Session Three: Week 8

Tuesday

Written by Matthew

Today saw Romeo caught between his old identity and his new one.

After a warm-up, we read through Act II, scenes iii-iv.  The women are becoming more confident and fluent in Shakespeare’s language every day, and few passages required explanation beyond what members of the group could immediately provide.

The scenes are short and mostly straightforward, so we read through them in full for the gist before going back to uncover hidden meaning.

In Act II, scene iii, Romeo goes straight from Juliet’s balcony to his confidant, the friar.  The group seemed interests in the language of pain and death in the scene: the friar is gardening when Romeo arrives in the early morning light, and he muses on Earth’s ability to bring forth both beautiful flowers and harmful poisons from the same soil.  Romeo speaks of being “wounded” by love.  We noted that the friar seems appalled by Romeo’s too-quick transition from loving Rosaline to loving Juliet, at least until he realizes that there may be some greater good served by their union.  Political affairs, one woman noted, have intruded on personal ones.  Such intrusions are rarely for good.

In describing Romeo’s state of mind, one woman said that he “seems still to equate the physical with the emotional,” and that part of the tragedy is Romeo’s inability to differentiate these feelings.

When we put the scene on its feet, the woman who played Romeo paced with child-like ebullience, pestering the staid friar.  The rest of the group applauded this decision: Romeo’s overflowing energy contrasted clearly with the friar’s restraint.

While reading through Act II, scene iv, the women saw Romeo’s lighter side.  The group noticed that Shakespeare presents Mercutio and Romeo’s friendship as it was before Romeo started falling in love.  They exchange bawdy puns, and Mercutio exclaims that this is the “real” Romeo.  Who the “real” Romeo is, the group decided, is unclear.  One member noticed that Romeo, when the nurse comes to find him, gets caught between his “old” self—Mercutio’s devil-may-care sidekick—and his “new” self as a lover and—soon—husband.

On stage, the readers were active, moving around the stage and acting out their dirty jokes and insults.  The women who watched the scene praised them for making the meaning of the words clear through intonation and gesture.

Both scenes leapt off the page with surprising clarity when performed.  One onlooker praised a moment of inspired subtlety, when Romeo’s body language changed completely when Mercutio left.  He was no longer part of the gang, but a man in love.

Thursday

Today there was some conflict that needed to be resolved regarding the reading/performance of certain characters at this stage. While some of the women are gravitating toward particular characters and are eager to read them often, others have not yet found their “favorites” and feel they haven’t had enough opportunities to read. While I feel that we’ve been working toward striking a balance between these two things, we discussed ways to even the playing field even more in the future. Some of this is encouraging those with certain characters in mind to experiment with others, and part is encouraging the women who feel they haven’t read enough to be more assertive about volunteering to do so.

Since attendance was light, we decided to review what we’ve worked on so far, sitting in a circle and reading in a “round robin” – each time a new character entered, the next person over would read him/her, and so on, so that it was completely random as far as who was reading what. This proved to be very valuable, as it shook things up and gave different opportunities to everyone in the circle.

One woman stopped us after the Queen Mab speech to share that she’d had an epiphany – that the woman reading Mercutio at that moment would actually play him very well because she is similarly dominant in conversation and articulate – a strong personality. We discussed that this is one reason why we need to give everyone more opportunities to experiment – she’s not the only one in the group to whom this applies.

It was a constructive day, even with the conflict and the decision to read rather than perform. The group has some great ideas for moving forward and trying some new things, which we will discuss at the next meeting when we hope more people will be present.

Session Three: Week 7

Tuesday

Written by Matthew

“Juliet want Romeo to know that she for real,” was the consensus tonight, as summed up by one of the participants.

We rehearsed the famous scene at Juliet’s balcony.  The language of this exchange is uncharacteristically straightforward, so we were able to jump in quickly and begin discovering more about the characters.  Some women have already set their sights on specific roles, so we have ready volunteers for the lead roles.

Before approaching the scene, though, we warmed up with a game of questions: someone starts by asking a question directly to someone sitting to their left or right.  That person must then, without stopping to think, ask a different question of someone to their right or left—yes, including the person who just asked them.  Since no one answers the questions, it’s more of an improvisation exercise than a “getting to know you” activity.  If you can’t think of a question immediately or break down in laughter, you’re out.  A few women were ruthless, pointedly targeting a neighbor with a barrage of questions.  A few rounds of that, and we were ready to go.

The women first fixated on the fact that Juliet enters the scene by speaking a revealing speech about her feelings for Romeo, ending with the provocative “take all myself.”  We discussed how she was vulnerable in the moment, unaware that Romeo is looking on as she fantasizes.  When Romeo interjects at that moment, she is taken aback as well as overjoyed.

We focused on the intensity of Romeo and Juliet’s feelings for each other and on how they express those feelings in different ways.  Romeo shows his infatuation by waxing poetic about Juliet’s beauty, her sweetness, anything to praise her.  Juliet is more practical, suggesting that they wait.  One woman pointed out that, although Romeo risks his life to see Juliet, she stands to lose more from their forbidden relationship than he.  The women agreed that she must worry about being cast out of her home, about her current betrothal to Paris, and about the fact that Romeo, as a boy, is allowed more free rein than she is at that time.

Two women performed the scene when we were done.  We talked about how Romeo should make his entrance and how Juliet should react.  As they read, the women on stage added their own flair to the conversation, Juliet self-consciously rambling while Romeo waited anxiously to get a word in edgewise.

The scene seems to be fertile ground for staging and character development ideas for the group.  Now, we just have to figure out how to make a balcony.

Thursday

We were delayed getting into the facility today, but the women once again showed their commitment and growing ownership of the group by being very productive while they waited for us. The group warmed up and played two improv games that we have already played this session. The “veterans” then taught the rest of the group two other games that have to do with characterization and physicality.

We then arrived and worked a bit more on the balcony scene. We discussed what Romeo and Juliet want in the scene, and the obstacles that are in their way. The group now feels that they have a firm grasp on the scene, and they are ready to move on.

I am very heartened that the “veterans” took on the task of teaching new games, which is often a challenge even for those of us who teach improv on a regular basis! That they were able to work together to accomplish this speaks volumes about how they already function as a team. We are ready to add some new people to the group and hope to do it soon.

Session Three: Week 6

Tuesday  

We tried a new warm up today, one that comes from Michael Chekhov technique and warms up the whole body while getting one’s energy flowing in all directions. While some people with whom I’ve worked have been resistant to this exercise, this group loved it and requested that we do it regularly from now on.

We determined that, since attendance was rather low last Thursday, the best use of our time today would be to review what was worked on that day. One of the women suggested that we put the scenes immediately on their feet, rather than reading them, to see what those who were new to the scenes could get out of them. We tried this with the scene before the party, which includes Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech. The women said that they were still finding it kind of mystifying, so we broke it down. As with many of these scenes and monologues, we decided that it would really take the actor’s physicality to make this speech work. But what kind of physicality would that be? Another participant suggested that they break up into smaller groups and experiment.

The first group of four women each chose one line to “act out.” They wound up using each other as props, which we all decided would be a good thing for Mercutio to do in the scene. What was remarkable was that each of them memorized her one line in the fifteen minutes we spent working on this. That seemed to instill some confidence in the group that memorization might not be as difficult as they anticipate.

The second group designated one Romeo and then took turns talking to her, using gestures they thought were appropriate, with just one section of the monologue. The whole group liked this approach as well.

The third group didn’t fully commit to their approach because after they saw what the other groups had done, they thought they had misunderstood their goal. We talked about how that could have been an opportunity to improvise rather than to simply go through the motions.

It was a productive day, but we’ll have to do much more work on this speech. I think that’s a very usual challenge to have with this play!

Thursday

After warm ups, we worked on three line scenes, led by Sarah. The women got better and better at this exercise as we kept working, and they can all see how this exercise in particular will help them in performance.

We reviewed Act I Scene V, the “party scene.” After we read it through, one woman asked why Capulet is okay with Romeo being there. We discussed some ideas – maybe he’s NOT okay with it, but he doesn’t want a fight at his party; perhaps he is protecting Tybalt; or maybe he’s just so drunk he doesn’t care. Another question posed was how nobody sees what happens between Romeo and Juliet. We talked about how important blocking would be here, but how we could also use a theatrical device to make it work better – perhaps everyone except the two of them either freezes or moves in slow motion, for example.

We put the scene on its feet, and it was very nice. The women who read Romeo and Juliet gave a very quiet, vulnerable reading. The woman who read Romeo has done a lot of reading so far, but she said this was the most connected she had felt to the text and the other actors. This was a good opportunity to talk about how sometimes a very large performance isn’t necessary, and how we really liked how sweet and simple their reading had been.

One of the women said that she has read through the whole play and feels an intense connection to the Nurse. She feels that she has a lot in common with the character and is very eager to play her. I don’t think that will be a problem for anyone – we’re all very excited when we see people making those connections.

Session Three: Week 5

Tuesday  

After warm ups today, we reviewed everyone’s names since some of the women are still a little hesitant, and then we played a very goofy game that builds ensemble as we begin to recognize each others’ voices and senses of humor.

We spent the rest of the time working on the first scene with Juliet, Lady Capulet and the Nurse. This proved to be somewhat laborious, as the Nurse’s famous monologue in that scene took a long time to break down and understand, and as the group was fairly low energy to begin with, it was a bit frustrating and slow going.

But we began to understand the characters and relationships, and we decided to put the scene on its feet to see what more we could get out of it. We discussed each of the three characters having a distinct type of energy, and the women reading the parts tried to incorporate that.

What we arrived at today was that this scene will depend largely on the physical interaction (in the case of the Nurse and Juliet) or the lack thereof (in the case of Lady Capulet) of the characters to immediately establish their relationships. The women feel that getting that across right away will make the impact greater later in the play when Lady Capulet and the Nurse turn on Juliet.

One of the women volunteered that she enjoys getting these scenes on their feet, even if they are rough, because it’s making her more comfortable being onstage and speaking the language. She was on the fence about the group in the beginning because she has always had terrible stage fright, but now she is completely at ease getting up in front of us. She’s still not sure about performing for an audience of strangers, but she feels more confident that she will get to a point where she can do that, too.

Thursday

Written by Dominique

It was a dark and stormy night.

Well, not exactly, but a blustery rainy Halloween afternoon and we were all definitely fighting a sleepy lackluster vibe.  A combination of the weather, holiday triggers I imagine lurking , and I think the fact that it was just me, a newbie, facilitating the group made for a small turnout. With only 9 people it made it difficult to get enthusiasm going, so we just went with the day as it was.

The actors were great about letting me know how they felt the class should go, how things usually went or what they wanted to do with the time. It was kind of hard to get focus, the energy was chaotic, nervous. I had questioned whether certain types of warmup would work, there are some facial exercises and vocal warmers that can seem goofy - you have to be willing to let go of any sense of decorum. There were definitely a couple of things we tried that very few of the group were willing to do. It's a big leap, and I have to remind myself that even if I rely on some of the goofier, floppier physicality to get out of my head they may not be willing or really feel safe to go there.

And then the lights went out.

Seriously, it was funny really. Someone spoke in a very calm voice - "Just stay perfectly still, they will take care of it. Just stay exactly where you are." I chimed in "They must have a generator, it'll only be a minute." And it was, only a minute. But it was pitch black, and an interesting moment. One of those things that sounds like it would be terrifying but wasn't at all really. I don't feel threatened really by anybody in this group, though I think people would expect that you would be.

There was some tension between a couple group members. One comment in particular I think deserves recognition. There are definitely actors who find the text more available than others, and it was pointed out that some people have seen a film version when others haven't. This was seen as an unfair advantage. There has been discussion as to whether to watch one of the R&J movies. While it can be an easy way to get plot and overall character it creates the possibility of seeing the film version as the "right" interpretation and one to be copied.  The "real" way to do the play. I had not considered the idea though that having any previous experience of the play can seem daunting and unfair to someone approaching it and Shakespeare for the first time. Maybe a group viewing and group discussion of the Zefferelli film, as Frannie suggested, could even the playing field a bit.

The group decided we should play Dr. Know It All, which seems to have become the favorite improv (to the point that I think they may have outgrown it), before moving on to the script. The progression in this game from the first day has really been impressive. They have so quickly learned to let the free associations just ride. It made me think that maybe some more complex improv might be called for, maybe something like sit, stand, squat, where the actors include movement along with the verbal improv.

We circled up and began to read through the script. The group decided that they wanted to move on from the Nurse, Juliet, Lady Capulet scene they read last time. I offered that maybe we could talk about it some when we put the scenes we worked through on their feet. Frannie had suggested that my "real world" experience from playing the Nurse with the Shakespeare Festival could be of value. I sensed some trepidation, they wanted to move on, so we did.

I hadn't bothered to read the scene ahead of time thinking I knew the text pretty well and of course the first two paragraphs we read were completely unintelligible. I was glad to have my Riverside Shakespeare with me and was able to interpret for the group what turned out to be references to costuming and masquerade ball formalities of the time. The rest of the scene was fairly self explanatory and it is just amazing to me how easily they identify the action of the scene. We put it "on its feet" and discussed the scene further, the interplay between Romeo and his boys and the character of Mercutio. We talked particularly about the Queen Mab speech, what it reveals about Mercutio and some of the possible choices an actor could make with that speech. That whatever the actor decides Mercutio obviously takes the stage,and walks a thin line between brilliance and insanity. There may be a little rivalry for the playing of Mercutio, and I am only surprised that it didn't happen sooner.

A couple actors who had been reading had to leave at this point. We decided to push forward and read the next scene. We discussed Capulet's character and how he switches in this scene from garrulous to contentious in a heartbeat. The idea of Tybalt and Lady Capulet being lovers was brought up. I can see how that would make things interesting for the people playing those two characters. We discussed how actors are always making choices and that as long as it is supported by the text, the more invested or even dangerous choice is going to be the more interesting one to play. The poetry in the meeting of the lovers seemed to have been well covered in the 20 minute reading of the play, but it did give an opportunity to point out how often stage action is indicated by the text itself.

It was mentioned that when we "put things on their feet" very often it tends to be just that, the actors reading the text standing. So it was decided we would approach some direction of the scene, with the caveat that obviously none of it was to be set and it was simply for the sake of exploration. This gave us a chance to talk about how a masquerade ball could be portrayed onstage, how the logistics of the boys entering the dance would work, play a couple of times with Capulets entrance and Tybalt's wrath, and explore some how Romeo and Juliet "discover" each other.

We also discovered that the way I had been directed in this scene as the Nurse, to run off and ask Romeo's name (a moment that had always felt awkward), was much simpler and more direct if played the way the actor playing the Nurse chose, that as the Nurse she knew what was up already. It was a nice moment, and I think helped cut the tension about my experience in playing her, that I didn't feel it was the be all and end all of interpretations.

We accomplished a lot with such a small group, which I hope doesn't throw things off for the next meeting. I continue to be impressed with the openness and insight of these women, and am grateful for the moments when it seemed that one or two of them made a point of looking out for me. At one point someone whispered to me that I shouldn't leave my keys laying out like that, that it was creating opportunity. As it turned out the keys belonged to another actor, which was funny, but I did appreciate the reminder that it is a prison after all.

I find it so easy to forget that when we are deep into working the text.

Session Three: Week 4

Tuesday  

During our check-in today, two of the returning participants noted that they have been reading ahead in the script together, and they are feeling very pulled toward certain characters. We again discussed the need to be open to at least two or three characters, since we will do casting as a group and not everyone will get her first choice, and then they gave the group a preview of what is coming up.

One of the past participants asked if we could “jump around” in the script, working scenes in no particular order, but another mentioned that that felt a bit chaotic to her in the past. We decided to compromise by working through the play in order now, and then working whatever the group feels like once we’ve gotten through the whole thing.

We played two call-and-response games, which were a lot of fun, and then we got down to the play. We continued to work on Act I Scene I, reading through the second part of it and then getting it on its feet. We proceeded to cycle through many of the participants in the Romeo/Benvolio part of the scene, experimenting with vocal freedom and physicality to communicate the relationship and characters. We got to a place where everyone was able to get the dynamic across, more or less, and one woman remarked about a pair, “That was very different but still worked perfectly.” They are gaining confidence in making individual choices with the text as they see it coming across clearly from different people. We saw Benvolios who cared deeply about Romeo’s situation and others who were mocking and sarcastic, as well as a few who struck a balance between the two extremes.

This scene is always a lot of fun to play around with, and I have a feeling we’ll be working with it more when we begin “jumping around” in the script.

Thursday

Today was a very positive day, even though it got off to what could have been a rough start. It took much longer than usual for us to get through security at the facility, but we kept in mind that last week the women began warm ups without us when we were a little late, and hoped that they were finding ways of using their time well while we waited. When we entered the auditorium, I was elated and extremely proud to see the entire group sitting in a circle, working on the script. This is something that I had not seen in our program yet and shows the incredible growth this group is already experiencing – we are only in the fourth week of the program, and they are already confident and empowered enough to take on the challenge of working on the text without a facilitator to guide them. And they were doing excellent work. As a result, they are even further empowered to take ownership of the program and the text – when we discussed a date in the future when it may not be possible for any of our volunteers to come to the facility, a few of them jokingly said, “We’ll have class without you. We don’t need you!” I am so excited that they’ve taken this step together.

They had moved on to Act I Scene II, and Dominique and I plugged ourselves in and caught up with them. We filled in some of the (very few) blanks they still had, discussed the characters a little bit, and then put the scene on its feet. This led to further character analysis, in particular about Paris and Capulet. One woman asked if Paris were just a pretty face. We discussed that, while he is definitely less developed as a character than other people in the play, he also gets very much swept up in the tragedy – it’s possible that he suffers the most while having the least amount of responsibility for what happens.

Another woman brought up that she is getting a “Donald Trump” vibe from Capulet, which I think is dead on. Another woman didn’t quite understand the parallel, and the first woman explained that she feels that he is powerful and domineering but, ultimately, kind of a blowhard.

I was also pleased to see a familiar face had rejoined the group today – the woman who, in the last session, had so many issues with communication and experienced such growth in terms of expressing her opinions without hurting others’ feelings. She is back for more, is getting along great with everyone so far, and I couldn’t be more happy.

These first four weeks have been truly amazing. This group has gelled far faster than the previous two, pushed in that direction, perhaps, by the larger number of returning participants, and I am so very excited to see what their growth will be like from here on out. They are already amazing all of us volunteers every single day.