Session Six: Week 36

Tuesday

We continued our work through of the play tonight, arriving at the final scenes in Richard’s and Richmond’s camps and on the battle field. These scenes are pretty straightforward, so most of our work was simply reviewing and refining blocking – we initially staged these scenes in the classroom where we sometimes work, and we needed to get on the same page about some details.

The main work of the night was on the ghost scene, which we staged with many stand-ins and without knowing for certain where people needed to enter and exit. We re-assigned roles as needed, refreshed ourselves and introduced new people to the mechanics of the scene, and ran through it several times, writing everything down as we went. Having a “cheat sheet” will help during the remainder of our process, especially if we need to run the scene with stand-ins again.

At the end of the meeting, those of us who’ve been in the group for a while asserted again that we are far ahead of where we usually are in the process at this point. Some years, we’ve been lucky if we’ve been able to work through and run the play once with costumes and props; in fact, our first full play never had a complete run before we performed it, and we didn’t know for certain that we’d be able to get through it in our allotted time. Our plan going forward, with this luxury of having more rehearsal time than usual, is to alternate runs of the play with detailed scene work until the week before performance, at which point we will run it twice with costumes and props.

I’m thrilled that we’re able to do this. We will, of course, still be nervous before our performances, but we will have a solid foundation to give us more confidence than usual, even with those nerves. It will be interesting to see if this changes the dynamics of the play’s execution in front of an audience.

Friday

We spent our time tonight problem solving – one ensemble member who has emerged as a sort of stage manager and I have kept a list of particularly messy scenes/transitions to be worked as time allows. We solved the problem of a mysteriously appearing and disappearing bench, figuring out the best way to get it on and off stage to ensure that it stays a part of a scene in which it’s very helpful to the actors involved. One ensemble member told us that she’d felt particularly awkward during one scene – that it had been difficult for her to figure out how to address certain people because they’d been physically far from her on the stage. So we fixed that blocking!

Our Edward, then, asked to work on her monologue, which she’s memorized. At first she judged herself harshly each time she stumbled, frustrated that she knew the lines when rehearsing in her unit but couldn’t seem to get them out with us. We all encouraged her, saying that this is part of the process, that it’s completely fine to make mistakes, and that it throws all of us off when we go off book in front of people for the first time. As she continued to work, her performance got stronger and stronger. She still felt poorly about how she’d done, but the rest of us felt strongly that she’d done very well, and we reiterated that.

Our next meeting will be an attempt to run through the entire play. I cautioned the group that we might not get through all of it on our first try – that that’s common and nothing to worry about. We’ll see how it goes!

Session Six: Week 35

Tuesday

Written by Matt

Facilitators were held up for a while at security today, which usually promises a delayed start for the group. With so much to do before performance, there wasn’t time to waste, so facilitators hustled over to the programs building, anxious to make up the time.

Inside the auditorium, the curtains were drawn and a scene was being rehearsed: a conversation between Hastings and Catesby that sets up Hastings’s demise. The two women were speaking with confidence and poise, but then a voice cut in at a key moment:

“Wait. Who are you saying that to?”

It was our Richard, sitting in the audience. The scene stopped, and the women paused for a moment and rustled through their scripts.

“Well, isn’t she talking to Stanley?” offered one woman who follows the script closely.

“Let’s think about this,” said a longtime member, while several other women. After a minute or two of discussion, they came to an understanding of the line (a statement by Hastings), and moved on to figuring out how to block the end of the scene.

“That’s real good,” Richard chimed in. “That’s dope. You guys are awesome.”

Our Anne, who has so far mostly avoided weighing in on others’ performances, suggested a change, leaping to her feet and striding to the stage, where she demonstrated her idea.

Playing the scene again from the top, the performances by Hastings, Catesby, and Stanley were tight and considered. “Open up!” shouted Richmond from the audience whenever an actor turned her back to the audience. At the end of the scene, a chorus arose of “that looked great.” One woman took the temperature of the group: “Are we ready to move on? Let’s move on.”

A new member piped up: “Okay! Act Three! Scene Three!”

Richard jumped to her feet. “Ok, we need Ratcliffe, Rivers, Grey, Vaughan!”

All without a word from facilitators—some of the women were surprised, after 45 minutes, to see the facilitators sitting there in the audience.

The feeling of purpose in the room was contagious. Even women who ordinarily take a back seat during scene work were engaged and focused. And that energy from the group enhanced and redoubled the effort onstage. For two and a half hours, the group worked totally undirected and uncoached, sorting out among themselves how to run the rehearsal. And run it they did. We blazed through all seven scenes of Act Three, including several with complicated entrances and exits, first stumbling through each scene, then working it two or three (or more) times to refine blocking and intention.

A highlight came in III.iii, a scene in which Ratcliffe leads Rivers, Grey, and Vaughan to their deaths. Two women were recruited to be halberds, which crowded the narrow playing space before the curtain. “Wait,” said Ratcliffe, halfway through, “I don’t get this scene.” Several women offered suggestions about making the performances more specific and intentional.

“Wait, why are [the prisoners] talking?” asked Ratcliffe.

“The same reason we talk when police are escorting us,” said Richard, who was kneeling to demonstrate to Rivers a potential physical expression of terror, and then leaping up to show “what comfort looks like” to Grey.

“It’s like you in seg on [security level] four and they’re taking you on that walk and it’s like a mile long,” Richard offered to the three prisoners as a final note.

When one of the guards—played by our Anne—broke up the three prisoners, who were huddled together for comfort, the woman playing Grey said, shaking her head, “No touching. Breaking us up. That’s prison.”

Already, as III.iii finished up, women were pulling together the furniture for the next scene.
As we worked through the rest of the act, so many of the women joined in to help, from the usual leaders to those who ordinarily sit back a bit.

When we ended, the group was elated, almost giddy with excitement. “That was dope as hell,” Richard said, and the others murmured assent. The woman who plays Richard’s mother said that, although she had remained quiet throughout most of the rehearsal, she had been riveted by the performances. A new member mentioned as we closed for the day that this was her favorite meeting so far. She said she felt that we had “really done the work,” and commented on how good that made her feel.

Friday

Written by Kyle

Tonight was a great night. I really see the ensemble coming into itself, and I feel less like a teacher or leader and more like a facilitator.  It’s really satisfying that when we get into the space, everyone has already taken it upon themselves to start the workshop.  When Lauren and I got there this evening, the ensemble had already checked in and completed the ring exercise.  They were eager to start rehearsing, and, without much discussion, we launched into rehearsal.  One ensemble member in particular seems to be very good at taking charge.  Up until now she has always been a solid member of the cast, and all of us have been waiting for her to step into this role.  We as a group of facilitators have felt that it was an inevitability that she would emerge as a leader; we just didn’t know when, or what was holding her back.  It feels vindicating that she, without our prompting, has taken such an active role in the group’s productivity.  She was giving notes, organizing the rehearsal, and holding the others accountable in a very humble but clear manner. She seemed to hit that balance perfectly.  Between her and one of the other newer members, they seemed to know the blocking for the whole cast - their energy was contagious.  For the most part, Lauren and I sat back and let the ensemble be the ensemble.

Despite the productivity, there was a fair number of people missing; we didn’t skip a beat, though, and the rest of the ensemble jumped in as needed.  All in all, we finished the entirety of the fourth act, which is a relatively large chunk of text for this group.  I also noticed that there seemed to be a fair number of personal struggles happening in the group with individuals; it was nothing anyone wanted to talk about, nor was there in-fighting within the ensemble - just two or three different women, who were clearly upset, speaking low to each other for support.  With the relatively small turnout for the evening, having two or three in a dark place came out to a high percentage.  It didn’t seem to bother anyone, though. Everyone was pretty content to just get up no matter how they felt and get the job done.

On the way out, I talked with one of the newer members whom I know has been having a hard time lately. This time of year has a lot of family time that she is missing and takes its toll on her.  I asked her if she was okay. She said that she was “only kind [terrible] today,” but that this coming Tuesday she was expecting to be “really terrible.”  I asked if she was still going to come, and she said “probably not.”  I told her to come, tell everyone at check in that she didn’t want to talk, is having a hard time, and to give her some space.  She smiled large and said “We’ll see…”

Session Six: Week 34

Tuesday

Tonight I had a series of individual conversations with members of our ensemble while Kyle got the group going by reviewing the scene we ended with on Friday. That strengthened, we moved on to the scene in which the Murderers come for Clarence. We were missing our First Murderer, but we decided to work the scene anyway.

We discovered some funny shtick for the Murderers, whose interpretation is very Laurel and Hardy, but there was a challenge the first time we ran through the scene in that our Clarence remained seated on the ground the entire time. We asked her if she felt that she needed to sit, or if maybe she should stand. She said she wasn’t sure. I asked her what Clarence wants in this scene. She landed on him wanting to stop the murderers from killing him, which is spot on. I suggested that she physically engage in her efforts, pointing out that, even seated, if I want to make a strong point, I’m going to plant my feet and lean forward to do so.  

We went through the scene again with her standing when she felt compelled, and it worked much better! We wondered how to get Clarence’s body off the stage without dragging her across the floor and arrived at the creative solution of the First Murderer stabbing her from behind while the Second Murderer pages the curtain, and then the First Murderer simply pulls Clarence through the opening and follows, returning for the end of the scene.

We went through the scene one last time, encouraging our Clarence to give herself time to absorb the information she’s getting and react to it. She did, and there was a lot of growth!

We moved on to the scene in which peace is brokered by Edward and then word comes of Clarence’s death. There was a bit of a debate over how everyone is arranged on stage at the top of the scene, and finally we figured it out. One of our longtime ensemble members, who is a perfectionist and knows it, smiled and said, “Okay, okay. I was wrong. I was wrong.” Another ensemble member gasped theatrically and said, “You were wrong? You were wrong?! Let the record show that on April 25, 2017, [name] admitted she was wrong.” We all had a good laugh, including the woman who was the subject of the joke.

The scene went beautifully. A quiet member of the ensemble surprised us all by having her lines memorized! And our Edward has clearly been working on her monologue – it’s incredibly strong and impactful.

Our Richard entered the scene with her foam sword tucked in the back of her shirt through her collar. I’m not sure why she did it, but, as I watched, I realized that the bend in the sword made her look hunch backed. You may remember from this blog, months ago, that our Richard has been very resistant to playing Richard’s “deformity” – she hasn’t wanted to alter her physicality or weaken him. Using the sword as a prosthetic was an interesting idea to me, and potentially a compelling artistic choice. I pulled her aside toward the end of our session and asked her what she thought about it. I pointed out that, perhaps, when the curtain opens on her at the top of the play, she could be regarding the sword, endowing it with all of her bitterness and anger, and then at the word “deformed,” she could place it in her shirt, establishing the convention. The sword could then be taken out for the fight, and would work as a pretty cool symbol. She loved these ideas. Problem solved!

Friday

We began tonight by plugging our First Murderer into the scene we staged on Friday. This threw our Clarence for a bit of a loop, as having a different person in the role changed some of how the scene worked. We reassured her that more rehearsal will help things fall into place. One ensemble member asked our First Murderer why she was “doing an accent,” and she replied that she didn’t seem to be able to help it. I asked her if she knew her character’s objective, and she said she wasn’t sure. I suggested that the “accent” might come from a disconnect with the character, so we talked about how this guy behaves. Why does he let Clarence speak for so long, for instance? We determined that he wants to control the others. She asked if “the cockiness should come into my voice.” I asked her to just focus on her objective for now – that everything else flows from that. The second time running through the scene felt much better for everyone, and we moved on.

We explored the reactions of the characters in Act Two, scene four, in which the Duchess, Queen Elizabeth, and York are told about the imprisonment of Vaughan, Rivers, and Grey. What does this violation of the peace agreement mean for them? Our Duchess and Elizabeth were all in for reacting with horror and dismay, while our York was more hesitant, saying that a child might not understand the implications. We suggested that he would still react to seeing the women so upset, and we found a flow for the scene from there.

We moved on to the scene in which the Prince is brought in by Richard and Buckingham, Hastings informs everyone that Elizabeth and York have taken sanctuary, the Prince is taken to the Tower to meet with his brother, and Buckingham enlists Catesby’s help in finding out if Hastings will be part of the conspiracy to make Richard king.

We worked on blocking very collaboratively, with one member making a great suggestion that Richard linger on the floor in front of the stage, separating him a bit from the group and making more clear what has happening.

In discussing the Prince’s role in this scene and the way the others treat him, we got into somewhat of a debate. Our version of this lengthy scene is extremely truncated; our Prince has stage fright and asked us to cut as much as possible. As a result, we eliminated the entire part of the scene in which the Prince expresses some suspicion, and the boys play around with Richard.  Our Richard, who seemed to be having a bad day in general, pointed out that some ensemble members were interpreting the scene without keeping in mind the material that has been cut. She reminded us that the Prince actually has a lot to say about what’s happening, and that he “isn’t stupid.” She made a good point, but, unfortunately, she made it in such a confrontational way that it shut down the collaborative energy and caused a number of people to get frustrated and upset. I tried to express what she was saying for the group in a more constructive way, but the sour energy remained, and we ended in a bit of a cloud.

It’s an ongoing challenge for this ensemble member – when she’s feeling negative, she often takes it out on others, often without realizing she’s doing it. We keep talking with her about it, trying to help her navigate new ways of handling communication when she’s feeling lousy, and the ensemble continues to be as patient as they can be even when her actions make things difficult. We are all learning and growing.

Session Six: Week 33

Tuesday

Tonight began with a discussion about our options for next season’s play. We reviewed the themes of each play we were considering and then did an anonymous vote. We ended up in a tie between Macbeth and As You Like It, with three people voting for other plays. The ensemble wanted an immediate decision, and our general policy is that decisions get made by the people in the room (unless it predominantly affects one person), so those three ensemble members voted again to break the tie. We ended up with Macbeth. Most of us are very excited about it. Others are a little disappointed, but no one threatened to leave the group or anything! One woman is upset only because she will be leaving prison before the final performance, and she is really intrigued by the play. I hope she’ll stay with us for the exploration part of the season.

We decided to work through the end of the play before we move on to our next goal: making our way through the entire thing in chronological order, no matter who is absent, so we can be sure our entrances, exits, and curtains all work.

We talked through how to stage these scenes, which go back and forth between Richard’s and Richmond’s tents, and then evolve into the battle. We decided as a group that when coming and going from the camp, people would enter and exit from the wings; when leaving the camp, people will enter and exit through the doors on either side of the stage.

We did a lot of detail work with our acting and the text, even though staging was our goal. We talked through the level of urgency needed in the scene between Richmond and Stanley – what are their objectives? How well do they know each other? How quickly does this scene need to happen? Our Richard, although very tired, rallied and delivered a remarkable performance of her post-ghost soliloquy. “That was great,” said one woman. “Every time your thoughts changed, you moved.”

We talked through Ratcliffe’s reaction to Richard’s obvious unraveling. And after our Richmond took a couple of (very effective) stabs at her monologue rallying the troops, I pulled her aside to do some work with the text, specifically with antithesis and key words. Many ensemble members over the years have been bored by this aspect of working with Shakespeare, so we tend not to belabor it, but this ensemble member is “a huge dork,” in her own words, and she was receptive to and excited about exploring this further.

The transition to the battle presented some challenges. One woman suggested that we have a battle soundscape, possibly without any on stage action. But it seemed to us that the stage directions called for a visual. We came up with a very cool solution that involves closing the curtain so that we can strike the tents, Catesby directly appealing to the audience for help, Richard wandering on the floor in front of the stage calling out for a horse, and the curtain opening on Richmond, ready for the fight.

We took a few minutes to review the sword fight and then staged the very end of the play. Several people remarked that they were relieved to have all of that settled and eager to begin at the beginning on Friday.

Friday

Two ensemble members told us tonight that they have quit their dance class, which conflicts with Shakespeare one night per week, so that they can fully commit to rehearsal. We thanked them for their dedication – it’s a big thing to give up another activity that is so enjoyable, and we do not take it for granted.

We stuck to our plan and began at the beginning of the play. I was involved in a one-on-one conversation with an ensemble member outside of the auditorium, and when we came in, we found our Richard delivering an incredibly powerful opening soliloquy – completely off book. Something that is remarkable about her interpretation is how much humor she’s finding in the role. It’s refreshing after normally seeing Richard played as deadly serious or only mildly sardonic. She’s pushing it much further, and it works very well.

We got to the big scene with Richard and Anne. Our Anne, as you may recall, has severe anxiety and is really pushing herself by playing Anne. She and I had worked out a plan in which she and I would work on her monologue without the rest of the group to get her comfortable with it, but we hadn’t done that yet, and here we were at the scene. I asked her if she would be okay with just going up on stage and saying the lines – if we could let the group know that that’s all she was going to do, and that the acting would come in later. She said that would be fine, and we communicated our plan to the others, who were very encouraging.

Standing back stage preparing to go on, our Anne took a deep breath, smiled shakily, and said, “I’m gonna die.” Before I could say anything, another ensemble member simply, firmly, and kindly said, “No. You’re not. You’ve got this.”

Before we got to that, we took a few minutes to explore the brief scene between Richard and Hastings. Hastings has just gotten out of prison – how should that look? And how does Richard feel vs. the way he behaves? It’s a quick scene, but it’s very interesting!

And then we got to Anne’s entrance. She knelt behind the “corpse” (we are using a table with folded up legs) and said her lines, clearly nervous but not rushing, landing every word and phrase. When she got to the end, the ensemble burst out in applause and cheering. We moved on to the rest of the scene, which involves Richard, and both of the women on stage showed very clearly that they understand the language and have a general idea of what to do in the scene. When we got to the end, everyone cheered again, and we asked our Anne how she felt. She said that it hadn’t been as bad as she thought it would be. That is really, really common in our program – if someone feels safe and empowered enough to get themselves on stage, they universally come out on the other end of the scene feeling relieved and surprised that they got through it. In an earlier post, I shared about another woman in our ensemble who hasn’t had as vocal a journey, but had the same break through very recently. I asked her if she could speak from her experience. “I feel like [our Anne] was into it but can be more open,” she said. “It gets better,” she continued, speaking directly to the woman on stage. “It took me four times to open up.”

I asked if they wanted to do the scene again, and, much to our delight, both women said they did. We asked them both to focus on their characters’ objectives. Our Anne dove further into the language this time, beginning to become rooted in the character’s emotions. She physically recoiled when Richard touched her and began to feel free to move around the stage more. Our Richard also made great adjustments to increase her charm – she was a little too creepy at first!

We kept rolling through the play. At one point, our Richard left the room briefly. When she came back, she saw that the others were mid-scene without her and just flew down the aisle to the stage, saying her lines even though she wasn’t sure exactly where they were. We all laughed, and some people rolled their eyes, but it was all with good humor. We love how enthusiastic she is.

We ended with the scene in which Margaret curses everyone. We worked on this a few weeks ago, so we picked up where we left off – finding movement for Margaret that is specific and won’t weaken her. We found it. Her interpretation is powerful and sparked organic, appropriate reactions in the others on stage. I remarked that this is a truly amazing feature of live theatre – the more you give to others on stage, the more they give to you, and on and on. “Yeah,” said our Richard. “Her energy was high, so my energy could be really high… It was easy to get lost in my part with her.” Two ensemble members who had been sitting at the very back of the auditorium said that they’d been able to hear every word, which is something we’ve always struggled with.

It was a really, really good night. We don’t always fire on all cylinders like that. Things have been a little bumpy lately, so it fired us up to have such a productive, positive session. It puts us in great shape as we move forward and closer to performance.

Session Six: Week 32

Tuesday

Before we began tonight, I checked in the woman who, at this point, has been in the group longer than anyone but me. I had some questions for her about ways in which the group has changed operationally over the last few years, and she provided a lot of insight, as she always does. She was very firm about the positive impact that the program has had on her, saying, “It’s given me humanity,” and that, as she is going home soon, she is already grieving its loss. She said that prison hasn’t been an entirely negative experience for her – “Certainly not the worst time in my life,” she said. She feels that she created the chaos that led her here, and she is confident that, because of the skills she’s learned in prison (including in Shakespeare), she will not be coming back.

We held the second focus group of our case study, which took about an hour. I can’t share the details of that conversation at this point, but rest assured that the study will be posted on our website as soon as it’s ready!

The ensemble then broke off into several groups – some women worked on their lines, others staged a scene with Kyle, and I worked with our Richard and Anne to finish cutting their big scene and make sure we were all on the same page with content. We are!

Our Richard then stepped away to join the scene happening on stage, and I continued to work with our Anne. She has already memorized her monologue and part of the scene. She is extremely excited – her having memorized the monologue already is evidence of how hard she’s already pushing herself, even though she’s very afraid of performing. We went through the monologue to make sure she understood at which points she’s talking to whom, as well as some ideas about the text and possible interpretations.

Our plan to ease her into this is for the two of us to work together, separate from the rest of the group, until she feels solid on the piece. At that point, she’ll begin working on it with the ensemble, so we hope she’ll have had plenty of rehearsal in a safe space before performance. This is way, way out of her comfort zone, but she is determined to do it – and to do it well.

Friday

Our new Hastings came in tonight asking if we thought we could cut back any of the scene in which the character ignores Stanley’s warning about Richard and is oblivious to Catesby’s “sounding him.” We realized that we really could only cut about two more lines – we’ve already eliminated about half of the scene. It turned out that this woman was mostly worried about a short monologue that she has. A woman who joined the group last year said, “Oh, the monologues are way easier than all the little lines.” She talked about building a train of thought, and how, even though it seems daunting, it’s totally doable.

We then decided to work on that scene. We asked “little” questions, such as: How does Hastings feel about Stanley’s messenger waking him up at 4:00 a.m.? We explored other issues, such as how Catesby feels about Hastings and where the allegiances are. Our Catesby realized that the moment when she realizes that Hastings has sealed his own fate is extremely complicated. This woman hasn’t had a lot of stage time yet – she has a dance class at the same time, and she divides her time between the two – and she lit up more and more as we continued to work.

We worked through to the end of the scene, exploring more questions about Catesby and Stanley. “I wish I knew more about Stanley,” said the woman playing the character. I looked at our “dramaturg.” “You on that?” I asked. She nodded, smiling – she hasn’t gotten to do research in a while, and she loves to do it. She mentioned that the prison library just acquired a big, new Shakespeare dictionary, and there was a lot of excitement in response. It’s really going to aid their work, particularly during the summer when the program is in recess and they’re on their own.

As we continued to explore the scene, I asked our Hastings what the stakes are – does he realize how serious the situation is? She said she didn’t think so, and then she paused. “He’s like me,” she said. “I’m growing out of the character, but I used to shoot my mouth off at the wrong time. I feel like it really is me. I’m smart, but I’m absent-minded. So is he. Smart, but not paying attention. Look what I’ve been through in the past few months. I think this person’s my friend, but she’s over here talking… It’s like in the movie [Shakespeare Behind Bars] – when the part chooses you. It’s God making sure I don’t go back to this when I get out.” We thanked her for sharing that with us – that level of identification doesn’t always happen, but when it does, it’s something we all honor.

We started to get a little sidetracked, at which point a woman who has frequently emerged as a leader in the group, got our attention and suggested the next scene to work on - the scene in which Ratcliffe, a number of messengers, and then Stanley arrive very quickly to give Richard news of the impending war. We talked about why the scene is structured the way it is – to give a feeling of chaos – and worked together to figure out how to stage it. Once again, our Ratcliffe took the lead – she is becoming increasingly confident in her staging skills – and it worked out very well! We had a lot of fun working with Richard’s reaction to all of the news and the stage slap that is a part of that. Our Richard is working with the image of being stuck in a pinball machine, which seems to be working well for her.

We worked a little more and then circled up for our ending exercise. I suggested that, from now on, we spend every moment we can working – what we have to do is not impossible, but it’s going to take a lot of discipline. The facilitators often do not arrive right at the beginning of our meeting time, but usually when we do arrive, members of the ensemble are trickling in. I suggested working in small groups on lines and staging – everyone in the ensemble knows the play well enough at this point to do both. It can be challenging to be the person to initiate this, but I encouraged them to try.