act two scene one
boyet and ladies come on immediately after armado's last line...he will already be offstage and soon out of sight.
the main problem with the beginning of this scene is that the audience cannot hear or understand what exactly you ladies are saying. maria must be louder and show more that she is enamored with longaville. to contrast with katherine's darker demeanor and sometimes sarcastic and/or cryptic wit...maria should be more bubbly, friendly, and obviously in love.
though for katherine's monologue about dumain...we must also see that she is in love...though not as helplessly in love as maria. the problem with this monologue is that you are facing the other ladies, away from the audience. your projection is fairly good, but it is lost upstage. only speak parts of your monologue directly to the ladies...and the rest out to the audience...as if you are actually imagining dumain standing there in the audience.
men, when you enter...bow to the ladies as ferdinand says his first line.
princess, remember you are royalty and "a maid full of grace and majesty"...you are there to represent the king, your father. your manner with the king and his men should be much more contained and ladylike, still you display your wit with language that is sometimes contradictory. such as when you say "were my LORD so, his IGNORANCE were WISE where now his KNOWLEDGE must prove IGNORANCE..." you are saying that if the king were ignorant, he would be called wise...and that now, as he is considered knowledgeable, he must be ignorant. you must say this with a slight nod to the women who are in on the joke...then turn back to the king with a friendly smile while the women giggle. the purpose of the emphasized words is to keep an engaging lilt to your voice that you knowingly use to lure the king to love you...which he sometimes will lose himself in even when you are making fun of him. also since it is unladylike to talk with your hands, the way you say your lines is the most important way to be understood by the audience...not to mention the other characters. also, because of this, it is up to the three ladies to know which things you say are serious and which are in jest...so that they may laugh genuinely at the princess's jokes.
princess, your next three lines are another joke about how filthy the king's bachelor pad must be with not a woman there to clean it. the ladies will laugh again after "...and sin to break it." and the princess should turn again to the ladies after saying it, where they will give her muted golf claps for her display of wit.
now, when you say the next couplet...turn back to the king with utter sincerity in your voice, though you do not actually believe he is a wiser teacher. your conversations will sound, in tone, like those of lovers...though sometimes, because of expectations of a woman of your status, your choice of phrases might be deceiving.
when you say "vouchsafe to read the purpose of my coming, and suddenly resolve me in my suit" you are actually telling him to take you aside and speak privately with you and do not actually want the suit resolved so suddenly. he picks up on this and takes your arm gently. when you say "you will the SOONER, that I were away, for you'll prove PERJURED if you make ME stay." you are actually saying that he would resolve it sooner if you were not there because you can already see he is falling for you and it is inevitable that he will break this oath of his. say this line with the smile of one who was so wise as to predict this before it even happened. the ladies will giggle again as the king and princess step aside.
the boys, who were not actually paying attention during that meeting because they were more concerned with the women, will not catch any of these jokes. they must be trying to impress the women from afar by puffing out their chests, sitting up or standing straight, perhaps laughing when the girls giggle though they don't know what they are giggling at.
the girls, however, must pay attention during the princess and the king's meeting so that they may giggle at the appropriate times...they may sometimes steal glances across stage, but they know to pay attention when the princess is speaking. plus they delight in seeing her craftily lure the king in and out of his oath. it gives them premission to do the same to their suitors.
when the princess is aside, now begins the flirting on both sides. berowne, the initiator. in contrast to the king and princess, berowne and rosaline have a much more competitive relationship as they both want to wear the pants, or the pantaloons as it were. wit and will are the things they both love and hate the most about the other. they act, as did beatrice and benedick in "much ado", like they don't like each other as much as they do...though sometimes they slip...only to gather up their wits again in defense against love. playing up on this lover's game makes berowne's final submission much funnier...as it is already predictable.
keep in mind that berowne and rosaline are the boldest of the lovers and will do all they can to upstage the wit of the other. they woo each other with such a show that the others cannot help but join in with oohs and aahs, laughs and encouragement.
berowne, when you say "nay, then will i be gone" you have not yet given up the fight...rather, you see that ferdinand is coming back and you don't want him to see you talking with rosaline.
at your second attempt to woo rosaline, berowne, after the king exits, it is less of a show and more just to rosaline...as her first set of wit displayed has already entranced you and you are trying new approaches to impressing her.
longaville and dumain will be whispering to each other about maria and katherine during berowne's second attempt, and the ladies will be doing the same. this makes the encounter between rosaline and berowne this time more private.
men at the well with boyet, be much louder. longaville, be careful not to drop the last part of your line...the audience cannot hear you say "she is a most sweet lady."
rosaline, pat boyet on the back when you call him an old love monger.
boyet, emphasize TOO HARD in your last line.
the main problem with the beginning of this scene is that the audience cannot hear or understand what exactly you ladies are saying. maria must be louder and show more that she is enamored with longaville. to contrast with katherine's darker demeanor and sometimes sarcastic and/or cryptic wit...maria should be more bubbly, friendly, and obviously in love.
though for katherine's monologue about dumain...we must also see that she is in love...though not as helplessly in love as maria. the problem with this monologue is that you are facing the other ladies, away from the audience. your projection is fairly good, but it is lost upstage. only speak parts of your monologue directly to the ladies...and the rest out to the audience...as if you are actually imagining dumain standing there in the audience.
men, when you enter...bow to the ladies as ferdinand says his first line.
princess, remember you are royalty and "a maid full of grace and majesty"...you are there to represent the king, your father. your manner with the king and his men should be much more contained and ladylike, still you display your wit with language that is sometimes contradictory. such as when you say "were my LORD so, his IGNORANCE were WISE where now his KNOWLEDGE must prove IGNORANCE..." you are saying that if the king were ignorant, he would be called wise...and that now, as he is considered knowledgeable, he must be ignorant. you must say this with a slight nod to the women who are in on the joke...then turn back to the king with a friendly smile while the women giggle. the purpose of the emphasized words is to keep an engaging lilt to your voice that you knowingly use to lure the king to love you...which he sometimes will lose himself in even when you are making fun of him. also since it is unladylike to talk with your hands, the way you say your lines is the most important way to be understood by the audience...not to mention the other characters. also, because of this, it is up to the three ladies to know which things you say are serious and which are in jest...so that they may laugh genuinely at the princess's jokes.
princess, your next three lines are another joke about how filthy the king's bachelor pad must be with not a woman there to clean it. the ladies will laugh again after "...and sin to break it." and the princess should turn again to the ladies after saying it, where they will give her muted golf claps for her display of wit.
now, when you say the next couplet...turn back to the king with utter sincerity in your voice, though you do not actually believe he is a wiser teacher. your conversations will sound, in tone, like those of lovers...though sometimes, because of expectations of a woman of your status, your choice of phrases might be deceiving.
when you say "vouchsafe to read the purpose of my coming, and suddenly resolve me in my suit" you are actually telling him to take you aside and speak privately with you and do not actually want the suit resolved so suddenly. he picks up on this and takes your arm gently. when you say "you will the SOONER, that I were away, for you'll prove PERJURED if you make ME stay." you are actually saying that he would resolve it sooner if you were not there because you can already see he is falling for you and it is inevitable that he will break this oath of his. say this line with the smile of one who was so wise as to predict this before it even happened. the ladies will giggle again as the king and princess step aside.
the boys, who were not actually paying attention during that meeting because they were more concerned with the women, will not catch any of these jokes. they must be trying to impress the women from afar by puffing out their chests, sitting up or standing straight, perhaps laughing when the girls giggle though they don't know what they are giggling at.
the girls, however, must pay attention during the princess and the king's meeting so that they may giggle at the appropriate times...they may sometimes steal glances across stage, but they know to pay attention when the princess is speaking. plus they delight in seeing her craftily lure the king in and out of his oath. it gives them premission to do the same to their suitors.
when the princess is aside, now begins the flirting on both sides. berowne, the initiator. in contrast to the king and princess, berowne and rosaline have a much more competitive relationship as they both want to wear the pants, or the pantaloons as it were. wit and will are the things they both love and hate the most about the other. they act, as did beatrice and benedick in "much ado", like they don't like each other as much as they do...though sometimes they slip...only to gather up their wits again in defense against love. playing up on this lover's game makes berowne's final submission much funnier...as it is already predictable.
keep in mind that berowne and rosaline are the boldest of the lovers and will do all they can to upstage the wit of the other. they woo each other with such a show that the others cannot help but join in with oohs and aahs, laughs and encouragement.
berowne, when you say "nay, then will i be gone" you have not yet given up the fight...rather, you see that ferdinand is coming back and you don't want him to see you talking with rosaline.
at your second attempt to woo rosaline, berowne, after the king exits, it is less of a show and more just to rosaline...as her first set of wit displayed has already entranced you and you are trying new approaches to impressing her.
longaville and dumain will be whispering to each other about maria and katherine during berowne's second attempt, and the ladies will be doing the same. this makes the encounter between rosaline and berowne this time more private.
men at the well with boyet, be much louder. longaville, be careful not to drop the last part of your line...the audience cannot hear you say "she is a most sweet lady."
rosaline, pat boyet on the back when you call him an old love monger.
boyet, emphasize TOO HARD in your last line.