Dogberry

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About Sarah Woodward

This is Sarah's first season at Shakespeare's Globe. She played Miranda in Royal Shakespeare Company's 1994 production of The Tempest. She has also performed at the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Court Theatre and in the West End. Sarah received an Olivier award for her performance in Tom & Clem at the Aldwych Theatre, and you will also spot her in the films I Capture the Castle and Doctor Sleep. Television credits include Final Demand and Inspector Pitt Mysteries.

Rehearsal notes 1

  • The funny policeman
  • First days
  • Playing a man
  • First impressions
  • Clothing
  • Globe space

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.

The funny policeman

I was actually thinking about the part of Don John when I first came in to read. My husband was part of the Globe Company last season so I’d been here several times, and I just loved the atmosphere of the place. My agent got in touch with Siobhan [Bracke, Casting Director] who called me in to read for her and Tamara [Harvey, Master of Play]. I had only read through Much Ado About Nothing very quickly and chose to do some of Don John's lines in the audition, because I thought I saw a way through them, but Tamara and Siobhan looked at each other when I said I fancied playing him, so I guessed they had someone else in mind for me! That turned out to be Dogberry and at first I thought it was crazy – I couldn’t get a handle on this funny little man at all – but I read the play over again and by the time of my second audition, I’d fallen in love with the part. Rereading the play again and concentrating on the character cast things in a totally different light. The audition went well (we did part of his first scene, III.3) though I was a bit nervous. It's strange; I only started to get really scared when everyone who found out about Dogberry said ‘Oh! The funny policeman! He's really funny, that’ll be great!’ There's an odd pressure when everyone expects you to be funny, and anyone who has done comedies will tell you that you can’t really approach a comedy character in that way – at the same time of course I do want to entertain people!

First days

It can be nerve-wrecking to go through a play together for the first time, so I’m really glad Tamara did an exercise where we sat in a circle and went to the 'centre stage’ area to speak our lines. Whenever a character was mentioned, we all had to point at that them. It really emphasised how crucial relationships are in this play: people were pointing at each other a lot because the characters talk about each other so much. I don’t just mean the pointing exercise stressed the central relationships between Hero and Claudio (although they were pointed at a lot during the exercise), and Beatrice and Benedick. It also emphasised connections between Don John and Don Pedro, and Hero, Margaret, Ursula and Beatrice. I don’t think I was pointed at once as Dogberry – nobody talks about him or mentions his name when he's offstage, even though he's important in the exposure of Don John's plot to ruin Hero (albeit completely by chance!) Verges is the only one who mentions Dogberry by name in the Watch's first scene... he's not greatly involved in the web of relationships at the centre of the play. I don’t know if I’ll do anything with that yet; I don’t really know who Dogberry is, because I didn’t do very much preparation before rehearsals started … much too scared! The voyage of discovery proper starts today.

Playing a man

Although I’m not sure who Dogberry is, my head is buzzing with all kinds of ideas – I haven’t been able to sleep much so I should probably try to calm down! Things will calm down as the Company gets to know one another, and that should happen very quickly. Dogberry comes on at about the middle of the play, so I’ll be working on scenes next week I expect. In the meantime, there are the classes for Voice, Movement and Word, as well as full company rehearsals for the jig and so on. We’ll be jigging at the end of the play as Shakespeare's company did. I don’t know if we’ll be doing any sort of work on ‘male’ physicality: as Josie [Lawrence, Benedick] was saying today, when you’re concentrating on understanding a complete character, their sex seems by the by. Initially I really wanted a male part in the female company because I thought it would be a huge challenge, but after just two days I’m starting to think about that differently: I’ll get on with Dogberry as a character rather than a ‘male’ type.

First impressions

Dogberry is very likeable – I did sort of fall in love with him. He's silly and confused… not having looked too closely at the script, I haven’t decided very much about him but I do have images of various people in my head who are a bit Dogberry-like … Arthur Lowe and an old comedian called Harry Worth, for instance. I don’t think of them as male archetypes, just as people that have things about them that I would like to bring to Dogberry as a character. When Mark [Rylance, Artistic Director] was talking about Dogberry on the first day, he said maybe he's quite nervous and that's why he makes all those malapropisms. That's quite an interesting idea because often when we have to speak in public we do get very nervous and words start to do odd things; I’ve started to stutter before – but Dogberry isn’t going to have a stutter! I had a costume fitting with Luca [Costigliolo, Master of Clothing] the other day, and he was talking about how the sexton runs the court scene (IV.2). I said ‘Oh no, Dogberry runs that scene – he's head honcho!’, but of course he's not – as the sexton says, ‘Master Constable, you go not the way to examine’. I think my quick read-through gave me the impression of someone who perhaps very much wants to be in control and that turned into my assumption that he was in control … and I probably haven’t read the play closely enough yet either! There are so many things that I do want to bring to him, though, which is why I can’t sleep at the moment, but that's fine. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about a play when we’re not even a week into it yet!

Costume

I’ve already had some fittings for Dogberry's costume. He's going to be wearing a black doublet and a shiny pair of hose, and a nice cloak and hat: I’m very pleased with the outfit, and I don’t think I’ll be wearing a corset, which is great! I’m probably going to get a moustache as well – the pictures I’ve seen of Elizabethan constables showed them with a little moustache, although Luca has some pictures of the Watch that show them with full facial hair. I’ve been imagining Dogberry over the last few weeks with a little moustache. Actually, it's odd to imagine what I’ll look like. I had thought of a complete transformation; Dogberry would be a lot older than me, with a grey wig and a grey moustache… a bit like the Arthur Lowe character in Dad's Army, but my ideas about appearance are changing all the time. There are still elements of the Arthur Lowe character that I’d like to incorporate, but now I don’t think he's going to be that old and he won’t be wearing a wig. To be honest, the costumes are probably one of my favourite things about original practices: they feel great and improve the way you stand. I love wearing the hats and I’m also quite relieved that I don’t have to wear a dress. To do it this way in this space just feels right.

Globe space

There's nowhere quite like the Globe. It has this feeling of bigness, hugeness, roundness! Even when you do open air theatre in somewhere like Regent's Park, there's nothing like the space or the audience, especially the groundlings. Some experience of open air productions probably helps because you're able to deal with lots of distractions – the movement and the noise of the audience. I’ve always really enjoyed being an audience member here, too, and you can’t always say that about the theatres you work in. Some of the stories about last season's experiences are useful, but this time will be a different experience. In a way, I want to go over to the Globe now and get used to being in that space as soon as possible so that we’ve got plenty of time to gauge things like how to use our voices and how to move around the stage. I don’t want the transition from rehearsal room to stage to be too much of a shock. Earlier today someone was describing a little girl they had seen perform on the stage as part of a schools’ presentation: she was about seven and every word she spoke could be perfectly heard. That's just what we want. Until I do get onstage and utter the first words, it seems rather intimidating as well as incredibly exciting. Getting to know the stage and feel secure there is just another thing to look forward to over the next few weeks.

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Rehearsal notes 2

  • Getting started
  • Lines
  • Jig
  • Voice
  • Favourite parts

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.

Getting started

My week's been good. Actually, I’ve been at home for three days of it! Dogberry makes his appearance half way through the play [III.3] and we haven’t got that far in terms of working on specific scenes so I haven’t been called* very much. This is quite nice in some ways; I’m getting used to the whole play rather than concentrating on my scenes straightaway. It's good to know where Dogberry comes in the scheme of things, and a slow start also means I’ll be itching to get on it when I do start rehearsing, instead of feeling ‘Oh, I’m not ready’. In the meantime, I’m enjoying our work as a group. We’ve been working with Tamara [Harvey, Master of Play] on putting the scenes into our own words, to make sure we’ve really understood what's going on in the lines. We got to the beginning of Act III and Dogberry doesn’t come on until the third scene, so I had a dilemma over the Easter period about whether I should look at my scenes and work out how I’m going do the lines in modern speech before we got back into the rehearsal room! I decided not to – it's not a competition, after all! But I think everyone half thinks… well, not that it's a competition, but that they want to get it right. I was talking to Yolanda [Vazquez, Beatrice] and she said she’d started to look at her scenes in advance too, but thought ‘No, it's cheating!’ We have to have the confidence to fail, which sounds strange, but at this stage we’re trying things out and some of those things won’t work. It's a really difficult thing to admit that you don’t know exactly what your scenes are about, but I don’t know what they’re about yet.

Yesterday we looked at Act IV, scene 2 and I didn’t know where to position myself or what I was doing. It could have been quite scary, but actually it was really interesting to stand there and think ‘I’ve no idea what's coming next in this scene’. I’d always thought Dogberry manages the examination of Conrade and Borachio but when we did the modern speech exercise, I saw that it was the Sexton who was in control. I don’t know whether this was because the Sexton is actually the authority in that scene, or because I had no idea what I was doing and Lucy [Campbell, the Sexton] had more of an idea about what she was doing … perhaps that meant she could take a more authoritative position which fed into the Sexton's character. It's probably a combination of both those things. I don’t know how it would have been different if I’d done some cribbing at home! I’m becoming aware that people tend to think that I know exactly what I’m doing, which is very strange. I do put on a silly voice for Dogberry so maybe I seem cool and collected the rest of the time by comparison. [laughs] It's a complete cover-up, this calm exterior! Well, perhaps the sense of calm isn’t really a cover-up at the moment because I haven’t properly started rehearsing – at this stage, I’m calm but I certainly don’t know what I’m doing with Dogberry. It's fascinating, the impressions everybody has of everybody else.

Lines

I’ve noticed a few people know their lines, which is a quite frightening because I haven’t even begun to learn mine and I don’t think I could start memorising them at the moment. I tend to wait until my first rehearsal at least, but this time I’ll try to get familiar with Dogberry's first scene before I go in because my first rehearsal will be next week and that seems a bit late to begin from scratch. I won’t be doing the part without the book next week though. It's a slow build up, but I’m in every day doing movement sessions or voice sessions or verse sessions or working on the jig, so I feel very much a part of things without having done any proper work yet! I like having time for things to take shape in my head – I read the script a little bit every now and then and that's quite good for me: normally I go home and read ‘Hello’ magazine! I suppose not having worked out my character might look as though I’m pacing myself but it's not part of a carefully planned process: I just let things take their course. Maybe people think I’m very much on top of things because I’m quiet. It's not like that at all. In fact it's just the opposite. The Company are a lovely group of people though so I don’t really feel worried or insecure about what people think of me. I always look forward to coming into work and I can’t wait to start rehearsals properly.

Jig

Every time I’ve seen plays here, the jig at the end has been spectacular. It's the most uplifting, amazing thing. However much you’ve enjoyed the show, the jig just takes you out on a high so to be part of that is very exciting. Of course, at the same time we’re all nervous about getting the steps right. In some ways, I’m glad I’m not involved in the dances within the play – at the masked ball [II.1] – because learning the steps is tricky, even though Sian [Williams, Master of Dance] is a great teacher and breaks all the movements right down for us. We’ve already started to put some of these steps back together and run bits of the jig, but there's obviously a lot of work to do. Hearing the music for the first time today was very exciting and when we’re all doing it at the same time, I’m sure no one will be thinking ‘Oh, she missed a step’. Patrick [Woodward, Sarah's husband] was a member of the all-male company last year and sometimes after a performance he would say ‘we missed out that bit and they missed out that bit…’ I suppose you do make mistakes in the early days but the audience never notices.

The songs are astonishing too. We’re using Eastern singing techniques involving a ‘calling voice’ which means singers ‘call out’ when they sing and that creates the powerful sounds we recognise from Eastern and Islamic songs. I think they used the same techniques in Eastern Europe and also in England, though in England this type of singing was part of subculture. In our first workshop with Vivien [Ellis], we all sang a Czech folk song and the room vibrated in the most amazing way. After singing all together, we had to sing our names on our own and suddenly I felt like I had no voice at all. There's none of the lovely resonance you get when you all sing together. It was a strange feeling; it made me think I only ever want to sing with fifteen other women! All the jigging and singing is exhausting – I actually find the singing harder work than the jig. Watching the plays though, the songs and the jig are the things that often impress me more forcibly than the acting… everyone can sing and dance, even the people who aren’t singers and dancers. It's such a privilege. Sian [Williams, master of Dance] and Vivien [Ellis] make it a joy to come in and sing and dance for the first time. To get round the piano and sing an aria doesn’t feel like work. When I get my payslip at the end of the week, I always think ‘Wow. Okay!’ I think the whole atmosphere of the place helps with that: even this odd building [rehearsal rooms at Park Street] doesn’t feel like it's separated from the Globe. It doesn’t feel modern and different … it just feels like home!

Voice

We went into the tiring house with Mark [Rylance, Artistic Director] for our voice session. We worked while lying on our backs with our heads touching. That was great because you could hear other people's voices. I felt very relaxed and centred. Often in voice sessions you can feel yourself trying too hard to do what the teacher wants you to do, a bit like being in school, but it doesn’t feel like that here. You can get things wrong, but I do have the feeling – and I think everyone does – about being a bit scared of the voice in this space, and of not being heard. Some people have asked for solo sessions on stage. I don’t know if I want to do that. On the one hand, that's a bit scary, but the last thing you want is get on that stage in the dress rehearsal and go [sharp intake of breath] ‘Oh my goodness.’ At this point, I’m sort of thinking ‘Do I have to go there yet? Do I have to test the voice yet?’ because not being able to make yourself heard and straining your voice is the worst feeling. I think Dogberry does shout a bit at times so I’m going to be careful with my voice: I’ve hurt my voice in the past and you learn that it's just about relaxing really, which is the last thing you do when you’re doing previews. I’m looking forward to a lot more voice sessions, and it's getting easier working on stage because you stop being frightened of it. It was great today; a really nice little session. As we get increasingly familiar with the space, things will keep getting better. I’ve sat in the Gentleman's rooms [boxes on either side of the stage, top gallery] and although you do see quite a lot of the actors’ backs, it's amazing how some people's voices do come out of the back and sides of their bodies. Other people's voices are muffled as soon as they turn away from you. I think the most important thing is to be aware that the audience is all around you and you have to try and play to everybody.

Favourite parts

The best bit of rehearsals so far has been watching the others doing their modern day improvisations. I’m not in the first two acts of the play and when you read them, you don’t read try to understand every line, so to listen to it in such a clear form was great – even though they were fumbling their way through because it was improvisation. It was really interesting to watch and see what happens… to have fun and to appreciate how terribly sad the church scene is [IV.1]. I was really choking up; I thought they did that beautifully. I was so impressed and it's such a beautiful, beautiful scene – just so tragic, but beautiful. I also enjoyed the exercise where we directed different scenes. We could stage it anyway we chose, using props and furniture, and some people came up with really interesting things. We might even get a fountain out of it! Jules [Melvin, Verges/ Friar Francis] and I did the wedding scene with the congregation and all the presents. I thought it really freed everyone up and probably gave Tamara [Harvey, Master of Play] a few ideas [laughs]. It got everybody involved in the play together. Basically, although I haven’t had many more thoughts about Dogberry, I’ve enjoyed thinking about the scenes and the play as a whole. I’ll start to think about character more when I start rehearsing next week.

  • Calls: actors are ‘called’ for rehearsal each day. The call sheet is a timetable for the day that shows which actors will be rehearsing/ involved in group sessions at different times – for instance: 11.00 Full Company Call – Jig.

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Rehearsal notes 3

  • Rehearsals
  • Voice
  • Song & dance
  • Weapon?

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.

Rehearsals

I’m rehearsing my first scene – Act three, scene three – this afternoon, and the other scenes follow shortly after, so there won’t be much waiting around in between calls. In the first scene, I basically meet the Watch and decide who's going to be Constable for that evening; I have to work out who's the most responsible. I think the first thing we’ll have to do when we get into the rehearsal room is to work out who actually speaks the lines in those scenes. In the text, they’ve been allotted to the 1st and 2nd watchman, but there could be any number of watchmen. It will be interesting just working out who's who. What else happens in that scene? I suppose I order the watchmen about in a very self-important way, telling them what to do – be careful of vagrants and drunkards and thieves and so on – then off I go.

What else this week? The Tudor Group came in to talk to us about the social and cultural context of the period. They certainly know their stuff. I didn’t get a chance to ask them about why Dogberry boasts about being a house holder – I wanted to know what that meant in terms of his status. I also wanted to ask what my profession might have been, because the Watch would have been volunteers, definitely unpaid. Dogberry must have had a day job! The only research I had done until that point was to tape an episode of Dad's Army, and again that made me think about what Dogberry's career might have been. I can’t seem to come up with answers at the moment: I’ve slowed down even further in trying to work out who he is! I was going to learn the first scene but I decided to wait until we’ve rehearsed it a little. I am familiar with it, but as long as I’m unclear about what some of it means, there's no point just learning the words. I’m looking forward to clarifying those bits and pieces this afternoon. After today, I will be word perfect! I’m sure if I hadn’t rehearsed in the third week of any other show, I’d be panicking. I’d think ‘there's just no way I can do this’ but actually I’m feeling quite calm. I was talking to Yolanda [Vazquez, Beatrice] the other day and she said she was quite scared because she has tomorrow and the next day off, so perhaps it's more scary having time off once you’ve already started rehearsals! Everything I’ve come in for over the past three weeks has been immensely helpful, even though it hasn’t involved work on my scenes themselves until now.

Voice

I’ve just had a Voice session with Stewart [Pearce, Master of Voice]. We did lots of breathing, and it was quite illuminating. That might seem strange: everyone's always breathing, but actors are trained to breathe in a special, controlled way to make sure you’ve got enough air to say your lines properly. Stewart and I talked about how we’re always taught to breathe from the diaphragm. Well, actually, it's not a very natural thing to do. Breath doesn’t come from there. The diaphragm is a muscle that's used for breathing, but a lot of the pushing in and out also happens through the ribs and the back. That was quite an eye opener – I’ve always been taught, ‘It's from the diaphragm’ – of course it is, but from the ribs are just as important. At this late stage in my career, I’m being told I can breathe from here and there. Another ‘voice’ thing I was thinking about the other day is that I’ve got into the habit of using a silly voice for Dogberry: I wonder whether I’m barking up the wrong tree with that one. Well, I’ll talk to Tamara [Harvey, Master of Play] about it. I put on this voice at the audition and I kept it. I’m only slightly concerned about whether that's right or not.

Song and dance

The jig is wonderful. We’ve all got cameos that show little glimpses of the story. I did wonder at one point whether I could put my hand up and say maybe a little character trait of Dogberry's is that he gets everything slightly wrong, maybe he should muddle his steps too. That would solve my problem with being unable to count the bars properly! I love doing the jig in a big group and the singing yesterday was amazing. There's going to be a song for the tomb scene and possibly one for the wedding too, but I’m not too sure about that one. The singing sounded great and everyone's keen to remember their parts. I’ve opted for the middle part. I could sing the top but I thought that might be a bit straining. I could probably also sing the bottom too… but as I never really know where I want to be, I’ve opted for the middle! There was a very interesting bit of the session where we ran through it and we did quite a nasal version, which really freed my voice up. It was much stronger when we sang like that.

Weapon?

I don’t think I’ll wear a weapon, and I’m quite pleased about that. Swords are difficult to handle by all accounts. At first I did want something to hold – the Tudor Group showed us a cudgel and I thought ‘Oh, that's what Dogberry would have,’ but actually I don’t think he’d have anything. The only thing he does have is a lantern, which he gives to another Watchman, as though he's passing over some great responsibility. Deep down, Dogberry is incredibly frightened of any sort of criminal and I don’t think he’d want any sort of weapon on him in case it provoked an attack! I don’t think he’d even want to touch a sword, let alone draw one.

Today's Wednesday and I’ve got my first call to work on a Dogberry scene. I’ve been called on Thursday and then again Friday; I’ll be an old hat with this rehearsal business by next week!

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Rehearsal notes 4

  • Big leap
  • Gags
  • Lines
  • Act V, scene 1
  • Discussion
  • Exercises
  • Work onstage
  • Clothes

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.

Big leap

It feels like a long time since I spoke to you last: it's been a long week full of rehearsal. I’ve worked on my scenes a lot so there's been a big leap forward with characterisation. Dogberry is starting to take shape! I can’t believe that it was only last week that we did the first Watch scene [III.3]. I am really enjoying being busy. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to rehearse as much as I do. When I look on the call sheet and there's a rehearsal for me, I literally go ‘whoopee’. There's just a really good atmosphere in rehearsals; I’m not feeling embarrassed, which I often do in rehearsal.

Gags

What happens in rehearsal is that everyone chips in with their ideas and before you know it you’ve got so many gags that you can afford to cut some. We’ve been trying things with hats recently. I took my hat off when I mentioned ‘God’ (Dogberry does that quite a few times) as a sort of deferential thing and then someone suggested we try it for the Prince too. It got a bit out of hand actually; we were taking off our hats for God and for the Prince in every scene, then we decided to cut it back. We don’t sit down and think ‘How are we going to make this funny?’ Different people will find different things funny. I wish there was some sort of blue print for making everyone laugh!

Lines

My one worry at the moment is the lines; I didn’t realise how much more difficult it is to learn prose. It's definitely harder than verse. Dogberry talks such rubbish and it's very difficult to find a through line. That's not just the case in his speeches; even if he has just a couple of sentences, there's no sense in what he says! The easy bits are when he just gets a word wrong and does a slight malapropism, but some of the other stuff is so confused that I’m really learning it by rote, like history dates. That's the only thing I’m stumbling on and I just need to take my time. If I learn it too quickly then I’ll learn it badly. Next week most people will be off book [i.e. will have learnt their lines therefore no longer need to rehearse with a text] but I’ll still need my book, especially for the scenes that we’ve only rehearsed in the last couple of days – Act five, scene one, for instance.

Act five, scene one

I had a fascinating time yesterday when we rehearsed with Claudio and Don Pedro. It was the first time that I came into the room and saw people acting and being a bit serious – all the Watch scenes are so ridiculous. I thought ‘What have I been doing, wandering around working out comedy routines and funny walks?’ It was good to think about the Watch scenes in a more serious context. Then I spoke to Belinda [Davidson, Don Pedro] and she thought exactly thing, only the other way round: ‘Isn’t the comedy great?’ The important thing is to get a balance within the play, really: the funny walks will support the more serious scenes and vice versa.

I’m glad we didn’t rehearse too soon because it's given me time to get to know the Watch. They are difficult scenes and we are having fun with them, but they stop being funny after you’ve done them a couple of times, so it's good that we still enjoy having a laugh together. Jules [Melvin, Verges] and I are really beginning to understand how Dogberry and Verges relate to each other and how their partnership works, so that's good.

I have been struggling to understand what Dogberry means, but sometimes I just wonder whether it really matters, because I don’t think he knows what he's saying half the time! There are still a few bits, though, that I feel I should understand and I'm not sure about, even though we’ve been over them. The scene we did yesterday, for instance: there are bits about justice at the beginning of Act three, scene three. I was looking at it again earlier today and I’m not as clear as I'd like to be – I’ll have to write it all down next time we go through it.

Discussion

There was an interesting moment yesterday with Claudio. We were all talking about the scene [V.1] and Ann [Ogbomo, Claudio] was worried about Claudio being hated because of what he does in the wedding, so there was a discussion about that. We didn’t really have that kind of discussion for the Watch scenes, which doesn’t worry me, but I did enjoy discussing something a bit deeper today with everyone else in Act five, scene one. The comedy in Dogberry's scenes is very much on the surface. I’ve never done comedy in Shakespeare, and it's a joy. It's quite a relief to come in and do Shakespeare, without having to worry too much! I’ve realised that the more I relax, the better.

I’m really happy about how things are going in rehearsals, though I’m almost wishing that we had another week. For West End productions, the norm is at least eight weeks – and the RSC and the National Theatre have long rehearsal periods. I’m not used to rehearsing for three weeks: I haven’t done that much repertory work. But I feel like we’re in safe hands. Tamara [Harvey, Master of Play] is amazing. Although I might want more time to rehearse, I know that we’re only going to find out whether the Watch scenes work in the Previews. The audience will laugh or they won’t!

I know from experience it's possible to get sick of doing comedy scenes in rehearsal. You change it, but only because the people in the rehearsal room have been watching it for weeks and weeks, whereas audiences will approach afresh. Familiarity makes it quite hard to tell what actually needs changing. We’ll see in the previews.

Exercises

I’m not a fan of the actioning, which is when you take a line of your text and find a verb that clearly describes how you are trying to change the state of the person you are talking to. I get competitive and stressed about it because I can’t work out what the action is – my grammar isn’t very good so identifying the verbs under pressure is difficult! Have I got to do something to someone or has someone got to do something to me? So that's an exercise that we’ve done this week which I didn’t like. We’ve also done the one where you repeat someone's word and then have to say it over and over again. You say your line and if the other actors either didn’t hear or weren’t convinced by a particular word, they say it back to you and you have to repeat it until they are happy and convinced. That was really good, and the more you get picked up on words, the better. I think I found it especially interesting because Dogberry says a lot of confusing things and I have to make it as clear as I possibly can. I feel I should be able to say most of his words in a way that does make sense! We had to pick one word out from a line in which about ninety-nine percent of the words are important; you have to choose the most important word for your character.

Work on stage

We went on the stage last Wednesday with Stewart [Pearce, Master of Voice] for Voice session and I got quite scared of not being heard. This is my first season at the Globe, and before our Voice session I had a bit of a frog in my throat; it was a rather nervous frog. Stewart has got the most incredible voice in the world and I find it a bit intimidating, because I think ‘Well, you can do it... if I had your cadences then I’d be fine.’ He is a wonderful teacher, but the nerves meant I pushed my voice and hurt my throat! It was tricky because there were lots of tour groups: trying to concentrate on exercises when there's all this noise going on meant I couldn’t really hear myself.

We did one exercise where some of us were up in the gallery and some of us were onstage. When I realised that I could hear the others whispering, I felt much more confident about my voice. We had to count from one to ten in terms of the volume of the voice – on this scale, one is almost a whisper and ten is as loud as you can possibly be – and once I’d done that a couple of times I discovered that we can be quiet and still be heard, as long as the voice is placed. I know, though, when nerves get the better of you… [Sarah makes a choking noise] It gets all stuck. I really want Dogberry to be heard. We were rehearsing the scene where Dogberry is called an ass [IV.2] the other day, and I think ended up shouting a bit at the end. I actually felt quite dizzy at one point because I wasn’t breathing properly. I was obviously doing something wrong with my voice. Maybe I did stop breathing; that's usually what causes it, a blood rush to the head. I think I got overexcited and had an adrenaline rush or something! Well, the shock of being called an ass would do it: I am Dogberry after all. Let's face it. The shock of being called an ass would be enough to give Dogberry a bit if a turn! I’ll speak to Stewart about that later this week.

Clothes

I had a costume fitting this morning which was great – I was starting to think everyone was having costume fittings except for me, but I tried on my costume and it's lovely, it's great. I’ve got a shiny black doublet and hose; I looked in the mirror and thought, ‘This play is really going to happen!’ I keep imagining what it's going to be like and I keep seeing little snippets of people doing things through the door of the rehearsal room, and then I get very excited – I think we’ve got a brilliant company.

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Rehearsal notes 5

  • Nervous
  • Preview period
  • Solo voice
  • Dressing rooms

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.

Nervous

I’m starting to have anxiety dreams! Rehearsals have moved to the studio spaces at the Globe and that's made me think ‘Goodness, two weeks!’ Until now, we’ve been rehearsing in a space just a few minutes’ walk from the Globe, and I think the move to the Globe itself has encouraged us all to take a big leap. There are lines to be learnt and jig steps to be polished and hair-cuts to be had too (I’m going to have a haircut for Dogberry) … but we’re getting there. I’m not anxious about the play – I just feel I’m not rehearsing enough. Dogberry comes on in Act three and finishes in Act five, scene one, so now that we’ve gone back to the beginning of the play, I’ve got that gap again for a couple of days. It's not really a gap. I’ve got lots of singing and dancing sessions, and I need to learn lines so there's plenty to get on with, but it doesn’t feel quite the same when I’m not actually in the rehearsal room. I’ve not got enough discipline! I’ll probably get to work the scene twice over before we start running it; I should imagine it’ll be the end of the week by the time we get to Acts three, four and five, so there's very little to report on the Dogberry front right now. He's waiting, though. He's there, sitting, preening himself.

Preview period

Tamara [Harvey, Master of Play] reassured us with the fact that we have more rehearsal time ahead of us than behind us, before our Press Night. She included the preview period in our ‘time to go’, and whilst it's absolutely true that we’ll be able to find out what works during those performances, I do think that everyone gears themselves towards the first preview as though it's some kind of cut-off point. The audience have paid to see a show and you want to give them the best show possible, even if audiences later on in the run see a very different show! I’ll probably learn more in the preview period than in rehearsal, but in terms of the nerves, they come to a point just before that First Preview.

Solo voice

I’ve got a solo voice session this afternoon. I’m looking forward to it and at the same time I’m a little apprehensive. We’re going to sort out the ‘shouting’ aspect of Dogberry or ‘Mrs. Dogberry’ as a friend of mine called me the other day – I liked that. I am aware that I do shout a bit, and Stewart [Pearce, Master of Voice] will be able to help me avoid hurting my throat. Yesterday the Measure for Measure ‘'Meet and Greet’ [whole cast on their first day] came into the rehearsal room, just as we had a month ago. We were jigging when they came in, just as the Romeo and Juliet cast were jigging when the White Company came into their rehearsal room on our first day... the coincidence a bit eerie. I certainly feel time has flown by.

Exploring the dressing rooms

I’ve just noticed there is a fridge in the dressing room! I find the dressing rooms very exciting – I sit and imagine everyone in their costumes. All the Romeo and Juliet costumes are hanging up, and I can’t wait to get into my costume because it's going to make such a difference. That's a bit of cliché, but it's true! There's no makeup, no greasepaint. We aren’t even allowed a bit of mascara. I think that’ll be quite freeing. There will be spirit gum, I guess, unless at the end of the night we’re going to wear our beards and moustaches home! ‘Original practices’ is fine, but I don’t want my moustache flapping – that really will make people laugh on stage!

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Rehearsal notes 6

  • Last week
  • Playing comedy
  • Dogberry & the Watch
  • Lines & anticipation
  • Technical rehearsal
  • Character development

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.

Last week

I had my hair cut and dyed – Dogberry takes shape! In rehearsals we’ve been working on lots of physical gags for the Watch scenes. It's a gag fest! I’m trying lots of silly things. I'm apologetic at first but then I go all out for them! I find that helps the whole scene; I know that once I stop feeling self-conscious, I'll have a lot of fun and the work will be more successful. I now know what I’m saying too; no more line worries. Whilst Dogberry has serious things to say, I do think he's physically stupid. He hasn’t got any idea of physical direction – none of the Watch do – so there are quite a few physical gags that we’ve been working on which will add to the general clumsiness of those scenes. I think it's good to have lots of gags which we can then pare down; that's better than going out there with nothing to entertain the audience! So rehearsals are good fun and I haven’t felt ‘This isn’t funny’ or ‘This isn’t working.’ We’ve all chipped in with ideas and put them into the scenes. We’re not developing gags at the expense of the words – I think the words speak for themselves. Though once you’ve worked on a funny gag for a while, you do start to wonder whether it's actually funny anymore. We’ll have to just wait and see what an audience makes of it all.

Playing comedy

To play the comedy, I think it's important to find the truth in it. When people found out I was playing Dogberry, they tended to say ‘Oh, he's the funny one,’ so I did feel pressure to be funny. However, I knew I wouldn’t just be looking for gags – you can’t do it that way, because true comedy comes from seriousness and from the characters being serious. Arthur Lowe was an extremely serious man in Dad's Army. Obviously, we pull funny faces but that comes out of whatever we’re doing at the time in the context of the story. In my experience, if you don’t worry about whether something is funny or not, then it will be funny. As I become increasingly sure of Dogberry's character, I find it easier not to worry and just find the comedy in him. The more we run it, the more I’ll learn about him. The joy of doing a run is that things will grow – we’ll pare down some of the comedy bits, but we’ll gain other things as a result of seeing the play come together as a whole.

Dogberry and the Watch

I think Dogberry feels as though the rest of the Watch are a bit of a raggedy bunch but they’re the best he's got. Hopefully he can get them into shape, or maybe Verges could train them for him. I think Dogberry becomes increasingly fond of them as the play progresses: they catch two villains, so they’ve done something right, and the subsequent examination gives Dogberry's status a boost.

I hope Dogberry would say ‘Well done’ to the Watch and congratulate them at some point after the arrest – offstage if not onstage. I think he's ultimately very proud of his men. At the beginning of the play he perhaps seems a bit gruff with them; he's worried that they’ve got to go out there tonight without him, and they’ve got to be responsible. He does get impatient with all their ridiculous questions because they really should know the answers. Dogberry shouldn’t have to keep thinking up the answers for them. He's very fond of Verges (as long as Verges backs him at all times) but I also think that he couldn’t really function without Verges. There's a sort of dependence there. I have realised that there's a lot of love in this play and that doesn't exclude the Watch; they care deeply about each other, and there are lots of triangles: I’m in awe of Leonato, Verges worships Dogberry, and we’re both completely in awe of the Prince. There's love left, right and centre! Well, I suppose it's to do with being impressed by another person's status and power... perhaps as we’re an all female company, that dynamic leans towards love.

Lines & anticipation

I know my lines, but a little voice in my head keeps saying ‘No, you forget when you’re slightly nervous.’ That's annoying; I want to get on and play the scene without drying - I've dried a couple of times in rehearsal. It's the only thing that has been annoying me; jigging is getting much easier and I’m very excited about understanding where my feet are! I was talking to Jules [Melvin, Verges] about the way the audience roar at the end of the show: there's this explosion of sound whenever a Globe jig begins. I’m looking forward to being a part of that. It's been fascinating to see Romeo and Juliet thing going on, very exciting. I went to see Romeo and Juliet on Saturday night and I spent the whole time with sweaty palms... one minute I thought ‘Oh! That will be us next week’ and the next minute I thought ‘I can’t wait, can’t wait, can’t wait!’

Technical rehearsal

I’ve been itching to get onstage during the tech. When I did get onstage, I thought about the theatre being full of people and I dried, which was odd. So I’m filled with excitement and fear – the state I’m usually in during a tech – but this time I’m more scared and excited than usual, because Much Ado About Nothing is going to be such a different experience for me in that space. I’ll be able to see everybody and every movement that the crowd makes… I’m so used to being in a dark theatre that the space here is quite nerve-wrecking. I think it's healthy to be nervous though, and I know I don't need to worry about Voice now. I’m confident that the audience will hear me!

Compared to technical rehearsals in other theatres, this seems easier: there are no complicated lighting queues to sort out for a start. The Globe is much more immediate, open to the elements. In that way, it's more fun. Also, I’ve never enjoyed wearing a costume as much as I enjoy wearing Dogberry's Elizabethan clothes. I love them! It really feels like getting dressed up – the beards and moustaches are great fun. I have a black doublet and hose made of silk, which very comfortable and relatively light weight. The doublet is a little tight, but I’m relieved that I’m not wearing a corset: a lot of the Company members playing male characters wear corsets to flatten their chests. I’ve also got green stockings and leather shoes. Getting into and out of the costume takes a bit of time and practice though. I put my shirt on first then I work my way up from the bottom: stockings and shoes on, then the doublet and hose which are laced together... I get into them as though I’m an astronaut climbing into a space suit. Then all the buttons and ties are done up. You can’t do the cuffs yourself – that's the only bit I need help with now – apart from that, I can do it all myself. The girls wearing corsets have to rely more heavily on the dressers, but I like the idea of being able to do it myself. I also have to put almond oil in my hair to make it greasy, which is very good for my hair but means I’m going to have greasy hair all day every day for the next few months.

I like to see what all the other characters are wearing too - that just helps to build up the world of the play. Romeo and Juliet starts at 7.30pm so our technical rehearsal hasn't been going on too late into the night either: the hours feel very civilised. We’re going to have another run tomorrow, which I’m looking forward to because that will help me grasp how the story fits together. I can’t quite believe how fast Sunday [the first night of previews] is approaching.

Character development

Being on the stage has helped me to feel happier with Dogberry, but I believe the audience will make the real difference and little things in the Watch scenes will keep changing all the time. Sunday [First Preview] will be quite a shock. We might find that something really doesn’t work whilst something else works so well that we have to wait five minutes for everyone to quiet down before we speak again. We’ve done the Watch scene onstage in front of tour groups [visiting the theatre during the technical rehearsal] who didn’t make a sound; Jules [Melvin, Verges] and I came off and thought ‘This isn’t going to work!’ but we really have to wait until the theatre's full before we decide.

There's a part of me that can’t quite believe that Sunday's going to come. I can’t imagine myself going out in front of all those people. I am almost petrified, but I guess that's the only way to be at this stage. Next week I’ll have performed, and I’ll be able to tell you how the gags went!

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Rehearsal notes 7

  • First preview
  • Surprises
  • Direct address
  • Overall

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.

First Preview

My feelings on the evening of our first performance: extreme panic and then, two minutes before I went onstage, a cold calm – a sudden moment of slow motion for which I was quite grateful, because until then I’d felt so nervous that I thought I was going cry! Then something inside me said ‘This is crazy, you’re going to enjoy it. It's going to be fine.’ I did enjoy it and it was fine. The first thing I noticed when I went onstage was the colours all around me – all the people in the audience were wearing clothes in different colours, a sea of people. The image that went through my head was of little beads on a warm cushion; the atmosphere in the theatre felt very warm, not at all frightening. I’m used to going out into the blackness of an auditorium and being aware of people's heads, but here the experience is completely different. I’m amazed that, at the Globe, my nerves don’t stay with me in the way they usually do. I still get nervous before every performance, but it's not a sickening feeling – nerves are mixed with an eagerness to get out there.

The first preview was amazing in terms of audience response: their laughing and clapping, their joy at our being there to tell a story. Now we’re settling into the show, and I'm getting used to the way the audience responds at different moments. The Watch's first scene [III.1] comes at the very end of the first half of the play; people are actually quite tired by then. Everyone gives such a good show – especially Yolanda [Vazquez, Beatrice] and Josie [Lawrence, Benedick] that the audience laughs so much all the way through the first half. They’re a bit tired by the time the Watch comes on; I almost want to say ‘We come back in the second half, and we’re probably funnier then!’ During the previews, we’ll find out what does and doesn’t work, and we can make adjustments. People seem to be laughing at most of the gags, which is great. Each audience is different though, and different people will find different things funny. A friend went to see the show the other night and was really tickled by the false exiting (after Dogberry has spoken to Leonato), but other people have responded well to the interrogation scene: the Watch use their weapons to make a dock to hold Borachio and Conrade in, but this doubles up as a witness stand too and things get rather confused [to see a photo of IV.2, go to the 'Photos' page].

Surprises

I'm surprised at how much the audience understand – I don’t know whether everyone has read the play or if they’re laughing because they know instinctively that the lines are funny. There are some lines that I never thought would work. I mean, all the ‘ass’ wordplay gets a roar – the volume of the laughter and their readiness to take us in and clap us off is brilliant. There is the feeling that we shouldn’t make the audience laugh too much because we want to let the play build, but sometimes that's just impossible. Especially at the Globe, I think. If people are going to clap, they’re going to clap. They’re enjoying themselves and I’m really happy with the play too. I’m rediscovering things about the character. For instance, I’d forgotten about the malapropisms whilst I was learning my lines. The ‘Dogberryisms’ got a bit sidelined, but I remembered what a huge part of his character they are over the last couple of shows. He gets so many of his words muddled up and that had simply become part of the line for me, but now I’m pinning his mistakes down and playing with them more specifically. At the end of the first half, I come on and say ‘There will now be fifteen minute integral.’ I’d lost confidence in doing that, so I said ‘interval’ for the several of the early previews, but now I say ‘integral’ and it's interesting to see who laughs just because I’m there, and who laughs because they’ve actually heard me say ‘integral’. There's a real mixture of responses and I like being able to see that variation.

During last night's performance, I was struck by how many of the other characters I don’t see at all and how many characters overlap with Dogberry. I never see Benedick on stage, which is quite bizarre. I see Beatrice because we cross over from one scene to another. I overlap with Hero too. That surprised me, and made me wonder how the overlaps effect the way the different worlds in the play relate to one another.

Direct address

I’m still a bit scared of actually pinpointing people in the audience – saying a line to one person. Really, I only have one line addressed out to the audience:

A marvellous witty fellow, I assure you; but I will go about with him.
[IV.2.25]

Generally I do look out at people when I say that line, but I can’t quite catch anybody's eye. I suppose that will come in time, as my confidence increases. I usually see the audience beaming away when I do look out, although I worry that I’ll make eye contact with someone who isn’t smiling! It would be so upsetting if that happened that I sometimes think I’d rather not look. I expect it's easier for Josie [Lawrence, Benedick] and Yolanda [Vazquez, Beatrice] to embrace that kind of direct communication, because they have lots of lines about marriage and love and beauty which can be very inclusive. Dogberry doesn’t really have anything like that.

Overall

I’m enjoying every one of my scenes. It's odd to have the first hour and a quarter to wait before I go on stage, but I’ll get used to that. It is quite nice being able to come into the building and relax before putting on a tight costume! I don’t do a warm up, but every time I get to my first scene [III.3] and realise that I should have warmed up, because I do quite a lot of shouting… in future, I will do a warm up. Until a couple of days ago we were rehearsing, so that was a bit of a warm up, but just doing a jig call and not warming the voice up is not good and I will definitely start. I’ve never done that in the past, but this space makes different demands on your voice. I wonder where I could do a warm up… most people warm up in the yard before the show, but there aren’t many places to go once the show has started. The dressing room would be empty, so I could do a little warm up in there. I’ll have to find out whether it's well sound-proofed - I wouldn't want to interrupt the show!

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