September 28, 2012

After a warm up and a game, we got down to business. The group decided to keep working with Macbeth and Ariel for now, and then, when we’ve added more people, to move on to a monologue that we looked at last session but nobody chose – Anne’s “Set down, set down your honorable load…” from Richard III. But in the meantime, we went back to the pieces we introduced last time. We began with Macbeth. We broke down the piece again and reviewed the back story. Then one of the participants volunteered to read. We were sitting in a circle, and she got up and walked around the stage while she read. She reflected that she felt that she had been “aimlessly wandering” and wasn’t sure what to do with her hands. We talked about finding reasons to move in the piece, and I assured her that we would work on what to do with our hands. The group remarked that they liked how she had taken her time, and they admired her diction, which was very clear. We discussed clues the text gives us about Macbeth’s emotions.

Then one of the veterans asked if she could perform her piece from last session as an example of how one eventually can become comfortable and not worry about one’s hands, and so forth. This is one of the women who performed Emilia’s monologue from Othello. She performed, hardly missing a beat, even though we haven’t worked on it in a month, and it was great. The newer participants really admired the work she had done – the obvious confidence and stage presence.

Then I asked another veteran present if she wanted to do her piece, which was Antony from Julius Caesar. Of course she did – she loves that piece! I asked her if she thought she might need me to be on book, if she might have forgotten any of the lines. She replied, “Probably, but I’d rather do it by myself.”  She performed the piece with as much power as she ever has – it’s really remarkable how intense and strong her delivery is. The group was thoroughly impressed. They observed that they could see her emotion in her eyes, and that the whole performance projected anger, indignation and power. She said that she was able to do that because the piece touched her deeply, having lost someone herself. She also assured them that she had been worried about her “habits,” too – for her the main thing is talking too quickly, but she’s gotten better at it.

We then moved on to Ariel. The first to read before we broke it down was the participant who’s been with us since February, who has been open about her learning disability. I can hardly believe this is the same person who was so hesitant to read back when we began the program – now she takes every opportunity to read aloud, voice her opinion and perform. She has grown so much.

We ran out of time while we were breaking the piece down bit by bit and will continue during the next session. I think it was a very positive thing for the women who’ve been in the group for awhile to share their previous work with the group, and, if they want to, I will encourage them to do it again when we add new people from now on.

September 25, 2012

After warm ups, a new game and a breathing exercise, I asked the group if they were getting bored with the Hamlet monologue yet. They said that while they like it a lot and have enjoyed working on it, they are ready to move on. I had all of the monologues from last session with me, including the ones we hadn’t worked on, so we decided to divide up into two groups, each group working on one piece, and see what we could come up with. Group A worked with Ariel’s monologue from The Tempest that begins, “You are three men of sin…” This group was made up entirely of women who were in the last session as well. Group B, all “newbies," worked with Macbeth’s “Is this a dagger which I see before me…” I suggested that they start by reading the pieces aloud and talking about their first impressions. While they worked, I went back and forth between the groups to listen and to offer suggestions or information.

Group A’s first impressions were that Ariel is punishing some people, saying, in effect, “Suffer, but don’t die.” They were absolutely correct in this. I gave them some more background on the story and characters and encouraged them to break it down, bit by bit, to glean what more they could.

Group B got that their piece is heavy, that Macbeth is guided by fate, and that he is hallucinating. They were also right on track. I mentioned that something people debate about Macbeth is exactly how much he’s guided by “fate” and how much is his own free will. They were intrigued by that. As with the other group, I suggested that they break it down further.

I went back to Group A, who had found a parallel between the piece and their own situation. “Ariel is saying that even though she’s punishing them, it’s their fault,” said one participant. “It’s like we say in prison: ‘If I hadn’t broken the law, you couldn’t do this to me.’” What a great discovery. I helped them out with a few words they didn’t know and then encouraged them to get on their feet and “perform” it together, since there are multiple characters in the scene.

Group B, meanwhile, identified a shift in Macbeth from the beginning to the end of the piece. They found that, while at the beginning he is hallucinating, wracked with guilt and unsure, by the end he is completely determined. As with the other group, I asked them to begin “performing” the piece to find some more of the emotion underlying it.

After taking some time to do this, we all came together. Group B sat in the audience, while Group A stayed onstage. I asked them to perform without giving any back story to Group B, so we could see what could be gotten out of the piece that way, each participant in the group taking a turn reading the monologue. From the first reading, Group B understood that the other characters were scared and confused, that they were all on an island, that their swords were heavy, and that Ariel was invisible. That’s a lot to get out of a first reading when one is not familiar with the entire play! The next participant who read committed much more to the emotions in the piece, so that Group B gleaned that she was angry, that there was a storm, and that this was pay back. The third participant to read went very slowly, and Group B understood more of the language this time. They got that these were sinners and that the spirit was trying to make them crazy.

Group B then gave it a shot. The first reading gave Group A the impression that Macbeth was going to try to kill someone with a dagger but was conflicted and questioning himself. From the next reading, they understood further that maybe Macbeth was imagining the blood on the dagger, envisioning what he wanted but hadn’t yet done, and was confused about where the dagger came from and if it was real. The third reading didn’t give them much more information, but they definitely got a sense of confusion from her.

They really enjoyed this exercise and got a sense from it of how, even with minimal rehearsal, one can get the gist of these pieces. They all agreed, though, that more rehearsal and performing them in context would help a great deal.

September 21, 2012

After warming up, playing one new game and reviewing another, we decided to get right into our Hamlet monologue. We decided to begin working with one person on stage and the rest of us in the audience. The first participant to read has been with the group since February. She gave a very confident reading, but she did not really connect to the piece. I asked her why. She said that she had just launched into it without taking a moment to focus, as we’ve discussed. She tried again, this time taking some time before beginning. This reading was much better. She said that she “stopped thinking” and felt more spontaneous, although she said that she didn’t feel she could truly be spontaneous without the lines being memorized. I volunteered that that is the case for some actors, who want to memorize lines right off the bat, while others wait until the last minute to get off book.

Another participant who is a “veteran” volunteered to read next. She, too, did not connect with the piece emotionally. I asked her what happened, and she said it felt “a little too read.”

Then an exercise popped into my head that I thought would be beneficial for them, since they are all having trouble getting out of their heads. Everyone put her script away and got a chair. I instructed them to envision that the seat of the chair was actually 6-8 inches higher up than it actually was. I did the exercise with them. Once we had “convinced ourselves” that the seat was higher, we circled the chair, continuing to focus on the imaginary seat. Then we sat, aiming for the higher seat – but of course came down on what was actually there. Not all of them committed to this and sat down far too easily. We did it again. This time everyone came crashing down. “Sit in that feeling,” I said. “Let it register with you.” Then I asked them what it felt like.

“It made my stomach feel weird,” said one. “It hurt to sit down so hard,” said another. “Okay,” I said, “So you feel the sensation of falling physically. Do you recognize this feeling?” They nodded. “We’ve all sat down too hard before,” I said, “But when else in your life have you felt this way that had nothing to do with physically falling down?”

“That’s the way I felt the first time I walked into prison,” said one immediately. Everyone nodded. “I felt that way when I first came to County,” said another. More nodding. I asked them if there were other times in their lives when they felt that way, and everyone continued to agree. We did it again, letting it sink in even more. We talked more about the feelings it brought up. Some said it made them sad or depressed. Another said it made her void of feeling – numb. “So why are we doing this?” I asked. “Because this is how Hamlet feels,” said one of them.  “Right,” I said. I asked them if they could see how this might be a more effective way of calling up the emotion in the piece than trying to just manufacture feelings by thinking about them. They said they could.

We then fell again, but this time we reached out for help, eventually giving up – because, again, this is what is happening in the piece we are working on. This clicked for them as well. We did it one more time, but this time after we fell, we spoke the first lines of the monologue. The pieces continued to fall into place for them.

We sat in a circle and took turns reading. The participant who had read just before the exercise read again, and the transformation was incredible. I asked her what happened. “It’s like prison,” she said, “It’s like the beauty of life is passing me by while I’m sitting here feeling this way.” She said that she had dug deeper with each pause, and she felt much more connected to the piece now. The others who read also connected more deeply and showed a greater understanding of the material. There was a feeling of discovery, of being supported while experiencing difficult emotions, and the bond between the women strengthened even as they gained confidence in their individual performances.

Everyone was very encouraged by the group’s progress today.

September 14, 2012

We began today with warm ups and some very silly games. All of the participants fully committed to the games, even when they clearly felt uncomfortable. As we played more rounds of each game, they became more comfortable. The recently added participants are clearly becoming integrated as a group, and we are ready to add more new people next week. We continued to work on our piece from Hamlet sitting in a circle rather than some in the audience and one person on stage. The first participant to read showed that she essentially understands the piece, but she read it with little to no emotional connection. When she finished, I asked her how she felt, and she readily admitted that she hadn’t “felt it.” She said she was disappointed and apologized. I assured her that there was no need to apologize – there is a learning curve, and each person is at a different point. We talked again about vulnerability; the need for it when working on this material and the difficulty of making oneself vulnerable in a situation like theirs. The veterans reassured the newer participants that they’ll get more comfortable showing vulnerability to one another as they progress through the program, and eventually that will translate to their performance in front of an audience. This participant then read again, and she did connect in a few places, but not overall. I asked her what made her connect, and she said she didn’t know. I asked her if maybe the words to which she connected brought up images for her, and she said, yes, actually, they did. I encouraged her to spend some time with the pieces finding images to connect with the words and phrases, and then to focus on those images rather than on “I should be feeling this.” She liked this idea a lot.

Then another participant read. She, too, showed a solid understanding of the piece, but her reading was rushed and general. In reflecting, she said that she was focusing on what she should feel. I cautioned again about this – that it’s tempting to play “I feel sad,” etc., but it works much better to focus on a character’s objective – what does Hamlet want in this piece? She read again with this new focus, and everyone agreed it was much better, but she still rushed. We’ve been talking about the “clues” Shakespeare gives us in his text, and I introduced here the idea that when he gives a character a lot of open vowel sounds, he’s telling the actor to take it slowly, lingering on those vowels. We’ve already talked about all the punctuation telling us to slow the piece down, but we hadn’t talked about vowels yet. She read again, allowing herself to linger on certain words, and then said that it had worked – she “felt it more.”

A third participant read next. Her reading was very fluent, but not emotionally connected. One participant said she felt like she was being read to, like it was narration rather than something active. The participant reading said she was worried about that but wasn’t sure how to get the connection she needed. I suggested she focus less on the words and more on her breathing – taking a breath at each punctuation. We talked about breath as it relates to emotion, and I could see a lot of light bulbs going on. She then read again, breathing more, and the piece improved. She said she felt like the reading itself was better the first time, and the emotion the second. She is going to spend more time working on it, on her own, and then read again for us the next time we meet.

One of the original participants then read. She took it very slowly, which allowed her to connect deeply. One of the others commented that, because she had gone slowly, she didn’t feel like she had to try to catch up to understand her. Another said that this completely makes sense for this piece: “When you’re heavy hearted, heavy thinking, you talk slowly.” We also talked briefly about how the participant reading said “Man delights me not” instead of “Man delights not me.” How much does it matter? I pointed out that the emphasis is different and changes the meaning of this phrase quite a bit if you change the syntax, while the more experienced participants brought up that it doesn’t necessarily detract from the entire piece or make it unrecognizable. We decided that we’ll deal with this issue as it arises, on a case by case basis.

Everyone left for the day feeling good and happy with the work they’re doing.

September 11, 2012

With most of our “newbies” back in attendance today, we jumped into some warm ups and silly games. Everyone was smiling and having a great time, loosening up together, with the exception of two participants who chose to sit out. They know that this is okay sometimes, as long as it doesn’t become a habit. We began to work together on the piece from Hamlet, reviewing what we went over during the last session when many of them were absent. One thing we discussed was whether or not one can ever truly transform into a character; what it means to tell the truth as oneself under imaginary circumstances – the circumstances of the character.

As we were working, a new participant arrived. We stopped what we were doing to orient her and answer her questions about the group. She is very enthusiastic, having done some acting before, and is eager for the new experience of working with Shakespeare.

We then returned to Hamlet. One of the participants who’s been in the group for awhile volunteered to read it to the group. She did a great job, and everyone complimented her for taking her time and not being melodramatic. One participant brought up, though, that at first she had seemed to just be reading. I asked them when they thought she had “fallen in” to the piece. They weren’t sure, but I had actually noted it when it happened – it happened on the word “nothing.” I asked them why they thought that. We decided that it was probably because, although she had an intellectual grasp on the meaning of the piece, it wasn’t until she got to a word that has the same meaning now as it did 400 years ago that she emotionally connected – and then the piece deepened greatly for her. She said she could definitely feel a difference at that point. I introduced the concept of a pre-beat – a moment before one begins a piece when one takes stock of “who am I, where am I, what am I doing, what do I want…”, etc. She did this, and her performance deepened again.

During this second reading, one of the participants who had been sitting out crept into the circle. She wanted to give feedback to this other participant – they’ve grown close in the past few months. Then she asked if she could read. She’d been feeling down anyway, and she poured her emotions into the piece, but she was very closed down in terms of her energy. I asked the group what they thought, and they said that, while it was clear that she understood and connected with the piece, they couldn’t connect to her. I asked her to try to reach out more and draw us in, get us to help her. The next time, she did.

We were then out of time, but everyone left feeling good. I’m hoping that more of our new participants will feel ready to read during the next session. They seemed really inspired by what the other two were able to do today. Our program was featured in the Detroit Metro Times this week! Check out the article here: http://metrotimes.com/arts/behind-bars-with-the-bard-1.1371708