May 3, 2013

We finished up our work on Act I Scene ii today, with someone standing in for Ferdinand, who was absent. Although this participant frequently warns us ahead of time that what she will be doing will not be up to snuff, she really did a great job with a  scene she’d never worked on before, and everyone was very encouraging of her efforts. After working the end of the scene, we decided to run the entire thing, which we’ve never been able to do before because it’s so long. It went very well for the most part. After our work last time, the women playing Caliban and Prospero are playing off of each other beautifully. What the scene needs now to progress is a bit more commitment from some of the actors – Prospero needs to be more aggressive, while Miranda needs to channel her inner 15-year-old more.

I was very happy, as always, when our “director”, who has been with the group the longest, pointed out a change in blocking that was easy to execute but enhanced the dynamic between Prospero and Miranda. She has such great instincts, and we are always so appreciate of her input.

We also determined today that we have lost both our Antonio and our Sebastian. At this point in the process, no one feels comfortable switching characters, so the group’s solution is for our new volunteer, who will begin attending next week, and me to step into these roles. It isn’t an ideal situation, but it will cause far less stress for the group to solve the problem this way than any other we could come up with.