Hello, All. I have been selected to play Puck in a production of Shakespeare’s “A midsummer night’s dream” and I was wondering if anyone would like to share…
-How would you, as an auditor, like to see Puck played?
-How should I do my hair? ( It’s Long, straight, blonde)
-Should I use an English accent??
Thanks for your help, people.
Are you awake, people?
Does anyone even know who Puck is???
I weep for the future.
I think most of us have seen A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but unfortunatly this board does not have a huge number of artist-types. Sorry, but I have no idea what the ideal way to play Puck is.
I don’t know what you mean by, “as an auditor” To me that’s someone who messes with my taxes. But I’ve always imagined Puck as somewhat childlike. He’s just playing, after all. But how you play the character is mainly between you and your director.
I don’t think your hair matters.
Don’t go with an English accent. It’s not important to the story or dialogue and may distract from your performance. Many people find Shakespeare difficult enough to understand as it is, at least give it them in their own accent.
BTW, in regards to your second post: it’s a Sunday afternoon, the boards tend to kinda slow, plus this board doesn’t tend move with the speed of MPSIMS or the Pit. Just relax if no one responds right away.
Jeeeez, get over it. We all know the works of the Immortal Bard. And don’t believe everything diceman says. Some of us are artistes extraordinaire. My experience goes all the way back to the Howdy Dooty show.
I don’t know what auditors like. Puck was an impetuous little imp. Play him like that. Rub your hands together just before the character is going to play one of his humorous jokes.
Your hair should be short, spiked and multi-colored. Or maybe not spiked, but certainly multi-colored to define the humor and gaiety of Puck’s personality.
Don’t use an English accent, especially if the other players are doing so. This sets puck out as a somewhat etherial figure, living in the background, unknown to the other characters.
Do you want a dialogue coach as well, or are you too busy weeping for the future?
“Hark! What light from yonder window shines? Juliet pulled off her skirt and is giving us the moon”
“I weep for the future”
Everybody knows, or should know what Puck is!
Puck is 3 1/2 inches in diameter by 1 1/4 inches high, round, and made of black vulcanized rubber.
Puck is stored in a freezer for a couple of hours before performance to prevent Puck from bouncing around too much and being less controlable.
Thank you for the opportunity to enlighten
mike30
Tory, Tory,
From your impatience here and your reaction to responses in another thread I can see where the “tempestuous” comes from . . . . While it’s astounding how quickly some questions get answered, it’s not as if the Teeming Millions are sitting anxiously by their PCs waiting for your questions.
However, that may work to your advantage if you make it a facet of your portrayal, providing you channel it into the right vein – that of being an upsetter of plans. Puck’s self-description emphasizes his role in causing things to turn out otherwise than people have planned – interfering with the churning of butter, the brewing of beer, even the act of sitting down on a stool.
William Hazlitt, in his discussion of Shakespeare’s characters, points out usefully the contrast between the two best-known “spirit” or “fairy” characters in Shax’s works: Ariel and Puck. While they both have a fantastic nature, Ariel is an instrument of Prospero’s retribution and vengeance, while Puck is about mischief and prankishness. Hazlitt describes Puck as “Epicurean”, which gets at the right note – he certainly has a more corporeal aspect than Ariel. Perhaps one may consider Puck an “earth spirit” and Ariel an “airy spirit”, though I’m not fond of the New-Agey connotations those terms drag in – I’m using the terms more in the sense they’d have had in Greek mythology.
As for the accent, don’t. A good director with an accomplished rep company could probably profitably make something of distinguishing the various groups in the play (the noble Athenians, the fairy royalty, the artisans, etc.) by different classes of accents, but the odds of finding more than one or two high school actors who can convincingly carry off an accent other than the one they ususally speak with are vanishingly small. And if an accent is poorly done, it’s just a distraction to both the actor and the audience. No reflection on you personally – I obviously have no way to know anything about your abilities, but I can say that unless you’re in one of the top performing arts schools in the country, you won’t have enough members of the cast who can pull it off.
Regarding your hair, that’d have to be considered in light of the overall costume design plan for the production.
I thought I already posted to this thread…Probably hit preview, thinking it was post again…::Sigh::
Oh, well…what I thought I said the last time:
Not unless you speak with one normally, or the director insists, IMO.
I certainly wouldn’t ask an actor to affect an English accent if I were directing.
The play’s set in Ancient Greece, so an affected English accent would be just as out of place as a natural American one.
(BTW, I’ve long since stopped weeping for the future because Shakespear’s not on everyone’s reading list…I’ve grown content in being exceptional…)
Everyone always thinks of Puck as the mischevious prankster, but nobody seems to notice that he doesn’t play one single prank in the entire play. All he’s doing is following orders, and half the time, he hasn’t a clue that those orders will turn out so humorous. Oberon tells Puck to annoint the eyes of the guy wearing Athenian clothes, and Puck does so, not realizing that it was the wrong guy in Athenian clothes. So far as Puck knew, he was just helping the plight of the poor lovers, but Oberon should have (and I think, did) known better… You want a prankster, look at Obe.
Sorry but I have to give the bad rap to the Puckster. I don’t want Oberon mad at me.
I can’t resist posting this story (I don’t know if it’s true).
An English bishop once attended a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at an all-girls school. After the performance he remarked, “I was very interested to see for the first time a female Bottom.”
Puck is drawn from traditional English Fairy lore.
Shakespeare was correct: he played the role of the Trickster Spirit in the Fairy Mythos. Other examples of Trickster Spirits include Coyote (Amerindian), Loki (Norse), and The Spider-God (African Tribes).
So, Puck is a prankster.
tempestuous_tory, my advice is for you to get a book on traditional English folktales , Briggs’ Encyclopedia Of Fairies will do nicely, and go the route of the ancient tradition of fairy lore.Play Puck as he appears in the folktales. (He was also known by the nickname Robin Goddfellow) After all, it was good enough for the Bard. 
regarding the accent question… isn’t it generally accepted that the british accent of the elizabethan era resembled an eastern canadian accent more than the british accent of today?
Oh, certainly, he has a reputation as a prankster, and well-earned. All I’m saying, is that in the entire play, he never once pulls one of his celebrated pranks. Oh, and trivia tidbit: Puck isn’t his name at all; it’s the type of creature that he is. You’ll note that the cast lists always put him down as “a Puck, Robin Goodfellow”.
BTW, the West African spider-god is named Anansi. Many of the stories about him have been published in English, and they make for pretty good reads.
I thought the way the young man in “Dead Poets Society” played Puck was quite good.
Maybe worth a study…
Break a leg.
According to the dictionary, “puck” is from OE pouke by way of Welsh pwca meaning hobgoblin. If you really wanted to break some artistic ground, you could play Puck as a 6 foot invisible rabbit.
Or, there are a number of filmed versions of AMND; you could rent a few and see how other actors, like Mickey Rooney, Ian Holm and Stanley Tucci, have handled the role.
Personally, I think above all, Puck should be gleeful. When you get to deliver a great line like, “Lord, what fools these mortals be!”, you should give it some gusto.
Break a leg!
Puck was that little fella that did the cartwheels in Alpha Flight. You remember Alpha Flight don’t you? Marvel Comics team of Canadian superheros? Anyways Puck was that old dude with the mystic dagger buried in his body. The one with no superpowers to speak of.
And that 2nd post was insinuating that us Dopers don’t read… :wally
Guess I showed him!
I wouldn’t want to see Puck played with an English accent unless the actor naturally spoke that way. Use your own voice, just make sure you enunciate clearly.
Puck is a fairy and Oberon’s jester. He doesn’t take anything seriously, and loves practical jokes. I recently saw a production of Midsummer/Dream and Puck often came across as the pain-in-the-ass little brother. It worked. Often he did stuff just because he knew it would annoy someone else. A lot of this is going to be at the director’s discretion, of course. If you’re playing a character in a manner which doesn’t fit with his overview and philosophy of the play, you’ll hear from him.
In re: your hair. Long straight and blond has interesting possibilities. Since he lives in a forest, twining vines or leaves could work. Or, if your hair is not extremely long, mousse it and stick it straight up.
First of all, congratulations on your selection. Good luck and have fun!
I’ll agree with the others, and suggest you play him as a mischevious prankster. (I mean, how else are you going to play him? Dark and brooding?) Playing him this way also has the benefit of being a lot of fun.
I agree with the suggestion that you should see how other actors in the role have played him. Imitate what you like, and who knows, maybe viewing other renditions can give you original ideas of your own.
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I’d do it any way you like. Perhaps talk to your director and get some ideas from him. Your performance in the role should matter a lot more than the hairstyle you choose, so obviously you should emphasize that. Again, have fun with this, though!
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I have to agree with the others that you should not. Not unless you are confident of your accent and the director wants you to. Really, while it doesn’t hurt to give some thoughts to this and to your hairstyle, I’d concentrate more on having fun, and on your performance.
Good luck! And please let us know how you do!
By the way, anyone who likes Shakespeare and softball has IMPECCABLE taste!