Globe Education Online

In Penny's fourth blog post she discusses rehearsing the play on the Globe stage, a dilemma she encountered about her character and the play's first run through.

The stage

We have started to use the stage to rehearse. It hasn’t felt as different as I thought it might feel, I think because I have been in and out of the theatre a lot in recent months. I’m sure that it will be extremely different once it is filled with people. I’m looking forward to being able to use them to direct some of my lines to.

Dilemma

I had a bit of a dilemma last week with the nunnery scene. We were trying to decide whether or not Ophelia knows everything that has happened. Previously we’d decided that she didn’t. But in rehearsal it began to seem as though she did. It’s a positive change. If she knows what’s happened, then she is going to Hamlet to help him. But, having said that, it just doesn’t feel right. When you’ve made decisions and suddenly they are changed, it can be very difficult. You have to think about how that changes everything, including much of the work we did at Otley. But I spoke to Giles (Block) who is as keen on the idea that she doesn’t know much, as I am, so nothing has been completely decided yet.

Running the play

We did a run thorough this week, which turned out to be extremely long. But we could see that things are beginning to come together. There are still loads of decisions to be made. We had a good rehearsal of the mad scene. We discussed a lot, particularly about who needs to know the meaning of the songs I’m singing. We think that only I do. I found that discussion very useful. The first song is the hardest one, because I go straight into it. It didn’t work yesterday because I hadn’t thought about it enough. I need to think about why I come in. Why I need to see the queen. There are lots of choices I could make there. I could be going to see her to find out what’s going on with Hamlet. To ask why Hamlet killed my father. I might be there because I need a mother figure. I need to come in with a very clear intention. I still haven’t made a decision.

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 interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsal process progresses.

Back to Ophelia