Session Four: Week 19

Tuesday  

Written by Dominique

We had a pretty good turnout this evening - only a couple people missing. Yet somehow it was still difficult to find a scene to work on that involved only characters of available actors. We carried on, with people volunteering to fill needed spaces.

After initial frustration at not being able to just "go in order" as originally planned due to absence we forged onward - begin with Act IV Scene iii. A first run/read-thru on its feet was made. We stopped to sort out exactly what was going on in the scene - not an easy thing to do! We laughed at how complicated the comedies can be with mistaken identities and characters running on and offstage. Who exactly was being who at this point and who believed them?? We looked to the text for clues and backed it up with Spark Notes (no shame in that at all!!). Once we figured out where the deception was, the lines in the scene began to bloom, particularly for Tranio, being read by the woman who is cast as the Widow but frequently fills in for others. Once again she gave a good solid reading and really dug to figure out where the character she was reading was coming from. And once again she, with good humor, insisted that she was the Widow and the Widow only. It's becoming a kind of running gag. Other cast members remarked on the strength of her reading, but we pointed out that the whole play was leading to the entrance of the Widow at this point, so she was wise to stick with that.

The other aspect of the scene to be broached was the "love making" of Bianca and Lucentio. We talked about how to approach it, what would be appropriate for play and audience, what kinds of things could be broad enough to read for audience. We talked about while in this play many of the jokes are accessible it is the physical comedy that really brings the humor to light for a modern audience so we continue looking for those moments wherever possible. Even to the point of suggesting that although Gremio doesn't join the scene's dialogue until much much later her presence on stage could leave open some opportunities for fun…

Kate and Petruchio also gave us a taste of work they had done on Act II sc 1.  They are both such good actors it was fun to see them dig in to the verbal jousting. We talked about ways to break up the "jests", different approaches Petruchio might take, who really has the power in the scene and when. They were also encouraged to use the entire stage, to really physicalize the language to help bring the jokes to life for the audience. There should be no problem in that! The show is already off to a rollicking start.

 Thursday

Written by Lauren

Today was pretty low-key. We started with the ring and some stretches and vocal warm-ups. One woman taught us a warm up (more of a game). We used it instead of tongue twisters and everyone seemed to like it! You start with the letter A and tell everyone your name, your husband's name, where you live and where you work and all starting with that letter (ex: my name is Alice, my husband's name is Albert, we live in Alberta and we sell artichokes). You go around the circle with a different letter each time.

After that we worked Act 4 Scene 1, which has already been blocked, but given the women we had available, that seemed like the best scene to do. It ended up being fine since they said needed a refresher of the scene. Our Grumio was feeling pretty down today but didn't really get into it. She still worked through the scene twice, but was definitely done after that. The ladies wanted to play some improv games after that. One woman was pretty outspoken about how she didn't understand the point of the games. I explained how they could be helpful, and then she got really into it. We played a couple rounds of Party Quirks, which they were all really into. I had a hard time getting the ladies to be physical when we ran the scene, so I thought that game would help them act silly and over the top, and it worked.

The same woman who was initially against playing games also mentioned that she would like to challenge herself and take on the role of Biondello since it's available. I took both of these things as good signs and was glad that she's willing to challenge herself and try new things.

Session Four: Week 18

Tuesday  

We returned to Act II Scene I today, plugging in our Petruchio, who has missed the last couple of times we’ve worked on it. We found, though, that our focus shifted to Hortensio – she has been having a difficult time finding her way into the character, and Sarah suggested that she try a different approach. Instead of downplaying Kate’s flaws, as she has been doing, the woman playing Hortensio tried the scene with in a straightforward way. She found that this works better for her, and it makes sense, given how logical Hortensio is about so much in the play. She’s feeling a bit better about the character now.

We then read through Act III Scene I, in which Lucentio and Hortensio take turns surreptitiously wooing Bianca. The woman playing Bianca said that she was torn between the character being sweet and naïve or being a tease. She mentioned that one of the women in the group feels strongly that Bianca is “loose,” to put it mildly, and several of the others jumped in to caution her against trusting anyone’s instincts over her own. Sarah shared an anecdote, then, about a time when she listened to her cast-mates’ instincts about a character rather than her own, never felt good about the performance she gave, and only realized after the show had closed what truly clicked for her about the character. This story bolstered Bianca’s confidence in trusting herself here, and it’ll be interesting to see in what direction she ultimately goes.

Thursday

One of the women in the group came in today bursting with excitement about some reading she’s been doing. She got a copy of Othello, which she loved and summarized for the group. The thing she loves most about Othello is how familiar she found Iago – she’s witnessed manipulation like his and feels that the play is very true to life, that it still has relevance for all of us. She’s also been reading a book called Shakespeare’s London, which has given her more insight into the plays we’re working with and the man who wrote them. She’s excited by what she’s learned and encouraged all of us to read this book.

After nerding out for awhile, since it was clearly a low-attendance day, we decided to give individual attention to a couple of women who had specific challenges they wanted to address. We began with the woman playing Gremio, who has a lot of questions about her character. We decided to focus on his speeches following Kate’s and Petruchio’s wedding to see what we could find out. We read through the scene to make sure we understood it, and then we tried it on its feet. She felt confident that he is appalled and shocked by what he witnessed, but she was frustrated by having to rely on her script and felt hampered by it. I volunteered to back her up in a drop-in exercise – I stood behind her and read her lines to her so she could have her hands free, not have to read, and maintain eye contact with her scene partner. When we did this, her approach changed a bit – it became more physical, and she used her hands a lot. The others found her interpretation funny, and her biggest discovery was that Gremio is direct – he says what he wants to say.

We then worked the end of Act IV Scene IV with Lucentio and Biondello. The big question became: what is Lucentio nervous about? He says he’s nervous, though he’s just gotten what he wanted – so why? The woman playing this character feels that, in this moment when it all becomes real and official, he is overwhelmed. We talked about this being a universal feeling, not just associated with getting married, although that is the experience upon which she is drawing. Another woman suggested that an additional layer could be the fear of what happens now that the deception is about to be exposed. There’s a lot going on here. We found that Lucentio’s interpretation works here – it’s a quiet moment in our play, a frustrating one for Biondello, who doesn’t understand, and something we’ve all experienced in our lives.

Session Four: Week 17

Today began with a “presentation” of the Katharina/Bianca/Baptista scene at the top of Act II Scene I. Two of the three actors were off book, and they had done some brainstorming about how the scene could work on its feet. Their instincts toward physical comedy and relationships made for a REALLY funny scene, and it sparked excitement in the rest of the ensemble, who were very vocal about throwing out suggestions for how to go even farther with it. We were so enthusiastic, in fact, that we decided to veer away from our “rehearsal schedule” (which is tentative at best, anyway) in order to spend more time on it. It was great as a facilitator to be able to take a back seat to the rest of the ensemble, as one of our goals is for exactly that to happen as often as possible. We then continued our work on the scene as we moved forward. The next entrance presents a challenge, and we explored various ways of doing it in order to find what works. Ideas include everyone entering at once from the same place, staggering entrances from that one place, or having each “team” come in from a different place in the theatre. We’re not sure yet what works best and will have to keep exploring.

Another challenge we discussed is that of needing to be on stage in a scene without any lines. I suggested that each person focus on her character’s objective and find “something to do” from there – whether it’s eavesdropping, staying very close, keeping a distance, giving the space the once-over, having a side conversation – and it seemed to lessen their discomfort a bit. We’ll have to keep going with that as well.

After this, we worked on Act IV Scene III. There are several ways in which to interpret this scene, and we explored them – do Kate and Grumio enter together, or is he already on stage? Is she imperious or pitiful? We found that our favorite entrance was when Grumio was already on stage, cleaning with his back turned, and Kate entered silently, blowing her cover by trying to get the last crumbs out of a bag of chips. This provided added motivation for Grumio’s first line (No, no!) and gave Kate an immediate, physical activity. We also found that we believed the scene more and Grumio had an easier time changing his mind about giving Kate food when she invoked empathy rather than servitude.

We spent some time, then, brainstorming about costumes, props, and set. We’ve landed on setting our play in Elizabethan times but having lots of modern flourishes, like the bag of chips. Several of the women have specific costume ideas for their characters, and others are still thinking. We’ll continue to discuss and hope to nail everything down within the next month or so.

Session Four: Weeks 15 and 16

Week 15

We began work today on Act II Scene I, focusing on the first part of the scene that includes Katherina, Bianca, and Baptista. There was some debate about where this scene should be set – some of the women feel the scene should take place in Baptista’s house, while others feel it will work better in the “town square” setting with which we begin the play, mainly due to the latter part of the scene that includes Petruchio wooing Katherina. Due to an eagerness to explore the relationships in the scene before key actors left for another mandatory group, we decided to table the discussion and stay open to all possibilities as we work through this very long scene.

Our exploration of this part of the scene led to more debate, as there are several different interpretations of the characters and relationships that are being discussed. Ultimately, they are all rooted in the text, so they are all valid as far as our group is concerned, and, as with the setting, we need to stay open as we continue to explore. Ultimately, these decisions will be made by the people portraying the characters, and the rest of us need to accept what may be different ideas than our own and support those women in their work.

After a number of the women had to leave, the rest of us took some time to brainstorm about our set. Many of the women in the group are set on the idea of having a fountain of some kind in our town square. I introduced the idea that perhaps this fountain could be on a small, rotating platform with another set piece or flat on its reverse side. If this is not possible, one of the women mentioned that there is a dry erase board on wheels in the auditorium, and we could hang pictures on either side of it to achieve a similar effect. The brainstorming continues!

I asked what the group wanted to do with the time we had left, and they settled on an acting exercise. Since we’ve been talking about characters’ walks as being important to their exploration, I asked if they would like to analyze their own walks (this is part of a Stanislavksy exercise that I’ve always found enlightening). They agreed, and one woman who was a part of the first session of Shakespeare in Prison excitedly recollected how, when we did this exercise in 2012, it gave her a new perspective on how her walk communicated to other people, and she’s been conscious of things like keeping her eyes off the ground ever since.

We each took turns walking across the stage, and the group discussed where we were relaxed, where our points of tension were, and what we were communicating in walking the way we did. Several of the women were nervous to participate, fearing being “psychoanalyzed”, but I reminded them that, while the way we walk MAY communicate things about us that are true and make us vulnerable, it may also communicate things we would rather not have people think about us – for example, the women from Session One was surprised to hear that she was constantly looking at the ground and that it took away from her otherwise confident, jaunty walk. We will continue with this exercise in the future, as we’re making useful discoveries with it.

Week 16

We moved on to the second part of Act II Scene I today, opting for a “staged reading” of the scene rather than a circle reading, which is what we have usually done. As we analyzed the scene line by line, we came back to a familiar theme in this group. The woman playing Petruchio said that she was uncomfortable playing him as a jerk, which led to a discussion about how we can only tell this story effectively if we resist the temptation to judge the characters whom we are playing. So, no, I said, you don’t want to play him as a jerk – but you can understand that he is confident, maybe over-confident, and in a hurry to get this wooing going so he can marry rich quickly, which makes him come off as rude. She liked that better – just altering the language we use about these characters can be very helpful, and learning to speak this way about Petruchio aids us in learning to speak more constructively about people in our lives outside the group as well. One of the women in the group pointed out, too, that Petruchio coming across “cold” at this point in the play allows for a greater transformation if he is not, in fact, a bad guy.

As most of the players in this scene then had to leave (an unfortunately consistent theme of our Tuesday meetings), we moved on to Act IV Scene I, giving Grumio and Curtis some time to explore. We found that the scene is pretty straightforward and will require some time from us to figure out the best possible staging and physicality to get across everything we want to.

The woman playing Grumio feels challenged by her longer speeches in this scene, which are very descriptive. I introduced the concept of “inner-moving pictures” – images that an actor sees in his or her head, in great detail, that aid in “painting pictures with words” for another actor and the audience. She is going to work on developing detailed images of these stories for herself, and then we’ll revisit the scene.

I had an interesting moment during this discussion of inner-moving pictures, as I was trying to describe the process without using that term, thinking it was so esoteric and “acting school” that the women might not respond to it. When I did use the phrase, it was met with that familiar look of things clicking or light bulbs turning on – it doesn’t matter where it comes from, that’s the phrase that made the whole concept make sense for the women in the group. While I’ve always been hesitant to lead the group too far into “acting class” territory, and nervous that certain phrases and techniques would alienate people, I need to always remind myself to give these women more credit – they are there for many reasons, but one of those is to effectively act and tell a story, and they often respond very well to the same ideas to which I respond as an actor, even when they seem a little goofy.

Session Four: Week 14

Tuesday

We stuck to our plan today, moving on to Act II Scene I. But first, the woman who has been cast as Grumio let us know that she will be released earlier than she expected and will go home in January. This is, of course, great news! It does leave a casting gap, and we decided not to make any decisions today – to give ourselves until Thursday to think over our options. In the meantime, the woman who has been cast as Pedant volunteered to read in for the day, since she is interested in the role (and several others are interested in casting her there).

We began to introduce some storytelling concepts today that are also basic acting concepts. The woman playing Gremio asked right off the bat “how she should play her character” – as she put it, she’s not sure right now whether he is “cocky or soft.” I shared the idea of “given circumstances” in the play, suggesting she focus not on “how” to play Gremio, but on what is evident about him in the script that can inform her interpretation. I suggested that, since her instincts right now are not leading her in one particular direction, she comb through the play to see what Gremio says about himself and what others say about him. Off the top of our heads, we know that he is old and rich, and that people poke fun at him a lot. Looking into this in more detail may give her some solid ideas of where she wants to go.

Another thing that came up is the importance of how we walk. We specifically talked about Petruchio’s walk – we know from the text that he is very sure of himself, that he is physically fit (at least enough to frequently smack others around), and that he may be somewhat self-centered. So how is this reflected in his walk? A long, swift, sure stride seems key, and posture will also contribute to our audience knowing immediately what kind of person this is. We didn’t dwell too long on this, since we had a substitute Petruchio, but everyone is now thinking about her character’s walk, and we’ll be able to move forward from here, having established the idea.

Our Hortensio had a lot of fun playing contrasts in this scene – from alarm initially about the fight between Grumio and Petruchio to asking how they are doing and welcoming them – to baiting Petruchio about Kate until he bites and then quickly reeling him in. This was an absolute delight to watch and gave us some great ideas for how to enhance our story. Another great discovery, since the group is enthusiastic about breaking the fourth wall and engaging their audience, is how well it works to have Grumio retreat into the audience and heckle Petruchio from out there for most of the rest of the scene.

We’re talking constantly about clues in the text that inform our staging, encouraging each other to speak up with creative ideas for telling our story the way we want to tell it, and the work today was fun and exciting. It was a good session.

Thursday

Attendance today was low, and the energy was kind of down as well. This is a very hard time of year for everyone, so the facilitators didn’t push anyone who clearly needed a little space.

The people who were present decided, after a brief discussion, to cast the woman who read Grumio at our last meeting permanently in the role. She is ecstatic, as she fell in love with the character during that reading. She’s a very good fit there.

We plugged in a couple of people to Act I Scene II who were absent when we last worked on it. We are not yet “done” with the scene, in terms of basic staging, due to the large number of absences, but we decided to leave it for now and return when more people are present. Otherwise we will have to review it again and again, which has proved frustrating in the past.

We plugged in our Biondello to the end of Act I Scene I, as she was not there the last time we worked on it, and then we moved on to the issue of the Pedant, as this role is now vacant. There is a newer member of the group who is currently cast as the servant Peter, and we asked if perhaps she would be interested in reading the part to see how she felt about it. She agreed to try it, and as we worked the Pedant’s scene, she seemed to grow more comfortable and enthusiastic. She has great energy and seems to fit the part very well. She is going to look over it in more detail before committing for sure.

Due to the holidays, we are only meeting once each of the next two weeks, so this blog may be a little quiet through the new year. Things should pick up in January, after we get through a season that is very rough on many of the women in our group.