July 6, 2012

Today we began with a favorite improv game, since we haven’t done improv in awhile, and they all really enjoy it. That was a lot of fun. We then spent some time reading through the script and discussing the logistics of our performance, since some of the participants present were not there for the previous discussions. Everyone seems to understand what the performance will entail and how it will all work. They are also enthusiastic about having a talkback with the audience afterward.

We worked our scene from Othello since all three of those women were present. The other participants gave really great feedback, which now appears to be the norm – they talk more, I talk less. We talked about at what points Desdemona should be sobbing and when she should be a little more quiet. We also went back to talking about physicality and what body language looks like from the audience. We encouraged Emilia to continue trying to build her anger throughout the scene rather than exploding out of nowhere. The actress playing Iago is gaining a better understanding of her character each time we run the scene, and it really shows.

Then we worked Othello’s monologue. Again, the first go was not as good as we all know she can do. She clearly needs a warm up before she performs, and we’ll have to take that into account when it comes time for the showcase. Her second performance, though, was her best yet – again, she topped even what she accomplished in the last class. She is breaking up the beats of the piece increasingly well, shifting from aggression, to grief, to rage, etc.

Then we worked the scene from As You Like It with a participant standing in for Rosalind, who was not there. The language continues to come more easily for Celia, and the group gave some great feedback to Duke Frederick on how to give her entrance and exit more power. This scene is coming along very nicely.

We then worked with one of our Antonys. Taking the note she was given the last time we worked, she is using much more of the stage and keeping herself open to the entire audience. Her vocal work is outstanding – one of the participants went out to the hall to get some water and said she could hear her clearly out there. Everyone loves what she is doing with the piece.

Our biggest issue now is memorization. A few of the women have memorized their monologues or are close to it, but some have not, and almost no one has for the scenes. We went over some techniques to help with that and also decided that it would be okay to have one participant onstage with a script in hand in case anyone falters. I hope that that will not be necessary, but I want them to do whatever it takes to make them comfortable and confident.

June 29, 2012

First thing today, I encouraged and challenged the participants to take more ownership of the material and begin to give each other really detailed feedback. I said that I wanted to talk less and for them to talk more, so that I would become more of a guide rather than a teacher. A participant whom we all thought had dropped returned today. She said that she had talked with her mother, who “talked some sense into” her, and she is now fully committed to the class. She will be narrating the piece, as she is not yet comfortable with the Shakespeare.

After a warm up, we decided to begin with the participant playing Jaques because she has not given herself as much rehearsal as she needs. Her first performance was kind of in and out, so we talked about what she needed to do to improve. The participants pointed out that when she is more animated, the piece works better. I suggested that she come on with more energy and pompousness. She did this, and the improvement was remarkable. We noticed that when she performs this way, she has less trouble with the lines. She said that she pretty much has the lines down, but when she gets onstage she has trouble remembering them. I told her this is exactly why she needs to do this more in class. She also said that she has no one in her unit with whom to rehearse, and a couple of the participants spoke up and reminded her that they are in her unit, and they would be perfectly willing to work with her.

Next was one of the Antonys. Her performance is very strong and powerful. One of the participants noticed that she is pacing back and forth, which is fine, but only from center to stage right. She said that, this way, she is leaving out all of house right. So Antony tried to modify her pacing to include stage left, but this threw her off. The participant who originally suggested changing the blocking suggested that she shift her “center” to be more stage left, but Antony said this would take away from her power, which she finds at center. I suggested that she keep with her blocking, but make sure she is staying physically open to the entire audience. That worked.

Then one of our Emilias took her turn. Her piece was lacking a little bit, so I explained the three centers (thinking, feeling and willing) and asked her to focus on bringing her energy out of her willing center. This improved the piece – she liked it a lot. Then the other Emilia brought up that this Emilia is adding words to the piece, which we decided didn’t really matter. But the performing Emilia added that the one who gave the note should give herself a pat on the back for knowing the piece well enough to notice that.

Then we worked the Nurse/Juliet scene. The first performance was a little awkward, so we discussed stage positioning and physicality. They also decided that they should both sit for the majority of the scene. This worked very well. They are becoming more animated and are having a lot of fun.

One of the participants, who is playing Hermione, told me that she did not want to perform today because a friend of hers recently died and the funeral was today, and she was just too sad. This friend is the younger brother of another friend of hers who died, and she said that she was analyzing her feelings so that she could utilize them in her piece.

During this conversation, which was not entirely brief, the rest of the participants were giving each other notes on their scenes, which is great. All in all, the feedback they gave each other was very constructive and well thought out.

June 26, 2012

This week was really great for our group. They showed a lot of growth and a deeper understanding of the work they are doing. We started off with a warm up and a game, by request.

Then we moved onto the scene featuring Iago, Emilia, and Desdemona with one participant standing in for Desdemona, since that participant had to leave and come back. The scene is progressing very nicely – the participant playing Iago has been doing character work on her own and it definitely shows. Then the really great thing happened – the rest of the group starting giving direction on the scene. The participant playing Emilia had been exiting after her lines, and someone said, “I don’t think you should leave. You need to stay and protect Desdemona.” We did the scene again, and it worked very well. Then another participant said, “I think you need to change which chairs you’re sitting in to make it physically easier to do what you need to do in the scene.” We tried it again with that direction, and, again, it improved. I love that they are giving each other direction with such insight.

In addition to this, the participant standing in for Desdemona, who has a learning disability, spoke the language very fluently. She is getting so much better at this; becoming more comfortable with the heightened language. We all remarked on how awesome this is, and she seemed surprised and happy about it.

We moved on to Othello’s monologue. The participant playing this part wanted to try it without her script, with me on book for her. She made it almost all the way through without help, but she was a bit hesitant with the acting. Doing it that time with only one mistake gave her a lot of confidence, though, and the next time she performed it was the best yet. Everyone was impressed, and we told her so. She is feeling very good about the piece, and very pleased about the feedback.

We then worked the King’s monologue. We talked about images that the participant can bring up in her mind to help her really connect with the language. I also encouraged her to try an exercise in which she changes direction with each change of thought – so going to the right follows thoughts of damnation, and going to the left follows thoughts of hope. She tried it, and it was a bit muddy, but she got the intent of the exercise. She is going to work more on that on her own.

We then worked with one of our Antonys. She is still rushing this piece. We sat down and really analyzed the monologue again, and then I pointed out to her that almost all of the words in the piece are one syllable, most of the remaining words are only two syllables, and only two words in the whole thing are more than two syllables – and those are words referring to the people she is trying to undermine. This definitely made a light bulb go on for her – she realized that she does need to take it slow because the language is so percussive and forceful. We are going to work more on this, and I really think it will help her because now it’s not just me telling her to slow down – it’s the text itself.

Our Jaques took her turn next. She is about half memorized, and where she made mistakes she was largely able to go back and fix them without help from me. She’s still having a lot of fun with this, but she never wants to perform more than once, and we are going to have to start encouraging her to do this more, since she’s really not getting enough rehearsal.

Then the Emilia with the learning disability did her piece. She did it without her script, and with me on book. She did a really great job, only stumbling a couple of times, although she did skip over an entire section. But she kept going, and we all noted that if we didn’t already know the piece so well, we would have had no idea she skipped anything. She performed again, and did better that time. She said she was still frustrated, and getting more frustrated. I pointed out that she is doing a great job, period, just by being brave enough to get up there without her script. It’s a scary thing to do, but she’s doing it, even though she knows she will mess up here and there. After I impressed upon her how well she is truly doing, she seemed to feel much better.

These women impress me more and more all the time. I have no doubt that they are going to completely wow their audience when they perform in August.

June 22, 2012

Today we warmed up, playing a silly game to loosen up and get present in our bodies. We went over our script, first of all, to make sure everyone approved of the order of the scenes and monologues, and of the narration I wrote to get us from one to the other. There were a few questions, but we got it nailed down. They are very enthusiastic about putting everything together.

We then plugged the last participant without a scene into the scene with Juliet and the Nurse, which we were all hoping she would like. After we went through it a few times, the scene really took off, with Juliet becoming increasingly bratty and impatient, and the Nurse increasingly dramatic and over the top. It was really fun to watch, and the actresses thoroughly enjoyed it. The one to whom we just gave the part of Juliet lit up and was clearly excited about the part.

Next we worked Hermione’s monologue with a participant who missed the last couple of sessions. She said that things have not been going well for her, and she hasn’t really worked on the piece at all, but that she still has it somewhat memorized. It was very clear that she was rusty, but she is still very familiar at least with the words. As we worked it more, she fell back into it, gaining confidence and power. She is so great. We all love watching her perform.

Then we worked the Duke Frederick/Rosalind/Celia scene with one participant standing in for one who was absent, playing Celia. This went very well – it got more physical and the participant playing Rosalind, the same working on Hermione, who has been absent, did great at increasing her boldness standing up to the Duke each time we worked it. The participant standing in for Celia had a great time as well – she really likes the character. And the participant playing Duke Frederick is becoming more comfortable with her character’s anger. This scene is developing quite nicely.

Then we worked one of our Antonys, who has the piece just about memorized. She asked if she could begin the piece walking onstage rather than beginning from a static, standing position. She tried it that way, and it worked very well. The other Antony decided that she would do the same thing, but would enter from the opposite side – their pieces are book-ending the showcase, so this will be a nice touch. The Antony we were working first, then, tried doing the piece with me on book for her. She did a really great job – she’s almost there. Her whole physicality was lighter when she left the stage.

Then the other Antony gave hers a whirl walking on with it. She decided that she liked it a lot. She’s starting to play with the language a bit, and is getting much better about keeping with her energy even when she messes up the lines. I’m so proud of her. She’s come a long way.

We then discussed the monologues in which participants have other actresses onstage with them. We decided that we need to decide on one permanent “stand in” and on alternate so there is some consistency there. We will work on that in the coming sessions.

June 18, 2012

We began with a brief warm up after some much needed venting on the part of the participants. Since she had to leave early, one of the participants performing Antony’s monologue performed first. We did an exercise in which every time she started to back off of her power, we shouted, “MORE!” This gave her added punch, which we all loved. We tried doing a slightly different exercise in which every time someone shouted “WHAT?” she would have to repeat what she had just said with more force, but this tripped her up too much, so we abandoned it.

Then one of our Emilias went. This is the one with the learning disability. She truly does better and better every time she performs this, and gets closer and closer to being off book. Her attitude in the piece is great, especially where she knows the lines. And where she doesn’t, she isn’t far off.

Our Othello was next. She thought she was totally memorized but ended up having to use her script, which frustrated her. She also added in something she’s been doing in her cell – backing into a chair. She says it really helps her to have a physical motion to go along with the words – this helps her remember what she’s supposed to be saying and feeling. This is very common for actors – needing to know their blocking in order to memorize lines.

We shuffled around some peoples’ roles in our scenes, so we decided to work a scene that one of the participants is just now picking up. This is a scene between Iago, played by this participant, Desdemona and Emilia. The first read was a bit rough, so we talked about what exactly is going on in the scene; where Iago should be trying to comfort Desdemona and where he’s trying to shut up Emilia. I also reminded Desdemona that she needs to be crying through the whole scene in order not to notice how Emilia is attacking Iago. The second and third reads improved significantly.

Then one of the participants who hadn’t been there for a couple of sessions took her turn working the King’s monologue from Hamlet. She started off a little weak but ended with a lot of power. We went over the thought process behind the monologue and how she could build it up, then completely change what she’s doing at the end with a plea to God to help her and calm her down.

We then decided to work another scene, even though the third participant had to leave before we got to it. So I stood in for her with the two other participants. Amazingly, even though we’ve only worked this scene a few times, they are on their way to having their lines memorized. They also talked about memorizing their cues, which obviously is important. We worked on raising the stakes with the scene, and they’re feeling very good about it.

We talked about the make up of our show and decided that since we can fill all of the parts in the scenes, we should include those. I am going to put together a script to submit this week.

We also talked about the level of commitment necessary to make the group work. There is one participant who has frequently been absent, although she says she is committed to the group. They are upset about it because they feel they should be taking care of each other and showing up every day if they possibly can. If she’s absent once more, I’m going to talk to the programs coordinator about it. If she drops, we should be able to manage without her.