{"id":313678,"date":"2022-07-29T09:06:52","date_gmt":"2022-07-29T16:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/?p=313678"},"modified":"2022-07-26T19:32:52","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T02:32:52","slug":"speak-the-speech-acting-class-takes-on-shakespeare-at-liberty-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/speak-the-speech-acting-class-takes-on-shakespeare-at-liberty-station\/","title":{"rendered":"Speak the speech \u2013 Acting class takes on Shakespeare at Liberty Station"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ten students with varying backgrounds and experiences gathered on July 23 at Liberty Station for a workshop in the round to learn acting or hone their skills in studying and performing Shakespeare.<\/p>\n

Titled \u201cDemystyifing Shakespeare,\u201d the six-week outdoor class called \u201cSummer Shakes 22\u201d is being offered by ActLiveNow\/Point Loma Playhouse. Taught by Point Loma native Robert Nickel, the course covers the life, work, and times of the famous bard.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the end of this class you\u2019re going to be a lot more comfortable with the Elizabethan language,\u201d Nickel promised his students, who admitted being intimidated by the dialogue. \u201cThe whole point is to help you learn in an environment that is comfortable to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Shakespeare wrote in the late 1400s and early 1500s, Nickel stressed that neither the language \u2013 nor the plots \u2013 in Shakespeare’s plays are mysterious once you break it all down. \u201cThat was a long time ago,\u201d he said. \u201cBut human nature doesn\u2019t change. The things Shakespeare wrote about are just as relevant today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like yoga, Nickel\u2019s acting class began with a breathing warm-up, as students projected their voices at one another like they would on stage. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to know how to make yourselves heard,\u201d he said. \u201cYou could be the hardest-working actor in show biz, and if people can\u2019t hear you when you\u2019re performing \u2013 there\u2019s no point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nickel likened acting to driving a car. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to know how to mechanically operate the vehicle,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to deal with the conditions on the road, know what the rules are so you don\u2019t violate them. And you\u2019ve got to know where you\u2019re going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next came time for aspiring thespians to introduce themselves discussing their backgrounds and aspirations.<\/p>\n

Student Tami O\u2019Connell, who has been in many community theater and college plays, and said she\u2019d like to \u201cConquer, and remember, a little bit of the theater language.\u201d Of her acquaintance with Shakespeare, she said, \u201cMy grandmother took me many times to the Old Globe to see many Shakesperean plays.\u201d Asked a \u201cfun fact\u201d about herself she replied, \u201cI can\u2019t sing, though my preschool children don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liza Frank first learned about the bard in high school and did some \u201cunpaid things,\u201d theatrically while attending school in New York state. She hasn\u2019t performed in a decade and said jokingly of her personal fun fact: \u201cI am a travel and food junkie. I will go anywhere and eat anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dex Danby (chosen name) has written plays and first performed theatrically, he said \u201cas a bashful 9-year-old auditioning for my mom in a role in \u2018Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.\u2019\u201d An acting minor in school, he noted, \u201cI started my own theater company and did one production that was off-off Broadway. It\u2019s been 16 years since I trod the boards, and I\u2019d like to get back into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A self-avowed \u201clate bloomer,\u201d Maxine Levaren just finished a stand-up comedy workshop and performed a live routine at Point Loma Playhouse. \u201cI\u2019d like to become a little more comfortable with the language and the meter of Shakespeare,\u201d she said adding \u201cI\u2019d like to perform anything by Lady Macbeth. \u201cI always get cast as the snarky @#$%*. She\u2019s a published writer and traveled a lot pre-pandemic but added, \u201cI\u2019m not sure I want to face airport delays anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kristina Sparks did some modeling in commercials as a child as well as being an extra in movies. She\u2019s performed in church productions and did drama in high school. Concerning her acting aspirations, she said, \u201cI admire people who can pull Shakespeare out of their back pocket and would like to have some Shakespeare in my back pocket.\u201d She added she wants to be a comic and intends to sign up soon for a workshop at a local comedy theater.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like being an audience member, usually in the front row,\u201d said Wende West of her Shakespeare experiences. \u201cI\u2019ve never done acting. This is a real stretch for me. But I\u2019m here to try and put myself out on the edge and see if I last.\u201d She said her mother introduced her to Shakespeare\u2019s sonnets. \u201cI\u2019ve lived in Europe and my favorite place to travel is the Sahara Desert where I spent 16 days once,\u201d she said of her fun fact.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Summer Shakes 22 class. (Front row) teacher Robert Nickel, Tami O’Connell, Maxine LeVaren, Liza Frank and Wende West. (Back row) Christopher Benner, Kristina Sparks, Dex Danby,\u00a0Steve Zatarain, Greg Zoumaras and Fumy Tu. DAVE SCHWAB\/PENINSULA BEACON<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Though he doesn\u2019t have much theater experience, Christopher Benner said he\u2019s \u201ctaken some classes and read at auditions. I finally did a performance four months ago and it was fun. I didn\u2019t realize how visceral and physical (Shakespeare plays) are. His fun fact? \u201cI used to be a lifeguard,\u201d he answered.<\/p>\n

The most experienced performer of the student group, Greg Zoumaras, has played Demetrius in Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cA Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream\u201d and directed \u201cThe Tempest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d just like to dust the cobwebs off and get the Shakespeare language flowing again,\u201d he said adding he\u2019d like to re-enact the St. Crispin\u2019s Day speech in Shakespeare\u2019s Henry V.\u201d His fun fact is that he is a \u201cDungeons & Dragons nerd.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fumy Tu said she\u2019s \u201calways wanted to act in theater and learn acting.\u201d Of this class, she said, \u201cI want to find a monologue for myself, and understand the words of Shakespeare as I\u2019m speaking them.\u201d She added she fell in love with the 1968 movie version of \u201cRomeo & Juliet.\u201d Asked her fun fact, she answered, \u201cI love embroidery and I play the ukulele.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instructor Nickel said the \u201cprocess\u201d of acting, in Shakespeare or anything else, involves rediscovering the material through interpretation. \u201cYou not only need to know what the words mean, but how your character feels about them,\u201d he said. \u201cA play takes real life and encodes it into the written word. You take this encoded vignette drained of all life, like something that\u2019s freeze-dried, and you\u2019ve got to re-hydrate it. And the way that an actor does that is something that can never happen again. This is why live theater is an irretrievable treasure in our culture unlike anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final part of Nickel\u2019s introductory Shakespeare class involved dissecting a seemingly unintelligible line of dialogue from the play \u201cAntony and Cleopatra.\u201d He worked with students to analyze the dialogue, pointing out Elizabethan English isn\u2019t all that tough to decipher once you realize the writing is poetic verse, not prose. He said the trick is to move some of the parts of sentences around so that the content makes sense in modern terms.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ten students with varying backgrounds and experiences gathered on July 23 at Liberty Station for a workshop in the round to learn acting or hone their skills in studying and performing Shakespeare. Titled \u201cDemystyifing Shakespeare,\u201d the six-week outdoor class called \u201cSummer Shakes 22\u201d is being offered by ActLiveNow\/Point Loma Playhouse. Taught by Point Loma native […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":840,"featured_media":313679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Ten students with varying backgrounds and experiences gathered on July 23 at Liberty Station for a workshop in the round to learn acting or hone their skills in studying and performing Shakespeare.","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"3","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"1","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11561,11550],"tags":[13707,12752,12524,13708],"class_list":["post-313678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-peninsula-beacon","category-top-stories","tag-actlivenow","tag-liberty-station","tag-point-loma-playhouse","tag-shakespeare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}