We worked through the second half of the show today. Overall, it went very well. Most of the (not very many) stops that we had were due to people not being in place for their entrances on time, so we talked about the need to write “warnings” in our scripts when cues are coming up. This should alleviate the problem in performance. The participants are feeling enthusiastic about performing and more or less ready to go. They are prepared to improvise if necessary and help each other out. The women who have been working on the backdrop are excited to bring it over and show it to everyone. Attitudes are positive, and, no matter how these performances “turn out,” this is bound to have been a good experience for everyone.
Catching up through June 4, 2013
My apologies for the lapse in blog updates! Here are some highlights of what the group has been up to. We have had to change our "rehearsal schedule" a couple of times due to absences, but this has enabled some more detailed scene work, particularly with Caliban and Prospero. With volunteer Bethany's help, we were able to find some new blocking that works much better for both women, causing one to say, "Now we're doing it the way I interpreted it from the beginning."
We were able to run the first half of the play last week, and it took only slightly longer than the time for which we were aiming. We also didn't have to stop and correct things very often, and, even with scripts in hand, all of the women are doing excellent work. They know their characters and the story, and they are telling it well. After that day, everyone was visibly relieved and voiced their renewed enthusiasm and encouragement. Although we continue to have challenges, most members of the group are relaxed and ready to show an audience what we've been working on. Some have more concerns, but everyone is enthusiastic.
We've talked a lot about commitment, discovering that the the more fully committed people are, even when making mistakes, the more enjoyable they are to watch. We've also talked about commitment in terms of the group as a whole, as we've lost a couple more participants at the eleventh hour. Some of the women have ideas about ways of increasing dedication in the next session, and I'll be doing some brainstorming on that over the summer as well.
Bethany wrote her reflections on that discussion, which was initiated by one of the participants:
"The woman playing Caliban stated at the end of our time, 'How do we get our program to be like that?' The ‘that’ she was referring to was the Shakespeare Behind Bars documentary Frannie had screened for them at the beginning of the program. She was referring to a deeper sense of accountability and dedication to the program, more focused efforts and acting, with a hopeful pay off of some heart breaking and mind blowing story telling. This woman called out the group at large, but also included herself. She stated that she has not always done right by this group and for this program. Her insight, honesty, and hope sticks with me. Because it doesn’t really matter how theatrical their performances are, how well memorized, how thoroughly they understand the material. What does matter is a commitment to excellence and a belief that it is in our own hands."
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.
