March 1, 2013

One of the participants came in today feeling very emotional about some things going on in her personal life. We took some time to let her talk about what was going on, and others in the group offered their support and advice. She seemed to feel a little calmer after our talk, but asked if she could just observe for the day anyway. I said that would be fine, but I’d love for her to warm up with us – I had a warm up in mind that we haven’t done in a very long time that I thought would make all of us feel better. This warm up was the Six Directions, in which one pushes one’s energy in different directions with different qualities of movement. It comes from Michael Chekhov technique and is usually a favorite among groups with which I’ve worked. We did the exercise, and everyone remarked about how much more awake, alive and energetic they felt afterward – one said it was almost like Tai Chi, and it gave her more focus and positive feeling. I then taught them the psychological gesture “to uplift,” and we took turns with one person in the center of the circle and the rest uplifting her. As always with this exercise, each individual to be “uplifted” did feel lighter and more cheerful afterward. They want to do these exercises more often in the future.

After this, I asked the group what they wanted to work on. They all wanted to work on a scene with a good number of people in it, even though it was a low attendance day and we would have to work with substitutes. They chose Act III Scene iii, in which Ariel torments the men from the ship. We have decided to cut the banquet portion of the scene for simplicity's sake.

The participant playing Sebastian stopped things at one point, expressing frustration that the woman playing Antonio is not taking all of her suggestions. I asked Antonio why she is hesitant to do certain things on stage (in this case, she was hesitant to stand close to Sebastian and be aggressive), and she said she didn’t know. That led to a brief discussion about how people in the group come to the material with different backgrounds – some are very comfortable reading aloud, and some are not; some have no inhibitions on stage, and some are extremely inhibited. I reassured her (and the rest of the group) that, because of this, not everyone will move at the same pace, but everyone will grow, and that’s what is important. I also asked the participant if it was okay for us to gently push her, knowing that she can tell us it’s too much at any time. She agreed. She then pushed herself further in subsequent readings.

I stood in for the participant who plays Ariel today, which proved to be a lot of fun for everyone. We experimented with the key words to which the men react in her monologue, and then we worked on different ways in which they physically react. They really enjoyed having me on stage with them because I never hold back, and they love playing around with interacting with me because of that.

The participant who had been observing began a discussion at that point about how well the day had gone, even with a number of people missing. She felt that things had seemed more “cohesive” today. I asked the group if they agreed, and, when they did, I asked them why. They decided that things went so well because everyone present was so open to diving in, taking risks and volunteering their ideas. Then the participant observing made a special point of complimenting the woman playing Antonio on how much she’s grown in the group so far, and how much she is looking forward to seeing her continue to grow. “The only way you can fail is to give up,” she said.

This was an extremely positive day for everyone, and I am hoping that it spills over into the next session, when we’ll have more people.

Februray 26, 2013

Before we began today, the participant playing Prospero brought up that she is beginning to try to memorize her lines, but she is hesitant because we haven’t made all of our cuts yet. She is worried about the time left to do this, and, as it turns out, so is the rest of the group. I really wanted to make cuts all together, but I also am very committed to facilitating this experience in the way that they want, and not necessarily according to what is ideal for me, so I offered to streamline things by making cuts myself in pencil and then giving them the opportunity to reject any cuts they don’t want to keep. They seemed relieved by this solution, so that’s what we’ll do. This way, we’ll move more quickly, they’ll feel better about the situation, but the process also will not be entirely taken away from them. The participant playing Caliban has joined another drama group in addition to this one, and she brought up that when she was discussing Caliban with a woman in that group, that woman asked if Caliban actually did try to rape Miranda, or if Prospero just thinks he did. That brought up a really interesting dilemma for her as an actress. The participant playing Prospero brought up that Caliban admits to it – but does he? The lines are:

Prospero:

Thou most lying slave,

Whom stripes may move, not kindness! I have used thee

(Filth as thou art) with human care, and lodged thee

In mine own cell till thou didst seek to violate

The honor of my child.

Caliban:

Oh ho, O ho! Would’t had been done!

Thou didst prevent me; I had peopled else

This isle with Calibans.

So, maybe he actually did try to rape Miranda, or maybe Prospero misinterpreted something he saw, and then treated Caliban so terribly that he figured, “Well, I may as well have,” and this led to some of his “bad behavior,” as we discussed during the last session. What we arrived at was that for the woman playing Prospero, it really makes no difference – for Prospero, it’s cut and dry: this is what happened. But the participant playing Caliban will have to make a choice at some point about what really happened, and this will influence the way she plays her character. She is delighted with how complex he is turning out to be.

This same participant learned a game in her other group that we haven’t played in ours in such a long time that most of the current participants have never played it, and that is Party Quirks. I described it to them, and they wanted to try it, so we did. It went extremely well. This is an improv game that relies on the actors playing various characters to give solid clues as to who they are so that the “host” is able to guess. The first group to play were all celebrities, and they gave excellent clues through the things that they said. We discussed it and decided that in the second round, we would try for more physical characteristics. This proved to work very well, too. I’ve actually never seen a group of beginning actors do so well with this game. It was a really great experience for everyone.

We then worked on Act I Scene II, mainly on the interaction between Prospero and Caliban. These two actresses are finding it challenging to be as “nasty” to one another as they need to be, but they are getting there. We discussed their physicality quite a bit – both of them have a way of backing up after a line that makes them appear weak. We had a very good time working on this scene, and it will only get stronger as we work more.

February 22, 2013

Today we welcomed a new participant who is very enthusiastic about being a part of the group. We then played a silly game to loosen up. The participant who is now playing Caliban after the first to play this role left the group was very eager to get up on stage, so we decided to begin by working on her character, namely Caliban’s monologue. After discussing the character a bit, she and another participant mentioned that they were both having trouble dealing with Caliban’s attempted rape of Miranda. So how can the part be played without judgment? We talked about Caliban’s being conditioned by his life’s experiences to behave the way he does. The woman playing this character said, for many people, it becomes a situation in which, if you behave badly for a long time, you begin to feel you are not redeemable, so why try? “If no one can see past it, I’ll just be awful,” she said. Then the group discussed that this bad behavior can become a coping mechanism or “wall” – you become “perceivably evil” to others. One participant mentioned that Caliban may feel that his actions are justified because the world is against him, which, again, is very typical of people they know in prison. And the participant playing Prospero pointed out that, no matter what, Prospero will always judge Caliban on that one action – which is precisely what they don’t want people to do with them.

The participant playing Caliban then got up to perform the monologue. Her reading was fluid, and she clearly understood the material, but the group asked her to dive deeper emotionally into it. One participant asked specifically for bitterness. We urged her not to be afraid to go there – that she is in a safe place. The second time she read was much more connected. I asked her why she thought that had happened, and she said she had spoken more from her diaphragm, which allowed her to go deeper. Then the participant who joined today mentioned that it seems like Caliban goes from a bitter and angry place to more of a whiny place, and then he becomes wary. She is absolutely right, of course, and everyone was very excited that she was able to get that from the piece on her first day. So was she.

The others didn’t want to give the piece a try because they want to focus on their own characters, so with the little time we had left, the participant playing Gonzalo decided to read her “Were I sovereign” speech. She has difficulties reading aloud, but she is getting much better, and everyone pointed out how much easier the words seem to be coming for her. We also discussed some possible cuts, but we didn’t make any today.

February 19, 2013

As we were waiting for people to arrive today, one of the participants shared with me that, as a result of being in this group, she is enjoying television and movies in a different way – she is becoming more analytical of the actors, and she’s really enjoying that. She likes trying to figure out how they make the choices they do, and what she would do in those situations. We began by working on Act II Scene I, since our Gonzalo has been absent when we’ve worked it before. That participant is very intuitive about where she should move and when, which is great. We did have to stop and figure out to whom each person is talking at certain points, but most of the participants are gaining skill at finding these clues in the text, so each pause takes less time. One really wonderful moment was when the participant playing Alonso delivered her lines, “You cram these words into my ear…” She connected very deeply to what she was saying, so much so that the entire group stopped and applauded her, with several people even saying, “Wow.” I asked her what caused the change, since this is the first time we’ve bought what she has done in this scene, and she said, “I just really put myself into the character for the first time.” It was really inspiring.

We then spent some time talking about Trinculo and Stephano, since we have a new participant who has stepped into the role of Stephano, and we want to get her caught up. The participant playing Trinculo had an idea that, at first, she was afraid to say, but we encouraged her to open up. She believes that Trinculo has a crush on Stephano but is hiding it; she wants to play with being very “fruity” when Stephano isn’t around, and then trying to be more macho when he is. She feels that this “crush” will motivate Trinculo’s jealousy of and behavior toward Caliban. No one in the group has a problem with this interpretation, so we are going to play with it.

The women playing these roles then moved on to talking about the characters’ drunkenness, and how stupid it makes them – how unable to achieve their goals. They volunteered that their own experiences with substance abuse illuminate how these characters operate. I made very clear that if they ever feel uncomfortable portraying characters who abuse substances, they are absolutely free to call a hold and take a break, and even to stop playing the characters altogether; however, the women feel that it will be a testament to their own strengths to play these roles without feeling tempted to go to that place, and they are looking forward to how it will make them feel. We then had a brief discussion about how to play these characters truthfully without judging them, even though we might be tempted to do so – that they are more likely to make their point that drunkenness is harmful by playing it honestly than by showing the audience how they personally feel throughout their performances.

It is wonderful when the participants feel comfortable enough to open up about personal experiences that shape what we are doing in the group. That’s a big part of what this is all about. Playing these characters whose issues are familiar to them will, hopefully, enable them to take another look at their own experiences and learn from what they are doing now.

February 15, 2012

Today began with some housekeeping. I brought up to the women that, while we’re not exactly down to the wire, with our performances being tentatively scheduled for early June, we should probably decide on some deadlines. I pointed out that the women in the last session did not feel that they gave themselves long enough to work without their scripts, and asked the group how much time they thought they would need. At first, the deadline of May 1 was suggested, but then some others decided that an extra two weeks would be ideal, so we settled on April 15. I then brought up that we haven’t finished cutting the script yet – I made a few cuts before giving it to them, but wanted to give them the opportunity to make decisions about excising material as a group. They decided on a deadline of March 15 for that, so that they would have a month with the script in its final form while working on memorizing their lines. I think these are reasonable deadlines, and I’m glad the group came up with them so easily together. We worked first on the scene in which Antonio convinces Sebastian to kill Alonso and Gonzalo. We chose to do this because our Antonio has only worked once, and she was working with a stand-in because our Sebastian was not present. The participant playing Antonio is still reading very fast, so we did an exercise in which I called out “stop” and “go” to give her ideas of where good places are to pause. “Take time to really know what you’re saying,” offered one participant. “You have to manipulate her,” said another. “Mold her like she’s made of clay,” said another. All of these things helped a bit, but the participant is still having a really hard time slowing down and embracing the language. Not once, however, did anyone express frustration with her – there was nothing coming at her but support. I suggested that she speak her lines out loud as much as possible, even the ones of which she is unsure of the meaning, just to gain comfort with the language. One participant who lives in her unit offered to help her with this outside of class. Everyone praised the participant for making strides today, even though she is still struggling.

We then worked Ariel’s monologue some more. The participant playing the part asked if we could cut any of it. “What do you think?” I said. She said she really wasn’t sure – it all seemed important to her, but she is intimidated by how long the piece is. I opened it up to the group, and, after some discussion, we found only one line we were comfortable cutting – and not everyone agreed. They feel that every part of the monologue is important to the character and the story, and that to take any of it out will diminish the power of the scene. The participant playing Ariel agreed. I reassured her that she has plenty of time to memorize it, and, having used this piece often myself, I let her know that I was able to memorize it very quickly, and that it stuck, since it has such a great flow to it. I then asked her to read it in character. She was nervous to do so, but everyone encouraged her, reassuring her that we all knew it wouldn’t be perfect, and she shouldn’t feel any pressure.