Tuesday / January 21 / 2020
Written by Emma
Tonight’s session was all about strategizing from the get-go. One of our first-season members approached me with a question as soon as I sat down in the circle. This member, who will be playing Horatio, shared that she has been spending a lot of time with her script and was having trouble deciding what Horatio would be doing during some longer breaks when he doesn’t speak but is onstage. She said that she has been thinking of things she can do to be active and present without dialogue, but it’s a challenge for her. I suggested that she pay attention to how she’s feeling when we run those scenes in rehearsal, to write some of those feelings down in her script, and come back to them later.
As soon as we lowered the ring, people were eager to get to work on the play. We decided to skip slightly forward and dive in to the final scene (Act 5 scene 2). This is the big, fat, dramatic finale, in which almost every main character is poisoned, stabbed, or stabbed with a poisoned blade (double whammy!). There are a lot of moving parts that give even professional groups grief.
Before we could even get going, one of our new members asked what character she will be playing (a reminder that, while we’ve done an initial wave of casting, many characters have yet to be cast and are open for our fresh members). Adding on to this, another new member asked, “Can I just go ahead and claim Claudius?” Lauren explained that we will not be doing another round of casting for a few more weeks, but it sounds like we will have no problem filling even the larger roles.
As we got going on 5.2, it became apparent that we needed to take a quick break to talk pacing and staging in the Hamlet vs. Laertes fight. Kyle and Maria took turns discussing the ins and outs of the duel—how it is actually rather organized and breaks down into bouts that are officiated by Osric. Our Hamlet listened intently, asking logistical questions about how to carry herself when onstage. Simultaneously, one of our first season members was leading a discussion surrounding staging—a big first for her! After spending 15-20 minutes in logistical discussion, Hamlet quipped, “I think you want for us to get on stage,” and we picked back up.
I paid attention to Horatio during this scene. After our discussion at the top of the rehearsal, I wanted to be able to give her feedback if she asked. I noticed that she was actually highly emotive with her face, even when her character was seated and not talking for a long time. She watched the duel with an expression of calm intensity. It seemed as though she knew, as we all do, that this wasn’t going to turn out well for anyone. Wonderful instincts!
After we slogged our way through the scene once, we took a break to talk about where onstage we wanted all of the deaths to happen. Gertrude worked with the notion of defiantly drinking the (poisoned) wine to spite her husband. Then, once affected, she would crawl towards her son and die trying to reach him downstage. Laertes, on the other hand, would stoically expire slightly off to the side.
Concerning the death of Claudius, many folks chimed in with ideas. We wanted there to be a final showdown between him and Hamlet—some final acrimony and emotion before their sad saga comes to a close. A brand new member animatedly suggested that we incorporate the ghost of King Hamlet into the scene. “I love this—this is great. This is some good stuff. This is a good class!” she remarked, excited by the collaborative process. “I think the ghost would come out, see dead Claudius, and say, ‘haha’!” another new member suggested. Lauren asked if she thought that the ghost would be so callous in this scene. “We live in callous, everyday,” the ensemble member poignantly stated.
We spent the remainder of our time deep in logistics, including discussions concerning the poisoned cup and sword, where the table and duel would be set, and how Hamlet would finally (tragically) die. Before we knew it, our time was up for the evening. By the time we left, we had gone through one of the more complicated scenes in the play, setting us up for a smoother run next time we tackle it.