Sunday, 31 May 2015

Fun and Games

SCENE VII. Another part of the field.

EXETER
Soldier, you must come to the king.

KING HENRY V
Soldier, why wearest thou that glove in thy cap? slight sarcasm, its a game 

WILLIAMS
An't please your majesty, 'tis the gage of one that
I should fight withal, if he be alive.

KING HENRY V
An Englishman? still game like 

WILLIAMS
An't please your majesty, a rascal that swaggered
with me last night; who, if alive and ever dare to
challenge this glove, I have sworn to take him a box
o' th' ear: or if I can see my glove in his cap,
which he swore, as he was a soldier, he would wear
if alive, I will strike it out soundly.

KING HENRY V
What think you, Captain Fluellen? is it fit this   still slightly sarcastic, brings Fluellen into his game, Volume 
soldier keep his oath?                                            slightly rises as he is calling Captain Fluellen, tempo is natural

FLUELLEN
He is a craven and a villain else, an't please your
majesty, in my conscience.

KING HENRY V
It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great sort, emphasis as he is referring to himself,  giving clues 
quite from the answer of his degree.

FLUELLEN
Though he be as good a gentleman as the devil is, as        Henry takes in what Fluellen is saying, it is here Henry 
Lucifer and Belzebub himself, it is necessary, look           thinks of giving Fluellen the glove. 
your grace, that he keep his vow and his oath: if              
he be perjured, see you now, his reputation is as
arrant a villain and a Jacksauce, as ever his black
shoe trod upon God's ground and his earth, in my
conscience, la!

KING HENRY V
Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou meetest the fellow.

WILLIAMS
So I will, my liege, as I live.

KING HENRY V
Who servest thou under?       Henry wants to crack on with his plan so sends Soldier away 

WILLIAMS
Under Captain Gower, my liege.

FLUELLEN
Gower is a good captain, and is good knowledge and
literatured in the wars.

KING HENRY V
Call him hither to me, soldier. direct, dismissed

WILLIAMS
I will, my liege.
Exit

KING HENRY V
Here, Fluellen; wear thou this favour for me and Tempo is fast, instruction, background information, volume
stick it in thy cap: when Alencon and myself were personal
down together, I plucked this glove from his helm:
if any man challenge this, he is a friend to
Alencon, and an enemy to our person; if thou  important instruction, direct, personal
encounter any such, apprehend him, an thou dost me love.

FLUELLEN
Your grace doo's me as great honours as can be
desired in the hearts of his subjects: I would fain
see the man, that has but two legs, that shall find
himself aggrieved at this glove; that is all; but I
would fain see it once, an please God of his grace
that I might see.

KING HENRY V
Knowest thou Gower?

FLUELLEN
He is my dear friend, an please you.

KING HENRY V
Pray thee, go seek him, and bring him to my tent. direct, dismissing Fluellen, tempo is faster 

FLUELLEN
I will fetch him.
Exit

KING HENRY V
My brother Gloucester, direct, volume is personal
Follow Fluellen closely at the heels: tempo fast 
The glove which I have given him for a favour
May haply purchase him a box o' th' ear;
It is the soldier's; I by bargain should
Wear it myself. Follow, good brother Gloucester: direct, order 
If that the soldier strike him, as I judge
By his blunt bearing he will keep his word,
Some sudden mischief may arise of it;
For I do know Fluellen valiant
And, touched with choler, hot as gunpowder,
And quickly will return an injury:
Follow and see there be no harm between them. direct, order
Go you with me, uncle of Exeter. direct, order 
Exeunt


Henry sees the soldier Michael Williams, the soldier that he argued with and exchanged gloves with the night before. Henry plays a game between Williams and Fluellen when he gives Williams’s glove to Fluellen and tells him to wear on his cap, Henry states that he won it valiantly from Alencons helmet when they were fighting and that anyone who attacks Fluellen over it must be a traitor. Henry then goes after them to see the game unravel. This is a fun scene where Henry after his victory becomes a little bit looser and enjoys some fun at Fluellen and Williams expense. 

Transition in volume and tempo

SCENE VII. Another part of the field.

GOWER
Here comes his majesty.

Alarum. Enter KING HENRY impact, haste in walk, slight pace, and forces; WARWICK, GLOUCESTER, EXETER, and others

KING HENRY V
I was not angry since I came to France I, emphasis on angry and France, volume is loud and powerful 
Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald; ‘Take a trumpet Herald’-direct, emphasis on instant  and take 
Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon hill: I, direct, tempo is fast 
If they will fight with us, bid them come down, I
Or void the field; they do offend our sight: I
If they'll do neither, we will come to them,
And make them skirr away, as swift as stones  I, emphasis on the three s
Enforced from the old Assyrian slings: I
Besides, we'll cut the throats of those we have, I, pause after the besides for thought
And not a man of them that we shall take I, slightly savage, anger had taken over
Shall taste our mercy. Go and tell them so. I hang on mercy, direct and dismissive ‘tell them so’ 
Enter ONTJOY

EXETER
Here comes the herald of the French, my liege.

GLOUCESTER
His eyes are humbler than they used to be.

KING HENRY V
How now! what means this, herald? know'st thou not questions, lighter side of anger 
That I have fined these bones of mine for ransom? after ‘fined’ volume starts to rise emphasising anger 
Comest thou again for ransom? Volume loud, questions 

Tension between Henry and Montjoy 

MONTJOY
No, great king:
I come to thee for charitable licence,
That we may wander o'er this bloody field           Henry calms down, he listens to Monjoy and can take into 
To look our dead, and then to bury them;             account what he is saying. He sees the images Montjoy is painting
To sort our nobles from our common men.          and strips this angry, proud and snappy demeanour into more of  
For many of our princes--woe the while!—         a approachable slightly vulnerable one.
Lie drown'd and soak'd in mercenary blood;
So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs
In blood of princes; and their wounded steeds
Fret fetlock deep in gore and with wild rage
Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters,
Killing them twice. O, give us leave, great king,
To view the field in safety and dispose
Of their dead bodies!

KING HENRY V
I tell thee truly, herald, softer in voice, lower in volume, direct 
I know not if the day be ours or no; I,sincere, looking for answer 
For yet a many of your horsemen peer I, 
And gallop o'er the field. waits for answer 

MONTJOY
The day is yours.

PAUSE to take in victory 

KING HENRY V
Praised be God, and not our strength, for it! I, volume loud, happiness, Henry is victorious, he is in his element 
PAUSE, see the castle 
What is this castle call'd that stands hard by? I, questions, tempo is slow, volume is natural 

MONTJOY
They call it Agincourt.

KING HENRY V
Then call we this the field of Agincourt, I.proud, standing his ground, announcing to all, tempo slow, volume rising 
Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus.- extremely emphasised, volume risen and loud, strong, bask in the Crispin Crispianus moment 


In this scene Henry goes up and down with his emotions, feeling angry towards the start and relief and fulfilment towards the end. Henry starts off of a fast spinning wheel of revenge and frustration, a fast paced motion that is hard to stop, when Herald/ Montjoy comes in he puts a slight spanner in this wheel slowing him down and calming him, with his reflection and thoughts on the current war. After listening to Montjoy, it is revealed that Henry just wants to know what is going on as he doesn't even know if he has won the war or not. When he finds out he has won all the tension in his body and all the anger in his voice and face leaves as he is overcome with pride. Volume and tempo are important in this scene as the fast paced tempo and high volume transition into the softer volume and slower tempo the audience can see just the impact of the war and revelation. 

Thursday, 28 May 2015

Henry and Exeter

SCENE VI. Another part of the field.

Alarums. Enter KING HENRY and forces, EXETER, and others

KING HENRY V
Well have we done, thrice valiant countrymen: motivation, complement emphasis on valiant 
But all's not done; yet keep the French the field. Iambic Pentameter, instruction follows emphasis on keep  
( Volume is loud as in battlefield and trying to reach his voice to all his men with motivation but also instruction) 

EXETER
The Duke of York commends him to your majesty.

KING HENRY V
Lives he, good uncle? thrice within this hour questions, eager, emphasis on thrice (thrice- three times) 
I saw him down; thrice up again and fighting; emphasis on thrice 
From helmet to the spur all blood he was. I, see the image, tempos is fast, volume is personal 

EXETER
In which array, brave soldier, doth he lie,            H is emotional throughout this monologue, one of my closest 
Larding the plain; and by his bloody side,           friends has been killed on the battle field and i can see 
Yoke-fellow to his honour-owing wounds,          the image Exeter is describing to me. The visual of 
The noble Earl of Suffolk also lies.                     Henry is more vulnerable, and saddened. The posture is
Suffolk first died: and York, all haggled over,     more relaxed and not as strong. 
Comes to him, where in gore he lay insteep'd,
And takes him by the beard; kisses the gashes
That bloodily did spawn upon his face;
And cries aloud 'Tarry, dear cousin Suffolk!
My soul shall thine keep company to heaven;
Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast,
As in this glorious and well-foughten field
We kept together in our chivalry!'
Upon these words I came and cheer'd him up:
He smiled me in the face, raught me his hand,
And, with a feeble gripe, says 'Dear my lord,
Commend my service to me sovereign.'
So did he turn and over Suffolk's neck
He threw his wounded arm and kiss'd his lips;
And so espoused to death, with blood he seal'd
A testament of noble-ending love.
The pretty and sweet manner of it forced
Those waters from me which I would have stopp'd;
But I had not so much of man in me,
And all my mother came into mine eyes
And gave me up to tears.

KING HENRY V
I blame you not; an emotional moment between Henry and Exeter, Henry reassures him, tender voice, voice is lower, emphasis on blame 
For, hearing this, I must perforce compound  I, emphasis on perforce (  perforce- necessary) 
With mistful eyes, or they will issue too. I, emphasis on mistful and issue, tempo is slower 
Alarum
But, hark! what new alarum is this same? I, tempo fastens, volume rises, emphasis on hark and alarum 
The French have reinforced their scatter'd men: I, emphasis on reinforced and French, haste in voice
Then every soldier kill his prisoners: I, anger, volume is loud this is directed to all his men 
Give the word through. strong, abrupt, direct 
Exeunt- with haste 


This is an emotional scene between Henry and Exeter, the two have lost a mutual close friend and the way in which Exeter describes the death is very emotional and hard to relive. We see a softer side to Henry, where the strong confident leader is saddened and slightly vulnerable, but this quickly changes to revenge and anger when the sound of the Alarum comes and he sees that the French are getting ready to fight harder. Volume and Tone are very important in this scene because if done right can make certain parts incredibly strong such as the transition from an emotional and lower voice and tempo when comforting Exeter to the rise of tempo and loud volume when he sees the reinforced French. 


Wednesday, 13 May 2015

Battle scene


The battle scene is physically and creatively engaging with its response to the reality of WW1. The use of levels incorporate the set, the tables and the placing of the props to create a slight abstract but also slightly realistic visual for the audience, painting this picture of men going off to war and fighting. The cast come up and over the table this is responding to the reality of the trenches, hills and various bits of land the men had to walk through and over. The approach to this sequence was a light one, The war would have been messy and violent and instead of taking the obvious and literal route, artistic images were choreographed enabling the audience to use their imagination and the aid of the visual of men passing each other with guns to picture the war. 

Physicality is an incredibly important role throughout this play, and comes into practice particularly in this scene. The physicality has to be brought back to the previous exercise on being a man and incorporating all the attributes and physical manurisms into the battle. In the physicality there needs to be a strength in the arms carrying the gun, tension in the body, slight space between the legs, broad shoulders, heavier footing and strong facial expressions. If this physicality drops the sequence becomes less strong in its effectiveness, so applying these attributes to this scene is fundamental. This is a challenge because you're thinking about many things such as the play itself, your role, your lines, the choreography in the scene and your physicality which is incredibly important but difficult as its so far from your normal physicality (completely different gender). Energy plays a big part in maintaining the effectiveness of the physicality and if we work in a team and keep the energy high we can bounce off each other and all in all create a visually effective scene. 


I really like the sequence and think it works really nicely in the play, offering a silent moment to just watch and interpret. There were parts of the sequence I found difficult as it came down to timing and teamwork which had to be built up with confidence over time, but when I got a hold of it and everyone was on the same page it really worked and became natural. The main factor in this piece is teamwork, in response to the literal these men had to work together and by showing that bond and ultimately trusting and uplifting each other we get the best out of this scene.

Tuesday, 12 May 2015

Analysis of Henry V performance- Kenneth Branagh

I watched Kenneth Branagh's performance as Henry V in the 1989 adaption of Henry V, paying particular focus to the Crispin day speech which i have been looking at. In his performance of this particular speech I found his choices in voice and physicality inspiring as he embodied a powerful king and in captured the meaning of the speech. 

I found a certain elegance in his posture and his voice felt natural and proud, the delivery was inspiring and was done in a way that was light but powerful, this gave the impression of a friendly relationship between him and the people he was talking to (his knights, battle men). The confidence of his character were shown not only through posture and the way he stood such as broad shoulders and open arms but parts where he would have a casual walk but be delivering his voice on a loud scale pronouncing each word and emphasising words that carried a powerful hit. The pronunciation consisted of the rolling of R’s and the strong carry through from the beginning of the word to the word ending, for example the word Crispian/ Crispin was always a mixture of those two elements making a strong Ki sound carrying straight on the the rolling of the Ris and hitting the En sound at the end. 

Other parts of the speech that i was drawn to was towards the ending with ‘ we few, we happy few, we band of brothers’ this section of the king reassuring his subjects of their loyalty to him and his loyalty to them exudes a brotherly tone, gentle and slightly emotional, this is then followed by a rise in tempo and volume securing his final motivational push ‘And gentlemen in England now abed’ and is then ended with an emphasis on the words ‘Crispins day’, the elongation of the words Crispin and day close the speech and draw the attention of the audience to the name this results in its memorability. 

From this i can take so many elements of Branaghs performance and help it inspire me to deliver a similar feel for my version. Things to help me with my Crispins day performance:
  • Differentiation in tone and volume 
  • The brotherly and close relationship between the king and the people around him 
  • Posture 
  • Confidence 
  • Natural feel 
  • Emotion 
  • Pronunciation of words, he is a King so speaks the best English 
  • Strength and hitting of words and their endings 


Monday, 13 April 2015

Henry's Monologue



  • The whole Speech is Inspirational 
  • Henry Seeps Confidence and Power 
  • Aims to praise highly and criticise darkly 
  • The Speech belongs to a King 

Translation 

Who’s wishing that? My cousin Westmorland? No, my dear cousin, if we are marked down to die we are enough for our country to lose, and if marked down to live, the fewer the men the greater the share of honour. For the love of God, don’t wish for one man more. By Jove, I’m not interested in gold, nor do I care who eats at my expense. It doesn’t bother me who wears my clothes. Such outward things don’t come into my ambitions. But if it is a sin to long for honour I am the most offending soul alive. No, indeed, my cousin, don’t wish for another man from England. God’s peace, I wouldn’t lose as much honour as the share one man would take from me. No, don’t wish for one more. Rather proclaim to my army, Westmorland, that anyone who doesn’t have the stomach for this fight should leave now. He will be guaranteed free passage and travel money will be put in his purse. We would not like to die with any man who lacks the comradeship to die with us. This day is called the Feast of Crispian. He who outlives this day and gets home safely to reach old age will yearly on its anniversary celebrate with his neighbours and say, “Tomorrow is Saint Crispian.” Then he will roll up his sleeve and show his scars and say “I got these wounds on Crispin’s day.” Old men are forgetful, but even if he remembers nothing else he’ll remember, with embroideries, what feats he did that day. Then our names, as familiar in his mouth as household words – Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester – will be remembered in their toasts. This good man will teach his son, and Crispin Crispian will never pass from today until the end of the world without us being remembered: we few; we happy few; we band of brothers! The man who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother; however humble he may be, this day will elevate his status. And gentlemen in England, still lying in their beds, will think themselves accursed because they were not here, and be in awe while anyone speaks who fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.’

NOTES:


I decided to look at the whole speech instead of just looking at the shortened version that i say in the play, so that i could get a full understanding of what Henry is saying and everything he is trying to get across in this monologue. I get a deeper understanding from the full monologue, Henry is adamant that he does not want just anybody to fight this war with him, he wants men with fire in their bellies and a hunger for victory if they don't he would much rather them go home. The people who fight with him in this war are part of an elite group, his ‘brothers’ showing the enormous importance of his soldiers. Henry mocks the men that would hide away and states that they will later ‘think themselves accursed’ that they did not fight when Henry and his soldiers return victorious. 

Be A Man

I play Henry in Henry V so the physicality of my character is male, therefore I must change my natural feminine posture to that of a man. In our workshop The first thing we began to look at was the way that men hold themselves in a typical walk. From a general knowledge of how men are I picked up on the fact that men have broader shoulders and smaller waists, this impacts the walk making it stronger in the shoulder and torso, resulting in a more emphasised top half. Exploring the way men are physically was a new and insightful experience for me because I was made to use my body and hold my body in a complete different way to how I normally do. Applying a male physicality to a character that I am playing is a rare occasion as I normally play women, so i don't read that much into their physicality because I know how women stand and how women are in their overall presence, so this activity and role is challenging in the respect that i cant carry any aspects of myself into this character physically. I was made to look at the little things that make men different to women,men have different aspects of their anatomy such as a penis, broader shoulders, taller, bigger feet, shorter hair, no breasts ( maybe pecks), facial hair and body hair. Knowing the general differences allowed me to physicalise this so I began to walk around the space imagining having bigger feet and questioning how that would make me feel, or change my stride, it turned out that this made my walk heavier and more weighted. I would be making sure there was space in between my legs as I would have a penis there, how would that change the way I walked? I walked around the space imagining i had bigger and broader shoulders this changed my physicality as I was more hunched over and took up more space. Embodying all the small ideas helped me to successfully portray and internally believe in my male character.

Recognising the differences between male and female physicality was evident when I was walking around the space. For instance when I walk, I walk lightly, my posture is straight and confident, I evenly distribute my weight between both of my feet and sway my hips slightly.  When walking round the space as a man I realised that I was a lot more heavy when I walked, my posture was a little more slouched, my back became more curved and my head was more relaxed and rested on my neck. The space also feels completely different when you're being either sex, when you're female the space is a lot bigger and you feel smaller, you glide around the space. When you are physicalising a male the space becomes a lot smaller and so you become bigger and you take up more room as you walk around. 


Getting the basis of the male character was useful for the whole class as we can take that foundation and build on it with our own characters personal thoughts and physicality's. For instance my character Henry is a man so will inhabit all the General male  physicality's that we've already explored, but from that I can take away that foundation and start to add things such as the Regal and Wealthy aspect also with time and through more understanding of my character I can personify his thoughts and feelings at particular stages of the play as they will change the way he stands and delivers his speech. 

Tuesday, 31 March 2015

Blocking and Staging

We dove straight into the play and started slowly walking through it blocking as we went along. The director left the actors to make decisions about where they would place themselves when delivering their lines or when in a scene, this allowed the scenes to be more natural and instinctual , if those decisions didn't work the director would offer some input or change the positions. I haven't gone on yet as my part is later on in the play so observing the work starting to happen on the play was very interesting and answered questions that i might have asked when i got on stage.




The set is a major part of our play as it helps create two worlds, the work of the women factory workers and the world of Henry V. To help make the transition between these two worlds the pieces of props have been purposefully made or placed in our set so that they can have a double use.
For instance the tables that we use as a workstation in the factory, we use as our main stage in the play. I really like the visual of using props for two different things and think it is very clever. i also like the representation of the women using anything they can find to be transported to this world as an escape from the war and literally clinging onto anything they can find to take their minds of the devastation.


While I was off stage i did some work on my script, such as summarising the Acts and Scenes to help me get a better understanding of the play. I also paraphrased my lines so that i could understand exactly what i was saying and how i would say it. 



Wednesday, 25 March 2015

The changing role of women

Watching The changing role of women, made me realise just how dangerous and life-threatening working in a munitions factory could be, and how they were willing to put their life on the line to help ensure the safe return of their loved ones and win of the war. Women were forced to take on the many different job roles men had, when they left to go to the war. One of the was popular jobs for women was shell making in a munitions factory with around 1 million women working in one. Work included such things as making shells, bullets and guns and each task left room for injuries both large and small. 

The munitions factories were a very dangerous place, one, The Woolwich Arsenal had the inside described as ' then the evil smell become more noticeable', the impending doom that loomed over these factories was unshakeable. The smaller injuries caused in a munitions factory would be cuts on fingers or grit in the eye but one of the most deadly were caused by the TNT in the shells.
Women who would be handling the TNT poison or were anywhere near the shells would inhale the fumes and begin a slow death, starting with a cold like symptom and ending with a painful death. 

Watching this video made me realise just how much these women were willing to go through to help out the men and their country. Death did not shake these strong willed women who not only did incredibly hard work but also risked their lives whilst doing so. I now have a better understanding of these women and what their roles were, I feel like my woman character needs to have alot more determination and pace in her work, also the thought process of why she is doing the job and how she feels about the possibilities of not only her husband dying but herself dying also. 


'well we don't mind dying for our country' 


Saturday, 21 March 2015

Laban


Laban movement qualities 



CHARACTER

When applying Laban techniques to my character Henry, it was very eye opening as I got to master his physicality by matching up my idea of Henry with a Laban technique. After exploring the 8 different Laban movement qualities I decided that Henry most suited GLIDE. This was because my idea of Henry was that he was of course very royal and high up, but also very graceful and purposeful. He walked everywhere strong and with a purpose ( direct ) but was elegant and refined in the way he did so ( light). Adjusting the GLIDE from extravagant to more naturalistic was helpful as i could see where i felt Henry would be placed, my end result was more towards the naturalistic side but it still carried an element of extravagance. 

We then applied a Laban movement to a scenario that could possibly be our opening scene. The scenario was at woman’s work factory (where our play is set), everyone is busy with their own job when suddenly a telegram is delivered to Sophie which informs her of her husbands death. I decided to apply PUNCH to my factory worker as not only was this quite different to Henry but was also an interesting character match to explore. When Sophie received her news i kept getting on with my own business and didn't take my eyes of where i was going and what i was moving. I decided that to the outside eye my character would appear quite unsympathetic but inside my character was an undertone, this was that she didn't want to think about telegrams or react to Sophie’s news as it would just make her think about her husband or son causing her pain and sadness, so by focusing on the work, took her mind elsewhere.

I found looking at Laban enjoyable but mostly incredibly useful as it allowed me to focus on the intricate details in my characters. I knew that a characters physicality could change the way they were perceived but I didn't know how the small details in the physicality's could make the audience see completely different personalitys, just from being direct or indirect, heavy or light and sustained or quick. Through the development of my character, by applying Laban techniques I can make conscious physical choices and movements depending on which Laban movement choices works best with the character. 

Exploring text


To start the lesson we got to see a model box presentation of our set from the set designers and a presentation of the costumes from the costume designers. Seeing the set really helped me visualise the final outcome of the play and was really helpful in getting to understand the directors concept of a WW1 women's factory, for the first time i could see Shakespeare and WW1 working together. The costume designers also helped provide a visual aid to the concept as they showed us sketches of the costume and brought along the top half of the costume we all would be wearing. Henry's costume looks very different and original as they have gone against the stereotypical man wears trousers idea and have instead put Henry is a dress and a blazer like jacket. 




"There is an energy that runs through Shakespeare an energy that runs through the text which is not a naturalistic one; an energy which impels one word to the next, one thought to the next, one speech to the next, and one scene to the next. I would say that there is really not a full stop until the end of the play"  The Actor And The Text, Cicely Berryp.82 

TEXT

We responded to this quote and were looking at applying voice techniques to text in the first half of the lesson. The first important lesson we learnt was how to stand in a way that would allow us to both read our lines but also be present and responsive to the actors you are in a scene with. This technique I found really helped me with my role in the exercise because I was alert and comfortable as I could see what was going on around me but I could also see my script clearly. After getting to know the right way to stand, the next task proved to be a lot easier than it would have been. We had to read a line each from the opening speech of the play spoken by the chorus, I delivered my line from my stomach and projected it out into the open space we created as a circle. We changed this up by changing the line we recited and adding a push towards the end of the line, when I got pushed i got slightly distracted by the fact that i had just got pushed and reacted by giggling. This threw me off my line and when i pushed the person next to me they also reacted with laughter and put them off, an advantage of this though was the fact that the last couple of words i spoke were the strongest as they followed the sharp and quick movement of my arm pushing against someone else.





Walking into the centre and delivering a line from the opening speech put the posture of the actor into play as i was able to walk comfortably with my script away from my face in my left hand and also deliver my line ensuring the speech was energised and followed the rhythm the person before me had set with the pace of their delivery. Reading the line one after the other, at a natural pace mimicked the way one person would have read the whole opening speech and showed us ( especially the chorus ) how we can comfortably split lines up spontaneously but still keep the text sounding fluid and natural.