Sun 6 Feb 2011
Playing Sir Hugh Evans
Posted by recommencer under Uncategorized
[2] Comments
Joel L. Schindlbeck again… So, I’ve been working with the Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company for over 10 years now and never have had a more difficult accent to master than what I’m currently learning. I’m preparing the role of Sir Hugh Evans, the Welsh parson, for The Merry Wives of Windsor. A dopey, good-natured, religious type (and appropriately genderless, as well) is no problem at all for me. One of the first things I learned in professional theatre, is “know your type”. That’ll keep the bills paid a little easilier.
However, our little teddy-bear Evans here has a thick and pointedly South Welsh accent. From the minor research I’ve done so far, that accent is perhaps one of the closest to a (no offence to the Welsh who read this) lazy, Midwestern American accent. However, it’s the vowels and the sing-song nature throwing me off. My text coach, Katherine Mayberry, is getting me a CD, and she’s always there to help me with my words in general, so I’m not too worried. But still, it’s strange that a character can be so easily “type cast” and yet have to carry such a difficult accent. But, it’s early in rehearsal, and I work better taking things step-by-step. So we’ll see about that…
In other news, I’m organizing all the costumes for the play. We’ve chosen the Renaissance, and my sempsters (myself included) are up to our elbows in jacquard prints, chiffon, corduroy and velvet, velvet, velvet.
The citizens of Windsor are quite the vivid and amalgamated bunch, from tight-corseted matrons to disguised husbands. We’re building jerkins, doublets, hoses, bonnets, robes and dresses, all in brilliant earth tones, that will fill the space around them like a cloud of colour and history. I think, my internet friends, that you are in store for a lush romp of tomfoolery!
This blog is doubtless moribund by now, but it is my turn to play Sir Hugh and any input on the accent is welcome. The production is merely a community theater FREE production of “Merry Wives,” but I take this kind of stuff seriously as an actor. You never know when an Elizabethan Welshman is going to wander under the tent and guffaw at Sir Hugh for all the wrong reasons.
The play and text are difficult enough for modern playgoers without THAT to worry about, but I live for these kinds of challenges. So, any input would be appreciated.
George: While I highly doubt you’re going to get anyone to come in with an expertise in Elizabethan Welsh, I totally appreciate your concern. The major problem is that it is virtually impossible to find recordings or even dialect guides for what the Welsh person speaking Early Modern English, sounded like.
The best thing I found is to pull from all sources. You can study the modern Welsh accent (tapes, cds, youtube videos) and that can give you some helpful clues and perhaps a good basis, but the rest of the work is relying on Shakespeare’s cues and your own creativity as an actor.
At Pigeon Creek we always attempt to work with the purest text possible. We often pull from the MIT Shakespeare Online collection because it’s closest to the 1st Folio as possible, as that’s the best source we have. In that, you can see where Shakespeare wanted Evans to speak oddly, switching in “t”s for “d”s and so forth. You can also clearly see when he is supposed to be speaking in a way that people are mocking him in their own replies.
My advice: pull from all sources you can, but know that when it comes down to it, what Shakespeare most likely wants (and what the play calls for) is a comical character that earnestly sounds purely RIDICULOUS on stage. That is the prime purpose of Evans in that play. Think the Swedish Chef in The Muppets, and you’ve nailed it on the head!