June 5, 2012

Today we warmed up and played a game, since we haven’t played anything in awhile. It got us all woken up and ready to go. We began with the scene from Othello with one participant standing in for Desdemona, who wasn’t there at the beginning of class. We worked on making the scene more physical – Iago comforting Desdemona, Emilia going from comforting Desdemona to being aggressive toward Iago, actually backing him down. We discussed the power of the language in telling us the exact emotional state of the characters. The inmate standing in for Desdemona had a hard time staying in character (she kept laughing at “Iago’s” faces), but we worked through it.

Then we worked Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. We talked about finding the different beats in the scene – when Macbeth shifts from not wanting to commit the murder to when he buckles and decides to do it after all. We talked about the nastiness of Lady Macbeth and how it must affect Macbeth; it must shock him into giving in. The scene is making great strides.

Next was the scene from As You Like It with Duke Frederick, Celia and Rosalind. The participants are dead on with their goals and obstacles, but we felt like the piece needed more movement. The other participants made some suggestions, to which I added my own ideas, and all of these things combined made for a much more interesting scene. The participants are really getting into it now, and it shows.

We worked Rosalind’s monologue. This participant wanted to do the drop in exercise again, so we did. She then asked if she could do it that way in performance, and I don’t have a problem with it. We’ll tell the audience we’re letting them behind the scenes, or something like that. I’m not sure if anyone else will want to do theirs that way, but I’m glad she’s found a way to make herself more comfortable.

Then our Jaques got up to perform. She has her monologue half memorized but got stuck paraphrasing a lot. I got on book for her, and she called line where she needed to. Then she tried it again on her own. I think perhaps she’s grown disenchanted with the piece, but I can’t quite tell. I’m going to keep my eye on her to make sure she doesn’t put the monologue in the show because she feels like she has to – only if she wants to.

Last, we worked with one of our Antonys. She continues to gain power with her piece – her pacing is getting more frenetic without being over the top or distracting. I reminded her that any time she repeats a word it’s for a reason, and that each time a word comes up it is different than the time before. She experimented with this and made some solid discoveries about what power those repeated words have.

The participants noticed today that they are starting to memorize each other’s pieces. They are totally invested in everyone’s work, and they help out with lines when people stumble. It’s really great to see them working as a team like that. This is a very tight ensemble.

June 1, 2012

Today was a great day. Lots of discoveries. Some of the inmates had to leave early, so we decided work monologues today and get back to the scenes next week. The first participant to perform is working on Rosalind’s monologue. Her first reading was very fast, so we went through the piece and found words to emphasize or linger on. She took these notes and performed again, with great results.

Then one of the participants performing Antony’s monologue performed. She was rushing quite a bit, so we did an exercise called “dropping in,” in which I stood behind her and read the lines, which she repeated in her own way – this got her focused on herself and her feelings, rather than on a page that she was reading. Everyone loved this exercise – it really freed her up, and it sparked their interest.

As a result of this, the first participant asked if she could do hers again with the drop in exercise.  This proved to be very beneficial to her as well. She said she is becoming more confident every time she performs.

Then one of the participants working on Emilia’s monologue took her turn. She is still stumbling, so we decided to do the drop in exercise with her as well. This made her more able to speak fluidly, which helped her acting quite a bit. She is doing a really great job trying to overcome her challenge with the language.

Then our Othello took her turn. She was rushing, so I asked her to slow down. We tried doing the drop in exercise, but she already knows about half of her piece by heart and said she didn’t like it, so we stopped. She then tried to slow down, but said it didn’t feel natural to her, and she couldn’t get to the place, emotionally, to which she wanted to get. So she did it again her way, and it was great. She’s taking more risks with the emotions of the piece and showing a lot of growth.

Our other Emilia went next. She normally does this piece sitting, but I felt like it was holding her back, so I asked her to try standing and moving. She stood during this performance, but she didn’t move. I demonstrated to her different ways she could move through the space and sort of toy with Desdemona, and she tried it again, with success. She said that the movement helped her to access more of the attitude and sexiness in the piece.

Then our other Antony took her turn. Her piece is becoming very powerful, and she is stumbling less over the language. She’s also taken to pacing back and forth during her speech, which is completely appropriate and, she says, helps her not to get tripped up on the language. She said she has found this power by continuing to use substitution: channeling the feelings she has about her friend who recently committed suicide and using it to fuel Antony’s anger and sarcasm. She is doing so well. I am very proud of her.

We did a lot of chatting today – the participants are making great strides and had a lot to say!

One of them says she has noticed that when she watches TV, she is beginning to analyze the actors and the choices they make. She says it’s made TV much more interesting to her. Building on that, we talked about making personal choices with a given character, and how each individual brings something totally different to the table, based on his/her own experience.

There was so much good stuff going on that I was jotting down notes as we went so I wouldn’t forget any of it. They seemed curious about what I was doing, so I reminded them that I am keeping a blog, which I think some of them forgot about. They are very happy that I am doing this. They said that they feel that there are a lot of opportunities for personal growth and positive experiences in prison, and they don’t feel like that gets enough attention. As one of them said, “Prison is what you make of it.” They are glad that word is getting out about this program.

May 29, 2012

After a brief warm up, we decided to get back into our scene work. We began with a scene that two of them decided together, outside of the program, that they really like. This is a scene from Macbeth in which Macbeth has doubts about the plan to kill the king, and Lady Macbeth bullies him into deciding to do it after all. We broke it down bit by bit and really highlighted how nasty Lady Macbeth is in the scene, which they all really liked.

We worked the scene a bunch, discovering different reactions the characters have to one another and what their physicality says about the situation and their relationship. They are both really excited about the complexity of the scene, which makes for a good challenge for them. They are very interested in the story of the whole play and how this fits in. Already after running the scene four times, they showed growth and increased confidence. It’s going to be really fun to continue to work this scene.

Then we worked a scene from As You Like It, in which Duke Frederick banishes Rosalind, and Celia declares that she will go, too. One of the participants with a learning disability (the one working Emilia’s monologue) chose this scene and the character of Celia because there are not many lines, but the part is very powerful. I think it’s a great choice for her. After breaking down the scene, we ran it with two others, and, again we talked about physicality and what truly motivates the actions of these characters. I was very proud of the participant playing Celia because she is making such great strides that she hardly stumbled over the language at all. She said that she feels that she is becoming louder, and the other participants told her that that is because she is gaining confidence. The other two participants in the scene really enjoyed it as well.

We then worked on Jaques’ monologue with the participant who chose it. She said she hasn’t really been working on it, which kind of showed, but as she got to the end of the piece she began to show again the silliness we all love in the piece.

The other participants who had been there had to leave early, so we stopped there for the day. I checked in with everyone before we left, and they all said it had been a good day for them. They are having a lot of fun with the scenes.

May 25, 2012

After warm ups, the participants elected to begin scene work. One of them has already chosen four scenes in which she is interested. We began with a scene from Othello in which Desdemona begs Iago for help after being abused by Othello, and Emilia nearly loses it on Iago, she’s so angry about what he’s done to Desdemona in his plot to drive Othello mad with jealousy. At first the participant who chose the scene was reading for Emilia, because her monologue is Emilia’s. She then was called out of the class, so another participant took her place. We read it a couple of times seated, and then the three of them got up on stage. I told them to just move however they felt like they should the first time through. This resulted in minimal movement and one of them repeatedly turning her back to the audience. I showed her how not to do that, and then I encouraged them to try different types of movement; i.e., Emilia advancing on Iago in her anger.

These three participants made remarkable strides in this scene, which they ran through on their feet four times. Each time the scene became more and more intense as the inmates committed more fully to the material. They were invigorated by it, and I think they will want to stick with this scene.

Another participant stayed toward the back of the room while they worked at first, and then she moved down to sit next to me. She told me that she had just graduated from college, and I congratulated her. This is a huge accomplishment for her, as she has been in prison since she was seventeen. She then confided in me that she is feeling shaky about her monologue – she feels that she is a good actress, but that she is having a hard time with Shakespeare. I asked her what was bothering her, and she pointed to a few lines and phrases in the monologue. I said, “Let’s just cut them.” She said, “You can do that?” I told her that as long as the monologue or scene still makes sense, we can cut whatever we like – that most stagings of Shakespeare’s plays have cuts in them. So she made her cuts and then delivered the monologue. She was so good that I was compelled to shout out, “yes!” as she read. I asked her if she felt better, and she said she did. She then performed two more times, which is unusual for her and clearly shows her gain in confidence. I am very proud of her.

There was fairly low attendance today, so we didn't get as much done as I had hoped, but we've got a good amount of time to get everything figured out, so I'm not too worried about it. I'm really enjoying seeing these women gain confidence and grow as people, not just as actors. I'm looking forward to doing more scene work with them.

May 22, 2012

Today I brought scenes for us to work on, and we started with those right off the bat. I apologized again in advance for the somewhat tedious nature of breaking down the scenes so that we all understand them, but everyone again assured me that they actually enjoy it. Our scenes are from Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and As You Like It. I tried to choose scenes that have some “meat” to them, so that the women won’t get bored with them.

As we went through the scenes, I summarized for them what the context was for each. They would then volunteer to give the scenes a read. I was really pleased to see how far they’ve come in this – the first few weeks, I had to do a lot of the reading myself because they were so reticent to do it. But now they have much more confidence, and I didn’t do any of the reading. I just helped here and there with the more foreign words. Even the participant who has had a hard time with the language because of her learning disability read a few of the scenes and did remarkably well. A few of them shared that the reason they think they have a relatively easy time with some of the language is because of their bible reading.

When we reached the mid-point of the scenes, everyone agreed that it was really cold in the auditorium and that we should play a couple of games to physically warm up. We did that, and it really helped and refreshed us.

The prisoners are all going to look over the scenes before our next session, and then we will start casting them (the prisoners will cast themselves) and working them on their feet. We will revisit monologues when the scenes are somewhat solid. Then the participants will decide which scenes and monologues they want to include in their August performance.