Written by KFG

This December has been a really productive and cohesive phase for our ensemble. The group made great strides to come together as an ensemble, and we finished reading Midsummerin its entirety. Finishing the play and early analysis of the script always feels like a big exhale and there is a shift in the group to start thinking in terms of production. We now start dreaming about and talking about the parts we want to play, and we start thinking about exactly how we are going to start telling this story to our audience. 

Just like in years past, not everyone who joined in November was able to stay with the group. Some ensemble members are going home and they have required classes to take as they prepare for release, others  join and really enjoy the sense of community and safety we cultivate, but don’t always stick around when they realize how much time and work this next phase of rehearsal and performance might be. This year was a typical year in terms of attrition and also in terms of the  its two major effects, 1) the group members who remain become very tight-knit, and 2) participation goes way up, in part because the group gets really comfortable with each other, but mainly because there are lots of parts and fewer ensemble members to fill them for any given scene. This is especially true for A Midsummer Night's Dream (MND) with its large cast of characters! Right now, most of the ensemble are playing a part in just about every scene we get up on its feet! 

One important step that that ensemble took together this month was starting to work in the proscenium (what most people think of when they think of doing a play– think the set up of a high school auditorium!). Typically to get going with scene work, we start by working in the round with everyone on the stage. We, more or less, ignore the seats in the house and put the scene on its feet in a big circle on the stage. We do this for a couple of reasons, 1) the proscenium can be intimidating, 2) there are a lot of rules and/or technique to working in proscenium that are difficult to teach while everyone is getting used to getting connected to each other and to the language (some of those rules include cheating out, getting used large distances between actors in private scenes, etc.), and 3) it can make us think about staging before we are ready. We first need to get used to playing with and performing Shakespeare instead of simply reading Shakespeare aloud for a class, which is, most people’s experience with Shakespeare whether in prison or not. Performance is a full-body experience and it can be difficult for many people to get used to fully engaging their whole selves in a character; combine that with the fact that Shakespeare is a such a heavy emotional and linguistic lift, it can be a stretch to inhabit your whole body, voice, and brain on the first go. So we try to cut back and make it a bit easier by performing in the round first. Then, when the time is right, we up the ante and switch to working in the proscenium. The time was right this past December, and after a few sessions that it seemed almost, dare I say, boring, to the ensemble to still be in the round; one of the emerging leaders in the group suggested we make the switch almost immediately after I thought it. It was exciting to know we were on the exact same page! Leaving behind this work in the round had an immediate effect on the group. Suddenly they were taking their roles a bit more seriously and taking their roles as constructive audience members much more seriously as well. It may seem so small to someone looking in, but it marks a huge leap and dividing line in the course of a season.

The ensemble, as a whole, has now fully turned their attention to performance. There are constant ideas for staging and how they envision the final piece. The biggest jumpstart to this headspace is the distribution of the rehearsal scripts. With the heavy edits needed for a ninety-minute run time, it quickly becomes  cumbersome to use the published script in rehearsals; so every year we make a rehearsal script with some initial slam-dunk edits and cuts we know the group will approve.  Then the ensemble begins working together to cut the piece and edit it down as we go. The ensemble was absolutely thrilled to get their own copies of the rehearsal script and asked about them several weeks in a row before distribution.  The ensemble has also been greatly inspired to think about performance after seeing the U of M Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP) performance. They speak about it regularly and start frequent sentences with “Ya know what PCAP did was…” or “We should do what they did in PCAP…” It’s great to hear– unsolicited– the profound impact and influence of our long-time partners at PCAP!  The PCAP and SIP participants are lucky to have this program in our lives!

 The ensemble members have really started to come into themselves in the group and come out of their shells. We have had so many quotes from them saying how much they love SIP; that it is the “highlight of their week,” and that “SIP gives you dignity– it makes you feel respected, like you’re a normal person for those two hours.” Another said that she doesn’t have to be “tough” here, she can just “be myself here.” And for these couple hours I “feel like I’m not in prison.” They are sentiments we have heard for years from many different participants, but they always stop me cold when I hear another ensemble member reiterating the same sentiment even though they have never heard it before. There is so much silliness in our work– it's the theatre, it has to be silly– but underneath is a gravity and importance that never fades too far to the background.

As we approached the holiday break we talked about the roles the ensemble wanted to play and recognized that we did not have enough members to cover all the roles. While the group has bonded so strongly, we all agree that we will have to open the waitlist after the holidays in order to do a full length version of the play. So the current members have picked out parts (with lots of happy surprises for me in their choices!), and we will open up the waitlist to let new ensemble members in early January. Everyone, facilitators included, are eager to get working on the play in earnest. It is a very exciting time for the group and we are all looking forward to January!