May 17, 2013

We spent today working on Act III Scene ii. The first run of the scene was rough; again, the participants hadn’t written notes and needed to be reminded of decisions they’d made the last time we worked the scene. After we got through it, we discussed very frankly that it had not gone well, and we talked about why that was so. Part of it was the lack of notes, and part was a lack of preparation for the day. That being said, the second and third runs of the scene went very well, and everyone showed a lot of improvement. They picked up the pace, committed more to the goofiness of their characters, and focused more on their relationships. After a disappointing first go at the scene, they definitely felt encouraged after the second and third.

We also spent some time reviewing the end of Act IV Scene i, and we discussed how to add in the spirits in that scene. We are having some difficulty figuring out how to keep those masks on the participants’ heads, so I am consulting with the actors who wore them in the Water Works production to find out what they did.

May 14, 2013

Today was the first day for our new volunteer, Bethany Hedden. The group embraced her presence, energy and input right off the bat. She is happy to be with us, and we are all very happy to have her! Bethany will be making blog entries as well pretty soon. We spent most of our time today working on Act III Scene iii, in which Ariel terrorizes the shipwrecked characters. Since the participants have been disinclined to write themselves notes as we’ve worked scenes in the past, much of the blocking we worked out before had been forgotten. Luckily, our “director” remembered it in great detail and reminded everyone of what they were supposed to be doing.

The woman who is playing Ariel made great strides today toward increasing her physical energy in the part. She has great vocal power, but she needs to match it with her body. She assured us that she will be working on it more on her own, but the improvements she made today were wonderful to see.

We were all equally pleased by the participant playing Alonso being off book for this scene as well as the other we’ve worked. She’s been in the group since September, and I think she has really taken her commitment to heart. It serves as a great example for everyone else.

We also reviewed Act II Scene i so that Bethany could begin to get a feel for it. That went very smoothly for the most part.

May 10, 2013

We began by working on Act III Scene I today. We worked toward heightening emotions and embracing the language, as well as continuing to focus on keeping Ferdinand and Miranda very young and “puppy-like.” This was stopped short when one of the participants wasn’t feeling well and had to leave, but luckily these two will be able to work on their scenes outside of the group to make up for time lost today. We moved on to Act II Scene ii, and we were all very excited that the participant playing Trinculo has memorized the entire scene. The other two playing Caliban and Stephano are on their way to being off book as well. The entire group was able to see how this made the scene come more alive than any other on which we’ve been working, which I hope will encourage all of them to redouble their efforts at needing their scripts less and less.

This scene is a lot of fun, and we had a blast with it. One of the newer participants also made a really great suggestion to change some of the blocking – she commented that, the way Trinculo and Caliban were lying (parallel to the proscenium) made Trinculo’s voice seem to come out of nowhere when he spoke. She suggested that the two of them lie with their heads toward the audience. This proved to be a great suggestion and made the whole scene work much better.

 

We played an improv game with the time we had left. Everyone left today in good spirits.

May 7, 2013

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.

May 3, 2013

We finished up our work on Act I Scene ii today, with someone standing in for Ferdinand, who was absent. Although this participant frequently warns us ahead of time that what she will be doing will not be up to snuff, she really did a great job with a  scene she’d never worked on before, and everyone was very encouraging of her efforts. After working the end of the scene, we decided to run the entire thing, which we’ve never been able to do before because it’s so long. It went very well for the most part. After our work last time, the women playing Caliban and Prospero are playing off of each other beautifully. What the scene needs now to progress is a bit more commitment from some of the actors – Prospero needs to be more aggressive, while Miranda needs to channel her inner 15-year-old more.

I was very happy, as always, when our “director”, who has been with the group the longest, pointed out a change in blocking that was easy to execute but enhanced the dynamic between Prospero and Miranda. She has such great instincts, and we are always so appreciate of her input.

We also determined today that we have lost both our Antonio and our Sebastian. At this point in the process, no one feels comfortable switching characters, so the group’s solution is for our new volunteer, who will begin attending next week, and me to step into these roles. It isn’t an ideal situation, but it will cause far less stress for the group to solve the problem this way than any other we could come up with.