Season Nine: Week 7

“100% of us have felt like Hamlet.”

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Tuesday / October 15 / 2019
Written by Maria

“He uses words that exercise your brain and your mouth—it’s amazing.”

Today we picked up where we left off in Act 3 Scene 3 and dove into reading Act 3 Scene 4, where Hamlet confronts his mother.

“I almost get the feeling that [Hamlet’s] listening in and spying on them a lot in this play,” said one woman as we discussed the way that Hamlet enters the scene. “If Hamlet was spying, he knows that’s not the king [hiding behind the curtain],” said another. We also started to wonder about Hamlet’s mental state at this moment. He has just left the king alive, and, according to one woman, he is running in at 100 on anger; we can see that Gertrude is really afraid of her son. “I feel like he wants to roll up a newspaper and smack her on the nose,” one woman said. Another reminded us that there are a lot of ways that a line could be said, and that various interpretations all work within the scene. We just have to decide which one we want to go with.

If Hamlet was spying on Gertrude and Polonius, is he confronting her compliance with the plot to murder his father? Is he not thinking at all and letting his emotions take control now that he has verified the Ghost’s story to be true? Does he want someone to pay and doesn’t really care who that person is? One of our leaders pointed out that “it’s always necessary to go back to the beginning and [see how Hamlet has changed]. Once he knows this is the truth, he snaps, and now he knows for sure.” As we sit around our circle and discuss a scene, sometimes it can be easy to forget the journey of the characters and the play—it all moves so much faster when it’s all put together, especially after we make lots of cuts!

We then agreed to put the scene on its feet, but, because there is so much lengthy dialogue between Gertrude and Hamlet (which can sometimes be intimidating), we decided that any time someone was done playing a character, they could tap out and someone else would jump up to take their place. This also gave an opportunity for us audience members to capitalize on inspiration if we wanted to try something with a certain character in the moment.

“The two women in the play are being used more than utilized,” one women commented. Another immediately and strongly jumped in: “I agree, but I don’t think they’re ignorant.” Almost everyone in the group has agreed that Gertrude knows something about the old King Hamlet’s death. One returning member didn’t agree, but midway through the scene, everything changed for her. Jumping up (and interrupting the scene), she exclaimed, “Why did Gertrude send Polonius away? She knows!” She then tapped in to play Gertrude with this new revelation. “She knows that Hamlet knows that she knows what happened” agreed another woman.

“This is the most oniony thing I’ve ever encountered,” one woman said. She is being paroled soon, and she lamented that she would not be around to see our performance of this play—though, laughing, she said that she wouldn’t stick around just so she could! “The only thing more confusing about this play are our thoughts about this play!” she concluded.

When we ran the scene again, we decided to focus on the interaction between Hamlet, Gertrude, and the Ghost. Does Gertrude see the Ghost? How does her seeing or not seeing the Ghost inform how she interacts with her son? The Ghost comes to Gertrude’s defense, but that doesn’t mean that she is innocent—maybe he still loves her even after her betrayal. “The two women in this play are being used for prey. They have no voice in the play, but they still have knowledge,” one woman reflected. “They can see, just not do anything about it.”

Friday / October 18 / 2019
Written by Emma

A couple of times every season there comes a session that, for one reason or another, has lower attendance than normal. These small rehearsals can yield some truly incredible discussions and idea-swapping that feel a bit more down to earth than when we meet in larger numbers. Tonight happened to be one of those evenings. All in all, there were eight ensemble members present by the time we finished check-ins to lower the ring. Our troupe, though small in numbers, would prove to be mighty in textual analysis!

On Tuesday, the group had run Act III scene 4 two times with slight tweaks: once with Gertrude not seeing the Ghost, and once with Gertrude seeing the Ghost but not reacting. For readers not incredibly familiar with the play (and I must admit that I am a member of that group!), 3.4 is the scene where Hamlet confronts his mother, Gertrude, about having so swiftly re-married her late husband’s brother after his death. Hamlet additionally stabs and kills Polonius, who is eavesdropping from behind a curtain and trying to get information regarding Hamlet’s perceived insanity (though, as one woman so perfectly put it last week, “Who is in [Hamlet’s] corner?”). One ensemble member suggested that we start the day by doing 3.4 a third way, with Gertrude seeing and reacting to the ghost of her deceased husband.

A group of mostly returning members volunteered to act. One woman seems to have really taken a shine to Hamlet, and she hopped up to read almost immediately. We talked briefly about staging, and dove right in. One newer member was reading as Gertrude. She held her hand up throughout the scene as though she was toting a grail, even as her jaw dropped upon seeing the ghost of her husband. The actor playing the Ghost also seemed to be playing with physical traits of the character. She glided around the other actors, as though she was trying to actually float. It was an interesting effect, even as the rest of the scene seemed to lose some steam.

When we finished, I asked everyone how they felt about it. “When I close my eyes and imagine this scene, [Gertrude] doesn’t see the Ghost,” a new member said. We went back and read some of the dialogue to see if there were any clues as to whether Gertrude was really seeing the Ghost or not. After a bit of discussion we decided that, like with so much of Gertrude’s character, it’s really unknown how much she legitimately knows. This will be an interesting moment for whoever’s playing Gertrude to come back to later in the season!

We settled back into our circle for some more reading. The next two scenes of the play, Act IV Scenes 1 and 2, are incredibly short, especially when compared to some of the purely behemoth scenes that come before it. We made a plan to work through each one reading and on its feet, then see if we could do them back-to-back on their feet. In 4.1, a shocked Gertrude tells Claudius that Hamlet has just killed Polonius, and Claudius reacts to the news. 4.2 finds Hamlet after disposing of the body, with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern trying to pump him for information. These scenes are collectively four or five pages and really do fly by.

Starting with 4.1, one of our newer members (who has described herself as being anxious about reading and performing) quickly raised her hand to read for Claudius. A returning member read for Gertrude. The scene went by quickly, and we stopped to break down the nuts and bolts of what was going on here. “Their [Claudius and Gertrude] relationship--this scene gives a lot of that,” one woman chimed in. Expanding on this, I pointed out that there weren’t many other places in the play where we get to see Gertrude and Claudius truly on their own--even in this scene, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern pop in and out briefly. Still, they are given almost an entire (albeit, short) scene to talk alone. Why would Shakespeare do this? We decided that this is a tool to put Gertrude and Claudius’ characters in the spotlight. “Claudius is just looking out for his title of the king,” one woman stated, pointing out how seemingly cavalier he is about the death of his right hand man. “There is an element that Polonius isn’t an important figure in their court,” another woman agreed.

After running 4.1 on its feet, we moved on to reading 4.2. This scene is, more or less, Hamlet acting erratic and calling out his friends for being two-faced and spying on him. One of our returning members, who stated at the top of the season she didn’t want a large speaking role, read for Hamlet. Smiling, another member said, “Why do I feel like in three months you’re gonna be sayin’ ‘I wanna do Hamlet’?” Some neat staging ideas also came up while we were reading 4.2. One woman shared that she had a vision of the stage being literally divided--that a theme she kept coming back to was “Hamlet Vs The World”, and that this would be a way to visually represent the pain and isolation he is feeling. We also talked about getting a gauze or tulle fabric to be used as “fog” for when the ghost is present.

We read 4.2 twice, then stood up to act it out. In the middle of our first standing run-through, a woman who had had to leave earlier walked back into the classroom. She slowly made her way to her seat, not taking her eyes off the action. When we wrapped, she said, “I’m seeing a lot of Kramer in Hamlet right now.” People around the room smiled, and I excitedly asked her if she would like to give it a shot. She gladly obliged. We were quickly running out of time, so we decided to run 4.1 and 4.2 back-to-back and see how it went.

The second Kramer-Hamlet stepped out onstage, bobbing her head and talking to herself, we were all obsessed. She delivered the dialogue in a choppy, sporadic way that somehow worked perfectly. We ran out of time to get deep into discussion about what worked and what didn’t, but suffice to say that there are a lot of fantastic ideas accumulating!

Season Nine: Week 6

Tuesday / October 8 / 2019
Written by Emma

“How will this fadge?” I whispered to myself as I made my way to the programs building. Tonight marked a big milestone for me: it was my first time acting as a solo facilitator! The sensation could be equated to the first time riding a bike without training wheels—the action is all there, it’s just a matter of perfecting your balance. Part of finding that balance, for me, meant taking very lean notes and focusing on helping to guide the group’s activities. As a result, today’s blog lacks the usual quote-age that I try to include. Thank you, dear readers, for your understanding!

Folks were ready to talk and get to work. After checking in and lowering the ring, we agreed that we should do a quick, non-improv game to get things started. A returning member suggested that we play “the question game”. I wasn’t around the last time we played this particular game, but I was not to worry. The woman who suggested it explained the exercise in detail: the objective is to turn to a person adjacent to you and ask them a question. They, in turn, must ask a question to a person who is adjacent to them, and on and on. It sounds simple enough, right? In practice, however, it requires one to overcome one’s social programming of wanting (needing?) to answer a question when it is asked. If you fail to ask a question, or repeat a question, you are “out” and take yourself out of the circle.

By and by, our circle shrunk. Folks would get stuck on certain topics (“colors,” for example) and would ask the same question twice, thus being eliminated. As questions flew back and forth, I somehow found myself among the last three players remaining. Then it was down to me and a returning member. She and I shot questions back and forth at one another until I finally asked a question goofy enough to crack her up, winning me the game! (I chalk it entirely up to beginner’s luck.)

We decided to switch gears to text. We left off on Friday having read through Act III Scene 1, and after a quick catch-up for anyone not present, we dove right in to Act III Scene 2. During this scene, Hamlet is having a dramatized version of the murder his “ghost daddy” (as one woman has oft put it) described to him replicated in front of his uncle to gauge his reaction. Of course, before and after the play, there is gratuitous angst from Hamlet. So, essentially, this scene contains a lot of lengthy dialog and a play within a play. Super tricky to pull off? Yes. But were we goin’ for it anyway? You bet.

Almost every character is featured in this scene. We were a few folks shy of a full cast, so we broke down our reading into chunks: before the play, during the play, and after the play. Much to our surprise, we made our way through an entire first read in 35 minutes! This included breaks to summarize that were led by some of our returning members, but also included contributions from some newbies. One highlight included a returning member volunteering to read the wordy part of Player King (the actor who is playing Old Hamlet in the play-within-a-play). Last season, this woman worked incredibly hard to master her lines, and it showed in the excellent enunciation and pacing with which she read Player King. A few folks around the circle commented on this, and she smiled and softly thanked them.

It was time to try the scene on its feet. First, we discussed how to rearrange the room so we could set up a clear audience and stage that were both onstage. One longtime ensemble member shared a vision of having the actors in the actual audience during production, and we talked about some of the logistical challenges that could pose. When we had a good enough grasp of things for the moment, we got started. Our Hamlet stood by a row of chairs convincing Horatio to keep an eye on the King to see how he reacts to the play. During this back and forth, the actors stood in more or less the same spot. It seemed like they were locked in by the text, despite both having great experience and skill. Just as I was about to make a comment, another ensemble member walked onto the stage and opened up the space. Like a hypnotist snapping their fingers, the movement of the rest of the scene was suddenly fluid and natural.

The play within a play, in particular, was incredible. In order to pull this off, the actors need to be EXTRA dramatic about what is happening. Our Player King and Player Queen did an excellent job. Player King collapsed to sleep on a makeshift bed made of chairs, and the Player Queen dramatically fell to the ground when she discovered him. The overall effect felt very Twelfth Night, and it definitely got the job done.

When we finished running it once through, we still had about twenty minutes left in rehearsal. We talked about how the scene felt, and everyone agreed that it went very well. There must be something in the air, huh? Then we discussed where we feel the people watching the play (Polonius, Claudius, Gertrude, Hamlet, Ophelia, Horatio, Guildenstern, and Rosencrantz) would be sitting in relation to one another. One woman pointed out that Horatio may not even be sitting with the others—he is there as Hamlet’s friend, and is not necessarily part of this royal posse. Maybe he is off to the side, lurking in the shadows?

Another interesting discussion happened while discussing the back and forth between Ophelia and Hamlet in this scene. One woman pointed out that Gertrude is Queen, and as such, is an “ideal woman.” Her only statement on the play is that the “lady doth protest too much”. Ophelia sort of mirrors this sentiment earlier in the scene. While Hamlet is making rude comments towards her, she simply says that she doesn’t think “anything.” Could this be a statement on how sometimes these seemingly passive actions ultimately end up having dire consequences? This is definitely something to keep in mind as we move forward with the text.

As we did the scene on its feet a second time, the transitions felt significantly smoother. We didn’t need to stop and re-assign roles—people simply hopped in where they were needed, and the thing went off without a hitch. It is clear that there is a lot of natural talent in the group this season. The thing we lack, thankfully, is the fussy ego that so often accompanies such talent.

We raised the ring into a happy room and said goodbye, satisfied with the hard work that had been done.

Season Nine: Week 5

“I found feelings I didn’t know I had.”

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Tuesday / October 1 / 2019
Written by Kyle Fisher-Grant

For the first time in more than a year, I went in as the sole facilitator tonight. The participants afforded me the same generosity as always, with veterans stepping right up to the plate and making sure I was up to speed on the group’s work on Hamlet. In many ways, it was one of those quintessential Shakespeare In Prison nights I’ve had a hundred times before.

We started right in on Act 2 scene 2, where Hamlet is talking to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (which someone said sounded like the name of a law partnership). There was a fair amount of text comprehension that we needed to slog through before we could really start cooking with gas. The ensemble seemed to have a little difficulty hearing the sarcasm coming from Hamlet with the text alone; once they really understood it, our Hamlet was all-too-willing to let it rip on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. With that moving along, the staging ideas started coming, and one member wanted to try the scene a few different ways. We spent a fair amount of time talking about the line, “There is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so.” It was nice to be back.

Then we arrived at Act 2 scene 3—with the soliloquy: “To be or not to be,” where Hamlet is arguably at his lowest point. We all felt it was worth it to spend some extra time with the speech; what ended up happening was that we went through the text line by line, making sure we understood every turn of phrase. Everyone participated, and one woman, who has been in the ensemble for several seasons, commented that “this is now [her] favorite play”—that she knew exactly how Hamlet felt at that moment, and was amazed that he was able to articulate it so exactly. “I’ve been in this position—I know his exact pain. Whether to live or die is a hard one to make.”

Several members wanted to attempt the speech; one in particular wanted to go first so that nothing impacted her interpretation. She was very active in her portrayal, moving around the stage, very animated. I told her that this is contrary to many of the famous portrayals of the speech that are out there. (Certainly more active than the Olivier version the group talked about watching tonight on TCM!) She said, “He’s having an anxiety attack and needs to move!” Two other ensemble members tried the speech, and then they goaded me until I took a shot.

We had a lot of rich discussion about whether Hamlet knows the end of the speech before he started, or whether the speech is his way of working it out in real time. Both interpretations leave room for a lot of really interesting ways an actor might bring the soliloquy to life. We had spent a long time talking about some intense language, and I felt it necessary to point out that Hamlet ends up choosing “to be” at the end of the speech. He contemplates his own death, but does not choose death in the end; furthermore, he does not stay at that lowpoint for much longer. We spend the rest of the play seeing just how Hamlet moves on from his darkest hour.

We unanimously felt as though we had spent a long time in this dark part of the text, and an improv game was most definitely in order. One woman was having a very bad day, and the group left it to her to choose the game. She said that she would choose it, but that she wasn’t going to play. We all said, ‘fine,’ and successfully hid our smiles and “I-told-you-so’s” when she got up and played after only a few minutes of laughing with her ensemble. It was a great way to end the night.

Friday / October 4 / 2019
Written by Lauren

The ensemble was anxious to jump back into reading the play tonight, so that’s where we started, reading Act 3 Scene 1 to completion.

One woman, who has been skeptical of many things in the play thus far, wondered if Hamlet even wrote the letters that were given to Ophelia. Then discussion turned to Hamlet’s feelings towards Ophelia and women in general. Another woman thought that Hamlet says such cruel things to Ophelia in order to push her away. A few others discussed and agreed that Hamlet’s words aren’t necessarily attacking just Ophelia, but women in general, since he sees all women as a replica of his mother. One woman also said that Hamlet knows Polonius is spying on him, given his line, “Where is your father?” Hamlet has been very astute up until this point, which led this woman to believe that he is in on what’s going on.

When we got the scene on its feet, a woman who is terrified of acting stepped into the role of Hamlet. This was very difficult for her, but she said that she wants to get over her fears. The ensemble was incredibly supportive as she worked through the scene, including Hamlet’s giant monologue. While the scene was being acted out, two women caught something new. One wondered if Hamlet heard Claudius earlier, since his own words in regards to women wearing makeup are almost exactly what we hear Claudius say. She added that this is Hamlet’s way of letting Ophelia know that he knows what they’re doing. Another woman added that Hamlet may have fallen out of love with Ophelia because he is jaded about his mother. Another added that his perception of the world has been shattered.

Moving on in the discussion, a number of women spoke about how relatable the content of the scene is. One woman stated that we can all relate to the “To be or not to be” speech. A veteran of the group said that even if we cannot relate to Hamlet’s exact situation with his mother, we can all relate to that sense of betrayal. This is why she loves Shakespeare so much: he gives people the words to express themselves when they can’t think of the words themselves. It can be very therapeutic. Another woman related, saying that it’s easy for people to look down on the choices you’ve made when they don’t know the options you’ve had to choose from. Everyone agreed with that sentiment.

Season Nine: Week 4

“This is very therapeutic for me. It gives me purpose.”

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Tuesday / September 24 / 2019
Written by Maria

After Kyle and I answered the traditional three questions, we jumped back in where the group left off on Friday with Act 1 Scene 5. We read the scene once to remind ourselves what was happening, and then several ensemble members jumped into the center of the circle to act out the scene.

The Ghost of Hamlet’s father gives a very long-winded tale of his death and commands Hamlet to avenge him. As he disappears, Marcellus and Horatio come upon Hamlet, who swears them to secrecy about everything they’ve seen and heard. The woman who was playing the Ghost exited into the back of the house, so when Marcellus and Horatio came upon Hamlet by himself we could hear the Ghost’s “Swear!” permeating the space. Kyle asked her why she chose to go back there and she said, “I wanted to startle the audience.” It was very effective. “[Hamlet] gets kind of weird at the end,” one woman commented. Another woman reminded us about the power the Ghost has: that he is in control, and he’s trying to build up Hamlet with this long backstory.

The second time they performed the scene, Kyle challenged the woman playing the Ghost to use the whole space and, boy, did she take the note! She moved constantly, and she went through a rainbow of emotions: angry and demanding, betrayed and dependent on Hamlet for vengeance. One of our veterans said that both interpretations of the Ghost were totally different, but that both worked. “If I didn’t want the crap scared out of me, I’d roll with [the first ghost],” she said. She then went on to say that she thought that every time the Ghost appears, it should get really cold. The A/C was on full blast, so this wasn’t too hard to act out today!

“Does it sound like a Halloween play to anyone?” our Hamlet asked. “I think the ghost should be a person with a sheet, with eye holes and armor on,” another woman insisted, laughing.

We moved on to Act 2, Scene 1, in which Polonius instructs Reynaldo to check up on his son, followed by Ophelia bursting into the room, telling her father about Hamlet’s deranged state. We spent a lot of time discussing Polonius’ motivation to spy on his son and have his servant bad mouth Laertes to get more information. Some people thought that Polonius was just a father worried about his son and his son’s reputation. Others thought it might be his own reputation he’s worried about. One woman reminded us that it’s a strange time to leave, with the whole country on guard, and when Kyle asked if Polonius was a good father, one woman replied, “Depends how old Laertes is.” My favorite comment that really got us talking was when one woman suggested that maybe Shakespeare was trying to show a “normal” father/son relationship between Polonius and Laertes, in contrast to Hamlet.

Speaking of Hamlet, what was going on with him? “Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced/No hat upon his head, his stockings fouled/Ungartered, and down-gyvéd to his ankle/Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,” reminded one of the women of Malvolio’s entrance, yellow-stockinged and cross-gartered, in last season’s Twelfth Night. “Hamlet is freaking out, he can’t go to anybody, he’s trying to get himself together,” she said. After his interaction with the Ghost, Hamlet’s whole world has been rocked, and he is now in shock. “He just wants someone to talk to!”

“Does Polonius know anything?” one woman asked. Quite a few people thought that Polonius must know about the murder and that he’s reporting everything Hamlet is doing to Claudius. One woman said that she thought that Getrude must know something, too, and that maybe an affair with Claudius was the catalyst for the murder.

The woman who played Ophelia exclaimed, “I love Ophelia. She’s my favorite in this whole thing. Without her there’s no play. She’s the catalyst and pawn.”

Friday / September 27 / 2019
Written by Emma

Tonight’s rehearsal began with singing our own praises—how we are diving into this difficult text, getting some great ideas for staging, and are only in week four!—and we reflected on how different this season already is, compared to the last. I think one of the neatest things so far is the mature and intuitive nature of the ensemble. It truly feels like its own organism, and a lot of the finest facilitating comes from the members. It’s great to see them taking ownership like that.

We formed a circle in the center of the room and raised our ring. A reminder for folks who are new ‘round these parts: when we create the ring, we envision it as being made of whatever color or energy we need that evening. The whole group seemed eager to get to business and lowered the ring with a no-nonsense pace. Next, Lauren and I asked the group what they would like to do today. It had been quite some time since we’d played any games—so far, this season has been text, text, text. After brief consideration, the crew opted to move forward with reading on Act II Scene 2. The trend continues!

Before diving in, however, some ensemble members quickly caught everyone up on what had happened during Tuesday’s session. A few ensemble members are involved in other programs and courses that conflict with Tuesday night sessions, so it’s important that the group keeps itself updated like this regularly. “It’s the one where Ghost Daddy chats with Little Hamlet,” one woman dryly declared, describing Act I Scene 5. Who was it who said brevity is the soul of wit?

Now, Act II Scene 2 is an absolute doozy. Pages of winding dialogue, numerous entrances and exits, and plays within plays (oh my!). A few people groaned as we cracked open our books and saw what a long scene lay before us. Despite the marathon ahead, we had no problem filling roles. One notable moment during role assignment was when a returning member who has been reading Gertrude noticed that a new member had meekly raised a hand to signal that she also wanted to read for Gertrude. Without any ego, the returning member gave over the role, grinning as she said, “Oh no, I’ve tried it. You do it!” The new member smiled and thanked her.

The group read through the first few pages before stopping to analyze. What is going on at the beginning of this scene? Claudius is talking Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Little Hamlet’s buddies) into prying to find out what’s wrong with Hamlet. “Hey, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,” one woman summed up, “Go hang out with my nephew-son and see what’s up. It can’t be that his dad just died. It’s been, like, a month.” During our discussion, one of the newer members walked into the room. A returning member who has been growing in to more of a leadership role this season noticed and quickly caught her up. Another example of great facilitation coming from ensemble members.

We soldiered on with the scene. In 2.2, it feels as though everyone (and their uncle-dad!) has a wordy monologue. All those reading did a fantastic job working through the text, with one woman, who usually shies away from major speaking roles, picking up on some nuanced tonal shifts between normal dialogue and asides to the audience.

“Hamlet sure does have death on his mind!” one woman commented as we came to another stopping point. “Does Hamlet really not know who [Polonius] is?” another woman asked the group. We thought about this for a while—if Hamlet is really clueless and doesn’t recognize Polonious, or if he is simply being cheeky by calling this high-ranking man a “fishmonger”. “Everything in the book [HHamlet] is reading is relevant,” a new member piped up. “I like Hamlet,” she continued. “He’s a smart guy.”

We picked back up with reading. A woman who previously expressed anxiety with reading long passages offered to read the role of First Player—an unnamed and seemingly minor character who actually has quite a lot of dialogue. As she flipped through the pages and saw what lay ahead, she nervously sighed. Without skipping a beat, another member encouraged her. “You got this!” this other woman said with a calm supportiveness. The First Player, feeling supported by her peers, went on to do an excellent read of a difficult passage. “That wasn’t too bad!” she said, surprised, as her part came to a finish.

Once we finally finished reading 2.2, we decided to put it on its feet. Many folks read the same parts, but there were a few switch ups based on what characters people wanted to try out. When we got started, the actors were clustered together, barely moving. Everyone was laser focused on the books in their hands and not paying much attention to the movements of their characters in space. When we came to a stopping point, a returning member said, “I feel like we are sitting around reading, but when we put it on its feet, we need to try to generate the movement”.

Almost immediately, there was a difference in the feel of the scene. In particular, the Hamlet/Polonius interaction felt snippy and sassy, completely charged with angsty energy. As we began to run out of time, something interesting happened. The women playing Hamlet and Polonius actually switched characters mid-scene, without taking a break. Whether it was intentional or the result of confusion, it was really cool. What other surprises are in store this season?

We raised our ring back up and said our goodbyes, satisfied with having tackled such a daunting scene.

Season Nine: Week 3

“The only pressure is to do what you need to do to get what you need out of the group.”

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Tuesday / September 17 / 2019
Written by Frannie

During tonight’s check in, a longtime member began, “This is a supportive group.” She said she’d had a conversation with a newbie earlier, and she’d asked if she could bring her concerns to the ensemble. This new member is concerned that her anxiety is preventing her from participating in the way she’s “supposed to.” This is very normal, and the returning member who brought it up asked the ensemble to share their insight. “It’s hard,” said the newbie, “because I really want to participate, but it’s like I don’t know how. How do you guys know to do that [performance stuff]? I don’t have that creative side yet.”

A couple of people jumped in to say that they’ve had that same feeling, and it’s something that you figure out as you go. “No one in this group came here knowing exactly what to do,” a returning member said. “Everybody has a shell coming in here… There’s no pressure on you to read, no pressure to get up. The only pressure on you is to do what you need to do to get what you need out of the group. That’s the only pressure that’s on you.” It doesn’t matter, she said, how you participate—the important thing is that you’re here. “We take our time with each other, and when you’re ready, we embrace that.”

A woman who joined last fall said that she still sometimes feels the way this newbie does. It took her a very long time to be able to put herself out there, but eventually she did. “It’ll come,” she said, “and when it does, it’ll be all right.” Another returning member talked about a time when she went so blank on her lines that she “completely screwed up” a scene and burst into tears when she got back stage. “And then two scenes later, I was back up again. I didn’t know I could do that, but I did it!” Give it time, she said, adding, “And you did good on Friday!”

The newbie said again that she wants to jump up and read on her feet, and to do the improv, but perhaps she’s too hard on herself—too self-critical. A returning member thanked her for telling us and encouraged her to continue to do that. “One thing that’s really important to the operation of this whole ensemble is to communicate your needs,” she said. “If you need encouragement, then tell us what, exactly, it is that you need. That’s the only way we’re gonna know how we can help you.” Another added, “If there’s ever anything that’s not working, let us know.”

The newbie, clearly relieved, told us that she’d like us to give her a push as soon as she’s ready. That time will come, several people said—and maybe she’ll be the one to give herself a push! A returning member shared that she hadn’t done any performing until she took on a lead role during crunch time (and rocked it, if I do say so myself!). But then, when we needed someone to play that part, “I felt it—I felt almost, like, an impulse, to do it. It was a good experience.”

Another, laughing, said, “And Frannie, we won’t even talk about the time I quit the group!” Grinning, I said, “When have I ever brought that up?” She turned to the newbie. “Can you believe I quit the group because I didn’t get the part I wanted?!” she exclaimed. “She sure did,” I said. Laughing, she added, “I quit on a Tuesday… but I was back that Friday!”

The group spent a good deal of time reading and discussing Act I scene ii on Friday, but they hadn’t gotten it on its feet. A few of us (myself included!) had been absent, and I asked if maybe we could explore it some more—it’s a really important scene. We figured out which of us would play each character, and then we launched into it.

A very bombastic Claudius led the charge, though we soon lost steam as she sat in a chair and the rest of us mostly just stood around her. I was reading Polonius, who hardly speaks in this scene, so I was able to do a little quiet coaching of the newbies reading Hamlet and Laertes. I encouraged them to relax, accept that they’d screw up the language because we all do, and move whenever they had the instinct to do so.

When the scene’s focus shifted to Hamlet, that woman first raced, then stumbled her way through the lines, hands tightly gripping her book. She got stuck on one word in particular and stopped. Eyes glued to the page, she turned to me and whispered, “I’m so anxious right now — I can’t do this.” I whispered back, “That’s totally okay. Do you want to switch? Polonius doesn’t have any more lines in this scene.” She nodded. “You did great, by the way,” I said, and then I switched gears into playing a very sulky Hamlet. From the corner of my eye, I saw her cross quickly to the wings, where she sat, head in her hands. A minute or so later, I saw her walking up the aisle toward the exit. But Matt met her along the way, and she didn’t end up leaving. More on that below!

We arrived at the end of the scene and sat down to discuss. Grinning, a woman who was absent on Friday said, “I didn’t even read this scene at all, and I totally got it.” She understood it so well, she said, that she was envisioning staging possibilities—and she wanted to test them out RIGHT NOW. We needed to discuss a bit first, though!

Claudius does a lot of talking in this scene. “He’s got too much to say to just sit down,” one woman said. We all agreed that he’s overcompensating in some way, though we didn’t all agree on what, exactly, that was. I asked if part of the reason for the “word vomit” could be his nervousness and/or guilt about his murder of the king. Well.. it turned out that a lot of ensemble members had no idea that that’s how the king had died—most hadn’t read ahead, and some hadn’t even read a summary. “It’s a huge part of what makes this scene makes sense,” I said, and I encouraged them to read ahead if they have time! This process is different from what most of us are used to from school. We need to know what’s coming in order to understand what’s happening.

That thing about the guilt… “That’s deep,” one woman said. Another added, “He reminds me of the person who hides something and then tries to help you find it!” Totally. A longtime member who is definitely coming into her own this season noted, “I wonder if, from the beginning of the play till the part when Marcellus comes in, there needs to be a break [for Hamlet].” She explained, “Whoever plays that is gonna need to keep in mind that Hamlet is, in a sense… a multi-character. He is gonna need to be so sad, then totally different.”

The woman who’d played Laertes said, “I felt awkward at that one bit, just standing there… I felt awkward.” A returning member said, “You’ll find it as you go. I used to really feel like that.” Laertes pushed, “Am I just standing there? What are we actually doing—something besides listening?” A few ideas were floated, and the woman who’d been having visions exclaimed that she really needed to “run the scene” as Claudius. And so we obliged!

As the about-to-be (sorry, can’t help it) Claudius reset the stage, the woman who’d almost left filled me in a little more about her experience. She’s afraid she’s can’t read well enough, she said, but she does want to participate. I encouraged her to stick with it, and maybe do more listening than speaking till she gets more comfortable: hearing people speak Shakespeare helps one understand how to do it. She agreed that that was a good plan, and then suddenly she was agreeing to play Horatio in this run of the scene. Awesome!

The scene got off to a good start, but then the energy started to lag. A longtime member came over to me and whispered, “I can’t figure it out, but for some reason I can’t understand what [ensemble member] is saying. Like, I understand the words, and I know she knows what they mean, but I can’t understand her, you know?” I nodded and said it was something about her cadence. “Let’s listen for a bit so we can give her something constructive to work with,” I said. “It won’t help her just to hear that we can’t understand her. Listen for the moments when you do understand, and let’s see if we can figure it out from there.” I followed her back to where she was sitting so we could quietly continue to troubleshoot.

Eventually, she, another ensemble member, and I figured out the issue: she was reading, eyes mostly locked on her book, not connecting with an objective or any person. That’s why it’s important to look up as much as possible, I said. “And to hold the book lower down, not in your face,” one of the women added. I agreed, though I said that that did not apply to the woman reading Horatio, who was pushing herself so hard. “Oh no, not her!” both women exclaimed. “She’s already doing so much better,” one of them said. “She’s already louder!” the other added.

Just as she said it, a returning member called a hold and gently addressed Horatio. “You’re doing great. Just slow it down. You’re rushing through it to get through it faster, but it’s not gonna help.” Horatio took the suggestion, and we rolled right through to the end of the scene.

“Holy crap, [Horatio]! Good for you!” one of the women said. “We were talking about how you will be on fire [in performances], with as much progress as you’ve already made in the last ten minutes.” Many voices echoed that sentiment, and I asked Horatio how she felt about it. “I don’t know. I feel... like I wanted to cry. I still feel like crying! I suck at reading,” she continued “and I talk fast, so that’s why I was stumbling over my words.” She tried to describe her experience in more detail, mentioning briefly that talking with Matt instead of leaving had helped, but then her words sputtered out and stopped. Saying nothing more, we gave her a round of snaps.

The conversation started to move on, but Horatio suddenly interjected and looped back to her own work, saying how much it helped to slow down her speech. I encouraged her to keep doing that—that the more she slows down, the more comfortable she’ll get, and the more she’ll enjoy speaking the words. “It’s fun, right?” I asked the veterans, all of whom vigorously nodded. “Not only that,” one of them said, “It’s empowering. Like, ‘Yes! I’ve finally got it!’”

Back to the scene. “I like reading the king,” that woman said slyly. “Yeah, I liked Gertrude, too,” said the woman who’d read that role. Grinning, she added, “I think we got our parts!” Another woman praised this Gertrude’s “aloof regalness.” The woman who’d read Laertes said she still felt awkward with nothing to do! A woman who played a quiet-ish character last season joked, “How do you think I felt with only one line?!”

One of the women noted, though, that she wished Claudius and Hamlet could have explored their dynamic more. Gesturing toward Claudius, she said, “You shoulda pulled some Mortal Kombat stuff.” The woman who’d played Hamlet agreed, “Hamlet is the teenaged kid, and [Claudius] is the stepdad… [Hamlet is] like, ‘GET AWAY FROM ME!’ but [Claudius is] like, ‘No, I’m your dad now. You will pay attention right now.”

We decided to give just the Claudius/Hamlet part of the scene another go, and I coached the ensemble through a few changes in the stage’s set up that would help convey their interpretation to an audience. This is something we left till very late in the season last time around, and our hope is that, by addressing it now, our rehearsal process will go that much smoother. The women playing Hamlet and Claudius did find more of a connection this time, with more eye contact and clearer objectives. It was an invigorating thing with which to end the evening, and we circled up to raise our ring, encouraged and excited for what lies ahead.

Friday / September 20 / 2019
Written by Lauren

Our new facilitator Kyle started today! So naturally, the group asked him the traditional three questions, and, naturally, he passed!

We jumped into reading Act 1, Scene 3. We briefly discussed Ophelia’s father and brother warning her about Hamlet, and expressing their concern regarding his budding relationship with Ophelia. We then moved on to Act 1, Scene 4, where the ghost of Hamlet’s father reveals himself to Hamlet. The group discussed why the ghost would have revealed itself to Horatio and Marcellus before Hamlet. One woman suggested that this would have been the safest way to get to Hamlet. Another added that if Hamlet’s friends had told him about the ghost before he saw it, then Hamlet would know he was actually seeing a ghost and wasn’t losing his mind.

We wrapped up our reading with Act 1, Scene 5. A group of ensemble members began discussing Gertrude and her role. They suggested that if Gertrude were as pure as she claims, then she wouldn’t have given in to her lust for her dead husband’s brother. One woman chimed in that Gertrude may have been in a relationship with her brother-in-law before her husband died. Another member asked why Hamlet would be so secretive about what the ghost had told him. Someone responded that Hamlet probably doesn’t want people to think he is losing touch with reality, so he can uncover his uncle’s crime. It was pointed out by another ensemble member that the ghost doesn’t actually ask Hamlet to avenge him, but to remember him. Hamlet appears to be spearheading the idea of justice and/or vengeance.

We then got Scenes 3 and 4 on their feet, and ran both twice. The second time we ran Scene 3, we added a chair for the woman playing Ophelia. She stayed seated for the whole scene, and later commented that she felt “trapped” in the chair. Another woman in the scene wanted to pull up a chair next to Ophelia, but opted to kneel instead. This sparked a discussion about the visual power of levels and the different interpretations people had of the scene. Some people saw the male characters taking over, while others could feel Ophelia’s urge to get up, though choosing to stay seated.

In Scene 4, the member reading for Hamlet admitted that she did not “feel” the character until close to the end of the scene. Given this revelation, we ran the scene again to maintain the momentum! The woman playing the ghost took this second opportunity to interact more with the others onstage, sliding chairs and keeping Hamlet separate. She appeared to glide across the room, and everyone watching could feel her presence. The other two women in the scene are new to the group, but really held their own in terms of using the space and making the characters their own. It was a really enjoyable scene!