Anthony Margulies
Prof. Judith Jablonka
MHC 100
11/11/10
Theater
How Does One Learn About Theater?
My exposure to theater in my life has been brief and insignificant. The last time I took part in a play was in fifth grade when I played the role of Squanto at our Thanksgiving Day feast. Since then, I have never partaken in any form of serious acting. This is not to say that I do not like theater though. I very much enjoy watching theater and until recently, I never really understood what goes into making a play. However, after participating in a class conducted by Rodney Gutierre and seeing the performance Penelope, I was able to comprehend and understand the problems facing a theater production, as well as the hard work that goes into making such productions, in a much clearer manner. Part of this is do to my age and my grasp of knowledge presented to me, but also simply seeing and observing what it takes to make a play and get the lines right really did help in my new understanding.
During Rodney’s visit we did a few run-thru’s of Shakespeare’s work. Rodney did not fail to point out every single sexual innuendo that Shakespeare made, which surprisingly was a lot. Just having Rodney translate the old English into new English showed that Shakespeare must have had a very high libido while writing his plays. On multiple occasions there were normally three of 4 sexual references within the lines. For example, flowers standing straight or limp, the soul feeling rigid or soft etc… Personally I had some experience with Shakespeare and that he had included a lot of sex in his plays, but never had I been exposed to, nor knew about how much sex Shakespeare had in his plays. Rodney’s knowledge of this was invaluable in gaining a new perspective on Shakespeare as a whole. The social issues he confronted by making sexual innuendos were at the time unheard of. Had he outright explained what the lines were, he most likely would have been hanged. Instead, he managed to spread his message using deceitful techniques that avoided censorship.
One of Rodney’s greatest points during the lesson was when he asked us to interpret the lines of Shakespeare. So we read them pretty unanimously and he asked us “what type of mood we felt those lines were?” Again, fairly unanimously we said they were romantic, and excited. Then, however, to our surprise, he asked a few kids to read the lines in as sultry a manner as possible. Suddenly the seemingly common language took on a seductive and sexy tone to the point of almost being prurient. Even more fascinating was when Rodney had these same lines be read in a scared and horrified manner. Again, just like before, the lines took on a whole new meaning, no longer sexual or romantic, but fearful and grotesque. This to me was the most amazing part of Rodney’s visit. He showed how interpretations of lines could affect a play in drastic ways.
Never before had I considered that how you interpreted the meaning of just one line could affect the entire outcome of a play. If it weren’t for Rodney, I would have just assumed that everyone read Shakespeare the same way as the person next to them. This however is false. In fact everyone interprets the tone and mood of Shakespeare’s works differently and, this leads to different interpretations of what his work means. One person might see sex as the central message, while others might see fear. One person might read a line and think it is common and romantic, another might read it and think it is sultry and seductive. This concept in Shakespeare, and theater as a whole was entirely new to me and it opened my eyes in a way I wasn’t expecting at all during Rodney’s visit. If there’s one thing I wish to really thank him for it would be helping me to realize that theater is open to interpretation and that there is no one set way of doing something. Anyone can read a line anyway they want and they can subsequently act it out however they want. This is what enables theater to have so many varieties of the same play, and it was something I had never quite connected the dots about before Rodney’s visit.
After gaining my new insights into what it takes to actually interpret and act out the lines to a play, it was time to see this in action. Penelope at St. Ann’s Warehouse was an interpretation of the last book of the Odyssey. It is set in a fairly modern time frame yet still included the traditional elements of the story. In the chapter of the book that this play featured, the suitors are trying to win Peleope’s hand in marriage while her husband desperately seeks to make his way home and kill all who threaten to take his wives’ hand in marriage. This reflects Odysseus’s journey home to claim his wife again before she remarries. While the overall mood of the play is quite sad, after all you’re hoping the entire time that Penelope will wait for her husband, there is a lot of anger, surprise, laughter, and excitement that had to be interpreted and infused into the play. This is where Rodney’s lesson seemed most prevalent.
Throughout the play, the character of Dunne, albeit fat, depressed and lonely continuously serves to interject comic relief into the story line despite the depressing situation that the characters are in. For this to be effective, the actor playing Dunne, Denis Conway, had to precisely interpret his lines in a manner that would serve to create this comic feeling. While he could have read in a monotone and depressed fashion, instead, by saying his lines in an enthusiastic and even cocky manner he is able to interject the sarcasm and irony the play needs. Similarly, the character of Quinn also serves to interject some stark realism into the play as well as comedy. Played by Karl Shiels, Quinn is the cockiest of all the characters and yet he is just as depressed and lonesome for Penelope’s hand. Despite this depression, Quinn manages to make his presence known on stage by hiding his depression and pursuing the idea that, despite the fact that he is aging, he thinks of himself as twenty years old. Overall it took a correct interpretation of the lines these men had and how to properly present them that enabled them to have the comedic effect that was intended for the characters. Only by participating in and listening to Rodney’s lesson was I able to realize this.
Theater is not as simple as it sometimes appears on the surface. Thanks to Rodney Gutierre’s visit I was able to gain a new appreciation for what it takes to actually put on a play. It’s not about just reading lines, anyone can do that. It’ about presenting those lines in the manner that best suits the play your doing and the actors of Penelope exemplified this very well. Only by interpreting the meaning of lines correctly can one truly present them properly, and thanks to Rodney, I now understand this better than ever before.
