I will be playing Bottom in Midsummer Night's dream. I am pretty familiar with this role, but when I researched it I was reminded again of the genius of shakespeare. bottom is a completely ridiculous character. He is totally incompetent but like all truly incompetent people, he has no idea. It's very similar to playing a stock, "dumb blonde" character. Nick Bottom is totally and completely confident in his ability to do everything and be in charge, and totally incapable of doing anything right. He also probably drives every other character crazy. It is very, very fun to play these kinds of characters. They have to be played with total conviction thought, the second the audience knows that I know I'm being obnoxious- then it's not funny anymore. But as long as I firmly believe in things that aren't true the irony is hilarious.
Polonius is a very, very different role than bottom. He is the right hand man to the king in the play Hamlet, and he is Ophelia's dad. In the scene that we're performing, Polonius is confused by Hamlet, who is pretending to be crazy. Because Polonius cannot possibly sympathize with the complexity of emotions that Hamlet is experiencing, he blames Hamlet's strange behavior on Hamlet's love for Ophelia. Hamlet insults Polonius pretty nicely and Polonius only has a vague awareness of the jokes told at his expense, and basically just thinks bringing Ophelia to Hamlet will fix all the problems. Polonius helps the audience understand Hamlet's situation- because Hamlet really ISN'T understood and feels so isolated. Polonius is very much a part of the problem.
Mercutio - Mercutio is one of my all time favorite shakespeare characters. he is entirely a punk. I think I sat behind him in highschool. Really though, he's a teenage boy, an instigator and a troublemaker. Absolute favorite thing was what Shakespeare said about why he had to kill him in the Third Act "lest he steal the show from the major figures of the plot".
Polonius is a very, very different role than bottom. He is the right hand man to the king in the play Hamlet, and he is Ophelia's dad. In the scene that we're performing, Polonius is confused by Hamlet, who is pretending to be crazy. Because Polonius cannot possibly sympathize with the complexity of emotions that Hamlet is experiencing, he blames Hamlet's strange behavior on Hamlet's love for Ophelia. Hamlet insults Polonius pretty nicely and Polonius only has a vague awareness of the jokes told at his expense, and basically just thinks bringing Ophelia to Hamlet will fix all the problems. Polonius helps the audience understand Hamlet's situation- because Hamlet really ISN'T understood and feels so isolated. Polonius is very much a part of the problem.
Mercutio - Mercutio is one of my all time favorite shakespeare characters. he is entirely a punk. I think I sat behind him in highschool. Really though, he's a teenage boy, an instigator and a troublemaker. Absolute favorite thing was what Shakespeare said about why he had to kill him in the Third Act "lest he steal the show from the major figures of the plot".
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