We spent today working on the first scene in the play – the storm on the ship. Although it is a fairly short scene, it’s not a simple one, so we began by simply reading the lines. We then went through and asked each participant what she envisioned her character doing in the scene. Everyone had great ideas about how her character would act, and some had specific actions in mind. We got it on its feet and almost immediately decided to modify the scene so that the Master could be more involved. Since the scene is all dialogue with very little specific action noted, much of our time was spent on finding activities for people, determining whom they are speaking to at which time, and trying to get to the chaos the scene needs. This is difficult to do at this point, since the lines are new and most people are struggling with them a bit, but it will come in time.
Everyone showed a lot of patience working through this scene, and they felt good about it at the end. I reassure them all the time that many of these scenes may not work “well” for awhile, and that we’ve got time to get them where we want them. It seems like the participants are internalizing that well.