keeping an audience engaged as Benedick in Much ado about nothing.

58 Pages·2016·0.84 MB·English

by  Jake Beamer

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Electronic Theses and Dissertations
5-2013
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Jake Beamer
University of Louisville
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Beamer, Jake, "The palm of my hand : keeping an audience engaged as Benedick in Much ado about
nothing." (2013). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 88.
https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/88
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THE PALM OF MY HAND:
KEEPING AN AUDIENCE ENGAGED AS
BENEDICK IN MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

By
Jake Beamer
B.A., University of Kentucky, 2007

A Thesis
Submitted to the Faculty of the
College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Louisville
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of

Master of Fine Arts

Department of Theatre Arts
University of Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky

May 2013
Copyright 2013 by Jake Beamer

All rights reserved.

THE PALM OF MY HAND:
KEEPING AN AUDIENCE ENGAGED AS
BENEDICK IN MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

By

Jake Beamer
B.A., University of Kentucky, 2007

A Thesis Approved on

April 19, 2013

by the following Thesis Committee:

______________________________
Michael Hottois
Thesis Advisor

___ ___________________________
Nefertiti Burton

_________________ _____________
Dr. Jay Irby
ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank the people who have influenced me to be bold, taught me
the value of being professional, and inspired me more than they will ever know:
Lauren “Lala” Argo, Lauren “Fancy” Carr, Mylissa Crutcher, Craig Branch, Kyle
Weishaar, Jenny Fitzpatrick, Mac King, Dara Tiller, Nick Dunn, Alex Kluemper,
Margo Buchanan, Nancy Jones, Andrew Kimbrough, Bill Kincaid, Amy Steiger,
Russell Henderson, Nelson Fields, Bob Haven, John Holloway, Tony Hardin,
Kathleen Smith, Debbie Dougherty, Dorothy Zbornak, Blanche Devereaux, Rose
Nylund, and Sophia Petrillo.
I would also like to thank my thesis committee, Michael Hottois, Nefertiti Burton,
and Dr. Jay Irby for their time and dedication, the faculty of the Theatre Arts
Department, and Jim Tompkins for his direction and support.
I would also like to thank Cara McHugh, Jocelyn Matsuo, and Lauren Street. We
did it!
iii
ABSTRACT

THE PALM OF MY HAND:
KEEPING AN AUDIENCE ENGAGED AS
BENEDICK IN MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

Jake Beamer

April 19, 2013

This thesis briefly describes the process by which I was able to portray
Benedick in William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing in November 2012;
my own desire for approval from experienced artists; and the value of
modernizing a Shakespearean text for the contemporary, University of Louisville
audience. With the use of my own natural talent, the training I received from
accredited institutions, and my work in the professional world, I was able to
create a performance that was theatrically viable to my audience. I examine why
I wanted to receive my Master’s Degree of Fine Arts and conclude that
performing as Benedick has allowed me to achieve those goals.
The thesis is comprised of five chapters including the search for approval,
formal training and professional work, graduate training, Much Ado About
Nothing, and conclusion. The first half of the thesis is focused on my personal
and performance histories and their influences on training on the graduate level
as well as the performance of Benedick. The latter half of the thesis is centered
on how I created my performance.
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS…………………………………………………………… iii
ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………….. iv

INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………. 1

CHAPTER ONE: THE SEARCH FOR APPROVAL……………………………. 3

The Sloth Fiasco………………………………………………………………… 3

Finding Myself…………………………………………………………………… 5

CHAPTER TWO: FORMAL TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL WORK…….. 8

Learning to Craft Well…………………………………………………………... 8

Honing my Craft…………………………………………………………………. 13

Advanced Actor Training……………………………………………………….. 15

The West Coast…………………………………………………………………. 16

CHAPTER THREE: GRADUATE TRAINING…………………………………… 20

Why I Wanted an MFA…………………………………………………………. 20

Movement………………………………………………………………………... 21

Voice……………………………………………………………………………… 22

Acting…………………………………………………………………………...... 22

Academic Courses……………………………………………………………… 24

CHAPTER FOUR: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING………………………….... 25

Why Benedick?............................................................................................ 25

v
Who is Benedick?........................................................................................ 2 7

How I Play Shakespeare……………………………………………………….. 28

Keeping the Audience in the Palms of our Hands…………………………... 31

Rehearsal Process……………………………………………………………… 35

My Process During the Show………………………………………………….. 39

Reception………………………………………………………………………… 41

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION………………………………………………… 44

FIGURE ONE: LAOCOÖN AND HIS SONS …………………………………… 46

FIGURE TWO: THE UNION OF EARTH AND WATER……………………….. 47

REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………... 48

CURRICULUM VITAE……………………………………………………………… 49

vi
INTRODUCTION
“Acting is a very personal process. It has to do with expressing your own
personality, and discovering the character you're playing through your own
experience - so we're all different.” – Sir Ian McKellen

As far back as I can remember the need to seek approval has been very
important to me and I have always wanted to be the center of attention. The art
and craftsmanship of being an actor has allowed me to achieve these goals while
nourishing my own creativity. Acting permits me to revel in manipulating an
audience to experience those feelings that I want them to feel. A metaphor I
often use to describe this action is that I can hold the audience in the palm of my
hand and depending on how I open and close my fingers, I can make them feel
joy, sadness, desperation, or elation. An audience, however, will not go willingly;
they must be persuaded to allow me to influence them, and what I have garnered
throughout my professional acting career and various training programs is the
knowledge of how to do this successfully. My performance as Benedick in
William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing is the culmination of these
learning experiences.
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy first performed between 1598–1599
(Shakespeare 1387) about two sets of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, Claudio
1