(funky music)
-: Hi everyone, my name is Kim Douthit.
Today I'll be talking about archetypes using Shakespeare.
Now you don't need a whole lot of materials for this,
mostly just you and yourself.
If you want to jot down notes, grab a writing utensil
and paper to write it on.
Otherwise, the big thing is you're going to need
a little bit of space.
So make sure that you have some room to navigate
where you won't bump into a person, place or thing.
We're going to be dealing with a little bit of text
but don't worry the text will come up on the screen
so you won't have to print anything out.
It is always helpful with an activity like this to have
another thing around that you can interact with,
it might be a person, it might be a pet.
When in doubt just hold a picture and that can
be the thing that you interact with.
Now Shakespeare deals in universal themes.
His plots, the symbols, his characters they're what
we call archetypes.
Symbols we recognize as part of our collective
human experience.
So things like good versus evil,
a character going on a journey, heroes and villains.
We find them all over literature and our stories,
the Marvel movies are full of archetypes.
Star Wars full of archetypes.
What I want to look at today is using archetypes to explore
characters, specifically characters in Shakespeare.
Now in this exercise as we explore these characters,
there's going to be some speech that will pop-up on
the screen.
We're going to be working with four main archetypes.
These are not the only archetypes out there or the
only archetypes in Shakespeare that are out there,
but they're some of the big ones.
We're going to create a physicality for each one
and we're going to move around a little with them.
Now those are the Sovereign, the Warrior, The Carer
and the Trickster.
So first we need to be on our feet,
so if you're not already standing what are you waiting for?
Stand up!
We're going to start with Sovereign.
Now what is a Sovereign?
It's a ruler, it might be a King or a Queen,
a President, a Prime Minister, the Principal of the school,
the CEO.
They are very upright, they have a lot of responsibility.
Powerful postures.
I want you to think of some sort of pose that conveys those.
I'm going to use one imagining I have a crown on my head
and I have to hold this crown up.
So again you see it's very upright and strong.
I'm going to start to move around a little bit.
And I want you to pay attention.
How does this feel?
How does this feel differently than your normal posture?
Are you taking big steps? Small steps?
Are you moving very fast or slow?
And something that's important to realize
there's not a right or wrong answer.
It's what you find during your exploration.
And as you continue to move around in this posture,
where are you looking?
Are you straight ahead?
Are you looking up?
Are you looking down?
If you were to encounter someone else, would you want
to interact with them, or not?
And as you're moving around in this posture I also want you
to think, what's one word that would convey this character?
And as you move around a little let's find ourselves
back to ourselves, so shake off that first one.
Ooh that feels good.
We're going to look at our next one.
And that is the Warrior.
What is a Warrior?
Could be someone in the military.
In Shakespeare's time you're looking at Knights.
It could be a policeman or police officer, a soldier.
It's another one that has a very strong presence right?
In fact you might feel some similarities to our Sovereign.
Now this is interesting because in Shakespeare,
a lot of Sovereign's were also Warriors.
Macbeth would become King but he was also a soldier.
King Henry V served in war, but he was also
the King of the land.
So this is one where there is some crossover
between the two.
Now for our Warrior posture again we have that
nice strong posture.
I'm going to hold out my sword and protect my heart
with my shield.
And like before lets find ourselves moving around
and take note.
Are you moving fast?
Are you moving slow?
Are you taking big steps, small steps?
Where are you looking?
Are you looking straight ahead?
Are you looking up?
Are you looking down?
If you were to encounter someone would you
want to engage with them?
How would you engage with them?
Would you be aggressive?
Would you be trusting?
Or would you be suspicious?
And as you move around a little bit more
take a few more steps and think about
what's one word that would encompass this character?
And then shake that off.
Ah, take a breath and find yourself back to yourself.
Our next one is a little bit of contrast to our first two.
This is the Carer.
What is a Carer?
Well its somebody who takes care of others.
Could be somebody who works in Healthcare,
a Doctor, a nurse.
It might be a caretaker, a parent, a grandparent
someone you trust, maybe a teacher.
They're nurturing, they're open, they want to help.
Even their physicality is going to be open.
We'll explore that with our physicalities so care for
me opening up my arms ready to embrace someone.
And how does that feel?
How is it different from our first two?
For me this one feels very different.
And as we move around, again are you moving slowly?
Are you moving fast?
There's not a right or wrong answer.
Are you taking big steps?
Do you want to look someone in the eye?
Or look ahead?
Look up? Look down?
If you were to encounter another, would you engage?
How would you engage?
And as you're moving around in your Carer posture
ask yourself what's one word what's one word that
would describe what I'm feeling and who this character is?
And take another moment then find yourself back to yourself.
Shake that off.
Ah take a breath.
You're doing so good, we've got one more left.
Our last one is one of my personal favorites
that's the Trickter.
Even saying the name Trickster you feel like they're
up to something.
What is a Trickster?
Well that's a clown, that could be in Shakespeare.
We have a lot of fairies in Shakespeare who
are very mischievous.
It might be your younger brother.
So we bring our posture down a little for this one.
We make ourselves a little lower.
We may have to sneak around.
If we were to encounter someone we would spin away
because whatever we're doing it's a little
mischievous right?
So as we start to move around in our Trickster posture
again notice now are you moving fast?
Or slow?
Are you taking big steps, or small steps?
Where are you looking?
Are you looking around every corner?
Are you looking up, are you looking down?
If you saw someone would you want to engage?
Or would you want to hide away?
And as you're moving around in your Trickster think
about one word.
One word that shows how you're feeling,
one word that encompasses that character.
Woo alright let's shake that one off.
Take a breath.
That was awesome.
Now let's take a moment to reflect.
How did that feel?
Did you think of different characters while
you were in some of those postures?
Did you think about maybe public figures that
popped into your head.
Did you have any emotional responses?
Were any of them really easy for you?
Or felt very natural?
Did some feel really hard or really unnatural in your body?
Now we're going to take those postures and those
physicalities and we're going to apply them to
some text.
So we're going to have some lines and I want you to
try saying these lines with each of our characters.
With each of our physicalities.
So our first line is give me my armor.
And let's try it each way.
We start with our Sovereign and we say give me mine armor.
And then we try it with our Warrior give me mine armor.
And with our Carer give me my armor.
And with the Trickster give me mine armor.
Is there one that feels the most natural?
One that seems to fit the best for you?
For me that one feels like a Warrior.
That's from the play Macbeth.
But it can also be Sovereign you're demanding.
The word Armor though to me that kind of clues in
that you're probably dealing with a Warrior.
This next line is from a Midsummer Night's Dream
and it is "Lord what fools these mortals be."
So now try that line first as our Sovereign.
And then as our Warrior.
And then the Carer.
And finally the Trickster.
How did that feel?
Which one felt the most natural to you?
That could be Sovereign they're saying what fools
these mortals be.
That could also be Trickster right?
What fools these mortals be?
Now our next line is from Romeo and Juliet
and it's "I love thee better than thou canst devise".
So we should know these by now.
Lets try that as our Sovereign,
as our Warrior,
as our Carer,
and as our Trickster.
This one for me is very obviously a Carer.
You don't see a lot of the Warriors talking about love
in Shakespeare's plays.
But again its subjective, see how it felt for you.
Let's do one last one.
The line is "Courage man, the hurt cannot be much".
So try it again.
First as our Sovereign.
As our Warrior,
As our Carer,
and our Trickster.
Which one felt the most natural?
This one's really interesting for me because you can
make it work with almost any of those characters right?
Now this exercise further illustrates there's not one
right way to approach any of these characters.
Or any kind of Art.
We all take our own experiences and interpretations
and I think that's really really exciting.
It gives you lots of different ways you can view a story,
and view a character.
And it gives you a way to explore things,
and maybe bring some new perspective to something.
Another thing to be thinking about,
what are the shadows of these characters?
The darker side.
Because for every Sovereign you have a Tyrant.
A Warrior can become an aggressor.
A Carer can become a manipulator.
And a Trickster, well it can easily become a psychopath.
So there's darker shades.
There's a flip side to all of these archetypes.
And knowing this helps us analyze the characters even more.
As you look at your favorite books,
your favorite movies and TV Shows,
look for these archetypes.
Because I'll bet as you start noticing them you're going
to see them all over the place.
Thank you all for playing around a little bit with me today,
with some words and some poses and some Shakespeare.
Again my name is Kim Douthit and I hope you have
a fabulous rest of your day!
(jazz music)