'Much Ado About Nothing' By William Shakespeare - Character Profile & Study

Character Profile for Leonarto

Name: Leonarto

Age: 42

Gender: Male

Race: Caucasian/White

Place of Origin: Seeing as Leonarto is the Count of Messina, I'd like to interpret that he is actually from Messina. I don't believe there's any mention in the script whatsoever of where Leonarto is actually from, so this is my best judgment.

Physical Appearance (Costume Decision): I'd like to follow this appearance for my interpretation of Leonarto:

• Beige straw hat
• Gold neck chain
• Hawaiian shirt
• Beige shorts
• Green Wellies
• and also the occasional sunglasses for the purpose of the second movement sequence.

This was the final outcome of my costume, featuring me in the silent disco movement sequence as the DJ:



Occupation: Count of Messina and Part-time DJ

Taking over from the original script of 'Much Ado About Nothing', Leonarto is still the Count of Messina in our interpretation, but he has postponed his position in order to properly organise the festival which shall celebrate the return of Don Pedro, Benedick, and other background characters (these are not featured in our performance).

While he isn't the Count of Messina for a short period of time, this means that Leonarto can use/test his most used hobby at the festival, this being a Disk Jockey. He hasn't been a DJ for too long, Leonarto only picked it up when he went to a party, before the plays events, and saw the local DJ playing. This inspired him to learn how to play a musical instrument, which inevitably came to be the DJ stand.

Though not being too hard a process to grasp, he has only been practicing for a few weeks before the festival took place, meaning that no-one has seen him play. His first time in front of anyone was in the Silent Disco movement sequence of our production. Whilst performing, he was complemented by the Messenger, whom had come over and shook his hand saying the words "Nice song, man!"

Monetary Status: Very Wealthy, perhaps too wealthy!

In the original take of 'Much Ado About Nothing', Leonarto owns a whole estate which the play takes place in, he has also held parties in his house in many other interpretations that we've watched in class. This of course means he's fairly rich, which makes sense along his occupation as the Count of Messina. Leonarto has so much money that the word 'Money' isn't part of his dictionary. He doesn't even need to worry about how much he spends. This is why he spends all of his so called earnings on parties, arranging festivals, weddings etc. Leonarto only wants the best, and he will spend any amount of funds towards getting it.

Does Leonarto have any sort of relationships?

Seeing as Leonarto is of quite a high status, maybe not as high or around the same level as some characters e.g. Don Pedro, he generally, I feel, is just friends with everyone around him. This is, of course, excluding Borachio and Don John for the reason of Act 2 Scene 2 by form of the whole scene. The whole conversation between the two characters in this scene suggests that they want to ruin the wedding between Claudio and Hero, which would inevitably physically "kill" Leonarto to see this happen to his own daughter.

Although, for our interpretation of 'Much Ado About Nothing', I'd like to picture that Leonarto's best friends are Don Pedro, Claudio, and perhaps Benedick from the simple reason of how we acted out in Act 2 Scene 3. There's obviously a lot of banter and playing around going on in this scene towards Benedick, whom is listening in on their 'acted' conversation.

Leonarto is already good friends with Don Pedro, seeing as he hosted a party in the original play to celebrate his return, and also his soldiers, from the war that took place. I'd think that Leonarto is starting to picture Claudio as his own son. Obviously, due to the plays plot, we know that he is marrying Leonarto's daughter, Hero, so it would be practical for Leonarto to get to know Claudio better and treat him as his own. Benedick is Don Pedro's leading commander from the war, so he is of higher status than the other soldiers in the play, also suggesting that he could have relations with higher status characters such as Leonarto. I'd like to think, from our interpretation of the play, that the two characters don't talk very much, but when they do converse, it's mostly banter.

Does the character have any particular interests?

Seeing as he's comfortable enough playing on the disk jockey set between Act 2 Scene 1 and Act 2 Scene 2, I'd like to think that Leonarto's key interest, and perhaps outside of scene hobby, is being a part time DJ to go along with his duties as the Count of Messina.

Another key interest of Leonarto's is that he likes/tries to look 'cool' in social interaction. As we can presume from my costume choice, Leonarto is quite colourful and he's very 'out there' when compared to the other characters on stage.

I believe that the final thing that Leonarto loves partaking in is acting. From our interpretation of Act 2 Scene 3, when Balthasar leaves the scene, the whole conversation between Claudio, Don Pedro, and Leonarto is all part of a big act to get Benedick in love with Beatrice. However, Leonarto takes this too far because of his 'inexperience' in acting.

Does the character have any particular dislikes?

I'd like to think, from my interpretation of Leonarto, that he has no dislikes towards anything. Leonarto, to me, is a very open-minded person, and takes on anything which he thinks will amuse him, or others, for a while.

If there is any sort of dislike that I can think of, it's that I'd know Leonarto would absolutely hate to see anything happen to his daughter. Leonarto wants the best for Hero, as he should being her father, and he'll go through hell and back to get whatever she wants in life.

Character Study for Leonarto

What were the Inspirations for my portrayal of Leonarto? (also mentions physicality and vocalisation notes)

The Dad from 'Friday Night Dinner':

This is a kind of difficult topic to talk about since, at first grasp of playing Leonarto, I didn't really have any inspiration, I sort of just did my own thing with the character. I remember from earlier rehearsal sessions that the way I said my lines came across as very aggressive, which isn't right in the slightest. I was told to be more like a 'Mac Dad', which is basically where you think you're funny when you're really not. This was when I got told by Matthew Todd to grab some inspiration from the dad character in 'Friday Night Dinner'. Here is a clip of him to show how he is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BekwAtZjExc

When looking back at this video a second time, I could only look towards the personality of the character. Whilst he is indeed funny, he was also quite aggressive and very much an attention seeker in my opinion. The only sense of inspiration which I actually grabbed from this character was the randomness of him. Having done the performance, there were quite a few random moments for my portrayal of Leonarto on stage, particularly in the movement sequences. This combined with my ridiculous, very 'out there' costume choice, made it even more funny and relatable to the audience members.

There's one particular bit in the second movement sequence which I absolutely loved doing, which is right when I come on stage. I enter the stage miming along with the song choice we had for the sequence, the mime act included me playing a drum set and alongside playing a guitar, I repeated this act about 4 times before lifting Frankie in the air. Whilst doing this act was very attention grabbing, I had a very good reaction from the second live performance when the parents came to watch us, I remember that as soon as I came on stage, the audience were immediately laughing, and I could only think it was because of me.

This left me feeling quite pleased with my performance, since leaving the stage with more satisfaction than I had hoped to achieve and getting a very good review of my performance from multiple parents when I had left the theatre afterwards.

Frank Gallagher from 'Shameless' (the British version):

Another inspiration, which Sally told me to take interest in, was the character of Frank Gallagher in the British TV programme 'Shameless'. She had mentioned this inspiration of character to me quite early on in the rehearsal process and this was the video that we had watched:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx3Zdl_V3zo

This inspiration does make sense, looking back at it, since I remember not really having much physical traits to the character of Leonarto at first, and obviously from this clip, we can analyse that Frank Gallagher is a very physicalized character, whilst he's talking. He uses his hands a lot when he breaks the fourth wall and is talking to the audience about what's going to happen or is happening in the episode.

Analysing it more and more, this reminded me of the character called Scullery in 'Road'. We had performed 'Road' in the previous year for our last production, and I think that Scullery is a great example to compare against Frank Gallagher, as he also speaks to the audience, breaking the fourth wall, to inform the audience as to what's occurring in the town.

I didn't really take as much inspiration from this character compared to the dad from 'Friday Night Dinner', but what I did take grasp of was the hand play. I'd like to believe I was using my hands quite a lot in my performance whilst I was speaking, which did help when I was adding the emphasis and inflection to certain words. I felt that this made my performance of Leonarto come across as being more believable in a way, I'm not just doing a casual act, but I'm becoming the character himself, placing myself in the situation he's in and doing what I think he would do in those circumstances.

When we had received feedback from Sally before another one of our performances, she commented that I came across as understanding what I was saying more than anyone on stage. This may be one of the reasons why perhaps? I can't really say what she saw that made it seem like I knew what I was doing, but I would like to think that this is the reason. Hopefully, when I get my grade back for this assignment, she could give me more context on what she meant when she said this, so I can try and carry it over to the next performance(s).

Analysing Leonarto's Personality

For my interpretation of Leonarto, it helped me more when I looked at the full script of 'Much Ado About Nothing' to find out what other characters were saying that is relevant towards me to receive a full understanding of how I should perform the role in respect to the original author's desires. Here, I'll mention a majority of the personality traits of Leonarto, showing analysis from the script, whilst also using the diagram which I had mentioned in Week 3 of my 'Much Ado About Nothing' By William Shakespeare Full Weekly Blog Study:

1. Leonarto is Honourable

I had received this information about my character from the text, which is delivered by another character announcing relevant information. The character in question is Don Pedro in Act 1 Scene 1.

He had this quote to say:

"You have it full, Benedick. We may guess by this what you are, being a man. Truly, the lady fathers herself.—Be happy, lady, for you are like an honourable father."

I had used the website called 'nofearshakespeare' to translate this text into a modern audience interpretation.

This is what the same quote came out to be said:

"Ah, he got you back, Benedick! Leonarto clearly knows your reputation with women. Seriously, though, the lady resembles Leonarto so much that there can be no doubt about who her father is. Congratulations, lady: you resemble a most honourable man."

      2. Leonarto is Polite (but serious at the same time)

I had received this information about my character from the text, which is delivered by another character announcing relevant information. The character in question is, again, Don Pedro in Act 1 Scene 1.

He had this quote to say:

"That is the sum of all, Leonarto.—Signior Claudio and Signior Benedick, my dear friend Leonato hath invited you all. I tell him we shall stay here at the least a month, and he heartily prays some occasion may detain us longer. I dare swear he is no hypocrite but prays from his heart."

Using 'nofearshakespeare', the same quote translates to this:

"And that’s everything, Leonarto.—Claudio, Benedick—my dear friend Leonarto has invited you all to stay here at Messina. I told him we’ll stay for at least a month, and he says that he hopes we’ll stay longer. I think he’s actually serious, and not just being polite."

     3. Leonarto is Respected

I had received this information about my character from the text, which is delivered by another character announcing relevant information. The character in question is, once again, Don Pedro in Act 1 Scene 1 (this is the last time!) but also Benedick in Act 2 Scene 3.

Don Pedro had this quote to say:

"Well, you temporize with the hours. In the meantime, good Signior Benedick, repair to Leonarto’s. Commend me to him and tell him I will not fail him at supper, for indeed he hath made great preparation."

Using 'nofearshakespeare', the same quote translates to this:

"Oh, you’ll soften as time passes. While you’re waiting for that to happen, though, hurry to Leonarto’s. Give him my respects, and tell him I’ll definitely be there for dinner, since I know he has gone to great lengths for this meal."

Benedick had this quote to say:

"(aside) I should think this a gull but that the white-bearded fellow speaks it. Knavery cannot, sure, hide himself in such reverence."

Using 'nofearshakespeare', the same quote translates to this:

"(to himself) I would take this as a joke if the old man weren’t saying it. Mischief surely can’t be hiding in such a respectable man."

How does this all affect my implications for performance as Leonarto?

I guess this had affected my performance in some way since I had always pictured Leonarto as being quite an honourable, and also respectable man. These quotes all had affects on my physicality of the character, I stand tall among others and portray a sense of proudness within myself. I have a strong stage presence because of this. It heavily expresses my movement, which is both calm and muscular at the same time, I get to the point of what I'm doing instantaneously, using as much physical moment as possible. It also makes a compliment to my vocal ability as the character, I speak in a strong, collective, and well thought manner, showing as much expression, emphasis and inflection as possible to give more meaning and purpose to the lines I have to say.