I've been asked to coach my 12-year-old nephew on line readings for a passage of Macbeth -- yes, Macbeth -- for a school play audition. Knowing the school, it'll be a full-dress production (they've hired a professional director, and they've got huge stinking piles of money).

Naturally, it's one of Macbeth's own denser bits of introspection, a passage with lines that even Shakespeare scholars don't fully understand. That's no problem -- I get the gist of it, and I can figure out how to enunciate it and how to explain it to him.

That said, my own stage experience being limited to my own seventh-grade play, if any of you pros have any advice I ought to pass on on , I'd be grateful.

If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twer well,
It were done quickly: If th' Assassination
Could trammell up the Consequence, and catch
With his surcease, Successe: that but this blow
Might be the be all, and the end all. Heere,
But heere, upon the Banke and School of time,
Wee'ld jumpe the life to come. But in these Cases,
We still have judgement heere, that we but teach
Bloody Instructions, which being taught, returne
To plague th' Inventer, this even-handed justice
Commends th' Ingedients of our poisoned Challice
To our owne lips.

I'm no actor. I don't even play one when playing around. But I will say that Shakespeare never made more sense to me than when I lit (Atlanta's) Jomandi's production of Julius Caesar and it was set within the Nation of Islam. Somehow, giving the lines that southern, african-american, full-gospel accent and drawl _without_ changing any of the words, I finally understood every word.

But that's just me. I'm a southerner.

Joe

Heh. For some reason I'm reminded of visiting an Episcopal church in the Carolinas where the pastor happened to have an English accent. I have to say we felt this enhanced rather than detracted from the overall effect, and when we ventured to mention this to him afterward, he expressed his opinion that, while it is possible to have Episcopalian clergy with Southern accents, they cannot do Rite One.

I think I was able to give my nephew a sense of the text and some pointers on phrasing and emphasis.

FWIW, stage veterans, I'm only looking for general tips, sort of auditioning do's and don'ts, not help with the specific excerpt (which I included only for color).

As someone whose directed middle school productions, have your nephew mention that he's a guy. If he does that, he will get a part in MacBeth. Period.

If he wants it to be a big role, the VERY simple things matter a lot. Understanding the lines he's saying, BEING LOUD!!!! and CLEAR.

It's much less complicated than you want to believe. If he looks like he could pull off an "older role" he'll have ashot at MacBeth or Mac Duff or Banquo, but if he's small and boyish, he'll end up as young seward or so other happless soldier bound to be offed in after a single scene.

OH YEAH - and remind him, be on time, be cleanly dressed (not dressy, just neat), be kind to auditors and other actors. And NO EXCUSES OR APOLOGIES. If he has a cold, he shouldn't apologize for the stuffy sounding voice, if he lost his audition script until one hour before the audition, he shouldn't apologize for barely knowing lines, if he has terrets, he shouldn't apologize for random profanity.

A director can't add mental bonus points to the auditions where the people claimed to be sick or have some misfortune, and it pisses off directors when people ask for it. It pisses me off, at least, and I don't think I'm alone.

Oh and one MORE thing. He shouldn't try an english accent, but just speak with excellent enunciation of every word.

Think Proper not Shakespearean.

How'd it go?

Tryout is Tuesday. Thanks for the advice!

I think he'd make a good Macbeth, though he'd be even better as Hamlet. He's smart, introspective, complex.

I don't know about seventh graders, but if it were me, I couldn't help at least leaning a little in the direction of an English accent, e.g., soft-pedaling the "r"s relative to American enunciation, so that "If it were done" comes out sort of "If it wheh done."

I'd agree with Dan when he stressed DICTION over ACCENT. Shakespeare is all about the language, and if the audience can't hear it, they can't understand it. Knowing the context of the story and stressing the importance of the imagery is great, but if a student can grasp the simplicity of just saying the WORDS, and saying them clearly, it is a good 65-70% of Shakespeare. Noticing the collection of similar consonants or vowel sounds - how the words make your mouth move - noticing if the phrase must be spoken slowly or flows quickly; these things are IN THE TEXT and contain the emotion of the moments already - without having to tack on a simplistic "I'm sad right now" kind of emotion. Especially since we're talking about an audition, and not the final performance.

My other best advice is to work with him on working with VARIATIONS - specifically with Pitch, Pace and Power. If you stay on any one of them for too long, it becomes monotonous - careful, though, if you vary them for the sake of variation alone, it just becomes kind of spastic. Again, look for the clues in the text.

I perhaps have too much to say about this for a posting on a message board...

Tell him to break a leg on Tuesday. It certainly is ambitious to do Mackers with Middle Schoolers. It takes a bigger person than myself...

Joe

I was thinking the same thing! I did Cyrano with middle school and it worked. But it was a real nose to the grindstone sort of effort. (pun intended, as always)

Also, McB has a lot of adult content. I guess the admins of the school hear "Shakespeare" and turn a blind eye (or more likely, and ignorant eye).