Never Enough Practice!

 

Hey There!

 

I wanted to take this time to talk about my thoughts on my most recent video, my reading of “To Be or Not to Be” from Hamlet! I wanted to practice another semi-cold read with another classical piece of work. Just like my personal portrayal of Edgar Allan Poe’s “Tell Tale Heart”, I wanted to use a piece of media that uses classical English to challenge myself.

 

Just in case you didn’t know, “To Be or Not to Be” is from the classical play Hamlet, written by playwright William Shakespeare. I’m sure most English classes forced their middle or high school students to read or listen to someone portray the piece, but I think most people are at least familiar with the phrase ‘to be or not to be’.

 

To begin, I wanted to first talk about how challenging this monologue is. It comes from an emotional place where Hamlet is considering suicide over the events that happened in his life with his father and his new stepfather King Claudius. He’s at a dark point in his life, and he’s trying to plan what he wants to do next. Classical English is always a hard read because you have to first understand what the text is saying before you’re able to properly begin to implement your perspective in the role. It takes work, but it’s extremely rewarding for practice.

 

So, when I was doing my portrayal, I wanted to get really focus on his contemplation. How he feels a bit helpless, but also confused. I wanted to push forward this concept of trying to reason with the life he was given and what he personally planned next or, just as important, his lack of a plan in this moment. I wanted to portray this monologue as genuine, almost as if it was a conversation with his birth father: the very one he’s trying to connect with throughout the story. Earlier in the play, Hamlet sees his father’s ghost and is in this mental state of limbo on how to properly move forward. I wanted to focus on that conversation, so when reading, I tried to picture talking to my own dad. I wanted to try to vent out my own personal struggles and frustrations that life has brought me. I wanted to allow myself this solitary moment to just connect with my dad and, more importantly, myself. I wanted to, in a sense, give myself a break from my own racing thoughts and solely focus on what my ‘heart’ was saying. Allowing myself moments of the same confusion that Hamlet felt, the same grief, the same heartbreak, and that same mental limbo.

 

However, I definitely believe that I could have portrayed it better. Classical English is always a hard read for me personally, so I’m sure I could have connected more with the help of an additional dramaturg or director. I tried to avoid watching too many portrayals of the monologue because I didn’t want to sway my perspective. However, that additional insight could have helped tremendously on what certain phrases meant to other people.

 

Overall, this was an interesting practice and I’m excited for more!

 

Thanks for reading and Happy Voicing!