Today as we were waiting for some very late participants, we took some time to let those who were there vent a bit about some frustrations they’ve been having outside of the program. I feel like it’s important to address these issues so we can all stay connected and trust each other emotionally. One of our Emilias did her monologue even though she “wasn’t feeling it.” She has it about half memorized, which is great. Where she has it memorized, she is doing some great acting. She’s just got to keep hammering away at it, which I know she will.
Then one of our Antonys performed her piece. Since she was experiencing so much frustration and anger about other things, she let it fuel her acting. I asked her if she could find some places to be still, and if she could let up on the anger toward the end when Antony is so choked up he has to stop speaking for a moment. She was unable to do this due to how she was feeling in “real life.” We’ll work toward that in the future when she’s feeling better.
Then our other Emilia performed her piece. She backed off on the movement that we’d worked in last time, so I again demonstrated some things she might want to do. The participant playing Desdemona (Cassie) experimented with different ways of reacting to the monologue. When Emilia added more movement and physical contact, shoving Desdemona slightly by the shoulder, she loosened up more, and the piece became more natural.
Then our Jaques performed. She, too, had her piece partly memorized. She is a little shy in her delivery, so I asked her to see how goofy she could possibly be – to try to make us laugh. Over the next two reads, she got more into the silliness. She will continue to work on memorization.
Since attendance was so low today, that is where we ended it. One of them did stop by to let me know that she will definitely be there on Friday. I am hopeful that more people will be present then.