Lesson video

Hello, everyone.

I'm called Mrs. Riley, and I'm here today to teach you this final lesson in our unit on Shakespeare's "Macbeth." Now hopefully, you have already written an amazing soliloquy in from "Macbeth." And in today's lesson, we will be using those soliloquies and performing them.

So it's gonna be a really fun lesson.

We're gonna have lots of enthusiasm and lots of entertainment.

So let's get started.

The outcome of today's lesson is to perform my soliloquy in character as Macbeth.

These are the key words for our lesson today.

I'm going to say each one, and I'd like you to repeat it back to me.

Are you ready? Performance, diction, facial expressions, expression.

Well done.

A performance is the act of presenting or reciting in front of an audience using voice, gestures, and expression.

Diction is the enunciation of words.

Facial expressions are a form of nonverbal communication communicated via the face to convey array of emotions.

Expression is about bringing words to life to engage a reader.

So all of these things are going to be really important in our performances today.

In our lesson today, we have two learning cycles.

In the first learning cycle, we will be preparing to perform, and in the second one, we will be performing our soliloquies.

So let's just remind ourselves why soliloquies are in often in plays.

They do all of these things.

They let the audience know how a character is feeling at a certain point.

They highlight a moment when the character has a big decision to make or is facing a dilemma.

They show that a character is feeling strong emotions.

They feel very dramatic.

And it's for all of these reasons why it's really nice to spend this time at the end of the unit having written our soliloquies to actually practise performing them.

So let's check what we've just learnt.

In our soliloquies, which are true for Macbeth? a, he has a big decision to make.

b, he is feeling strong emotions.

c, he is in a discussion with Lady Macbeth.

And d, he is feeling content and calm.

So in the soliloquies that we have written, which of these are true for Macbeth? Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

So yes, Macbeth has a big decision to make, and yes, he's feeling strong emotions.

He's not in a discussion because that would make this a monologue if it was a long speech going back and forth between characters.

This is a soliloquy, so he's speaking to himself or the audience.

And no, he's definitely not feeling content and calm.

So we need to consider these things when performing.

How our character is feeling? So we're not thinking about how we are feeling.

We're thinking, right? Who am I pretending to be? Macbeth.

How is Macbeth feeling at this point in the play? We need to think about our diction.

If you watched somebody perform, and they spoke very, their speaking was a little bit muffled, and you couldn't hear what words they were saying, it wouldn't be very interesting because we have to know what the character is saying.

So diction is one of our keywords, and it's really speaking clearly.

In every word, we need to hear all the little sounds in that word.

We need to think about our voice, the volume.

Loud, not too loud, but loud.

The pitch, how high we speak.

The pace, not too fast, not too slow.

Perhaps we might have a rhythm because we know, so often, soliloquies are written in Shakespeare and iambic pentameter.

So there might be a little bit of rhythm in the way we speak, and intonation.

Expression in our voices.

So not speaking like a robot, but using expression.

Facial expressions.

We can show how we feel without speaking at all, just by showing our facial expressions.

So we need to use our faces in our performances.

Body movements, actions, and gestures.

Now obviously today in this video, you can only see a little part of me, so it's gonna be quite hard to model big body movements, but I will use my hands, and I'm sure you will be able to use body movements as well when you perform.

Okay, so what do we need to consider when performing our soliloquies? The volume of our voice, how we are feeling, body movements, how the characters, how the character we are in role as is feeling.

Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

Yes, we need to consider all of these except how we are feeling.

So the of our voice, body movements, and how the character, so how Macbeth is feeling when he delivers this soliloquy.

Let's just remind ourselves about Macbeth's character to help us to understand how he's feeling.

So we know Macbeth is ambitious.

He wants to become king of Scotland, which is what the witch has prophesied.

But we also know that he has a conscience, and he spends a lot of time feeling guilty.

If Macbeth was just a straightforward evil character who didn't have a conscience, then this soliloquy we wouldn't be so exciting because all he would say is all the reasons that he just wants to kill Duncan and become king.

But the reason this soliloquy is so important and so interesting is because he's torn.

He wants to be kind and a good loyal kinsman to King Duncan, but he also has this drive and this ambition.

Because of this, so because of wanting to be ambitious, but also being a kind person, he has an internal conflict about what to do.

And on top of this, he's easily influenced by others, especially his wife, Lady Macbeth.

So which are true of Macbeth? a, he is ambitious.

b, he is easily influenced by his wife.

c, he is a coward.

d, he's torn and does not know what to do.

Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

Yes, Macbeth is ambitious.

He's influenced by his wife.

He's not a coward.

He is torn, and he doesn't know what to do.

So who do you agree with and why? Izzy says, "Macbeth is feeling distraught in this soliloquy.

He cannot believe what he's done and he regrets it." Alex says, "Macbeth is feeling excited in this soliloquy.

He can't wait to be king and have all the power." And Andeep says, "Macbeth is torn and distressed because he doesn't know how to proceed." Pause the video and tell me who do you agree with and why.

Okay, here's a possible answer.

I agree with Andeep.

Macbeth is making his mind up in the soliloquy.

He cannot decide whether to kill Duncan or not.

He feels stressed about making the decision.

He likes King Duncan, and he isn't as ruthless as his wife, but he also has a lust for power and cannot ignore the witch's prophecies.

So it's now your turn to watch me perform a soliloquy.

And as you watch, I want you to think about what I could do to improve my performance.

So I've got a little extract here.

I'm gonna start with a line, he's here in double trust.

So I'm going to perform this to you, and I want you to think about what I'm doing well and what perhaps I could do to improve.

He's here in double trust.

First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, strong both against the deed, then as his host.

Okay, so you might wanna pause the video.

What did I do well? What did I not do so well? Okay, here are some prompts.

So what could I do to improve? So you are choosing out of these things which are the things I need to work on.

Do I need to work on my expression? So giving a meaning to the words, putting expression in my voice.

Do I need to work in diction? Was I speaking the words clearly enough? Do I need to work on my volume? Was I loud enough? Do I need to work on my body movements? Pause the video now.

Okay, well, I actually was speaking quite clearly, so my diction and my volume, I think, were okay, but I definitely need to improve on my expression because I was speaking a bit like a robot, and I definitely need to improve my body movements because I was very still, wasn't I? When I was reading that out? So did you know how the character was feeling when the soliloquy was performed with no expression or body movements? Pause the video.

Did you know how I was feeling when I performed that part of the soliloquy? Okay, it's quite hard to see how somebody's feeling when we don't use expression or body movements, isn't it? So now I have a touch chance to perform again.

So this time, as you watch, I want you to think about what have I improved on in my performance? Okay, so here I go.

I'm gonna take a deep breath before I start my performance, okay.

Just thinking about my targets from last time.

I need to focus on expression and body movements, okay.

He's here in double trust.

First, I am his kinsman and his subject.

Strong both against the deeds, then as his host.

Okay, so hopefully, I improved a little bit there on my facial expressions and also my body movements.

Again, like I say, it's hard to use my whole body because I'm sitting down to do this film, but I had some gestures with my hands.

Okay, so true or false? Facial expressions make it easier to understand how a character is feeling during a soliloquy.

Is this true or false? Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

This is true.

Which of these would you choose to justify your answer? Pause the video now.

Well done, the answer is b.

Our faces help a listener or audience understand the meaning of our words.

So it's one thing to speak the words, but if we add facial expressions, we're adding meaning to our words.

We're showing how we're feeling as we say the words.

So it's time for you to complete your first task.

In your task, you are going to be working with a partner.

So the first thing I want you to do is decide who is Partner A and who is Partner B.

Partner A is going to perform the first part of their soliloquy.

So that's just the first part we wrote, which is the reasons against killing Duncan.

You are going to practise read, performing it out loud.

Partner B is going to give feedback using the checklist as guidance.

A bit like I just did where you gave me feedback.

And then you are going to swap roles and repeat.

So Partner B will read the first part of their soliloquy and Partner A will give them feedback.

Here's a checklist.

Does your partner have clear diction? So can you hear the words or are they mumbling? Are they loud enough? Do they have expression in their voice or are they just reading it all the same like a robot? Are they using facial expressions? Are they using body movements and gestures? Are they showing how the character is feeling? Remember what we know about Macbeth.

He's ambitious, but he's also kind, and that's why he's so torn, and doesn't know what to do.

So good luck with your performing.

I think you are going to be amazing.

And I think you are gonna have fun with this task.

So try to really enjoy it.

And remember always when you are working with a partner, we want to be really supportive.

So we are not going to make them feel embarrassed or laugh at them.

We're going to give them constructive feedback and tell them things they did really well and maybe give them a couple of things that they could improve on for next time.

Now, some people might love performing, and you might be really excited to do this activity.

Some of you might like performing less, and this is the same with lots of things we do at school.

Some people might love sports day and taking part in a race whilst other people might not enjoy that.

Some people might love art and some people might not enjoy art.

And so I think what's really important here is that we just all give this a go.

But what can really help people if they don't like performing that much is by making them feel comfortable.

And the way we can do that is by giving them lots of encouragement and enthusiasm and always using kind and supportive words.

So good luck and try and have as much fun as possible with this task.

Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

I saw some amazing performances.

Well done.

Okay, let's just pause and reflect.

So did you manage to use clear diction and speak in a loud enough voice? Did you manage to use expression in your voice? Did you use facial expressions, body movements, and gestures? And did you show how the character was feeling? Okay, so we're now going to perform the whole of our soliloquies.

So let's practise using our voices.

We need to think about all of these.

Volume, we don't want to shout every single word, but we want it to be loud enough that it's entertaining and clear what we're saying.

Diction, we need to say each word clearly.

If we read kind of in a like mumbling and don't pronounce each sound clearly, then the people we're performing in front of probably won't be able to tell what we're saying.

So diction, speaking clearly is important.

And speed.

Often when people perform, they tend to go too fast.

So we want to make sure that we're slowing down when we're reading our soliloquy so that everyone can hear each word.

Obviously, we're not going to go so slowly that that will make it boring, but we want to, like I say, the temptation is to read it or perform it too quickly.

So we might need to just think about slowing down a little bit.

Okay, so we're going to read an extract from a soliloquy together.

And in this, we're just focusing on volume, diction, and speed.

So we are not thinking about body gestures, body movements, we're not thinking about facial expressions, and showing how we're feeling.

We are just thinking about the volume, the diction, speaking clearly, and the speed.

For example, what am I doing wrong here? Would my wife forgive me If I stay loyal to Duncan? Will I lose her forever? Before the witches delivered their prophecy, I might have been able to give live happily as I was, but now I cannot ignore my fate.

I must act before it's too late.

Hmm, was I loud enough? Could you hear me? Probably not.

Was my diction clear? No, I was kind of mumbling, wasn't I? And was the speed at the right level, do you think? No, I was reading far too fast.

So now let me try again, and if you want, you can join in and read with me.

And this time, I'm gonna focus on volume, diction, and speed.

Would my wife forgive me if I stayed loyal to Duncan? Will I lose her forever? Before the witches delivered their prophecy, I might have been able to live happily as I was, but now I cannot ignore my fate.

I must act before it is too late.

So I wasn't thinking about body movements and facial expression there, but I was just focusing on my volume, my diction, and my speed.

If you want, you can pause the video now and practise reading that again and just focus on how loud it should be, clearly speaking, showing the diction, and how fast you could read it.

Pause the video if you want to have one more practise.

Well done.

Right, now we're gonna focus on facial expressions.

Perhaps before I start, could you quickly look at somebody sitting next to you and just take turns, maybe doing a quick facial expression, and they've got to quickly guess what it is, what's that facial expression? Well done, and maybe swap.

Your partner's now gonna do a facial expression.

Great, and how do you think they were feeling? Okay, well done.

So facial expressions are really important.

They show a range of human emotions like happiness, sadness, shock, and fear.

So now we're going to read the extract from a soliloquy together again.

And this time we're still gonna focus on volume, diction, and what was it? Volume, diction, and speed.

But now we're also going to try and bring in our facial expressions.

Okay, so you can either join in with me, or you can let me have a go, and then you can pause the video and do it afterwards.

Would my wife forgive me If I stay loyal to Duncan? Will I lose her forever? Before the witches delivered their prophecy, I might have been able to give live happily as I was, but now I cannot ignore my fate.

I must act before it's too late.

Okay, so as I said, I was trying to use my face there, locked in that passage.

It was kind of the same emotion of this feeling, I guess feeling torn and feeling kind of, feeling worried that he's gonna lose his wife forever.

So my main facial expression there was showing that kind of sense of that he was worried about something.

So if you like, you could pause the video now, and you could practise reading this with facial expressions.

Off you go.

Okay, well done, lovely performing.

So now we're going to finally just warm up our bodies for some movement.

Okay, let's warm up those fingers.

Let's roll our shoulders.

Maybe let's put our arms round and round because we're going to be using our bodies for our performances.

So again, we are now going to read the extract from soliloquy together, and we're going to focus on our body movements and gestures.

Now again, if I was going to do this standing up, if I was with you right now in the classroom, I probably would be able to include a few more body movements because I might be sort of walking around a bit on the stage and using my full body.

But as it is, I can only use part of my body.

But when you do your performance, you can use much more than I am using.

Okay.

Would my wife forgive me If I stay loyal to Duncan? Will I lose her forever? Before the witches delivered their prophecy, I might have been able to give live happily as I was, but now I cannot ignore my fate.

I must act before it's too late.

Okay, so hopefully, you enjoyed my actions there with my arms. I'm sure you can do a many more actions than me.

You could perhaps be walking around a little bit.

Quite often when people are in this kind of feeling high emotions and not knowing what to do, they kind of pace up and down.

So I think that might be really nice for you to do, kind of pacing back and forth as your mind keeps changing in this soliloquy.

So perhaps you could pause the video and read this out now with all the things, volume, diction, speed, facial expressions, and body movements and gestures.

Good luck.

Okay, amazing, well done.

I think you're in a really good position now, ready to perform your soliloquy.

So it's time for you to perform.

You are going to be working in groups of three.

You are going to take turns performing your soliloquy, all three parts.

So the reasons against killing Duncan, for killing Duncan, and the closing thoughts with the visualisation of the dagger.

You are reading all of them together.

It's a long soliloquy, which is why we've got to make it really engaging for our audience by thinking about all those things.

Facial expression, body movement, volume, all those things.

Ask your performance, go through the success criteria with your group.

Here's the success criteria.

I have considered how Macbeth is feeling in this soliloquy.

I have spoken with clear diction and used lots of expression to bring the words to life and engage my listeners.

I have used facial expressions to convey a range of emotions, how the character's feeling.

I have used appropriate body movements and gestures to enhance my performance.

So you are going to perform, and then with the other two people in your group, you are going to go through your success criteria.

And you know, you might say, "Yeah, I think I considered how Macbeth was feeling." Perhaps your partners might give you some constructive feedback and say, "I think that your diction was clear, but perhaps next time you do a performance, you could use more expression in your voice," or "I think your facial expressions were really good, but maybe you next time could use some more body movements and gestures." And that's okay.

It's okay if people give you some things to work on from next time.

It's always good that we can try to improve on things.

So we want to use supportive and kind words, but also it's good to give some feedback to our partners as we go through our success criteria.

So it's now time for you to perform.

I hope you really enjoy performing, and I hope you also really enjoy watching your peers performing as well.

Remember to be really supportive and make them feel comfortable and use lots of encouraging words.

Pause the video and have fun performing your soliloquies.

Okay, well done.

I hope you are feeling really proud of yourselves.

You have to be brave to perform in front of other people.

So all of you did so well to give that a go.

So it's time to pause and reflect.

So did we consider how Macbeth's feeling? Hopefully.

Did we speak with clear diction and lots of expression? Did we use facial expressions to show a range of emotions? And did we use appropriate body movements and gestures? Now, if you haven't done it already, you could just pause the video now and maybe each give your partner, so the other two people you worked with, maybe the one thing you thought was the best in their performance that you liked the best.

For example, I think the best thing you did was you spoke with really clear diction, and I heard every single word you said and maybe one target for next time.

For example, I think next time, you could use facial expressions a little bit more, okay? So take a bit of a time to just pause and reflect before the end of the lesson.

Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

Let's summarise what we've learned today.

A soliloquy shows the audience how a character is feeling at a key point in the play.

The way the character is feeling must be carefully thought about before a performance.

Performing a soliloquy requires the performer to use clear diction and expression to bring the words to life and engage their listeners.

Performing a soliloquy requires the performer to use facial expressions and body movements to bring the soliloquy to life.

Well done for joining in today.

Some of you, I bet loved performing, some of you maybe didn't love it as much, but I'm really proud and impressed that you all gave it a go.

So well done, you should feel really proud of yourselves.

And we've now come to the end of our "Macbeth" unit.

So well done for working so hard.

And hopefully, I'll see you for some more learning another time.