Shakespeare

Shakespeare

Dear Eddie Murphy,

I am glad to inform you that I have been reviewing some several works that you have been able to do in the comedy industry and I have been greatly impressed. The motive behind my analysis was to find a person to play the character Puck in the blockbuster movie, based on the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare. As Oberon’s jester, you should be able to act mischievously in all your parts with a lot of swiftness to provide smooth transitions between your acts. Facial expressions to alert the audience when you are about to play a trick or act mischief on someone should be one of the tools that you will use in the play. For example, in the case where you turn Bottom’s head into that of a donkey, you could wink at the crowd and motion for them to be silent as you slowly creep to the unsuspecting victim and work your magic. Then you fall to the ground with laughter as you roll around clutching your stomach to bring out the funny state of Bottom’s face. You can incorporate your own creativity in the story (Grosz, 2003).

Tone variation is another tool that will help you to bring out the funny content in your act. In the place that Oberon refers to Puck as a mad spirit, you can act and talk as a mad person to express the disbelief that the queen has fallen in love with the donkey head. The delivery method should be able to transform the message that we want to pass along to the crowd in a more comical way without necessarily changing the words of the original script. This will help complement the Puck character with the others that you will interact with in the play. Finally yet importantly, your character acts as the protagonist in the play and so you should be able to keep the audience captivated from the beginning to the end to avoid boredom (Sadowski, 2003).

Yours truly,

AMND Director.

Dear Jim Carrey,

I am pleased to announce to you that I have carefully examined your work in the comedy industry and have finally reached a conclusion that you are the right candidate for the character Nick Bottom in the film adaptation of the Shakespeare play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream that we wish to perform. Bottom is an incompetent character whose bizarre belief in himself makes him more of a clown. He is an awful actor and his speech is dotted with grammatical and metaphoric mistakes. Since Bottom is overconfident of himself, it is easy to bring out the comical side of him through his speech and attire. You can dress yourself in color clashing clothes that make you just look funny but be sure to point out that you are smart bringing out the irony in your words. Secondly, no matter how funny a scene may look you should not laugh or smile but should maintain a serious face all through. You should speak to people carelessly, cutting them in the middle of sentences to imply to them that whatever they are saying is not important and in this way shift all the focus to you (Shakespeare & Rackham, 2003).

This can be used in the scene where the different acting roles are being split and Bottom proposes himself to play all because of his overconfidence. In addition, it should be able to work on the patience of your fellow actors like Puck so that he can then change your head to that of an ass to teach you a lesson. This is one of the ways, which you will be able to advance your character and that of the others. You should also be able to balance both your annoying and funny sides to the audience through out the play and where necessary you can add one or two sentences in the original script if it is what it takes to clearly portray your character.

Yours truly,

AMND Director.

References:

Grosz, T. (2003). Shakespeare Made Easy: A Midsummer Night’s Dream: grades 7-9. Portland ME: Walch Publishing.

Sadowski, P. (2003). Dynamism of character in Shakespeare’s mature tragedies. Newark DE: University of Delaware Press.

Shakespeare, W. & Rackham, A. (2003). Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Kendallville IN: Courier Dover Publications.