Changing the concept of how we perform Shakespeare in this production has to be one of the most challenging pieces in this production. As part of this scene we are exploring stand-up comedy using Shakespearian text. As a performer in Hand Me Down, the beginning process of Shakespeare, I found it to be quite difficult and I must admit, it has been the most challenging part of this production, due to us changing the concept of the text and how it needs to flow smoothly. Many people in the audience from young to old, will be familiar with certain Shakespearian text, so it is utterly important to deliver the lines to an excellent standard. When performing comedy I understand that stand-up isn’t just about the amount of people who turn up or the amount of jokes you have, its about the way in which you deliver the jokes. There are a number of talented comedians all of which have characteristics to make themselves unique and stand out.

With further development, we have engaged with the concept of the ‘mock the week’ a famous TV show. We feel that this humour and stylized scene would be a perfect way to end Take me by the tongue, challenging the style of Shakespeare in a comedic style. The variety of context we have in Take me by the tongue is very much complex and in future performances this is something we want to keep, allowing our company to explore the high’s and low’s in each continuing theme, as we are a contemporary Theatre company who explore a variety of issues within the production.

Each person who is in this scene has adopted certain techniques which comedians have, in order to make it funnier when delivering our Shakespeare lines. This concept challenges the perception of this original text as some audience members may not be familiar with Shakespeare being performed in a comedy style nor in ‘mock the week’.

The comedian I have undertaken to watch is Sarah Millian, gaining characteristics of how she delivers her jokes. I have watched how she addresses the audience, adopting specific techniques to help my delivery a lot stronger. The audience participation is something which we are wanting to do through the production, addressing and communicating to the audience. This is something that we will keep in future performances and may even develop into audience interaction, exploring performer and audience relationships. Although we are not trying to be these comedians, it is an excellent strategy to help and engage our audience with the idea of we are trying to present. With Sarah Millican, the way she delivers her jokes, is in a story form, she uses her hands and her accent to express and emphasize parts of the story, making it more engaging to watch and listen to. This is something that I am going to rehearse and practice to get a positive response from the audience. This allows me to take the attitude of ‘if your jokes are the message, your character is the medium…then again you could fairly say your character is the message’ (Sankey.J,1998).

Adopting a character in this scene makes the performance bigger and allows the actor to exaggerate their physical appearance when delivering a joke. With the use of hand gestures, accent and dramatic pauses, makes her distinctive and memorable, which is something I ‘am hoping to achieve. The use of watching and using specific techniques allows the comedy to be more fluent. This particular scene needs to be of excellence, particularly if it is ending the showing as we want the audience to be positively talking about us, gaining more audience for future productions.

Take Me By The Tongue explores a range of themes within this particular production, allowing Hand me Down to touch upon recent and relevant issues within our productions. Because Shakespeare is so familiar with a variety of people, it was important for this show, exploring text to add Shakespeare into this production. This is because that this concept does challenge peoples perceptions of how Shakespeare should be performed. When performing Shakespeare ‘There has to be a balance to being seemingly natural on the one hand and coming to terms with the heightened language on the other’ (Barton,1984 ,pg19) this is so that the Shakespeare language doesn’t get lost and become a mimic, loosing the impact of what the scene is conveying.

Box Clever Theatre company explore Shakespeare in an imaginative and contemporary style sort of way. They explore Shakespeare through the use of music and dance, modernising the language, making it suitable for their target audience. This concept is something that we have done, as Shakespeare texts have been explored in many ways through out Take me by the Tongue. Box Clever Theatre company explore themes such as ‘love and hate, youth and age, passion and responsibility’ (Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, 2014,Online) allowing the audience to progress the journey in their show, again which is something that we have adopted, making it more engaging for our audience.

          (Box Theatre Company,2011: Romeo and Juliet)

This statement ‘Shakespeare makes modern culture; modern culture makes Shakespeare (Garber,2008,xxxiii) because of Shakespeare we see the heightened deep meanings behind the plays which touches upon modern culture today, for example Richard III play ‘Lest I revenge, what myself upon myself? Alack! I love myself, wherefore any good that I myself have done unto myself’ this transition of Steph and I, who perform this scene, touch upon the modern culture, how women are supressed to look a certain way. We exaggerate the physical essence of this scene due to the performance being performed in a large space, but the idea behind this scene is to represent the pressure of how women contemplate and judge themselves to look a certain way, which we have played on the idea of crazy obsession.

Youtube( 2010) Sarah Millican Live At The Apollo Full [Online video] Available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gyuo9ZH3frE [Assessed 13 may 2014]

Sankey.J (1998) Zen and the art of Stand-up comedy Routledge. London.

Barton.J (1984) Playing Shakespeare. Publishers Limited. London.

Garber.M (2008) Shakespeare and modern culture: Author of Shakespeare after all. Pantheon Books. United States of America.

My main role in Hand me down, is playing a vital part in the performance, I have undertaken the role of helping with organising costume, alongside Libby. The pictures below are diagrams to show the initial idea behind each scene, when costume is needed in Take me by the Tongue . This is to understand what each performer may need to have in a particular scene, to help us with the process of the station layout of what needs to be where. I’ve done these diagrams to help Libby, Andy and myself to see what we may need in order to get an accurate list of what is needed for our production of Take me by the tongue. These diagrams are very helpful and in future productions is a very useful concept to help us organize, allowing all members of Hand me Down to see and contribute to what would work best for the costume designs. Each costume is a representation of the character, allowing the costumes to be easy and quick, to make a smooth transition to each station and scene. The use of having an item of clothing or a prop, creates the illusion of becoming someone, in front of the audience, again heightening the fact that we are not ourselves when we have a prop or costume in the performance space. This idea of having this concept, allow us to frame our scenes and transitions through out the performance.

                                                                                                              (First Sketches: Jessica Jarvis 2014)

The variety of text we use range from past and present and particularly in one of our scenes in Take me by the Tongue you will be able to see the different between past and present, without even using language, just by communicating with props and costume. David Roman talks about image and the ‘process and exchange-between artists and audiences, between the past and present where new societal formations emerge’ (2009,Vi) this helps us to play on props and costumes to show the difference in time and the fact that things don’t change. Using obvious props and costumes again helps to communicate effectively and easily for our audience to grasp.

Hiccup Theatre Company recently performed at the LPAC with their interpretation of Pinocchio. It was a very relaxed pre set with the actors on stage, which allowed the audience to admire the aesthetics of the production. In Take me by the Tongue, we do something very similar, allowing the audience to feed in and take in what is going on around them. This allows the production to be framed by the use of minimalistic set and create the atmosphere of the first scene. For Take me by the Tongue the stations provided are what frames the production, beautifully designed by Libby Sober, our set designer. The idea of an minimalistic staging frames the importance sections of the performance using minimalistic style to our piece it is said to allow ‘focusing on fundamentals that are not marred or hidden by the introduction of secondary elements’ (WiseGeek,2014) this approach of minimalism allows the presentation of Hand me Down to stage the production using movement from the actors to framing the direction of the performance. Having minimalistic costume links very nicely with the aesthetics of the staging and the overall fell of the production. The concept of our piece challenging perceptions, and having an minimalistic setting can be seen as ‘retiring from the busy-ness of the world and entering into a sanctuary that is un-cluttered and serene’ (Wisegeek,2014)helping the audience to watch and reflect on the production of Take me by the Tongue.

Throughout this process we have been discussing the base of what the performers are going to wear. We didn’t want all black as that is seen as ‘cliché’ we liked the idea of black bottoms and grey shirts, not necessarily all the same, as we are who we are, keeping the idea of having what style of top you would normally wear and we like the idea we all have the same colour. The grey colour indicates neutralism, allowing it to draw a straight line to show that we are all equal, due to the fact that our productions draws upon feminism and beauty etc., so as a theatre company we decided that this idea would frame our production well. The use of having one item of clothing symbolises a different character, making it efficient when changing from scene to scene. The use of costume and props have been used to compliment the character, working together as a representation, making it a clear overview of who each person is. This concept of using one items of props and costumes is something that we can work with in future productions touching upon other themes in future performances. The London Contemporary Theatre company receive no regular funding, which is a similar situation to Hand me Down Theatre. They use the support of others to contribute costumes, props, money donation and theatrical equipment. For Hand me Down this would be an excellent tool for us to consider in future prospects for future performances, for finance reasons.

Conjecture Corporation. (2003-2014). Minimalistic. Available: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-minimalism.htm. Last accessed 28th May 2014.

2013 London Contemporary Theatre Ltd . (2013). Supporting Us. Available: http://www.londoncontemporarytheatre.com/support/index.html. Last accessed 28 May 2014.

Treidman.J (2009) Performing different representation of the other in film and theater. USA.