level Shakespeare would understand why you might.

To people who have gone balls deep in shakespeare (like myself), you're a fraud easily exposed.

I'm not telling you "my taste", because you'll use my tastes to bolster your faux "rep" amongst your kind.

You're literally a charlatan, don't have opinions on things other than opinions on hedonistic appetites and preferences, since that is what you know best and nothing else.

>>4996428

>>4996407
Yeah, I meant non Shakespearean. Good choice though, Albee is my fave after Shakespeare. I can understand the blend of Epic and naturalism being the right choice as even Brecht's own plays don't quite live up to his theories.

>>4996413
You're probably right, and maybe it's just because I just played Romeo that I feel the hate is unwarranted, especially here. His character is complex in that he's much less straightforward than say Titus or Macbeth or even Hamlet. A lot of that comes from Mercutio being the catalyst for a feud Romeo couldn't care less about. I read interestingly in his guide to Shakespeare that Asimov considered Romeo and Juliet to be a comedy up until Tybalt stabs Mercutio. That was something I bought into and found to set apart R&J from the rest of the tragedies. Act 3, scene i(Mercutio and Tybalt deaths) is such a great scene because of the swift turnaround from comedy to tragedy.

>>4996428
>>4996417
REKT

>>4996428

>>4996428

Lear is my favorite Shakespeare play because I was in a really good production of it.

Fag.

>>4996414
>drinking wine
... SO THIS IS WH-
>at a table.
Oh alright, that's cool.

I guess my favorite play right now is Krapp's Last Tape. Very economical and accessible, but boundless in interpretation. I really want to play Krapp, but I should probably wait until I'm older.

Well, Shakespeare is my favorite playwright, but aside from him ... O'Neill, I suppose? I should expand my horizons a bit.

My favorite WS is either Twelfth Night or Hamlet. I'm playing Hamlet in a couple months (some of you might remember my thread about it from a few days ago). I wonder if I'll come out of the production liking the play any more or less. I can already feel my wonder being flattened out a bit, it's a bad feeling. ):

Absurdism is cool. I recently worked on the Martins scene from The Bald Soprano for an acting class. It was fun, we got laughs. I feel like absurdism lacks emotional breadth, though.

Why just epic theater or naturalism? I love melodrama. My Hamlet's gonna be a weeper for sure.

>>4996378
>>Top play?
Don't know enough

>>Top playwright?
Don't know enough

>>Top Shakespearean play?
Hamlet, and I've see a lot of Shakespeare

>>Why is absurdism still the greatest movement in drama?
Because being on stage in inherently campy, so plays that try to be realistic don't work as well.

>>Epic theatre or naturalism?
I'm not familiar with this jargon

>>4996451
Where are you in the process? I know Hamlet is a bit more weighty, but around the middle point of the production period I was burned out and frustrated(mostly with the amateur efforts around me, but that's a different story). I got the energy I needed in the last weeks and fell in love with the role.

Melodrama is, I believe, the weakest choice. David Mamet touches on it in a book: "Three Uses of the Knife: on the nature and purpose of drama" and I have to agree with him. Not to say that every moment has to be blood curdling tragedy or Puck, but I think Hamlet can be a weeper without being melodramatic(crying about Mercutio or Juliet sure as hell didn't feel it and I think my peers and director would agree).

>>4996460
>Because being on stage in inherently campy, so plays that try to be realistic don't work as well.
You're doing it wrong.

>>4996475
>You're doing it wrong.
How so?

>>4996481

Not him but I'll answer:

If you haven't seen enough theatre to be able to form an opinion about a favorite playwright or a favorite play, you haven't seen enough theatre to have seen a truly great naturalistic play.

>>4996485
>a truly great naturalistic play.
...I'm not going to ask.

>>4996493

a truly great performance of a naturalistic play, I should say.

>>4996485
This bird is going to tell you to shut the fuck up (wait for it):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mALNyHFqw14

>>4996485
Thank you. I'm more fond of absurdism and epic theatre(Marat/Sade is my favorite play), but without the understanding I gained of naturalism and realism and the structure of the plays in that vein by getting my BA in theatre performance I probably wouldn't as much. I hated absurdism when I first got into theatre.

>>4996506
>Marat/Sade
pleb detected

>>4996511
And let me guess for you. Long Day's Journey into Night?

>>4996520

Ubu Roi

>>4996524
Well if that wasn't the ultimate play name drop for someone trying to sound patrician I don't know what is.

I'm at that stage where Waiting for Godot is the greatest play ever.

>>4996531

Lel, I'm not that guy

I was just joshing.

>>4996495
Such as?

>>4996534
I've seen End Game and Happy Days, and I still haven't worked up the nerve to watch that piece of shit.

Beckett is insufferable and depressing 95% of the time.

>>4996407
You do know that Henry IV Part 1 is the best Shakespeare and that King Lear is only the second best, right?

>>4996541
>liking the henriad

Anyone else think The Crucible is melodramatic garbage?

>>4996536
Haha, and thus proved me correct. Well played. Ubu Roi is still a riot, I was never doubting that.

>>4996534
Move on to Albee, Pinter, Ionesco, Weiss and Durrenmatt

>>4996548
Read it my junior year of High School. Was nothing special really.

>>4996547
>Not wanting to be Hotspur, Hal and Falstaff at the same time

>>4996541

I do love me some HIV, I have to admit.

>>4996548
Nah, it's a solid drama when done right and much more important given the cultural implications around it.

>>4996555
>>4996534

Don't forget William Inge.

>>4996475
I think that if one takes the dirtiness away from the word melodrama it turns into an excellent and fun tool. What did Mamet say about it?

Of course, just like any actor who uses method acting as their only right hook, I'd be a fool to only employ melodrama. I find that these great sweeping stories like Hamlet and R&J lose something if they're done in naturalistic styles. But perhaps we're operating with two different meanings of the word melodrama.

I have yet to start rehearsing Hamlet. I was given the role ten days ago. The cast has been given all of June to memorize their parts. Then, in July we start rehearsing with the expectation that we're memorized.

I'm concurrently playing Philario in Cymbeline with this company, but maybe you can understand why I give Hamlet the priority in these posts.

>>4996562
yuck.

>>4996571
>But perhaps we're operating with two different meanings of the word melodrama
We certainly are you dumb retard.

Look up Melodrama in Abrams glossary of Literary terms.

Colossal faggot.

>>4996571

Vocaroo a couple lines of Shakespeare for us. No prose.

>>4996591
Dis goin be good.

>Top play?
A Season in the Congo, by Aime Cesaire. Saw it in the Young Vic with Chiwetel Ejiofor as the lead last year, it was great.

>Top playwright?
Arthur Miller

>Top Shakespearean play?
Macbeth

>Why is absurdism still the greatest movement in drama?
ask me later

>Epic theatre or naturalism?
Brechtian.

>>4996428

wow plz be b8

>>4996567
He would have been next probably, but I already thought Durrenmatt was a little obscure for baby's second absurdist.

>>4996571
Actual guy you replied too, not the troll. Mamet essentially says that it's the word that describes all these weak "issue" plays that have plagued the last part of the 20th and so far the 21st century. Melodramas are the kind of plays where you might walk out and say "we get it, gays/blacks/women etc. are people too, can we stop overdramtaizing their struggle because it does nothing at this point."

Best of luck on Hamlet, where are you located? If it were near me, I'd always support a fellow anon actor. I do think we have different meanings of melodrama. By my own admission I'm a terrible actor. I buy in to Brecht's theoretical work as a writer or director, but as an actor have no success unless I'm emotionally lost in the part(which Romeo or Hamlet and classical acting entirely lends itself too).

>>4996604

Did you study Stanlislavski or Meisner or what?

>>4996591
This. Give us your first take on "to be or not to be" and I'll give you my finding Juliet in the tomb speech. I haven't been able to shake the part from my mind yet.

>>4996615
Another anon here, I want to read some Shakespeare!!

Give me something to read. We can make a little tourny out of this!!

>>4996612
A little of both in college, but I hated Meisner. I guess a bastardized Stanislavski like almost any young actor. I would basically get tipsy or high during character work to open myself up emotionally since my strength is my understanding of the text and meter.

I'm a much different actor than director or writer which is why I've limited myself to acting in classical works for the future, text being my strength.

>>4996620
Do Richard II's monologue from act III, scene ii.

Richard II is underrated as fuck and it's a great speech.

>>4996628
Not my best, but I'm finally introducing the regal rolling r's to my accent:

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1vcyGyktz7K

>>4996678

Why are you doing it in a pseudo-english accent?

Shakespeare's actors didn't speak with a modern english accent.

>>4996678
Very clear, I'll warrant that, and not just because it's my go to audition piece and I know it really well. But where was the passion? I know it's a first read but the man has just lost his kingdom.

Once I figure out these microphone issues, I'll deliver on something of Romeo

>>4996706
Fair enough mate. Wish you told me you wanted the full monty. Gimme something else and I'll try again.

>>4996713
Coriolanus III.i. Perhaps a little too appropriate for /lit/

>>4996697
Ugh...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ks-NbCHUns

There are classical trained actors (Hopkins being another actor in this strain) who are trained at academies for a very specific "shakespearean accent" that is quite distinct.

The accent may have been different in Shakespeare's time, but there is a very specific shakespearean accent that has been culminated, and all in drama know of.

>>4996732

Yeah, but you weren't doing an OP. You were doing Received Pronunciation. Just do it in your natural accent.

>>4996732
Some people at the Globe Theatre or something do a thing where they speak in a reproduction of the old time accent
It sounds like Yorkshire mixed with Scots

Went to a play and pretty much all 1000+ people in attendance were aged 75-90. What happens in 10-15 years when all these people are dead? Will they just stop showing plays?

>>4996591
Yeah, I'll show the first stages of my work to a board of anonymous strangers who're already scrutinizing me. Great idea.

>>4996604
I'm doing it in southern New England, where are you at?

>Top play?

EITHER

The Three Sisters

OR

The Importance of Being Earnest

>Top playwright?

Chekhov

>Top Shakespearean play?

Coriolanus

>Why is absurdism still the greatest movement in drama?

Because it's a genuine reaction to the unsettling events which defined the early twentieth century. Haughty Victorian plays just seem vacuous and pretentious by comparison. "Goodbye to all that."

>Epic theatre or naturalism?

Naturalism. I should probably explain my choice.

>>4996769
Midwest. Did Romeo and Juliet in Indianapolis. Moving to Chicago within the week. Better theatrical prospects there.

That's too bad, I thought it would be fun to have anons do Shakespeare, do something not Hamlet for us.

>>4996725
Thanks for giving me some encouragement, this is really fun:

http://vocaroo.com/i/s12t0IMfEeGE

>>4996768
Most likely. It's a bleak future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icmRCixQrx8

>>4996769
You're a faggot fraud, leave or vocaroo you talentless nobody.

Atleast this anon does it:>>4996678

What the fuck are you afraid of?

>>4996797
Why the hell would I read for you? You're already insulting me. I was actually about to do it until I saw your post. I don't want you validating me.

>>4996769

>Yeah, I'll show the first stages of my work to a board of anonymous strangers who're already scrutinizing me. Great idea.

Don't nobody give no fucks. We're just having fun reading some Shakespeare.

Cassius to Brutus (AKA every college audition ever)

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0aHOTk1GvCZ

>>4996749
>Some people at the Globe Theatre or something do a thing where they speak in a reproduction of the old time accent
>It sounds like Yorkshire mixed with Scots

And it's infinitely worse than the "Shakespearean Accent" we all know and love.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WwRyRKiGfs

>>4996809
>wahh you're being a meanie pants on 4chan

Lol faggot.

>>4996830
>Elliot Rodger image macro
>"Faggot
Mongrel

>>4996813
You have a very clean American accent.

Bretty good bro.

>>4996847

Thanks. You can hear my DMV come through with me pronouncing "bend" like "bnnd"

Wow, I'm sorry this thread has gotten so angry. I hope the person shitposting at Hamlet has been one of the people recording.

Here's Romeo's final speech. I'm not happy with it at this point. I guess now I realize what doing the whole fucking show(particularly the banishment scene) lends energy to this speech. Also Juliet was a qt and that always helps.
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0mcNkxkpDPN

Listening to the others now.

>>4996839
>poopboy
>flop bop
weeeweoeoeooee :--)(((((((( wienerrrrr :--D)

>>4996850
What do jew tink bout dis?: >>4996788

>>4996788
Much better. Still a bit affected, but that will always happen on first takes on speeches. Look into iambic pentameter and people
performing it with the da Dum da Dum rhythm. I would give you angrier characters. I'd love to hear the Richard II with that anger.

>>4996813
Nice. The swimming story is a part I would consider cutting were I to direct it because of the short audience attention spans. I have an unfinished script of Julius in the style of Anouilh's Antigone

>>4996852
Not bad at all. Bretty good actually.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYppdp_2GCk

>>4996881
Thank you, this has been the funnest time I've had on /lit/ in a long time.

Why aren't you vocarooing more often?

>>4996856

The accent is hindering you, I'd say. You're also pausing in the wrong places and running through places that are supposed to be pauses (you have a tendency to add pauses at the ends of lines, and you blew through a couple semicolons), which makes me wonder if you know what it is you're saying. Remember that Shakespeare is basically phrase within phrase within phrase with his sentences, so remember that you're keeping track of a thought through a single sentence. Also, remember that in general american accents and in received pronunciation, a habit people fall into is to drop their vowels when they're saying "to [something]", so for example, "to choose" becomes "t'choose". Fight that.

We like to think of Shakespeare as some grandiose series of speeches given to the heavens, but keep in mind that these are people talking just like you and me. They use sentences and pauses, whether those be caesural or pregnant. Try to shake the feeling of "I'm acting Shakespeare" and just allow yourself to find the flow and rhythm of the piece.

Of course that's just my two cents; you talk to a hundred different directors you'll get a hundred different takes. Keep it up, though.

>>4996912
I now want to do this again because I rehearsed that R&J monologue into the ground and just closed the production. Mayhap I'll continue doing theatre generals with monologue vocaroos.

>>4996886
Thank you. I can appreciate the scene in Hot Fuzz where they see R&J so much more. "Thus with a kiss I die." and other "O I am slain" lines.

>>4996919
Good advice, tanx. I did just throw it together in less than 4mins.

>>4996919
This is why I told him to look at iambic pentameter more closely. It will come much easier once you've gone through a huge part doing the whole thing "but SOFT, what LIGHT through YONder WINdow BREAKS?"

>>4996935

>I did just throw it together in less than 4mins.

Don't ever apologize for your work.

>Sorry, I'm a little sick today...
>This is just a cold read...
>I would never play this in real life anyway...

Fuck that. Be proud of what you've done.

>>4996935
holy fuck i had a friend who made a face like that all of the time.

>>4996949
This. Surefire way to ruin any impression on an actor(assuming you are one) is to apologize.

>>4996678
you're the faggot canadian that wants to be posh.
why are you still alive?
Captcha: cialist Scores

>>4996935
this le feel man face reminds me of Stan Laurel

so wat do you guys think of nitsch?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOUkS__IJhk

>>4996953
*as an actor, on a director

>>4996956
No him, but why don't you give us a reading of "Friends, Romans, Countrymen..."

>>4996949
>>4996953
I didn't appologize, but I was accused of reading without fully understanding what I was reading here:>>4996919

I then explained that I threw it together in 4mins which is why it sounds like that.

Besides, I think I did a pretty damn good job for reading that passage out loud only two times as practice.

Also, not an actor, but I think I could be one with practice.

>>4996962
Looks pretty interesting. Some performance art is legitimate. I'd like to see this filmed entirely from the audience perspective without the cuts.

>tfw you will never write and direct an intense absurd/performance art piece with Michael Gira writing the music.

>>4996956
>you're the faggot canadian that wants to be posh.
I believe you're mistaken. I am posh.

>>4996976
goddam you're ugly.
nope, you're just a canadian fag that wants to be posh.

>>4996974
>Some performance art is legitimate.
Get the fuck out and never come back.

>>4996966
Fair enough. You should look into local Shakespeare companies that have open auditions. Seriously, nothing is more rewarding than delivering verse on stage(particularly in a titular or excellent part like Aaron)

>>4996986
Yes we've all seen the fat asian in heels slipping around on butter to Adele. I'm talking about the pieces that are closer to the absurdist traditions.

>>4996986

>imblyign

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gYBXRwsDjY

>>4996988
>nothing is more rewarding than delivering verse on stage
Did you want to give a boner or?

>>4996983
schizoid neet pls go.

>>4997037
kill yourself, you grotesque piece of shit

>>4997032
No and unfortunately iambic pentameter doesn't get the girls wet these days.... But I came to realize this perhaps one night when I just really got into the emotional aspects of act III, scene iii. Probably the best work I've done as an actor, and despite saying banish, banished, banish'd and banishment 20 times in the scene, it's one of my favorites now.

>>4997042
Whatsa matta? Papa wasn't around? Mama didn't care much about you?Not my fault m8.

>>4997065
>canadian
>trying to be clever

>>4997062
>No and unfortunately iambic pentameter doesn't get the girls wet these days

Who said anything about girls? They're a quickly devaluing commodity. Fraternity and platonic love is truer than anything.

The reason for my boner is that I have a sexual appetite for art and achievement, things you can't really fuck, but still get me hard regardless.

Also, cleanliness and orderliness do that to me too.

>>4997082
An interesting take. I can appreciate a sexual appetite for art however.

And all I'll say about women in this thread is that it would be interesting to see a Shakespearean play done like it was then, without women. And also that I don't understand why there aren't feminists staging Lysistrata everywhere these days.

>>4997082
I get a hardon when I'm playing Crusader Kings II
I can play that game and jerk it for days on end

>>4997090
>And also that I don't understand why there aren't feminists staging Lysistrata everywhere these days.
Because Shakespeare is hard and Sex in the City is fun.

>>4997099
Lysistrata is Aristophanes, but the point remains.

bumping?

>>4997306
I'll bump too cus I didn't really want this thread to end so soon...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8qs_Nv4fgw

Beautiful woman with mustache=confuses me greatly.

>>4997306
>>4997346
>tfw your thread is bumped by anons
I wish I wasn't too stoned so as to be unable to write my thanks in iambic pentameter.

Great version of that scene. I hope that Jew who decided to rewrite The Merchant of Venice to be "less anti-semitic" never finishes.

I vow to revive this thread, or make new theatre generals. I enjoyed the vocaroo and thought it to be an interesting prospect to work my audition material on here.

>>4997433

Definitely.

Forget about Romeo, Mercutio is by far the most fun character to play. I've done a fair share of Shakespeare acting, and Mercutio tops any other character.

>>4996434
All with you re: the comedy/tragedy aspect. The early Mercutio/Benvolio scenes are fucking hilarious. IMO that makes the tragedy much more powerful than the love affair; it's so heavy to see the shift from teenage fucking around to doom & gloom. Benvolio's despair gets me every time.

>>4997518
Well of course, he has to steal the show for the play to work. But not everyone is cut out to be Mercutio, I could never have played him, Romeo was the clearer fit.

>>4997540
Our director cut the banter between Romeo and Mercutio the morning after he meets Juliet heavily, so despite myself and the actor playing Mercutio having great chemistry as drinking buddies we lost a lot of their relationship. To me that's a huge point of the plot, the platonic brotherhood between Romeo, Mercutio and Benvolio has to be as great as his love for Juliet in a way.

>>4997568
And were I to revisit this play, I would feel it a better choice to change Balthazar to Benvolio instead of having him disappear after Mercutio's death.

>>4996378

>Angels in America, maybe not tops but my fave
>Shakespeare
>so hard to pick one, but King Lear
>what if I don't agree with this at all?
>naturalism. epics don't work in theater very well.

>Top play?
Agamemnon

>Top playwright?
Calderon de la Barca

>Top Shakespearean play?
The Tempest

>Why is absurdism still the greatest movement in drama?
merdre!

>Epic theatre or naturalism?
idk the difference, but epic theater sounds cooler B^)

>>4997584

Epic theatre = Brecht

Naturalism = Strindberg

>>4997587
>implying that clarifies anything

>>4997584
>Calderon

my nigga, Life is a Dream is great. Though sometimes I feel it would be better if like almost everyone died at the end. More satisfying.

Just read a little about Brecht(his writing on theatre is great but dense). Practically everything you see is more like naturalism.

>>4997595

Epic theatre is a form of theatre created by playwright Bertolt Brecht. It's typically vast in scope as the name would imply, tackling relevant social issues. The plays are usually extremely long. The acting style of epic theatre breaks Aristotle's conventions: the characters are meant to represent ideals, not believable figures. Brecht felt that Aristotelean theatre allowed audiences to congratulate themselves, so his style of theatre is accusatory - actors would sometimes literally tear down the sets at the ends of the plays and demand the audience start a revolution.

Naturalism was codified by Strindberg in his preface to "Miss Julie". He sought to do away with the lengthy monologues of neo-classicism and the excess of the German "Sturm und Drang" theatre. Dialogue was clipped and halting, not long and flowing. Actors no longer wore ridiculous stage makeup, and revolutions in lighting styles changed from the greenish footlight (the lime light) to softer side lighting. Sets were also carefully constructed with working stoves, cabinets, and drawers. actors often ate and drank onstage. He also allowed for what he called the "pantomime" - extended periods of no dialogue, just characters behavin as they would in their environment. It differed from the realist movement (Ibsen) because naturalism often used coarse language and examined issues related to the lower class.

>>4997577
Oh yeah, we actually did that in our production (ditch Balthazar for Benvolio)

>>4997616
Well done.