Session Four: Week 31

Tuesday

We were pleased today to welcome back two members of the group who had had scheduling conflicts but worked them out. Both of these women were in the group in its first session and provide great perspective on the work this ensemble is doing, not to mention wonderful individual contributions. It’s good to have them back.

We tried splitting up into two groups with mixed success. The group in the back of the auditorium made good progress on a very funny scene, but that meant that they were often so loud that those of us in the front of the room couldn’t hear each other! We didn’t want to try to decide which scene was “more important” (the answer truly is neither), so we muddled through it.

Kyle worked with that group in the back, while I worked with the others. We worked on the “seduction” scene between Katharina and Petruchio, clarifying the meanings of certain lines and working to make the scene a sparring or chess match – since we are limited in what we can do physically, we need to be creative, but this actually proved to be less of a challenge than we thought it would be. The woman playing Kate is very thinking-centered, and that’s the way she’s playing her character – which we all think is completely accurate to the text. We’ve been discussing for months that the reason she goes with Petruchio at all is because, in this scene, he proves himself to be her intellectual equal. To that end, we just need to work the scene to be sure that all of the barbs land each way. It works.

We continued on with the scene and discovered a funny bit in which Gremio and Tranio shove each other around a bit as they vie for Baptista’s permission to marry Bianca. The ideas flew among the ensemble, and the groundwork of the scene has been established.

Thursday

We took time today to run lines and do detailed scene work. We were very proud of one ensemble member who, despite nagging self-doubt about being able to read/understand Shakespeare and memorize lines, has her lines nearly memorized, and they are nearly word perfect. We were very vocal about our excitement – this is a big accomplishment for her, and one we’ve been encouraging her to be open to since we began in September.

We returned to Act II Scene I, specifically the end of the scene featuring Baptista, Gremio, and Tranio. We got into more detailed work on the scene. Although our Gremio was very tired, she kept plugging away, not wanting our time together to be wasted.

We ran into some challenges with the word “argosy.” For one thing, the ensemble realized that no matter how our actors play that word, our audience may not get its meaning. For another, our Gremio is consistently mispronouncing it. Rather than give up on this part of the scene, though, we arrived at two solutions, both of which add to the scene enormously: First, we decided to embrace the mispronunciation, as Tranio can follow it up by pointedly pronouncing it correctly. Second, our Gremio is going to pull a cartoonish picture of a boat out of her pocket to show Tranio and Baptista, and then the audience; Tranio will then take out a bigger picture of the same boat and show that off.

I love these solutions because they were arrived at in the spirit of teamwork and effective communication, both of which are skills we all hope our ensemble will improve during their time in the group. Additionally, rather than finding a solution that might have made our Gremio feel badly about stumbling over such a foreign word, we found a way to take that “mistake” and build on it rather than condemn it. That’s a really important part of what we do.

Session Four: Week 28

Tuesday Written by Kyle

Tonight was my first night working as a facilitator; I went through the orientation and so missed the opening/warm-up aspect of the session. I wondered whether I was going to jump right in or hang back and observe. The former won out in short order! When I arrived the company was warm, welcoming and eager to know about me. We went through what I came to realize are the questions that all new company members are asked. What brings you to Shakespeare? Why do you want to do Shakespeare? What do you hope to get out of this experience? etc. Simple questions all, but questions I could talk about for hours. I was as eager to answer as they seemed to ask, and it felt like a nice sort of initiation to get the ball rolling.

The group set out working Act 1 scene 2; it’s a long scene with lots of entrances, exits, shtick, and lots of people on the stage. It can get a little messy with the staging and so the company had to stop and discuss many times just how we wanted to make it work. I suggested that we bring the most important elements of the scene downstage center. This prompted many more questions of the company that seemed to lead into one another: How were we going to use staging to highlight the important part of the scene? What was the important part of the scene? Why? All good critical questions that as they unravel can give the distinct impression that the scene is unraveling. They hung with it though, and took direction well. One of the newer members in the company who has a smaller part had the benefit of watching the whole scene, and she was able to voice some great ideas about staging. We were able to take those ideas and build on them in a really wonderful way. At one point they used the steps on the stage to express one character’s dominance over another; it was a really wonderful idea that utilized the space in a really organic way- it would have been a good idea in any playhouse! By the end everyone was tired, but morale seemed high for all who stayed to the end.

On a personal note, as it is my first time working with the company, and I wondered how the night would go… It was humbling, exciting and most importantly, I found the experience a little common place in the most wonderful way. Very quickly we become people doing theatre, the same as I have done my whole life. It not as if you can ever forget where you are, and frankly, it would be inappropriate to try. The point is however, that for most of the night the prison was not downstage center- it was the backdrop of the show at best. What was up front for me was the fact that there were the same hopes, fears, company archetypes, and the willingness to make something out of nothing that has been the spirit of all my experiences in the theatre- in short, I’m hooked.

Thursday

Written by Frannie

Attendance was light today, but this enabled us to give a lot of attention to a couple of scenes that really needed it.

Most of our work was done on Act IV Scene I – just the first part of the scene when Grumio enters and has a conversation with Curtis. The woman playing Curtis has been patient as we’ve rotated through Grumios, but at a certain point she was not eager to continue working this scene with stand-ins, so we let it alone for awhile. Now that I’m in the role, we decided to really dig in to make it easier to for her to learn the lines.

We made a lot of discoveries together – she proved to be very flexible and a great improviser as we tried different things. We discovered that Curtis and Grumio are rivals of sorts – they needle each other throughout the scene. We found that the scene worked best when Curtis repeatedly interrupted Grumio, pushing him and getting under his skin.

Something else that has been very striking lately, but was especially in focus today, is the growing confidence of one of our ensemble members, who is playing Vincentio. She joined the group well after its start date last year, and, despite extreme stage fright and shyness, pushed through her one scene with lines as Balthasar and emerged with a new feeling that maybe speaking in front of people is something she can actually do – and do well. This year, she rolled with the punches on casting, ending up with Vincentio and deciding that it was meant to be – that she was meant to take on this role, which, for her, is quite “large.”

Since then, she has been a constant and constructive voice in the group. She’s become a self-professed “Shakespeare nerd,” reading about him outside of our group and bringing us pertinent ideas that she’s come across. She’s also emerged as an insightful and compassionate director, guiding scenes and actors to find better ways of working with our material. This has been a truly exciting change to witness, and I can’t wait to see where she is on the other side of our performances. She’s always been a great asset to the group, but her recent emergence in such a positive leadership role is remarkable and inspiring.

Session Four: Week 27

Tuesday

Tonight was spent working through scenes involving Tranio, as the woman playing this role is newer to the group, and we wanted to give her some stage time to really get into the role. She was able to clarify her character’s objectives and the strategies he uses to accomplish them. She is having a lot of fun with the role.

The group is working well together to flesh out scenes, now that our cuts are complete, and their understanding of the text is clearly very deep. The ebb and flow of ideas between them is respectful and confident, and their solutions to challenges are often quite creative.

Our main set piece, which we are grateful to have been provided with by the facility’s Building Trades program, arrived in the theatre today. It is a revolving platform with a fountain on one side and a fireplace on another. It is really beautiful, and it was invigorating and exciting to begin to work with it today.

We’ve set April 20 as our off book date. We know we won’t be perfectly memorized by then, but this should give us ample time to work without scripts in hand so we’re confident by the time we share our play with an audience.

Thursday

Today began on a bittersweet note, as a longtime member of the group let us know that she will not be continuing, and we said goodbye to her, at least for now. This left another role vacant, so the ensemble decided to shift the woman who had been playing Grumio to this newly-available role of Bianca; they then cast Lauren as Biondello and me as Grumio. There is a general sense of relief at finally being completely cast.

We decided to spend the day catching up our new Bianca. She fell into the role immediately, making decisions that were different than the ones the previous actress had made, but that are textually based and ring true nonetheless. The ensemble was very encouraging and supportive of her as she found her way through and into the scenes, and she clearly feels good in the role.

Again today, the ensemble worked beautifully together to adjust staging as needed and give each other constructive criticism. The scenes we worked are beginning to have their own life and momentum, which is thrilling.

One of the women and I noted that we were more invested in the scenes when the women’s energy was higher. We began to discuss whether we should fully commit to our “cartoonish” staging – staying truthful in terms of our objectives, tactics, and interpretations, but letting our presentation be more stylized. “Can we go that big?” asked one woman. Another quickly replied, “It’s either go big or go home. We can’t go home, so let’s go big!”

We discussed ways in which this could work. We decided to each come back with the “poses” in which we would draw or sculpt our characters. This is sometimes referred to as a psychological gesture, and I think it will come in handy as we work on fully committing to our “go big because we can’t go home” approach.

Session Four: Week 26

Tuesday + Thursday

This week was productive and invigorating, as we buckled down to read through our script, making cuts as we went. There was lively debate about several potential cuts, but the deeper we got into the process, the more excited people got about cutting “unnecessary” material – I believe this is because it is evidence of how well we know the play at this point. We own the material; it doesn’t own us.

There was a fairly intense debate about whether or not we should cut the scene in which Petruchio rejects clothing made for Katherina, almost in its entirety. Some of us think that the relationship clues in this scene are established elsewhere, while some of us disagree with that. Others don’t want to lose the scene because it’s so funny; some, however, pointed out that we have a limited time in which to perform, and we need to be “ruthless” with our cuts. It was decided that we should table the decision until next week, when we’ll set aside time to work with the scene and determine its function better.

In other news, one of our new members has agreed to play Grumio. This leaves the role of Biondello vacant, and since we’re in the final third of our program and don’t want to add more inmates to the ensemble until the fall, it was decided that Lauren and I should audition for the role (we are the only two facilitators who can guarantee attendance at every performance, or we would ALL be auditioning!).

So next week’s plan is to finish reading and cutting, explore the scene referenced above, and cast Biondello. We hope to be able to move forward solidifying the way in which we’re telling this story – its interpretation, staging, and all of the other details that still need to be worked out.

Session Four: Week 25

Thursday

We spent some time today discussing our set. We have some flats that we’ve used as backdrops for the past two performances, and after some talk we decided to use last year’s, if possible, painting both sides so they can be flipped and used as two different locations.

We welcomed our new facilitator, Vanessa Sawson, to the group, and then decided to tackle Act IV Scene I, of which we’ve only worked the very beginning. The group decided, after reading through it once, to cut two of the servants from the scene and redistribute lines a bit. The woman who is playing the Widow agreed to play one of the remaining servants.

We all worked together to figure out how to interpret and stage the scene. Who is on stage and what times, and what are they doing? We determined that Petruchio does not usually behave toward his servants the way he does in this scene, and that this will give us “a glimpse of his humanity,” as one woman put it.

We also read through Act IV Scene IV once to get a feel for it. Our plan for the next session is to read through the entire play, make sure everyone is caught up, and make whatever cuts we feel are necessary. I’ll then be printing new scripts for the group to work with, and everyone will really get down to memorizing their lines.