Reciting Shakespeare / Act 1 - Scene 5 - The Ghost
Channel: Russ McClay
Date: 2015-05-27

Reciting Shakespeare.  I am a true novice and an old one at that.  But these recitals are bringing me joy and I welcome all the joy that comes to me. 

This particular piece is the ghost of Hamlet's father.  Up until now I've only memorized Hamlet's various soliloquoys. So this is a first. Also I need to do two parts to mark it work. It is said (by Orson Welles too) this part was played by often by Hamlet himself, which leads credence to the idea of the part being very important. 

Another thing here is the technical aspect. I use a little Canon S120 to film the video and audio but I also hold a Zoom H1 microphone to record yet more audio. The camera, propped up with a bandana on some rocks, definitely could not record audio from so far away, especially with the sounds of the creek nearby. So using the Zoom H1 gave us a usable audio track. 

The fun for me was doing the sound synchronization.  I do it old school with a clap.  I just start video recording on the camera (which is also recording audio) and then start the Zoom H1 digital audio recorder and clap my hands. 

Memorization is the main part of this game.  I have an average memory and my brain is now several decades old, but I believe it still has a lot of potential power. Just like yours. 

Memorization of this small piece took about two and half weeks. I did it during daily walks to and from work. 1/2 hour to and 1/2 fro.  But of course not all of that time was strictly devoted to memorization.  No.  There are people to wave to.  Apartments to scan. Birds to admire and traffic to pay attention to.  

When recording there is a wonderful nervousness and stage fright because one wants it to be word-for-word perfect.  I'm just playing but poor actors to whom this happens to on the real stage!