Angelo

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In the Globe Theatre Company's production of Comedy of Errors, Angelo was played by Paul Chahidi.

About Paul Chahidi

Paul has appeared in productions for the Young Vic Theatre Company, Oxford Stage Company, Theatre Clwyd and Birmingham Repertory Theatre. He has also spent a season with the RSC. Paul’s film work includes the role of Gavin in the forthcoming feature Notting Hill.

Click on the numbered links to follow Paul's journey as he creates and plays the character of Angelo in the Globe Theatre.

Paul Chahidi - Introduction

The rehearsals take place in rehearsal rooms about 5 minutes walk from the Globe theatre itself. Each rehearsal room is very large and has an outline of the Globe stage marked out in tape on the floor. This helps the actors to prepare for working on the Globe stage. The actors will have very few rehearsals on the Globe stage before production week.

Each day your actor will receive his/her ‘call’ which is the time s/he is expected to report for rehearsal. During the rehearsal period, an actor’s day will vary considerably. Your actor may rehearse scenes, attend a class (voice and/or movement) or have a costume fitting with the wardrobe department. A typical day might begin at 10.00am and finish at 6.30pm – sometimes there are also evening calls.

During the rehearsal period (particularly at the beginning) your actor will research his/her character. To help the actors, the assistant director will find relevant books, pictures, etc. and bring these to rehearsal. Extracts from books and pictures are often stuck onto the rehearsal room walls. Actors will also experiment with using props in rehearsal; these will be rough versions of the final prop and will help the actors to build the prop into the scene. Similarly, some form of rehearsal costume will be worn e.g. long skirts for the women, this will help actors to get used to moving, sitting, etc. in their costume. In particular, actors will use the actual shoes they will wear in performance during rehearsal. This is to wear the shoes ‘in’, as they are made using Elizabethan techniques and most pairs have no specified ‘left’ and ‘right’ foot. Many actors also feel that wearing the correct shoes helps them to ‘get into’ character.

The companies have 5 weeks of rehearsal before the technical and dress rehearsals. Generally, the beginning of this period is spent improvising around the text and in development of character; towards the end of these 5 weeks, actors will rehearse scenes in detail and run parts of the play. The exact method of working in rehearsal is established and shaped by the director.

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Paul Chahidi - Character Notes 1

These comments are the actor’s thoughts or ideas about the part as s/he goes through the rehearsal process – they are simply his/her own interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsal process progresses.

Paul will be playing Angelo, the goldsmith. So far, the cast has been working mostly on establishing an ensemble feeling within the company - Paul has not yet worked on his character in great detail. The company have been considering the different themes of the play, one of which is travelling. Paul notes that, in Shakespeare’s time, travel was unsafe—you never knew what could happen. The plot of the play itself depends on travel gone awry: a shipwreck where family members are separated. The first scene shows the product of this mishap, a sad older man telling the tale of how his family was torn apart. The company has also been exploring the idea of coming into a strange place. Ephesus, where the play takes place, is located in modern day Turkey and the production will be set in the company’s own fantasy version of Ephesus.

At one rehearsal, Kathryn Hunter, the director, gave the company a picture and asked them to recreate that picture by depicting the people in it, using random props and costumes from a box. At the end of a twenty minute period of improvisation the actors were questioned in role, by the director. The company then recreated the scene, this time, with Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse working as their characters. The other cast members, initially, had to act as the people in their pictures normally would towards strangers. The activity gave the company a chance to get a feel for Ephesian society (as they will portray it). The play will also use Turkish-style music and dance to help establish the company’s imaginary Ephesus.

So far, Paul hasn’t done any text work (at least, not in rehearsal time) because the company are working through the play scene by scene. The whole company worked on the first scene of Act 1: Egeon’s story. The cast split up into small groups and told the story in their own words, acting it using other genres such as silent film, opera etc. Next, they worked on Adriana and Luciana’s relationship. The cast were split into small groups and were encouraged to recreate three scenes from each time of the sisters’ lives (i.e. childhood, adolescence, and adulthood) that were not in the text. Paul likes to work in this way – with the entire cast brainstorming together on character, because he feels they’re getting more ideas that way, and that he really knows the characters that are being created.

Kathryn Hunter gave each actor an animal that she felt might be like their character in order to help them explore the physicality of their role in greater detail. She suggested that Angelo might be like an eel or an ant, but Paul says that he found an eel very difficult to act out, especially once he had to convert it into a human with eel-like qualities. The image was not that helpful for him, but he notes that sometimes he does find this activity useful.

For Paul the company’s biggest challenge at the moment is to establish a way of working together as a group that will enable them to effectively tell the story of the play. The challenge is to find a style for the production - a way for the production to be unique to the Globe and to create a tangible world for the audience.

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Paul Chahidi - Activities

These activities are based on the notes above. They are suggestions only; please feel free to devise your own. Please select the activities which are relevant to your group. You can send students’ work and suggestions from any of these activities to GlobeLink and we will be delighted to forward them to Paul.

The activities have been devised assuming the students know the story of the play.

A Fantasy Ephesus

The production will be set in an imaginary version of Ephesus.

What would your fantasy version of Ephesus look like? Draw a picture or write a description and send it to Paul.

Sounds and Images

Kathryn Hunter, the director, asked the company to tell the story of the play using sounds and images.

Choose a scene or moment in the play and think about what sounds the characters might hear in that scene. You could record them, or write a description of each sound. Send your ‘sounds’ to Paul.

h4. What is said about Angelo?

At the beginning of the rehearsal period actors read through the play and list:

a) everything that is said about his/her character
b) everything that character says about him/her self

Look at the character of Angelo and make these two lists. What do you find out about her character by doing this? Send your lists and observations to Paul so he can compare them with his own.

Animals

One exercise actors often use in rehearsal is to decide which animal most reminds them of their character. This animal might then influence the way they choose to speak and move as their character. Kathryn Hunter suggested that Angelo might be an eel or an ant. Paul is as yet undecided.

Do you agree with Kathryn? Which animal does Angelo remind you of?
Send your ideas to Paul…you might help him make up his mind.

Telling the story

Paul’s biggest challenge at this stage in rehearsal is to ensure he tells the story of the play in a way which will communicate with the audience. One way the company work to do this is to read a scene and then improvise that scene, remembering it in as much detail as possible.

Working in small groups, try this exercise for yourself. How does it help you to focus on the story of that scene?

Who is Angelo’s ‘twin’

As part of their work the company have been looking at the idea of twins. They are exploring the notion that each character has a ‘twin’ in the play – someone that is in the same situation as them and shares certain character traits.

Which character do you think is most like Angelo? It can be any character in the play, not necessarily one he shares scenes with. Send your ideas to Paul.

Working with the verse

At the moment Paul is concentrating on finding the rhythm in the verse. She finds it useful to beat out the rhythm on a table top!

Look at Angelo’s speeches in Act 4 Scene 1. As a class or in small groups try this exercise for yourself.

Egeon’s Story

Read again the description of the activity in which the company improvised the story Egeon tells in his opening speech using different genres.

In small groups try this activity for yourselves. How does it help you focus on the story that is told in that speech?

Rehearsal Calls

Look at the copy of the "call sheet" for the first week of rehearsal. Work out what Paul would be doing on each day.

Either write a day or days in the life of your actor OR choose one scene Paul has worked on during the week and try out ways of playing it for yourselves.

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