Ariel from The Tempest

Enter ARIEL

ARIEL

All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I come
To answer thy best pleasure; be't to fly,
To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride
On the curl'd clouds, to thy strong bidding task
Ariel and all his quality.

 Everyone praise the great master! Respected sir, cheers! I come
to satisfy your best pleasure; if that means to fly, 
to swim, to dive into the fire, to ride
on the bouncy clouds, to your demanding/summoning task
Ariel and all his companions/entourage

- I am referring to myself in second person. Pleasure = happiness 

PROSPERO

Hast thou, spirit,
Perform'd to point the tempest that I bade thee?

Have you, spirit,
Performed completely the violent storm I ordered you?

ARIEL

To every article.
I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak,
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,
I flamed amazement: sometime I'ld divide,
And burn in many places; on the topmast,
The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly,
Then meet and join. Jove's lightnings, the precursors
O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary
And sight-outrunning were not; the fire and cracks
Of sulphurous roaring the most mighty Neptune
Seem to besiege and make his bold waves tremble,
Yea, his dread trident shake.

Down to the hair! 
I boarded the king's ship;now on the front 
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin 
I sparked/ignited amazement (overwhelming wonder): sometime I'd divide(go somewhere else),
And burn (linger and go at it) in many places; on the topmast.
The yards and bowsprit would I flame (conduct my doing) specifically, 
then meet and join. Jupiter's (God of Thunder and Lighting) lightnings, that's the starters
O' the monstrous thunder claps, more brief, 
sight faster running were not the fire and cracks
of egg smelling roaring the most mighty Neptune
seem to surround to capture and make his bold waves tremble
Yea his dread trident shake.

















 (The Beak)
















(Waist)

(Deck)

(topmast)

(yard) 


PROSPERO

My brave spirit!
Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil
Would not infect his reason?

ARIEL

Not a soul
But felt a fever of the mad and play'd
Some tricks of desperation. All but mariners
Plunged in the foaming brine and quit the vessel,
Then all afire with me: the king's son, Ferdinand,
With hair up-staring,--then like reeds, not hair,--
Was the first man that leap'd; cried, 'Hell is empty
And all the devils are here.

Not a soul
But felt a fever of the mad and played 
some tricks of  reckless despair.  All but sailers
plunged in the sea foam, jumped ship
Then all on fire with me: the king's son, Ferdinand, 
With hair up staring, then like reeds (stiff), not hair 
 Was the first man that leaped cried "Hell is empty 
And all the devils are here.


PROSPERO

Why that's my spirit!
But was not this nigh shore?

But was not this near shore?

ARIEL

Close by, my master.

PROSPERO

But are they, Ariel, safe?

ARIEL

Not a hair perish'd;
On their sustaining garments not a blemish,
But fresher than before: and, as thou badest me,
In troops I have dispersed them 'bout the isle.
The king's son have I landed by himself;
Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs
In an odd angle of the isle and sitting,
His arms in this sad knot.

Not a hair harmed/destroyed
On their clothes not damaged
But fresher than before: and as you ordered me
in troops I have dispersed them around the island
The king's son I placed by myself
whom I left was sighing and sitting
his arms crossed

PROSPERO

Of the king's ship
The mariners say how thou hast disposed
And all the rest o' the fleet.

ARIEL

Safely in harbour
Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once
Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew
From the still-vex'd Bermoothes, there she's hid:
The mariners all under hatches stow'd;
Who, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labour,
I have left asleep; and for the rest o' the fleet
Which I dispersed, they all have met again
And are upon the Mediterranean flote,
Bound sadly home for Naples,
Supposing that they saw the king's ship wreck'd
And his great person perish.

Safely in harbour
is the king's ship in the deep nook where once
you call me up at midnight 


PROSPERO

Ariel, thy charge
Exactly is perform'd: but there's more work.
What is the time o' the day?

ARIEL

Past the mid season.

PROSPERO

At least two glasses. The time 'twixt six and now
Must by us both be spent most preciously.

ARIEL

Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains,
Let me remember thee what thou hast promised,
Which is not yet perform'd me.

PROSPERO

How now? moody?
What is't thou canst demand?

ARIEL

My liberty.

PROSPERO

Before the time be out? no more!

ARIEL

I prithee,
Remember I have done thee worthy service;
Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, served
Without or grudge or grumblings: thou didst promise
To bate me a full year.

PROSPERO

Dost thou forget
From what a torment I did free thee?

ARIEL

No.

PROSPERO

Thou dost, and think'st it much to tread the ooze
Of the salt deep,
To run upon the sharp wind of the north,
To do me business in the veins o' the earth
When it is baked with frost.

ARIEL

I do not, sir.

PROSPERO

Thou liest, malignant thing! Hast thou forgot
The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy
Was grown into a hoop? hast thou forgot her?

ARIEL

No, sir.

PROSPERO

Thou hast. Where was she born? speak; tell me.

ARIEL

Sir, in Argier.

PROSPERO

O, was she so? I must
Once in a month recount what thou hast been,
Which thou forget'st. This damn'd witch Sycorax,
For mischiefs manifold and sorceries terrible
To enter human hearing, from Argier,
Thou know'st, was banish'd: for one thing she did
They would not take her life. Is not this true?

ARIEL

Ay, sir.

PROSPERO

This blue-eyed hag was hither brought with child
And here was left by the sailors. Thou, my slave,
As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant;
And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate
To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands,
Refusing her grand hests, she did confine thee,
By help of her more potent ministers
And in her most unmitigable rage,
Into a cloven pine; within which rift
Imprison'd thou didst painfully remain
A dozen years; within which space she died
And left thee there; where thou didst vent thy groans
As fast as mill-wheels strike. Then was this island--
Save for the son that she did litter here,
A freckled whelp hag-born--not honour'd with
A human shape.

ARIEL

Yes, Caliban her son.

PROSPERO

Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban
Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'st
What torment I did find thee in; thy groans
Did make wolves howl and penetrate the breasts
Of ever angry bears: it was a torment
To lay upon the damn'd, which Sycorax
Could not again undo: it was mine art,
When I arrived and heard thee, that made gape
The pine and let thee out.

ARIEL

I thank thee, master.

PROSPERO

If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak
And peg thee in his knotty entrails till
Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters.

ARIEL

Pardon, master;
I will be correspondent to command
And do my spiriting gently.

PROSPERO

Do so, and after two days
I will discharge thee.

ARIEL

That's my noble master!
What shall I do? say what; what shall I do?

PROSPERO

Go make thyself like a nymph o' the sea: be subject
To no sight but thine and mine, invisible
To every eyeball else. Go take this shape
And hither come in't: go, hence with diligence!
Exit ARIEL
Awake, dear heart, awake! thou hast slept well; Awake!

MIRANDA

The strangeness of your story put
Heaviness in me.

PROSPERO

Shake it off. Come on;
We'll visit Caliban my slave, who never
Yields us kind answer.

MIRANDA

'Tis a villain, sir,
I do not love to look on.

PROSPERO

But, as 'tis,
We cannot miss him: he does make our fire,
Fetch in our wood and serves in offices
That profit us. What, ho! slave! Caliban!
Thou earth, thou! speak.

CALIBAN

[Within] There's wood enough within.

PROSPERO

Come forth, I say! there's other business for thee:
Come, thou tortoise! when?
Re-enter ARIEL like a water-nymph
Fine apparition! My quaint Ariel,
Hark in thine ear.

ARIEL

My lord it shall be done.
Exit

PROSPERO

Sharing is definitely caring

For Thanksgiving, I spent it with some of my friends at school. 

Lets just say, when you are with actors, there's bound to be some sort of performance. As part of our extravaganza, we all took a trip to good o'l Times Square.  There, some of my friends faked a proposal.  Mind you, they did this last year and although I didn't believe them, it was a moving moment.

Our group separated and watched as "the couple" climbed the TKTS stairs.  They talked and laughed with each other, like any couple and in a blink of an eye, Josh went down on one knee.  Everyone around us clapped and cheered.  Some people even recorded this precious moment.  After Tiffany said yes, strangers went up to the couple and congratulated them.  They even mentioned how honored they felt for being part of their new journey.

I love that as actors, even though we may pretend to be these characters, we can give audiences so much more than what we get from being on stage.

Have to hold onto this.  

Nina from The Seagull

Romola Garai as Nina (The Seagull) 

I have never wrote a post about any character work, and I wanted to write my thoughts down before I went to bed.

I am currently working on The Seagull by Anton Chekhov, for one of my acting scene studies.  Previously, we worked on the Three Sisters and while, I loved that play, the Seagull is feels a little bit lighter to work on.  But only a little bit.

I am assigned to do a scene with Constantine and Sorin in the beginning of the play, where it is the audience's first time to meet Nina in the play.  Our teacher does not like it when we distance ourselves from the character, so for this purpose, I will refer to myself as "Nina".

According to the circumstances from the play, I am a precocious, intelligent, beautiful, bright young girl who longs to break out of her jail cell.  My mother came from a provincial family who owned an estate, and after she passed away, all the land and money went to my father. My father remarried and I do not have a good relationship with him or my stepmother.  In fact, I live in constant fear of them.

•  To indicate when I break out of my character, I will put my own personal comments in bullet points.  As part of my scene study class, our teacher introduced the idea of the personal story which will all you to activate your system in order for you to connect to the character's circumstance of the play.l  I have a lot of similar personal events in my life that helps me connect to Nina, particularly my relationship with my parents.  I have stepparents and I definitely know what it is like to feel disconnected to my parents' new spouses.  Nina addresses her father's wife as her stepmother, but also  as "his wife", which I do with my father's wife because I personally do not see her as my stepmother.  Your relationship with a person is revealed in how you label that person and it seems that Nina. 

 I am in a relationship with Constantine which for me, as an actress is very hard to define.   Later on in the play, there is a scene in which Constantine and I get into a fight over how much we have changed and it is straining the relationship. Whether I love him or not is something I need to further explore in rehearsals.

• I have been in a relationship with someone where I started to stray away and look at other men.  There is something about the relationship that do not make me feel fulfilled.  Perhaps Constantine does not excite Nina creatively, and right now at her life, she is trying to figure out a way to follow her dreams of becoming an actress. 

Immediately at my entrance, I am more wrapped up about showing up for my acting debut rather than actually being there to support Constantine's project.  I know how much this play means to him, and yet, I am more worried about myself because Trigorin will be there to watch me act.  On top of everything, I snuck out of the house and I have to be back in time before my father comes back home.  There are repercussions if I am caught and I will be severely punished.

• When I was younger, I used to sneak out of the house late at night and my mother is really strict with curfew which at times made me feel suffocated at times when I lived at home.  

**Rehearsal with my Teacher**
Sometimes, when you did so much Me Work, it comes down to what you can give to your partner and how much your partner can give you.  I tried to incorporate all these circumstances but when your partner is struggling with your circumstances, you may not know if you these are the right circumstances to play at for the scene.  

No time...

I have been pounding the pavement and working hard at my part time job, trying to make some money for rent and possibly tuition for school.

I have never worked 6 days straights for 9 hours each shift and it's taking some time away from studying. I tried to go to the library but I couldn't concentrate and I fell asleep due to exhaustion. 

Last year, I wouldn't be able to work and go to school. I missed Thanksgiving and Christmas because of work... When should I put my foot down and say I need some time for myself? 

I also have been dealing with some personal problems which I brought on myself and it has been taking me a few days to work it out. Whatever you do... Don't spend money you don't have!!! And put your foot down when you don't want something. I mistakenly bought something because I allowed someone else to bully me. I feel this reflects how I act to because my Shakespeare teacher gave me a feedback about being aggressive with my space while I act.  I constantly allow myself to be conquered!!! Invaded! 

Time to defend. And sleep. 

Id vs the Super Ego

On Tuesday, I bumped into one of my acting teachers at Chipotle.  I seem to talk a lot about my physical acting teachers and I am not saying my other teachers are not worth talking about, but because of the  nature of this class, everything is experiential and it takes time to process what happens in class. 

I brought up certain experiences in class about feeling selfish in class, and not being out there as an artist, an activist and telling the stories that need to be told. After listening to me, he looked at me bewildered by my comment. He responded, "Why shouldn't you be selfish? You need the training to be the best at your craft in order to go out there and tell those stories!" 

Yes, be more selfish. Personally, I have told myself in the past that being selfish will not get you anywhere and now that I am training, my entire world is being torn down. Of course, I need to think about myself because no one else will. I am fortunate enough to have a mother who is selfless and would give ANYTHING to make sure my sister and I are comfortable.  I really look up to her but I am realizing I can not stay in my safe bubble if I want to make it in this business.

So, it's the battle between id, and my super ego.  I want to be impulsive but what is practical? Give myself the opportunity to do what I love and also to know that I can touch people with my art, my truth.

I don't have to give up the kind, vulnerable part of myself but just have to build a high enough platform where no one can touch me and yet can still see me. 

Where is your center?

Second year at Circle.  Less angsty.  WAY LESS.  

This year, it's all about what can I do to stretch myself and stay creative and fresh with my work. The  first year of school is definitely learning how to deal with your own bullshit and become a neutral being.  

It's also very important to objectively look at your own work which I didn't so much last year.  Everything I wrote last year was about my feelings... and I want to slap myself, sometimes.  Whatever, it happens.  Move on. 

I am discovering that I am physically struggling with my classes which is a first since I take pride in my natural physical abilities to do something.  I have always depended on them to get me through physical acting exercises (jumping, running, etc.) but stubbornness has been getting in the way and I have found that my core is extremely weak (not flexible in changing a choreography if I learned it a certain way)! 

The first physical acting exercise that brought my awareness of this habit is the self dialogue.  This is where, you isolate and spontaneously move a limb one at a time (it could be the fingers, the whole arm, or the foot or the entire leg). There is no need to interpret this leg or arm language.  Later, you would have this "dialogue" with a partner.

Here is a response to this exercise and what I got out of it :)

I hope to write more in this manner for future exercises.  

The Frustrated Leg

By: the Big Labasan or Dudette

First things first, I didn't realize how much I would get out of this exercise until I wrote this essay... It has helped me confront my frustrations and anxiety I have had over this sometimes disheartening but pertinent exercise because it revealed a lot about my creative process and what happens to my system when I am confused, frustrated or scared. I had a difficult time (physically) trying to interpret what I should be doing (should- what a killer of a word). I noticed physical reactions I would have at the start of the self dialogue and the struggle to allow myself to be spontaneous and let my voice follow my physical movements.

Usually my first reaction to anything, starts with a question, “Am I doing this correctly?” or “Should I do it this way? Or that way?” The infamous chatter in your head... At the start of the first few weeks of this exercise, I would always tense my jaw and hold my breath at the beginning of the exercise. By the end of it, I would feel agitated and even disappointed in myself. It would start with the noises in my head and after watching a few of my classmates, I would compare myself without even seeing what I actually did from an outside's perspective! Looking back now, it seems so silly to do that, but we do in fact compare our work with each other's. During the isolations, I was uncomfortable which I translated as, “You are just not that good at this exercise, BIG LABASAN.” I felt extremely clumsy which added to my insecurities to how I would be perceived from the outside. Sometimes I would disengage from my core because I was fighting for dear life to be stable (meaning not falling flat on my face) which limited my ability to react spontaneously. I thrive on control, and this exercise has been dealing with my obsessive need to censor anything that I perceive is stupid or meaningless which stops me from reacting organically and impulsively (another thing I am working on). I felt the most weak, when I had to shift my balance to one leg and of course, one side was stronger than the other (I prefer to stand on the right leg). Adding constants and sounds added to my frustration because I felt as if I wasn't communicating anything. I know we were not suppose to interpret what the movements were but I think I was falling back on trying to find meaning because it was the only way I could make any sense of what I was doing.

 The progression of the “I love yous and I hate yous” did ease the internal tension because it was something I knew. I know what it means to love someone, or to hate someone but perhaps, I am limiting myself.... I know I need to focus on the beginning of the exercise because I don't want to be an actor that sits comfortably and emotes one emotion. I trying to learn to trust my core, let my body go and be surprised by it's strength and knowledge. I just hope this frustrated leg can keep up.  

You are such a square...