July 13, 2012

Today the first participant to perform was one of our Antonys. She decided to try it without her script right off the bat, and only needed help with lines twice, which is fantastic. She is still rushing, which is her main problem, but as she becomes more comfortable without the script in her hand, this will go away. One of the other participants volunteered that the more she rehearses without the script, the easier it is for her to take it slowly and find places to pause, because she isn’t as worried about remembering the next line. We then worked the Iago/Emilia/Desdemona scene with a substitute participant for Emilia. Our main issue with the first performance was that Desdemona was just too quiet, so we encouraged her to find more power and increase her volume. We also noted that when they touch each other in the scene, they do so tentatively and briefly. I asked them to imagine what they would do in their real lives here – if they would probably let their hands linger on another person’s shoulder when trying to comfort her. They incorporated these directions in their subsequent performance and did much better. Then one of the other participants noted that when they are not speaking, they are not altogether active in listening, so we tried it again with more focus on that, and the scene improved again.

Then we worked the Nurse/Juliet scene with me standing in for the Nurse, per Juliet’s request. Although I am still hesitant to get on stage and give my interpretation of these characters, because I want the women to make discoveries themselves, Juliet found that acting with me opened her eyes more to the character because what I was doing gave her different motivation than what the other participant is doing. I remarked that this participant will be able to give her more when she is not so focused on reading, but everyone still wants me to get up and do their scenes with them from time to time. They said that it gives them an example of what to do, which is sometimes easier to interpret than simply listening to what I say. It gives them ideas and reinforces the idea that they can be completely different people on stage than they are in their lives. Even though I am reluctant to do this, I can see that it does help them, so I will continue to do it whenever they ask me to.

Next was the Duke Frederick/Rosalind/Celia scene. The first feedback that came out of the scene was how well we can understand the participant playing Emilia, who has a speech impediment. There’s been a great improvement there. Rosalind was still having trouble keeping her body open to the audience, and, before I could say anything, Emilia said, “Well, this won’t be a problem if we stand on a diagonal,” and adjusted her scene partner. She then adjusted Duke Frederick’s blocking as well, again without my help. This fixed it. I remarked again, as I did last week, that this participant’s insights really clue us in to the fact that she is a director! She truly understands what needs to happen on stage, without having any formal training. It’s great. We also worked on increasing the fire in the characters and keeping focus during the scene.

We then worked Hermione’s monologue, since she hasn’t done it in awhile. She is now completely memorized and only paused once or twice to get a line. Again, the participant who is becoming a director gave her amazing feedback – she loves her gestures and physicality, and that she is using her whole body to get her point across. I did notice that her eyes were going all over the place, and I reminded her to find one focus point for her husband and only let her eyes roam when she’s talking to the other people at the trial. She tried it this way and it worked much better. She remarked that the piece has become very natural to her because she has developed a deep personal connection to it. That’s what I’d hoped for. I’m so glad it’s working.

July 10, 2012

Today the women decided that they want to start working their scenes and monologues in the order in which they’ll be performing, so we’re going to approach our days that way from now on. We began by working with our narrator, since she hasn’t been able to get on stage and work her stuff yet. She wanted to run all of her material at once, rather than in between other peoples’ pieces. She did this, and she did a pretty good job, but she was shifting from side to side and not looking up at all. The other participants commented on this, and she said that she could feel herself doing it, and it’s because she is so nervous on stage. I talked to her about planting her feet, imagining them growing roots into the ground to keep her literally “rooted” to one place. We also asked her to try to look up more, which will obviously become easier the more familiar she gets with the material. She tried it again and improved quite a bit. She says she will work more on her own so that she can continue to become more comfortable on stage.

Next we worked one of our Antonys. This is the one who consistently rushes through the piece, and she did it again today. She knew it, too. One of the participants suggested that, rather than walking on stage and then beginning, she should begin as she is walking. She tried it that way and liked it a lot better. Then I teasingly reminded her about how much better she’s done when she puts down her script and just calls for lines she can’t remember, and she smiled and agreed to try it that way. The piece really took off. She is now more enthusiastic about memorizing the lines, since she feels so much better performing without that script.

Then the participant performing the drop in exercise with Rosalind’s monologue worked. She has chosen another participant with whom to do the exercise, and they spent some time working out the pauses they will take throughout the piece. When they performed, it became obvious that they were not pausing enough, as the phrases were so long that the one performing was losing steam in between them. They sat down and re-worked it, and did much better. Rosalind still wasn’t satisfied, though, so she is going to break it down more on her own and bring what she wants to do to the next session.

Next was the participant playing the King from Hamlet. Once again, she rushes through the first half of the piece and then really falls into the second half – it’s very powerful once she gets there. We talked about why that happens – why she’s not connecting as much with the first half. She said she just likes the language better toward the end – it’s more powerful. She’s also got that part of the piece closer to being memorized. I suggested that she focus more between classes on the first part, and that, once she’s memorized (or mostly there), we can do a really great exercise to get her energy moving more forward and with more power, in which she will push against my hands as I either hold my ground, push back, or retreat. This has always worked very well when I’ve either seen it done or put it into practice with other actors, so I have no doubt it will work equally well with her.

Then one of our Emilias went, with the other Emilia sitting in as Desdemona. They have decided to be each other’s Desdemona, which I think is great. This one’s first delivery was very quiet, which we asked her to work more on. The other participants love the movement she is incorporating into the piece. Her volume increased the next time, just by her being more aware of it. I then gave her an image to work with to help her with her lustiness and attitude, and that worked very well. She’s going to do a great job in performance.

Then the other Emilia performed. The reason she has the first Emilia playing her Desdemona is so that she can mouth her lines to her if she forgets, which is a great strategy, and her increased comfort definitely showed in her performance. She literally blew us away. She delivered those lines with the least stuttering yet, showing a great understanding of the material, driving home her points, and even incorporating new movement into the piece, exactly where it made sense to do so. The applause from the other participants was loud and long, and they even cheered. We all expressed how proud we are of her, and she beamed. She performed it twice more, gaining confidence each time. The improvement is more than remarkable – it is astonishing.

We then worked the Duke Frederick/Rosalind/Celia scene since they were all present. The participant playing Duke Frederick is nearly memorized, which is fantastic and has definitely motivated the other two to work on memorizing theirs. We continued to discuss physicality and the need for Rosalind and Celia to have more “spunkiness” than what the participants were playing. They incorporated both of these directions into their next performance. But we needed to raise the stakes. I asked Duke Frederick to imagine herself as someone with a lot of power over other people, and for the other two to imagine themselves standing up to someone in their own lives who has power over them. This is obviously not difficult for any of them to do. With these “what ifs” firmly in place, the scene gained a lot of energy and passion.

The women continue to make great strides every day. They are getting more and more excited to perform, and I am getting more and more excited for them to do it!

July 6, 2012

Today we began with a favorite improv game, since we haven’t done improv in awhile, and they all really enjoy it. That was a lot of fun. We then spent some time reading through the script and discussing the logistics of our performance, since some of the participants present were not there for the previous discussions. Everyone seems to understand what the performance will entail and how it will all work. They are also enthusiastic about having a talkback with the audience afterward.

We worked our scene from Othello since all three of those women were present. The other participants gave really great feedback, which now appears to be the norm – they talk more, I talk less. We talked about at what points Desdemona should be sobbing and when she should be a little more quiet. We also went back to talking about physicality and what body language looks like from the audience. We encouraged Emilia to continue trying to build her anger throughout the scene rather than exploding out of nowhere. The actress playing Iago is gaining a better understanding of her character each time we run the scene, and it really shows.

Then we worked Othello’s monologue. Again, the first go was not as good as we all know she can do. She clearly needs a warm up before she performs, and we’ll have to take that into account when it comes time for the showcase. Her second performance, though, was her best yet – again, she topped even what she accomplished in the last class. She is breaking up the beats of the piece increasingly well, shifting from aggression, to grief, to rage, etc.

Then we worked the scene from As You Like It with a participant standing in for Rosalind, who was not there. The language continues to come more easily for Celia, and the group gave some great feedback to Duke Frederick on how to give her entrance and exit more power. This scene is coming along very nicely.

We then worked with one of our Antonys. Taking the note she was given the last time we worked, she is using much more of the stage and keeping herself open to the entire audience. Her vocal work is outstanding – one of the participants went out to the hall to get some water and said she could hear her clearly out there. Everyone loves what she is doing with the piece.

Our biggest issue now is memorization. A few of the women have memorized their monologues or are close to it, but some have not, and almost no one has for the scenes. We went over some techniques to help with that and also decided that it would be okay to have one participant onstage with a script in hand in case anyone falters. I hope that that will not be necessary, but I want them to do whatever it takes to make them comfortable and confident.

June 29, 2012

First thing today, I encouraged and challenged the participants to take more ownership of the material and begin to give each other really detailed feedback. I said that I wanted to talk less and for them to talk more, so that I would become more of a guide rather than a teacher. A participant whom we all thought had dropped returned today. She said that she had talked with her mother, who “talked some sense into” her, and she is now fully committed to the class. She will be narrating the piece, as she is not yet comfortable with the Shakespeare.

After a warm up, we decided to begin with the participant playing Jaques because she has not given herself as much rehearsal as she needs. Her first performance was kind of in and out, so we talked about what she needed to do to improve. The participants pointed out that when she is more animated, the piece works better. I suggested that she come on with more energy and pompousness. She did this, and the improvement was remarkable. We noticed that when she performs this way, she has less trouble with the lines. She said that she pretty much has the lines down, but when she gets onstage she has trouble remembering them. I told her this is exactly why she needs to do this more in class. She also said that she has no one in her unit with whom to rehearse, and a couple of the participants spoke up and reminded her that they are in her unit, and they would be perfectly willing to work with her.

Next was one of the Antonys. Her performance is very strong and powerful. One of the participants noticed that she is pacing back and forth, which is fine, but only from center to stage right. She said that, this way, she is leaving out all of house right. So Antony tried to modify her pacing to include stage left, but this threw her off. The participant who originally suggested changing the blocking suggested that she shift her “center” to be more stage left, but Antony said this would take away from her power, which she finds at center. I suggested that she keep with her blocking, but make sure she is staying physically open to the entire audience. That worked.

Then one of our Emilias took her turn. Her piece was lacking a little bit, so I explained the three centers (thinking, feeling and willing) and asked her to focus on bringing her energy out of her willing center. This improved the piece – she liked it a lot. Then the other Emilia brought up that this Emilia is adding words to the piece, which we decided didn’t really matter. But the performing Emilia added that the one who gave the note should give herself a pat on the back for knowing the piece well enough to notice that.

Then we worked the Nurse/Juliet scene. The first performance was a little awkward, so we discussed stage positioning and physicality. They also decided that they should both sit for the majority of the scene. This worked very well. They are becoming more animated and are having a lot of fun.

One of the participants, who is playing Hermione, told me that she did not want to perform today because a friend of hers recently died and the funeral was today, and she was just too sad. This friend is the younger brother of another friend of hers who died, and she said that she was analyzing her feelings so that she could utilize them in her piece.

During this conversation, which was not entirely brief, the rest of the participants were giving each other notes on their scenes, which is great. All in all, the feedback they gave each other was very constructive and well thought out.

June 26, 2012

This week was really great for our group. They showed a lot of growth and a deeper understanding of the work they are doing. We started off with a warm up and a game, by request.

Then we moved onto the scene featuring Iago, Emilia, and Desdemona with one participant standing in for Desdemona, since that participant had to leave and come back. The scene is progressing very nicely – the participant playing Iago has been doing character work on her own and it definitely shows. Then the really great thing happened – the rest of the group starting giving direction on the scene. The participant playing Emilia had been exiting after her lines, and someone said, “I don’t think you should leave. You need to stay and protect Desdemona.” We did the scene again, and it worked very well. Then another participant said, “I think you need to change which chairs you’re sitting in to make it physically easier to do what you need to do in the scene.” We tried it again with that direction, and, again, it improved. I love that they are giving each other direction with such insight.

In addition to this, the participant standing in for Desdemona, who has a learning disability, spoke the language very fluently. She is getting so much better at this; becoming more comfortable with the heightened language. We all remarked on how awesome this is, and she seemed surprised and happy about it.

We moved on to Othello’s monologue. The participant playing this part wanted to try it without her script, with me on book for her. She made it almost all the way through without help, but she was a bit hesitant with the acting. Doing it that time with only one mistake gave her a lot of confidence, though, and the next time she performed it was the best yet. Everyone was impressed, and we told her so. She is feeling very good about the piece, and very pleased about the feedback.

We then worked the King’s monologue. We talked about images that the participant can bring up in her mind to help her really connect with the language. I also encouraged her to try an exercise in which she changes direction with each change of thought – so going to the right follows thoughts of damnation, and going to the left follows thoughts of hope. She tried it, and it was a bit muddy, but she got the intent of the exercise. She is going to work more on that on her own.

We then worked with one of our Antonys. She is still rushing this piece. We sat down and really analyzed the monologue again, and then I pointed out to her that almost all of the words in the piece are one syllable, most of the remaining words are only two syllables, and only two words in the whole thing are more than two syllables – and those are words referring to the people she is trying to undermine. This definitely made a light bulb go on for her – she realized that she does need to take it slow because the language is so percussive and forceful. We are going to work more on this, and I really think it will help her because now it’s not just me telling her to slow down – it’s the text itself.

Our Jaques took her turn next. She is about half memorized, and where she made mistakes she was largely able to go back and fix them without help from me. She’s still having a lot of fun with this, but she never wants to perform more than once, and we are going to have to start encouraging her to do this more, since she’s really not getting enough rehearsal.

Then the Emilia with the learning disability did her piece. She did it without her script, and with me on book. She did a really great job, only stumbling a couple of times, although she did skip over an entire section. But she kept going, and we all noted that if we didn’t already know the piece so well, we would have had no idea she skipped anything. She performed again, and did better that time. She said she was still frustrated, and getting more frustrated. I pointed out that she is doing a great job, period, just by being brave enough to get up there without her script. It’s a scary thing to do, but she’s doing it, even though she knows she will mess up here and there. After I impressed upon her how well she is truly doing, she seemed to feel much better.

These women impress me more and more all the time. I have no doubt that they are going to completely wow their audience when they perform in August.