Audition Speeches - Cymbeline "I see a man's life as a tedious one"

My second classical piece is from the Shakespeare play Cymbeline, it tells the story of Princess Imogen and her lover Posthumous and how Imogen and Posthumous are separated after her father the king of England exiles Posthumous after she and Posthumous wed without his permission and because she is the only living heir her husband will become the next king. This shows the pressure put on Imogen and through the play we get to see how she copes with all the trials the come her way.

Beginning characterisation for Imogen I began by reading the play through several times and making notes on how I thought she would act in certain situations and how she would be feeling in the different stages of the play as a woman of that time and in that situation. I wanted to push the idea that she is still deciding how to lead her life even though a lot of it has been decided for her, that her thoughts are quite deep and unlike a woman of the time the play was written. We see Imogen being bold cross dressing even in her circumstances, I find this bold for a woman of her position and love the fact that she is going by her own mind, her first line in this monologue is " I see a man's life as a tedious one" and to me this line just says it all. The line states how she feels about what a man's life is like having lived like one for just a few days, she realises that not everything is how she originally imagined and I wanted to show this in the speech her indecisiveness in how things are and how so many things are rushing through her mind that she has to say them all at once and how she looks at things from both sides not just one. I wanted to show that she thinks very differently to a lot of the people around her and defy's their expectations of how she should be, I find that very appealing in a character and that was also one of the reasons I chose the speech because it shows more than you think.

I thought that the audition went relatively well compared to how I thought it would be, I was worried as to how my character would come across as I wasn't totally prepared with her actions and feelings. Baring this in mind the actual audition went how I wanted it to, I allowed myself to let her take over and show how she is indecisive and her attitude to life is very indecisive too with how she acts to her current situation.


Imogen

Name: Imogen
Age: Unknown
Family: Posthumous (Husband) Cymbeline (Father) Guiderius (Brother) Arviarargus (Brother)

Imogen is the daughter of the king of England, Cymbeline she is also the wife of Posthumous who is currently in exile because he and Imogen secretly married without Cymbeline's permission, this upset Cymbeline because Imogen is his only living heir and so whoever she marries will become the new king. This then sparks off the events of the play leading to cross dressing finding long lost family members and the reuniting of love.