Today we were all relieved when the participant playing Antonio returned. We had thought she wasn’t coming back, but she is back! We spent the day working on Act I Scene i. We focused on putting more and more energy into a scene that is very talky, and that currently is not very exciting to watch. We tried to find more places for people to move around the stage, and we worked on committing to the characters even when reading from the script.
It has become clear that not all of the participants will be memorizing all of their lines, and that some may not memorize any of their lines. Since it is up to them to make this experience what they want, I am not being hard on them about this. I have been encouraging them, though, to at least become so familiar with the lines that they only have to reference the script rather than having their eyes glued to it. I have been encouraging them to do this not for the sake of pushing them, but because they will be much more comfortable on stage this way. The experience will be a far more positive one.