Session Three: Week 26

Tuesday  

Written by Molly

After getting through the gate a little late, I walked in to find the women playing Juliet, Romeo, Capulet, Lady Capulet and the Nurse rehearsing Act III, scene V -- from memory! This complicated scene begins with pillow talk between Romeo and Juliet (famously including the “it was the lark” and “it was the nightingale” banter) and ends with Juliet being admonished and threatened by her parents and abandoned by the Nurse. It was clear that each of them had spent a lot of time over the past week committing their lines to memory. Their dedication and commitment were impressive and they probably only need to spend a little bit more time on that scene before they are entirely off-book.

In memorizing this scene, the women hoped to show the other participants in the group what the play might look like when it is more polished. Unfortunately, attendance was a little low on this Tuesday, so hopefully they will be able to show their fellow actors their accomplishment in the future and it will serve as a motivating factor. The women realized that being off book allowed for greater potential for movement and dramatic choices. They seemed eager and somewhat antsy to have this scene completely memorized, without calling for lines, so they could really intensify blocking choices and amp up their acting.

These five actors are making interesting dramatic choices and it is a joy to see how they are developing each of their characters. For instance, there are many ways that the actor playing Lady Capulet could play this scene – as an obedient wife blindly supporting her husband, as a cold woman whose only wish for her daughter is to find a good match. The woman playing Lady Capulet is both thirsty for revenge against Romeo and somewhat of a battered wife, fearful of what her volatile husband might do. It is fascinating to see how these women are identifying with their characters and how they are transforming them into multidimensional, complex people as they take the stage.

For next time, they decided on their own to try to memorize the party scene from Act I, scene V. It is really impressive how motivated they seem to be, which portends well for the actual performances. The play is really coming along!

Thursday

Although attendance was again light today, those of us who were present were very productive!

We began by noting that the role of Apothecary was still vacant, and one of the newer members of the group, who is already committed to Lady Montague and Page, decided she would give it a try, since we’ve edited the scene quite a bit, and it isn’t a large number of lines. We used the door to the right of the stage as the Apothecary’s front door, and we worked with each character’s objectives and tactics. Perhaps the Apothecary is a woman with starving children to feed (we know from the text that this character is very poor). The actress playing this part experimented with her reaction to the amount of money Romeo offers, inserting the phrase, “Oh my god…” Sarah encouraged her to work with that phrase for now, but eventually to put all of that emotion into Shakespeare’s words instead.

We moved on to Act IV Scene II, which is brief and deceptively simple. We found that it is not, in fact, simple at all, as we continued to work with objectives and tactics. Juliet needs Capulet to believe her – this is her primary objective. But what about Capulet? We asked the woman playing this part if he is surprised by Juliet’s coming around. She decided that he is not – he is used to getting his way, and he’s proud of her for seeing the light.

We then went through and cut a whole bunch of lines that are not working for the women and are not necessary to the plot. The more comfortable and confident they become, the more ownership they take, and that includes being confident enough to know what the play needs and what can probably go.

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Session Three: Week 25

Tuesday  

As people arrived today, one of the women shared that she’s been saying her lines wherever she happens to be, as they occur to her, and that usually people know what she’s talking about. She’s been really excited and amused by that!

We spent most of our time working on Act III Scene V today, in which Romeo leaves Juliet, Lady Capulet tells her that she must marry Paris, Capulet loses it, and both Lady Capulet and the Nurse abandon her. We have already worked the first part of the scene with the young lovers, but we took the opportunity to clarify a couple of things in the lines (and to cut some of the lines!).

We talked a bit about Lady Capulet in this scene – when she reasons with Juliet about her crying, is she really talking about herself to a certain extent? There is also a fairly abrupt shift between talk of revenge against Romeo and the coming marriage. The woman playing Lady Capulet took a moment here to take a deep breath, and we all laughed. She thought maybe she had done something wrong – but the reason we laughed was that it was so real! It was a great moment for her.

We got into the brutality of the scene – Capulet must really be terrifying for these women to abandon Juliet so quickly. We worked on some staging that will allow the woman playing Capulet to intimidate and frighten the others without actually striking them, and we worked out where Lady Capulet and the Nurse first try to intervene and then back off.

We left with this group having the goal of memorizing this scene within one week so that we can cement staging that is difficult to pull off while holding scripts. It will also provide a nice challenge and a short term goal.

Thursday

Today we got to work right away on the end of Act III Scene I, the “fight scene.” The woman playing Benvolio, who is rather new to the group, had questions about his motivations here: is he snitching? Setting the record straight? Something else?

We had a great opportunity to work on this, since our Prince was present as well. Her greatest challenge is nervousness which makes her smile at inappropriate moments on stage. With her working toward the Prince’s anger at what has happened and desire to be just, and Benvolio working toward telling a story that would be honest and still not get him in hot water, we made a lot of progress. Everyone needs to work on slowing down their deliveries, but the scene is more or less working.

We then spent some time learning basic fencing with our foam swords. This was a lot of fun, with some of the women being more natural at it than others. Still, the vibe was one of encouragement, and we’ll keep working at it.

Following this, we worked on the opening scene of the play. The women are having a difficult time accessing the “tough guy” attitudes of the characters, and we will have to keep building on what we did today, which merely began to crack it.

The women mentioned that, while they are working on memorizing their lines, they wish they had more time together to work. We are looking into the possibility of adding one meeting per week through the end of the session – this would also enable us to make up lost time from when the weather prevented us from getting to the facility this winter.

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Session Three: Week 23

Tuesday  

Written by Matthew

Tonight we had low turnout, but the women who showed up were ready to go!

We even had a couple of new members, who had come into the group after spending a long time on the waiting list. They jumped right into our exercises and seemed to enjoy time on the stage. They were a natural fit for the program.

We began with an energetic warm-up—including a round of Dr. Know-It-All in which our newest members readily participated—then decided that the best thing to do was rehearse a scene we hadn’t looked at before.

The scene we chose was Act I, scene iv, origin of Mercutio’s baffling “Queen Mab” speech. The chemistry of Romeo, Benvolio, and Mercutio was fun and energizing for all. In the scene, they are making their way to the Capulets’ party. Benvolio and Mercutio played up their excitement, which allowed Romeo to drag his feet comically.

A woman commented while we worked that the first two acts of the play really are a comedy, which helped inform our choices in this early scene. There is no hint yet of the devastating fate that awaits our characters. In the spirit of comedy, Romeo played up his heartsick moaning, while Mercutio experimented with several ways of delivering his big speech.

After we tried several ideas—most of which simply ended with Mercutio pacing frantically on stage while the other two watched—we decided that Mercutio should deliver the speech to the audience. Not only to the audience, in fact, but in the audience.

This day, we solidified the relationship between Mercutio, Benvolio, and Romeo. The women had some time to enjoy the friendship before it gets tarnished by death and despair.

Thursday

Written by Sarah

We started our day with a good physical, vocal, and focus warm-up.  We added a new vocal/improv warm up into our mix that integrates voice, body, and improv.  The ensemble responded really well to it and helped out when I forgot the lines!  As always, showing empathy and patience and team work...

We settled into a discussion of costumes where almost everyone had a strong sense of what they should wear to support their work in their role.  Our Tybalt has requested a belt as she is a fighter and will need a place to hold her sword.  Our Lady Montague has requested a crown to allow her to enter into the regal mindset.  Romeo wants preppy khakis or dress pants to help her feel Romeo's privilege.  The women are still thinking about whether the back drop wants to be representational and show Verona or whether they would like it to be a collage of words that convey the themes of their Romeo and Juliet.

After our costume and set discussion we worked on the Crypt death scene with Paris, Romeo, Juliet and Friar Lawrence.  At first Romeo and Juliet were working very hard to make themselves FEEL the scene.  They kept saying, "I need to be more emotional."  It was clear that it was not clicking for them.  We stopped and we asked them not to "act" it.  We asked them to forget about what they thought they should feel.  We asked them to focus instead on what they WANT and WHERE they are in the scene.  Juliet and Romeo know their characters and the scenes well and, of course, knew what they wanted.  They could imagine how being in the crypt with dead loved ones affected them as teenagers.

We promised them that Shakespeare's language will do all the "emotion" work for you as long as you know what you want and where you are.  We asked them to just say the words and try to get what they want.  We were hoping they would trust that the scene would play that way.  They dove in with great courage and TRUST and very simply played the scene while trying to get what they wanted.  And all the emotion was there.  They played the scene so beautifully and simply and it was heartbreaking and true.

One of the most valuable gifts that acting bestows is trust.  Trusting your cast mates to be there for you if you mess up.  Trusting your audience will respect you and go on a journey with you.  And most importantly, trusting yourself - trusting that you are enough and what is true in you is enough and you do not have to make yourself feel something to act, the feeling will happen if you listen to and work with and open your heart to another person.

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Session Three: Week 22

Tuesday

We had a couple of new members in the group today, and after welcoming them and warming up, we got right down to work to throw them into the mix and see how they did!

After reviewing our casting, we discovered a few holes which we began to fill. One woman is being released prior to our performances, but she is a wonderful member of the team and has been getting a lot out of the program, so she is going to stay, contribute to discussions, and sub for people when they aren’t there.

The woman playing Tybalt came to me to express her trepidation about playing such an “angry” character – that he reminds her of how she used to be. I reassured her that she does not have to do anything with which she’s not comfortable, but that perhaps if we approach Tybalt differently, she might bring great perspective and empathy to a much-maligned character, without having to relive anything from her past. I mentioned that anger is a symptom of a problem, and not the problem itself, so perhaps we should dig deeper and find what’s at the root of Tybalt’s attitude. She seemed to like this change of approach, and she’s going to think about it to see if she can get more comfortable with the character.

Our Benvolio has left the group, but one of our new members seemed to have a good personality for the part, so we asked if she would like to give it a whirl. We read through the first scene between Romeo and Benvolio, which she thought she didn’t understand but actually did, for the most part. The women put it on its feet, and it went pretty well, although we missed the playfulness and the friendship. These two women are friends outside of the group, and they joked that they have a similar friendship, but in reverse. One said, “Let’s do it again, and I’ll be you this time.” So they “were each other,” and it was much warmer and more fluid. Everyone really enjoyed it, and our new member is excited about playing Benvolio.

We then worked the “party scene” with all speaking characters on stage (we’ll plug in the other guests soon). We tried some different things, with Capulet pretending to play basketball throughout (as a way to help her be more physical and less feminine). The woman playing Romeo also did something very interesting physically, as she leaned with one arm against the wall while talking to Juliet. This made her interpretation seem more “smooth” than what we’re used to… but we liked it.

The group seems reinvigorated by the energy brought about by near full attendance and two new, enthusiastic members. Let’s hope we can sustain it for awhile, even through the unknown challenges we will almost certainly face as we head “down the stretch” – our performances will be at the end of June.

Thursday

After warming up and playing several high energy games that got us all laughing and on our toes, we had a brief discussion about our scenic and costume needs. These will be nailed down within the next two weeks so that we have enough time to gather and prepare everything for the performances.

We then decided that the best use of our time right now, with several brand new members and a few others who haven’t been in the group for very long, was to read through the whole play (which has many new cuts and is eleven pages shorter!) to assess what still needs to be done and make sure that the “newbies” have read it through. We got nearly half way through and discovered that there isn’t much we haven’t covered at all – it’s mostly group scenes, which have been challenging because of fluctuating attendance.

The woman playing Capulet noted that there is a major shift in the language from the first to the second part of the play. Many of the characters speak in even rhythms, and even rhyming couplets, early on, but things get more messy the deeper in we get. We discussed how this reflects the mood of the play in general – things are more or less status quo in the beginning, even when they are tense – but then things begin to go haywire with the death of Mercutio, and the language reflects that. It was an astute observation.