Here on my notes that I finally typed up when I went to hear James Purefoy @JamesPurefoy do a workshop and Q&A on Shakespeare as well as his thoughts on how to be in the business of acting. Apart from being a successful TV actor, such as in “The Following” and film actor in such great films as ‘A Knight’s Tale’ as a memorable baddie, he spent years as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company and on the British theatre circuit.
His very focused thoughts on being a working actor again echoed all the successful creatives I know, have heard or have interviewed. A real focus on making it happen no matter what life throws at you.
His thoughts as follows
Be proactive, there is no such thing as resting
Work begets work
If you are not proactive then give up, you have to get auditions, get in the loop.
Ask yourself ‘what do I need to do this week?”
eg
– DVDs out, get on spotlight
– write letters to ..
Redo Spotlight Cv – make it more honed for the work you want to do eg TV or theatre.
Work on your craft but get some auditions
Acting and speaking Shakespeare
He then covered speaking Shakespeare before working with a few actors on King Lear. It was amazing to see how he worked and the performance he got from the actors.
His advice on speaking Shakespeare
In Shakespeare time there were no directors, you were just given your part and a two line cue (so you just had the two lines spoken by someone else, you had no idea how long the gap was, how big your part was, if just one other person spoke or there were four actors on stage all speaking before your next speech.This meant you really had to listen as an actor in Shakespeare’s time (well ours too but we all know how we can forget that when we initially struggling with lines and character)
In the 16th Century the actors eg the Kings Men would do 19 plays in 22 days
Feminine & masculine endings are important
If there is a capital letter in the text this is a giant clue, the word needs to be emphasised & is very important.
Always look for words that oppose each other – they are very important
Seizures .. Pause
With Shakespeare there is no room for acting off the line
Verse speaking is like surging and you are on the edge of the wave. So don’t fall behind.
You can do all the tricks on the surfboard but you have to stay on the board
Tags: Becoming successful, dream and take action, Interview
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