An Actor's Guide to "Is Brutus sick" | Portia monologue | Julius Caesar

[@ShakespearewithSarah]

Worried you’re botching your Shakespeare monologue? I’ve got you covered. Catch my exclusive mini training, 3 Big Shakespeare Mistakes (you don’t know you’re making). Here it is: shakespearewithsarah.com/mistakes/

[@Bella57310]

Hi Sarah! Just stumbled upon your video. I'm about to start Shakespear/Classical theater in my drama class and I picked this monologue. Thank you so so much for making this so clear and taking the time to explain every detail and process going on her. I love how you used literary points as well as theatre ones. It spoke to me greatly and helped a lot with my understanding of the character. She is indeed powerful but sometimes I find her difficult to understand for that same reason. This is incredible work you did and it felt like I was getting clarification from my favorite teacher ☺ Thank you so much!!

[@rachelaveni3098]

thank you! doing this for my college auditions and this helped me a lot.

[@ShakespearewithSarah]

No worries at all! So glad it helped. Something I've noticed lately as well is that it helps to look at her monologue that comes just before this in this scene - it starts with "You've ungently, Brutus, stole from my bed". Having a read through that one out loud and then going on to this one gives you a bit more of the sense of how frustrated she would be by this point that he won't be honest with her! Makes the last couple of lines really powerful.

[@Russell_Huston]

Portia is the daughter of Cato, a Roman jurist, senator, and soldier. Cato was incorruptible, hyper-intelligent and wise. Like Cincinnatus, one of the most noble of the Romans. She is reminding her husband of who she is as a person, someone very much like her noble and wise father, someone to be trusted and confided in. Yet Brutus is hiding something from her, for her own good.

[@Cami-mh3gn]

Hey I'm in highschool and just started our Shakespeare unit! This is great thanks for the tips. I'm in the highest theatre class but I think I'm much more tech than anything. I adore theatre so much though!

[@oliviahemmati608]

this was so useful! thank you very much xx

[@ShakespearewithSarah]

Hurray!! So glad it was useful. I’m going to do some more Portia soon. It’s such a great scene and she’s such a great character. ❤️

[@katiejo3663]

11:14 I interpreted that as her referring to herself. she is his "other half"

[@spiegelburg]

Great video, great background information on the monologue, thanks for sharing!

[@ShakespearewithSarah]

Hey Bernhard! I spotted that you've commented on quite a few of my videos. Are you an actor? Scholar? Teacher? Enthusiast? Thank you for being here!

[@spiegelburg]

No, thanks for the videos. I'm just a private gentleman, so I'd say enthusiast describes it best. But I am interested in the actor's view, which is why I enjoy the videos. Reminds me a bit of the John Barton sessions, which is probably why the algorithm brought me here.

[@Katrinawesson]

You are such a star! thank you so much I need this for my audition for college and this will help enormously!!!

[@ShakespearewithSarah]

Oh yay glad it helped! Good luck for your audition 🌟

[@lilianaisella]

You are wonderful. Thank you.

[@Nancenotes]

I LOVE the discussion of the connection between rhythm and emotion. Great stuff. I need to lay this next to the Lady Hotspur passage that's similar and compare.

[@ShakespearewithSarah]

“O my good lord, why are you thus alone?” To me that one feels similar to Portia’s first monologue, “You’ve ungently, Brutus, stole from my bed”. Honestly feels so similar it’s like he’s writing from a template! “Hmm, I think we need a ‘neglected wife’ monologue here.” 😂

[@Nancenotes]

@@ShakespearewithSarah"What is it that carries you away?" "Why, my horse, my love, my horse." Oh, Hotspur...

[@hotenglishprof]

I love your channel :)

[@ShakespearewithSarah]

Thank you for being one of my earliest supporters Lila! I really appreciate your support ❤️😊

[@frilipina3]

Thank you so much for this video. I'm attempting to this monologue of Portia but have zero experience doing Shakespeare. I have studied the monologue and understand the text but I am wondering: do you think one should always act Shakespeare in iambic pentameter? Could you do this monologue of Portia not in iambic pentameter? Thanks for the advice!

[@ShakespearewithSarah]

Hi there Frilipina, this monologue is definitely in Iambic Pentamer. Iambic Pentameter is the poetic structure that Shakespeare sometimes writes in, so if he's written the monologue in that structure, it's not possible to change it! You can play around with the rhythm, and Shakespeare does 'break the rules' fairly often to give the actors clues of how to say the lines, but technically it's still considered Iambic Pentameter. In terms of whether you should always act Shakespeare in Iambic Pentameter, there are some monologues that are NOT in Iambic Pentameter, and generally I don't recommend those for auditions because audition panels tend to want to hear your verse speaking technique (that is, how you handle the Iambic Pentameter!) This is a complex topic so you might want to start with this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pH2roKWraK-nr5I And I'll also have another video coming out in a few weeks that will talk about how actors can use Iambic Pentameter in different ways. Hope that helps!

[@frilipina3]

@@ShakespearewithSarah it does, thank you so much! Looking forward to your next video. I'm subbing to your channel now.

[@violetob3622]

Would you say this monologue is overused?

[@ShakespearewithSarah]

Hmmm… I’d say it’s borderline. Quite popular but I wouldn’t say it’s overused. It’s not on my “please stop doing this one!” list 😉

[@tynet429]

This was really useful but I have a question. I'm doing this for a self tape and we're supposed to film from our torso up. What do I do about getting on my knees?

[@ShakespearewithSarah]

I'm going to release a video about this soon. Basically what I do is just shift one of my feet back slightly and drop my weight a bit. I only drop about an inch on screen but it's enough of an impression of kneeling. The important thing is to actually understand WHY she's kneeling so you are showing the INTENTION of the movement. She wants to show reverence here, and kind of surrender, so you could choose other small movements to show that intention if you prefer, like opening up your arms slightly, or inclining your head. Play around with it in rehearsal and experiment with what small physical movements feel like 'to revere' or 'to surrender' - or whatever verb feels right to you. Hope that helps.

[@amynewman4243]

Hi thanks so much for this vid-it’s so helpful! I’m using this as my classical for drama school auditions and I need to film one in a full body shot. I have the difficulty of when/when not to move my hands/arms. I don’t want to keep still but also I think it then looks a bit weird if I start to move my arms without intention. Any tips on how to deal with this?

[@ShakespearewithSarah]

Good question. I will do a video on this soon but here are my thoughts in the mean time. If you’re wondering what to do with your hands, it means you’ve become disconnected from your body. When we are fully present in our bodies, our hands move naturally. It’s a little tricky to diagnose what my work for you without seeing you do it, but here are a couple of things I would suggest to help you reconnect. Firstly, do a proper physical warmup before you work on your monologue. Something that helps you get in the flow of your body, like yoga or jogging. You can even do your monologue while you’re doing it. Secondly, do your monologue while doing other tasks like doing the dishes or vacuuming. That can help you get out of your head and get into your body. Thirdly, try doing your monologue where you stay absolutely still. So imagine that you’ve been paralysed from the neck down, but still deliver your monologue with its full emotional range. While you’re doing that, notice when you have the urge to move. That’s usually a sign that your body naturally wants to break free at that point in the monologue. Doing that can help you build natural tension and release through the monologue. The other thing to keep in mind is that you are still allowed to move on camera! You will be safe to take one or two steps without causing a problem. If it’s the camera causing you to freeze up, try doing several runs of your monologue without the camera, starting with a really big playing space, and decrease the area of your space each time, until you have a little rectangle that would be suitable to work in for film. Does that help/make sense?

[@amynewman4243]

Thanks so much for the advice! I’ll definitely give all those a go.

[@julaynefleury2905]

Let's see you do it tho