Session Four: Week 12

After today’s warm up, the facilitators asked the ensemble if they would be interested in trying some different types of exercises – we always learn and have fun with our usual theatre games and improv, but our thought was that, since the group dynamic this year is more “buckle down and do the work” than in sessions past, they might enjoy more challenging activities. They opted to try this approach and see how they felt about it. Today’s exercise was one in which two people sit face to face, and both tell stories (and listen) simultaneously. It’s a great exercise for developing listening, clear communication, eye contact, and multi-tasking. While no one found it to be an easy exercise, and many found it to be very difficult, the feedback overall was that the group enjoyed it and would like to do more things of this sort. They feel that as they explore activities like this, they will improve, overcoming whatever social “training” is making it challenging for them.

We then moved on to script work. After some discussion about the play in general – how it should be staged, how it should look, etc. – it seems that the group is moving in the direction of staging it in the style of a farce or broad comedy. Since some ensemble members are nervous about how to work with the play’s themes of abuse and misogyny, it seems that our approach will be to use our staging to comment on those things. This could well change, but the ideas are flowing in that direction. Several of the women feel strongly about breaking the fourth wall and using the entire theatre as playing space (even more so than we have in the past). The idea was also floated of having a “Vanna White” type character who doesn’t speak, but moves in and out of scene changes with signs to tell the audience what’s going on or where we are. I’m very excited to see how these first ideas evolve as we move through our process.

We began work, then, on Act I Scene i. The concept of “pre-beat” – or, what characters are doing just before they enter a scene – is one we need to continue to explore, as many characters enter in the midst of conversation or activity, and it influences how the scenes will be played. We are already making good progress.

Session Four: Weeks 10 and 11

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Week 10

After welcoming and orienting two new members, the ensemble set about casting The Taming of the Shrew. Our process for the past two sessions has been to do this in an open group discussion and vote whenever need be.

Perhaps because the group decided to cast earlier than usual this session, with less exploration time than we usually have (and this was a vote by a large majority of the women), there was more discussion and voting than there usually is, and the process wasn’t quite as smooth. After some discussion amongst the facilitators, we believe the biggest reasons for this are, as stated, the earlier casting time (which didn’t allow for as much to “fall into place” organically), the new dynamic of having a larger number of women returning to the group (which is a really good thing!), and having a larger number of women in the group (which is also a really, really good thing!). These differences led to changes in the way our usual process worked that we didn’t anticipate, and we need to adapt for the future.

In any case, after a lengthy discussion and voting process amongst the ensemble, most of the roles are cast, and we are left with some open roles and some women who do not yet have roles. In order to make sure everyone is on the same page about what worked about our casting process and what needs to be improved, the facilitators have decided to invite the group to have an open, honest, constructive conversation about it when we meet next. I firmly believe in what Curt Tofteland, the founder of Shakespeare Behind Bars (our inspiration and model) has always said, which is that any issues can and should be solved by the circle. We facilitators are there to do just that – facilitate. The ensemble will work together to figure this out.

Week 11

We began tonight’s session with a really solid Ring exercise to prepare us to work as a team and be constructive during our discussion of the casting process.

It turned out that we facilitators were not the only ones who perceived that our process had some issues, although opinions were mixed on how “big” these issues truly were. Some people felt that their input had been misinterpreted and needed to be further explained. Others felt that that there were no true “problems,” and we should just move on. In short, this is how things were resolved (for the moment, anyway):

  • It needs to be clear from the get-go if there is going to be any kind of preference given to women who have been in the group longer (similar to most educational theatre programs), and, if past proof of commitment gives that kind of casting preference, there need to be more opportunities for new members to show their commitment before we cast. We’ve dealt many times with ensemble members leaving the group prior to performance, and returning members (and some new) are skittish about casting new members in roles like Katherina and Petruchio, for example (we went through three Calibans in 2012; in 2013 many roles ended up filled by facilitators). Most of the group wants to keep casting in November rather than December, so this means that we need to find a way to do both our ensemble building and get through our play exploration more quickly. This is something we need to explore.
     
  • If we feel the need to cast before the entire play has been explored on its feet (as we did this year; but I hope we can avoid this), we will have “auditions” of some kind so that we can see everyone who feels connected to a character exploring that character.
     
  • Rather than having a “blind vote” by show of hands with eyes closed, we will vote by anonymous written ballot, and a facilitator will tally the votes and report back on how the play has been cast.

We then decided to table the rest of casting for now and focus on ensemble building for the rest of the day. We played theatre games and did some improv, and it eased the tension that was in the room.

As always in this program, we are taking our “mistakes” in stride and learning from them rather than getting bogged down by them. Both the facilitators and the inmates made decisions that contributed to this process being rockier than usual, but I believe this is a growing pain as our program gets stronger – as stated above, we have more returning members than ever and our largest group yet, so we are bound to have to change some things as we go. We are all learning together.

Session Four: Week 9

Thursday

Today we moved ahead with our plan to read through the rest of the play, and we did exactly that. A few of the women had done this on their own ahead of time, and they were pretty upset by how “sexist” some aspects (some would argue, all aspects) of the play are. After we read through the play as a group, having brief discussions along the way, there was still some discomfort from some of the women, but others thought that Kate had been “tamed” or “broken” only in as much as she’d finally learned how to play the game. It’s going to make for some great debate as we move forward in our process. There are differing opinions on Petruchio’s true nature as well.

The ensemble then voted on whether to continue with review or move ahead with casting on Tuesday, and a large majority voted to do the latter. We have always done this in the past sitting in a circle, leaving every casting decision open to group discussion and voting if necessary. This ensemble is made up of a lot of team players, so I’m hopeful that it will go pretty smoothly. I’m looking forward to it.

First Full Promo from Never Say Die Media

We are thrilled that Never Say Die Media has been given permission to join us at Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility throughout this session, providing unprecedented insight into the work the ensemble is doing there.  

Please check out the first full promo at this link! And feel free to scroll around their website for other great features about creative women in/from metro-Detroit.