Today the participants decided to work the scene in which Miranda and Ferdinand meet for the first time. This was only the second time that the woman playing Ferdinand performed, and she was clearly a bit nervous, but she gave it her all and ended up having a great time, and making some nice discoveries. In discussing Prospero’s actions in the scene, a participant who’s been in the group for nearly a year volunteered that she thinks Prospero doesn’t know how to let go of Miranda, since he’s had her all to himself for twelve years. The group felt that this is definitely part of what’s motivating him, but that there is more to it – he wants Miranda and Ferdinand to fall in love, but he also wants to make it a challenge so that they will value it more.

The participant playing Miranda then brought up her idea that Prospero brings Ferdinand to him and Miranda to keep him away from Alonso as part of his revenge plot. He holds more of the cards if he knows exactly where Ferdinand is and Alonso doesn’t, and the marriage between the two will help him get back his dukedom and go home.

We also worked the moment when Ferdinand first sees Miranda quite a bit, which proved to be a lot of fun. We began with, “How would a teenage boy react to seeing a beautiful girl?” The response to this was, “Damn, girl!” We all had a good laugh at that. I then reminded them that Ferdinand is a prince, and he would probably be very respectful. We added to that that he’s just been shipwrecked and isn’t expecting to find anyone on the island, let alone this girl, so it’s not a casual encounter. We then added her being the most beautiful woman ever. Those things helped the participant playing Ferdinand to change her performance to something much more appropriate, and she gained confidence each time she tried it. There were a lot of smiles among the group as she made these improvements. Everyone really enjoys watching others in the group grow and learn.