#cawdorcastle

[italianoutlanders]

#Repost from @grahammctavish . I think I’d quite like to live here. The journey continues.... @clanlands coming 2020 @samheughan #cawdorcastle #roadtrip #bicycles #history #tweed . #samheughan #GrahamMcTavish #Scotland #ClanLands https://www.instagram.com/p/B2d1UQOoEK1/?igshid=bcstdsax2nas

[dpark2903]

Cawdor Castle and Gardens, as ever, a wonderful splash of colour #cawdorcastle #scotland #historichousesassociation (at Cawdor Castle) https://www.instagram.com/p/ChCxreFD6Tug3V7lCaHc16-vYtjIXro4KL9xHo0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[themagicofcheshire]

I met a lady in the meads, Full beautiful- a faery's child, Her hair was long, her foot was light, And her eyes were wild. #JohnKeats #scotland #Highlands #cawdorcastle #RX100M3 (en Cawdor Castle) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn6V4cMgzRm/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=19hfanmlz8jqc

[elvensoul]

Beautiful cawdor castle 🤗 #cawdorcastle #cawdorgarden #scotland #adventures #travelling #travel #garden (na mieste Cawdor Castle)

[larutadelasrolas]

#yelllow #amarillo #felicidadinfinita #cawdorcastle #scotland (at Cawdor Castle) https://www.instagram.com/p/ByANkw5C-Sw/?igshid=1frfizm1fpmag

[alhajas86]

Visita al primer castillo #cawdorcastle #clancampbell 😊😊😊😊 #highlands #escocia #thisbeautifulplace (en Cawdor Castle) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn3kufYBSVC/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=mt38m7bcutmj

[fabian-huesser]

Cawdor Castle, Scotland . _____________________________________________ Camera: Lumix DMC-GX8 Lens: Leica DG SUMMILUX 15/F1.7 Settings: f/8 1/30 15,0 mm ISO200 _____________________________________________ . #landscape #landscapephotography #swissphotographer #fabianhuesser #fabianhüsser #swissinstagramer #historic #makemoments #landscapelovers #lumixworld #lumixphotography #lumix_ch #lumixgx8 #lumixsky #travelphotos #scotland #cawdorcastle #cawdor #scotlandphotography #scotland_lover #scotland_insta #scotlandcastle #scotlandshots #scotlandexplore #highlands #scotland_greatshots #visitscotland #castles #castlegarden #garden (hier: Cawdor Castle)

[bellusphoto]

Land clouds soap! #landclouds #sheeps #soap #BellusPhoto.com #scotland #roadtrip #mmmmlambchops #soooofluffy #cawdorcastle #cawdor (at Cawdor Castle)

[themrgpmblog]

Bushes #CawdorCastle (presso Cawdor Castle)

[matteoakazel]

Cawdor Castle! #scotland #uk #highlands #castle #notruins #architecture #cawdorcastle #clouds #green #bestofday #picoftheday (presso Cawdor Castle)

[magnificent3]

Just chilling from castle to castle & beautiful gardens in Isle of Skye, Scotland 🏰🏰#EileanDonanCastle #DunveganCastle #CawdorCastle #CumberlandStone #Castles #Inverness #IsleofSkye #scotland (at Inverness Highland & Islands Scotland)

[aloneinstitute]

Cawdor Castle near Nairn.

Cawdor Castle dates from the late 14th century, built as a private fortress by the Thanes of Cawdor. An ancient medieval tower built around the legendary holly tree.

The name of Cawdor still connects the castle to Shakespeare's play Macbeth. The truth is, Cawdor Castle was not built until the late 14th century, making it impossible for King Duncan to have lost any blood or indeed Lady Macbeth much sleep in this particular house.

https://instagram.com/MyInstaScotland/

#cawdorcastle #cawdor #castles_oftheworld #fiftyshades_of_history #explorescotland #loves_scotland #scotland #scotlandlover #scotland_greatshots #monumental_world #visitscotland #insta_scotland #igscotland #instascotland #loves_united_castle #traveling_scotland #traveling_uk #scotlandexplore #thisisscotland #wonderlustscotland #hiddenscotland #castlesofscotland #unlimitedscotland #earthpix #tlpicks #amazingshots_castle #bestcastles #map_of_europe #simplyscotland #yourscotland

[itinerariumvitae-blog]

🇬🇧 Highlights of the Highlands: the hidden gem Beauly Priory, the picturesque shores of Loch Ness, and the medieval Cawdor Castle. Tour by @invergordonbustours 🇧🇬 Забележителностите на Северна Шотландия: полуразрушеният манастир Бюли, живописните брегове на езерото Лох Нес и средновековният замък Каудор. . . . #igscotland #scottishcollective #igersscotland #ilovescotland #scotlandexplore #scotlandtravel #scotlandisnow #thisisscotland #scotland_greatshots #unlimitedscotland #scotshots #scotland_ig #travelscotland #beautifulscotland #hiddenscotland #scotlandtrip #scottishscenery #scottishhighlands #scenicbritain #шотландия #lochness #cawdorcastle #beaulypriory #beauly #castles_oftheworld #castlesofscotland #castellidelmondo #manor_n_castle #lochnesslake #лохнесс (at Scottish Highlands) https://www.instagram.com/p/CA20JRXjArg/?igshid=s0yaexop6vaa

[roundtheworldwithtaytay]

We wake up for our last full day in Scotland.  We decide to do a quick walk through Inverness, heading by the Inverness Cathedral and by the Inverness Castle stopping first at Chisholm’s Highland Dress where of course I must spend a small fortune on a new tartan, dubh, and Quaich.  The proprietor of the store allows me to look at the Chisholm book, where Chisholms, Chisholmes, Chisums, Chisms and other variants of the name have signed throughout the year.  I’m unable to sign it as my last name is Taylor though I am a direct descendent.  Still it was fun to look at.

We head out stopping next by the Old High St. Stephen’s church which has both Chisholm’s and McBean’s buried there.  It seems Tammy and I were meant to be friends as our ancestors always seem to be near one another.  We walk along River Ness and then back to Angus (the car) in order to head out to the Culloden Battlefield.

We arrive at Culloden only to find that our families once again are drawn to one another.  Clan stones on the front walkway are next to one another.  We head through the museum part which is interesting enough and tells of the Jacobite rising.  I take pride in seeing my family’s name on the Culloden battle map.  It is next to the MacLean’s and Maclachlans who I believe my friend Tammy’s clan the McBeans fought alongside. 

We head into a film presentation in the museum.  The idea is that you find what these men endured in the less than 1 hour long battle.  You begin looking at the screen and the charge ensues.  It is brutal.  You turn to look away only to find another screen with more British and Jacobite men brutally killing one another.  You turn again and the slaughter does not stop.  The film is only a few minutes in length, but you realize the carnage within the first few seconds.  It is a brilliant depiction of the war that gets you ready for the solemn battlefield you are soon to see.

You walk along the land, knowing back then it was mostly bogs, potentially the worst fighting ground.  As you walk along you witness red flags (the British regiment) and blue flags (the Scottish regiment).  You walk past the Culloden memorial but before that the stone grave markers of fallen clan men.  Maclean.  Maclachlan.  Athol Highlanders.  Clan Stewart.  Clan Cameron.  Clan Mackintosh.  Clan Fraser.  Then you see several Mixed Clan stones.  It is incredibly somber.

We walk out to the Chisholm Clan regiment marker, pay our respects and walk the remaining path of all the other Jacobite regiments.  We walk past a stone that denotes, “cha b’ ann leinn a mhain ach le sinnsearan is siol.”  It is Gaelic for, “not for us alone but for ancestors and progeny.”  These were a proud people.  They were loyal to their country and held honor and loyalty above everything.  These are my people.

Enough somber moments for the rest of the trip we head onto the Clava Cairns.  The cairns are a Bronze Age circular chamber tomb cairn.  Basically a 4000 year-old cemetery.  We are somewhat interested because it was supposedly one of the sites that inspired Craig na Dune in the tv show Outlander.    We quickly do a walk thorough as a tourist bus pulls in shortly after us. 

We shuffle off to Cawdor Castle.  Now Cawdor is the ancestral home of the Campbell’s of Cawdor, near Nairn.  The castle is best known for its literary connection to William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, which is funny because historically it is impossible based on timelines.  Still it is a beautiful estate and the drive through Nairn is lovely.

By the time we finish this day we are exhausted and famished.  We walk around to Hootenanny’s before finding a table at Johnny Foxes.  We get a quick bite and of course more beer before deciding to call it a night.  On the way we see above the door of a bar, “Friendship is like whisky, the older the better.  Too much of anything is bad, but too much of good whisky is barely enough.”  This is a perfect sentiment to describe a perfect trip to Scotland with my Best friend. 

#inverness

#scotland

#battleofculloden

#cawdorcastle

#clanchisholm

#clanmcbean

#oldhighststephenschurch

[larutadelasrolas]

#cawdorcastle #felicidadinfinita #escocia #scotland #traveldiaries (at Cawdor Castle) https://www.instagram.com/p/ByANcpBiUev/?igshid=1dond32kxy86z

[anactorsprocess-blog]

Catalogue Submission

Imagery

Learning from my experiences from the past few projects at ALRA North, I’ve found that the use of imagery to define the emotions that my character feels in a scene helps me find a strong connection to my character. This work has been developed when I’ve worked with Elen Benfield on her movement based Personal Research Project (Benfield, 2018) which referenced the work of Michael Chekhov (Chekhov, 1953). 

When I work with the use of imagery, I always move it in the abstract first before taking it into the pedestrian (every day movement). My favourite Chekhov quote is “The oftener and more intently you look into your image, the sooner in you it awakens those feelings, emotions and impulses necessary to your performance of your character” (Chekhov, 1953).

I feel that, personally and in agreement with Chekhov’s way of thinking, I need to see and feel the image take over my whole body for a sustained period of time so that I can seek out sensations and emotions that this image sets off in my body.

Imagery assists me in finding the placement of the breath in the body, different levels of tension and my inner tempo. I always start off with finding the everyday version of the character. This base, for example, would be the character (Macduff) on a normal day where nothing has influenced him. The image that I used for this base was a burning sun that was orange and hot. I pictured the sun in my diaphragm and imagined the heat and colour to be spread throughout my body, powering it from the inside. With this, I found a centred and grounded breath, a strong, held tension in the body and a powerful gaze. 

Now from this ‘base’, I could change the image and fully be able to feel the shift of breath, tension and emotion. After working with each different image for a good enough period of time where I can easily connect to it, I simply on have to think of the image and my breath will immediately shift along with bodily tension and emotion which is perfect for rehearsal when I’m required to play in the moment.

I also felt that for performance of Shakespeare, the use of imagery would help me access the heightened states of emotions that Macbeth demands from all of the characters more so than such techniques as emotional memory from Stanislavski’s work (Stanislavski, 2013). When I’ve worked with emotional memory in acting lessons (Blake, 2017) I’ve found that I tend to push when trying to use emotional memory. This pushing affects me vocally and physically which stops me from working with ease and in turn, this hinders the performance. Kristen Linklater says “If the voice is limited by habit and tension, it will limit the transmission of the imagination” (Linklater, 2014). When using imagery, I always find myself to be free, even in the tensest of moments, because I’m feeling it, there’s no vocal tension because I’m allowing my body to be affected by the imagery naturally rather than forcing it to behave with a certain emotion.

 Physical action

I didn’t want to spend a lot of time thinking about how Macduff moved in the space, I just wanted to get up and experiment with it. I spent a lot of time finding his grounding, his gate and his level of tension. I felt that Macduff was a very down to earth character and I wanted to really build a connection with the ground and the earth through my feet to give off a sense of the strong, level headed man that I was playing. What helped with finding my grounding was the dropping of the breath which I’ve explained in the previous point. I was surprised at how much the act of thinking about grounding influenced my lines. They became more direct, instructional and knowledgeable.

Once finding this strong grounding, I moved on to bigger gestures. These were mainly fighting gestures such as stabs, slices and blocks. Using the image of the orange sun to power my movements and the strong grounding I had found, I was able to physically embody Macduff. Now, before going on and doing a scene, I only need to think about the imagery and perform one of these ‘psychological gestures’ to physically embody the character.

Sense of space and place

A key thing I wanted to consider in this project was the sense of place and space. Where was Macduff and how does the location that he’s in influence how he feels. This sense of space and place links back to the use of imagination to influence emotion. In movement with Michael, we learnt about atmospheres and how different atmospheres interact with each other (White, 2018). I was interested to see how the atmosphere of a space and location would affect Macduff. This also helped me to find where Macduff sat in the world of the play, what his relations were to other characters and how their atmospheres affected him.

In terms of location, I had to spend some time looking at images of real castles and Scottish fields. Here are some examples - 

(Scottish Rural Network, 2018)

(Undiscover Scotland, 2018)

With the use of these images, more questions were raised about what was the air like, temperature, what does the ground feel like, how big/enclosed is the space? All of these questions helped to build a stronger sense of the world and where Macduff stands within it. Michael Chekhov says “If the actors, director, author, set designer and often, the musicians have truly created the atmosphere for the performance, the spectator will not be able to remain aloof from it but will respond with inspiring waves of love and confidence” (Chekhov, 1953). It was important to me that the world was built fully so that I could live as the character in the space so that, in the end, the audience would be able to connect with Macduff and his story.

Reference list

Benfield, E. (2018). Personal Research Project

Chekhov. M (1953). (P26) To The Actor. New York: Harper & Row

Stanislavski. (2013). An Actor Prepares. Reprint. London: Bloomsbury Academic

Blake, A. (2017). Acting For Camera

Linklater, K. (2014). (P9). Freeing The Natural Voice. Vancouver, B.C.: Langara College

White, M. (2018). Movement lessons

Scottish Rural Network. (2018). Available at https://www.ruralnetwork.scot/news-and-events/news/call-evidence-experience-concentrated-land-ownership (Accessed: 14 June 2018)

Undiscover Scotland. (2018). Available at https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/cawdor/cawdorcastle/index.html (Accessed: 14 June 2018)

Chekhov. M (1953). (P48) To The Actor. New York: Harper & Row