Globe Education Online

This is Kananu's first blog entry for the 2000 production of The Tempest, in which she talks about beginning work at the Globe and vocal work on Shakespeare's verse.

Starting Rehearsals at Shakespeare's Globe

This is my first role since Drama school. Last week I was at LAMDA and now I'm starting my first acting job. I grew up in Scotland and I am half Kenyan.

I liked the way everyone was introduced on the first day. It made feel less nervous. I wasn't expected to be some kind of 'Shakespearean type'. There is a family feeling at the Globe and everyone is treated equally.

When I went to school there were hardly any black people in the audiences for plays, especially Shakespeare. There were hardly any black people on stage, too, and they usually played servants or Jamaican housemaids. You don't realise how it affects you. You need role models in your head. Acting-wise, one of my role models is Cathy Tyson, who starred in the film Mona Lisa with Bob Hoskins.

The first day we read through the play. I was wondering if it would be different from Drama school. It was fine. No one was judging- if people made mistakes they just said what they had got wrong.

I've never seen the play before and I hadn't read it until I was preparing for my audition. I'd heard of Peter Greenway's film Prospero's Books, which is based on The Tempest.

The first time I read the play, I thought that Prospero was a bit scary-he was so powerful-and Miranda was just his little daughter. Then I saw that she answers back to him. Prospero respects Miranda. It is a normal relationship between a father and a daughter. I see a lot more strength in her than I saw before. The play seems a lot more realistic.

I grew up in Scotland and boys and girls played games together. I think Miranda is like that. She's quite strong. Just because she falls in love doesn't make her 'girlie girlie'.

Shakespeare's Verse and Vocals

The company has also spent time going over verse- the rhythm of it -with Tim (Carroll, Master of Verse for The Tempest). We started with the basics, tapping the rhythm on our knees. We each had to say our birthday in iambic pentameter. 'My birthday is the twenty-third of June.'

I try not to slip into a 'posh' way of speaking. I want to speak Shakespeare's language in my normal voice. It's a heightened way of speaking because my lines are in verse and the situation isn't everyday life, but I want to speak in a way that I as a normal person would react in this situation.

I want to try to play around. It's like when you play a game. The best games are when everyone is really into it. I'm trying to not to worry at this stage or to think that I should have all of the answers!

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.

Back to Miranda