May 29, 2012

After a brief warm up, we decided to get back into our scene work. We began with a scene that two of them decided together, outside of the program, that they really like. This is a scene from Macbeth in which Macbeth has doubts about the plan to kill the king, and Lady Macbeth bullies him into deciding to do it after all. We broke it down bit by bit and really highlighted how nasty Lady Macbeth is in the scene, which they all really liked.

We worked the scene a bunch, discovering different reactions the characters have to one another and what their physicality says about the situation and their relationship. They are both really excited about the complexity of the scene, which makes for a good challenge for them. They are very interested in the story of the whole play and how this fits in. Already after running the scene four times, they showed growth and increased confidence. It’s going to be really fun to continue to work this scene.

Then we worked a scene from As You Like It, in which Duke Frederick banishes Rosalind, and Celia declares that she will go, too. One of the participants with a learning disability (the one working Emilia’s monologue) chose this scene and the character of Celia because there are not many lines, but the part is very powerful. I think it’s a great choice for her. After breaking down the scene, we ran it with two others, and, again we talked about physicality and what truly motivates the actions of these characters. I was very proud of the participant playing Celia because she is making such great strides that she hardly stumbled over the language at all. She said that she feels that she is becoming louder, and the other participants told her that that is because she is gaining confidence. The other two participants in the scene really enjoyed it as well.

We then worked on Jaques’ monologue with the participant who chose it. She said she hasn’t really been working on it, which kind of showed, but as she got to the end of the piece she began to show again the silliness we all love in the piece.

The other participants who had been there had to leave early, so we stopped there for the day. I checked in with everyone before we left, and they all said it had been a good day for them. They are having a lot of fun with the scenes.