More Alternative Shakespeare Auditions for Women

Simon Dunmore

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781135864859
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Performing Arts

Following on his successful Alternative Shakespeare Auditions for Women, Simon Dunmore presents even more underappreciated speeches that will make a classical audition sound fresh.

The Speeches

All’s Well That Ends well

The Countess of Rossillion

The Countess of Rossillion is the mother of Bertram and Helena is her ward. Helena is in love with Betram and wants to marry him. At first he refuses her, but when the King orders that they should be married he gives way. However, Betram runs away to the wars before the marriage can be consummated and Helena decides that she must leave France so that her husband may live unhindered by an unwanted wife (Act 3, Scene 2). In this scene the Countess’ steward, Reynaldo, has just read to her a letter from Helena telling her foster-mother of her departure and this is her response.

The Countess could be as young as mid-thirties, but is generally played older.

Act 3, Scene 4

Countess –

1 What angel shall

Bless this unworthy husband? He cannot thrive,

Unless her prayers, whom heaven delights to hear

And loves to grant, reprieve him from the wrath

Of greatest justice. Write, write, Reynaldo,

5 To this unworthy husband of his wife.

Let every word weigh heavy of her worth

That he does weigh too light. My greatest grief,

Though little he do feel it, set down sharply.

Dispatch the most convenient messenger.

10 When haply he shall hear that she is gone,

He will return; and hope I may that she,

Hearing so much, will speed her foot again,

Led hither by pure love. Which of them both

Is dearest to me I have no skill in sense

15 To make distinction. Provide this messenger.

My heart is heavy and mine age is weak;

17 Grief would have tears, and sorrow bids me speak.

Exeunt

Notes

3	her prayers (She is referring to Helena.)
4	greatest justice the supreme Judge Reynaldo (He is Rynaldo or Rinaldo in some editions.)
5	unworthy husband of his wife husband unworthy of his wife
6	weigh heavy of her worth count as much as she is worthy (virtuous and self- sacrificing)
7	weigh too light values so lightly
8	sharply so as to make it absolutely clear (to Bertram)
9	most convenient fittest
10	When haply Perhaps when
14-15	I have no skill in sense / To I cannot on the basis of my feelings
17	bids me speak insists that I speak

All’s well That Ends Well

Mariana

Mariana is a neighbour of Diana and her mother, the Widow Capilet, a Florentine innkeeper. The three women have come to see the arrival of the victorious French army led by Betram, Count of Rossillion. Diana and her mother briefly extol Betram’s heroism, then they suddenly realise that the army has ‘gone a contrary way’. Before they can think about trying to catch up with the French, Mariana stops them with this caution. This is her only scene and we learn no more about her, but she is obviously a woman of some experience of the world. She could be any age between twenties and forties.

I have constructed this speech from two of Mariana’s, adapted a line of the Widow’s and taken the final sentence from later in the scene.

Act 3, Scene 5

Mariana –

1 Come, let’s return again, and suffice ourselves with the report of it. – Well, Diana, take heed of this French Earl. The honour of a maid is her name, and no legacy is so rich as honesty. Well, your mother has told me how you have been solicited

5 by a gentleman, his companion. I know that knave, hang him! One Parolles. A filthy officer he is in those suggestions for the young Earl. Beware of them, Diana: their promises, enticements, oaths, tokens, and all these engines of lust, are not the things they go under. Many a maid hath been seduced

10 by them; and the misery is, example, that so terrible shows in the wrack of maidenhood, cannot for all that dissuade succession, but that they are limed with the twigs that threatens them. I hope I need not to advise you further, but I hope your own grace will keep you where you are, though

15 there were no further danger known but the modesty which

16 is so lost. The gods forbid else!

Notes

1	return again return home
2&7	Earl (i.e. Bertram. ‘Earl’ is the English form of the continental title, ‘Count’.)
3	her name her reputation (i.e. as a virgin.) honesty chastity
6	Parolles (He is pronounced Pa-rol-ays and has only one T in some editions.)
6-7	A filthy officer he is in those suggestions for the young Earl He is a disgusting go-betwee...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Female Characters and Speeches Too Often Used in Audition
• Shakespeare – The Actors’ Writer
• The Lives and Times of Shakespeare’s People
• Auditioning Shakespeare
• The Speeches:
• Bibliography