We began today with warm ups and a really fun game that we haven't played before. We wound up getting into a discussion about how each person’s goals affected the outcome of the game, and how those goals meshed or didn’t mesh with what most of the group perceived as being the point of the game. We talked about how this would be true in any acting – that if an actor’s goals weren’t in sync with those of the character, it would have a big impact on the play as a whole. We then were informed that a pretty big group of new people will be added to the group for our next session. This is very exciting, and we discussed our game plan for welcoming them and integrating them into what we’ve been doing. We discussed the need to be patient as we do some review so that they don’t feel thrown into the mix right off the bat. Everyone agreed this is the best course to take.
I asked the women what they wanted to work now, and they decided to explore the “villains,” since we haven’t touched on them much yet. They chose Act II Scene I, in which Antonio and Sebastian ridicule and then plot to kill Gonzalo and Alonso. As we worked through the scene, which was the first we’ve done that involved this many people, we talked a lot about body language. We also got into an interesting discussion about Sebastian and Antonio – how manipulative Antonio is, and how easily Sebastian gives in to him. Sebastian seems almost stupid, or at least weak-minded, in this interaction, while the woman playing Antonio said that her character reminded her of Hannibal Lecter – very intelligent and very manipulative.
We are hoping that the new participants will be just as willing to dive in as the current participants have been. They are very ready to get into the nitty gritty of scene work and start developing their production.