Globe Education Online

This is Geraldine's second blog entry for the 2000 production of The Tempest, in which she talks about moving from the rehearsal space to the Globe stage and the development of her character.

Performing at the Globe

We have now begun to perform The Tempest, which is fantastic. The last few weeks of rehearsal have been extremely hectic. I am having a wonderful time playing Ariel at the Globe. I love the space and the audiences have been terrific. I like being able to see all their faces but I have to be very disciplined. I want to direct all my lines to them, as Caliban is able to do, but it is not appropriate to Ariel's character. Ariel spends a lot of time watching the actions of others from the stage. I’d like to be able to turn to the audience and give them a knowing wink, but I can’t. Ariel is more distant than that.

The Tempest has been one of the most ‘tempestuous’ plays that I have ever been involved in. Things have been changing continuously right up until we opened the show. These have been from ideas that just didn’t work once we got into the space down to Trinculo breaking his ankle in the final rehearsal before opening night!

Originally Ariel was going to be very acrobatic, climbing up and down ropes and flying across the stage. I spent a lot of time in rehearsal learning these techniques. I enjoyed it immensely as I love things like this, but right from early on I began to realise that we were probably not going to be able to use them in the show. We had thought that The Tempest was going to be acrobatic all round. But early on we began to see that this wasn’t the direction that it was going in. But, it was still thought that Ariel would use the techniques. I had my doubts. It wasn’t until we began to work on the Globe stage that other people began to see that it wasn’t working. The space is very specific. Things either work immediately or will never work. There is no point in persisting when you know something just doesn’t work, so we scraped it immediately. But, having said this, I wouldn’t say that my time had been wasted. I have a lot of new skills, and everything we did helped to inform Ariel's movements. I don’t regret doing it.

I do still have flying entrances where I am suspended above the theatre holding onto a rope. It is truly petrifying. My cue to enter is dependent on a moment that happens on the stage during a Caliban, Trinculo, Stephano scene. They change what they are doing every night and sometimes I am left suspended for quite some time. My arms get tired and begin to shake and it is only my fear and not my strength that keeps me holding on.

Developing Ariel's Character

Playing Ariel has become easier and easier throughout rehearsal and into performance. When I came to the part I had no sense of he/she /it. I just had a few thoughts with no idea of how to make them into a character that an audience would like. But now the choices I am faced with about her (let's call ‘it’ her, as I am female) are becoming simpler. I have a very clear through-line for her. In searching for a character for Ariel I kept coming back to the one thing that I did know about her. She wants her liberty. And the behaviour of someone who wants to be free is the same for anything, be it man, woman, animal or spirit. So this goal helped me find a clear ‘personality’ for her. I think that she changes a lot during the play, as all the characters do. Ariel begins as a servant to Prospero and nothing more. She's almost androgynous. But as the play progresses and she begins to think about being free more and more, she starts to turn into a young woman. In terms of playing the part, at the start I feel like a young boy and by then end I feel very feminine. That is what my journey as an actor feels like. It's not necessarily the same as Ariel's journey. I think that I associate a youthful quality with her because she is the spirit of the air. I think that the movements of young people, with their energy, imagination, and the way they are puzzled by things because they are learning all the time, are inextricably linked with Ariel. You can see this when she watches Miranda and Ferdinand. Their relationship and interaction fascinate her, and I think she learns human qualities from them. But she watches everybody, and she is puzzled by many of the humans she sees and why they do bad things. She doesn’t have a scene with Caliban, which I think is a shame, as I’d like to be able to see the contrast between them on stage and to discover how they behave towards each other.

Ariel's Costume

I have found the costume very helpful. I had a very clear idea of how she should look and it really does help me to play the part. I didn’t have to experiment with make up. I knew exactly what she should look like. I whiten my face, but rather than rubbing the powder in, I leave it in blotches on my face. She almost looks like she's just bumped into a cloud. I feel like a spirit that is part of the air when I am in her costume. The costume itself is like a uniform. I really like it as I feel like the servant that I am. It is also androgynous so I can go through my journey from male to female without feeling restricted in any way.

The Two Noble Kinsmen

We are now in our first week of rehearsal of The Two Noble Kinsmen, which is the second show that we will be performing at the Globe. Some of the company is worried about how easy or difficult it will be to keep changing the focus from one show to another. I am really looking forward to it. I love to work this way. The ‘change is as good as a rest’. I think that it will prevent us from getting stale. Each time I come back to The Tempest I will be fresh and excited because I have been doing something different in the interim. It brings variety. The two shows will be very different.

All Weather Performances

The only thing that I have been disappointed about has been the weather. It had rained for virtually every performance, and then yesterday it was beautifully sunny. It was then that I realise how much easier and how much more fun the show is in the sunshine. In the rain you always seem to be worrying about the audience being cold or wet. I also worry about myself. One night I was so cold holding a frozen position that when it was time for me to move, my leg had gone dead. In the lovely weather, it is a wonderful part to play, and I am having a wonderful time.

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

Back to Ariel