July 24, 2012

Today I was accompanied by Molly McMahon, who will be filling in for me for the first two weeks of August. The women all enjoyed having her there, and I know they are going to do great work together in my absence. After warm ups, one of our Emilias requested that she perform first. Everyone was, as usual, impressed by her improvements. She is doing very well at physically expressing her attitude, and her memorization gets better and better. She got a little down on herself for stumbling on a few of the words, but someone pointed out that it’s okay if she stumbles because this should seem like it’s the first time she’s saying these things. She also needs to work on her volume, but this is improving.

Next was one of our Antonys, the one who was so tired during the last session. At first she lacked passion, stumbled over her words and stopped. She did this twice, and we encouraged her to stick with it and not be so hard on herself. Her third try hit the nail on the head. Everyone especially loved how she backed off of her anger toward the end and let her sadness come out. Someone suggested that she should exit at the end of the monologue rather than remaining onstage, and she liked that idea, so she will do it from now on.

Then our Othello performed her piece. She was a little off, and asked me to come on stage with her and give her some examples of things I have been suggesting to her. This helped her a lot. She performed again, and it was amazing. All of a sudden, things just clicked for her. The anger was there; the crazed guilt, the despair. We asked her what happened. “I could feel it more,” she said. “It just came to me.” We are all so excited about her piece!

Then we worked the Iago/Emilia/Desdemona scene with a participant standing in for Desdemona. They really committed to what they were doing, and the participants in the audience remarked that they liked the way that the stand-in was weeping – it seemed more realistic to them than the way the other participant does it, so we need to figure out how to give her the notes she needs to get there. We worked the scene more, and each time it became more believable. The relationships are clear, and the actions are motivated.

Then our Hermione worked her piece. She attacked it with so much emotion – anger, begging – that one of the other participants actually cried. “She’s hitting all the right notes,” she said. The performer said that she is still “holding onto” the lines, and I encouraged her to let go and trust that I had the script in my hand and wouldn’t let her go blank. She performed again, with even more intensity, and the same participant cried again. She said she just can’t believe how good it is. The participant playing Hermione said her challenge now is to really focus and not multi-task in her head while she’s on stage.

Then we worked the King’s monologue. The intensity was great, and she actually dropped to her knees this time, which is something she’s normally hesitant to do because it’s not totally comfortable for her. We then did an exercise to increase her physical commitment to the piece, taking her out of her head and into her body. This did a lot for her – one of the other participants said that she can hear the inner argument the character is having without even looking at the actress. The next performance of this piece was the best yet.

There are two people who have missed the last couple of sessions, and if they are not there next time, we discussed what we will do. The participants decided that rather than cut any material, they will pick up the slack. I’m glad that’s the way they want to handle things. They also talked about the power of commitment – that even on days that they don’t feel like getting out of bed or making the walk to the building, after they do, they feel better because they have followed through on their commitments, and they have a good time.

July 20, 2012

We began today by following up on the discussion I had with a few of the women on Tuesday about some of the participants being more team players than others. Unfortunately, not all of the people who need to hear this were present, so we’ll need to talk about it again, but those present decided that we will complete this performance, and then everyone will re-evaluate whether or not they want to commit to the next round, which will be a full production. I made it clear that if people leave the group, there will be no hard feelings – if they’ve gotten what they wanted out of the group and want to be done, that is perfectly fine. One of our Emilias was all fired up and ready to go, so we began with her. Her first performance was very quiet, but everyone agreed that, in terms of her acting, it was the best and most truthful yet. The others encouraged her to speak up and to not be afraid to touch her scene partner. She took these directions very well.

Then our Narrator gave her material a try. She began reading in a very dry and rushed manner, so I stopped her and asked if she could give it a little more enthusiasm to get the audience excited about what they are going to see. She smiled. The next time she read was much better. We asked her if she’d like to try using the podium, and, when she did, she automatically became louder and her energy increased. She likes having the podium there to support her, so we’ll stick with that.

Next we worked the Duke Frederick/Rosalind/Celia scene. Since Rosalind was not there last time when we made some adjustments, the others caught her up on that. They were about to begin, when I realized that Celia, our “director” who has been making such incredible strides, was not holding her script. “Are you MEMORIZED?” I asked. She smiled and said, “Darn, I was hoping you wouldn’t notice till we were already in the scene.” She only had to call for line once – incredible for this woman who was so shy and insecure when we began in February. She was really feeling it, too. One thing that the other participants noticed was that the actors were anticipating each others’ movements and moving without proper motivation, so we tried it again with that in mind. The scene improved, as it always does with these women, and some of the participants remarked that Duke Frederick is actually “scary” now. Another suggested that Celia and Rosalind look at each other more throughout the scene for support.

Then one of our Antonys, who hasn’t worked her piece in awhile, performed. She got up there without her script, which was great, but she was so focused on remembering her lines that her acting definitely took a backseat. I encouraged her to let go of that – I’ve got her script in my hands, and I’m not going to let her flounder. The other participants identified parts of the piece that are the strongest for her, and we discussed what made them the most powerful. She tried again, and it was better, but she was playing with her sleeves and physically very tense throughout. Our “director” encouraged her to let her hands go and do whatever felt natural, as she would in a normal conversation or argument. She gave her some examples. We worked the piece again, and it got better. She says she is going to continue to work on freeing up her body.

Next we worked our Iago/Emila/Desdemona scene with someone standing in for Desdemona. Their first performance was too casual – they weren’t totally invested in what they were doing, which was evident in their body language and the lack of focus in their speech. The participant playing Iago asked me to read in for her so that she could see my interpretation of her character, since she is confused and frustrated. I did this, and she said it clarified for her what she should be doing. They tried it again, and it was better. Our “director” then adjusted their blocking (she’s so good at this!) and they tried it again. This time it definitely took off for Iago, who had the sudden inspiration to hiss the lines “Speak within door,” and “You are a fool. Go to!” at Emilia rather than saying them full voice. It was very intense, and very appropriate.

Then our King worked her piece. She was unable to attend the last two classes, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but she launched in with a power I’ve never seen in her that lasted the whole way through. We were totally wowed. Her energy was huge, and we could really feel her frustration and desperation. The only issue she’s having is that she’s rushing, so we talked about finding places to pause and let the emotions drive her to her next line, rather than vice versa. We will keep working on that.

This was a very good day. Everyone is feeling very positive and doing great work.

July 17, 2012

At the beginning of the session today, the participants talked about how the scenes and monologues are “taking over” their lives. They are quoting Shakespeare all the time and finding parallels between their pieces and real life frequently. We began today with our Emilias. The first one has gotten much quieter with her delivery, which she noticed before we even told her. She stumbled over her lines a bit, got frustrated, and decided to take a break while the other Emilia took a turn. This participant continues to do very well, so we asked her to find more of the anger in her character about the abuse she’s suffered, and that Desdemona has suffered. She also found that the other Emilia’s reactions to what she was saying helped her quite a bit. Then the first Emilia tried again, and took the note we gave the other Emilia herself, interpreting it slightly differently. It did a lot for her. Both Emilias agreed that working as a team like that has helped them quite a bit.

Then one of our Antonys took her turn. Her performance was not as good as it usually is, which she said was because she was so tired. She decided not to perform again today, but to try it again when she has more energy. She also informed us that she will be able to memorize her monologue, but not her scene. This is disappointing, but at least she is still willing to perform with a script in her hand. I think the experience will be valuable to her that way as well.

Then we rehearsed the Nurse/Juliet scene with me standing in for the Nurse again so that the participant playing the part could see an example of how to interpret the character. She said this helped a lot. Our participant who has become a director pointed out some good adjustments that the participant playing Juliet could make to make the scene more believable – particularly looking around constantly for the Nurse before she arrives, like anyone would in that situation. One of the other participants also pointed out that the 1930s version of Romeo and Juliet would be on TV that night, and they all decided to watch it. I warned them to watch it with a grain of salt, since the acting style was so different then, but to take away any good ideas they could glean from it.

Then we rehearsed the Duke Frederick/Rosalind/Celia scene with me standing in for Rosalind since the other participants present did not want to do it. This scene went pretty well, but one of the other participants had an idea for changing the blocking that made total sense and increased the impact of the scene. I was very glad that she volunteered her help there.

One of the participants left early without performing, and another also left early. Those who were left then expressed their frustration with those participants, along with a few others, who do not seem to truly be team players. Apparently there has been some eye rolling from one of them, which I have not noticed. The women with whom I talked are also questioning their commitment and say that the lack thereof, in addition to some attitude issues, are beginning to make the class not feel as “safe” as it was before. One of them said she is even considering not coming back after the August performance. I really don’t want that to happen – this particular participant has experienced a tremendous amount of growth, and I’d hate to lose her. We decided to get through this performance and then re-evaluate if these people should be allowed to stay in the group as we look to add more people who are totally committed. We’ll have to continue to give this some thought.

July 13, 2012

Today the first participant to perform was one of our Antonys. She decided to try it without her script right off the bat, and only needed help with lines twice, which is fantastic. She is still rushing, which is her main problem, but as she becomes more comfortable without the script in her hand, this will go away. One of the other participants volunteered that the more she rehearses without the script, the easier it is for her to take it slowly and find places to pause, because she isn’t as worried about remembering the next line. We then worked the Iago/Emilia/Desdemona scene with a substitute participant for Emilia. Our main issue with the first performance was that Desdemona was just too quiet, so we encouraged her to find more power and increase her volume. We also noted that when they touch each other in the scene, they do so tentatively and briefly. I asked them to imagine what they would do in their real lives here – if they would probably let their hands linger on another person’s shoulder when trying to comfort her. They incorporated these directions in their subsequent performance and did much better. Then one of the other participants noted that when they are not speaking, they are not altogether active in listening, so we tried it again with more focus on that, and the scene improved again.

Then we worked the Nurse/Juliet scene with me standing in for the Nurse, per Juliet’s request. Although I am still hesitant to get on stage and give my interpretation of these characters, because I want the women to make discoveries themselves, Juliet found that acting with me opened her eyes more to the character because what I was doing gave her different motivation than what the other participant is doing. I remarked that this participant will be able to give her more when she is not so focused on reading, but everyone still wants me to get up and do their scenes with them from time to time. They said that it gives them an example of what to do, which is sometimes easier to interpret than simply listening to what I say. It gives them ideas and reinforces the idea that they can be completely different people on stage than they are in their lives. Even though I am reluctant to do this, I can see that it does help them, so I will continue to do it whenever they ask me to.

Next was the Duke Frederick/Rosalind/Celia scene. The first feedback that came out of the scene was how well we can understand the participant playing Emilia, who has a speech impediment. There’s been a great improvement there. Rosalind was still having trouble keeping her body open to the audience, and, before I could say anything, Emilia said, “Well, this won’t be a problem if we stand on a diagonal,” and adjusted her scene partner. She then adjusted Duke Frederick’s blocking as well, again without my help. This fixed it. I remarked again, as I did last week, that this participant’s insights really clue us in to the fact that she is a director! She truly understands what needs to happen on stage, without having any formal training. It’s great. We also worked on increasing the fire in the characters and keeping focus during the scene.

We then worked Hermione’s monologue, since she hasn’t done it in awhile. She is now completely memorized and only paused once or twice to get a line. Again, the participant who is becoming a director gave her amazing feedback – she loves her gestures and physicality, and that she is using her whole body to get her point across. I did notice that her eyes were going all over the place, and I reminded her to find one focus point for her husband and only let her eyes roam when she’s talking to the other people at the trial. She tried it this way and it worked much better. She remarked that the piece has become very natural to her because she has developed a deep personal connection to it. That’s what I’d hoped for. I’m so glad it’s working.

July 10, 2012

Today the women decided that they want to start working their scenes and monologues in the order in which they’ll be performing, so we’re going to approach our days that way from now on. We began by working with our narrator, since she hasn’t been able to get on stage and work her stuff yet. She wanted to run all of her material at once, rather than in between other peoples’ pieces. She did this, and she did a pretty good job, but she was shifting from side to side and not looking up at all. The other participants commented on this, and she said that she could feel herself doing it, and it’s because she is so nervous on stage. I talked to her about planting her feet, imagining them growing roots into the ground to keep her literally “rooted” to one place. We also asked her to try to look up more, which will obviously become easier the more familiar she gets with the material. She tried it again and improved quite a bit. She says she will work more on her own so that she can continue to become more comfortable on stage.

Next we worked one of our Antonys. This is the one who consistently rushes through the piece, and she did it again today. She knew it, too. One of the participants suggested that, rather than walking on stage and then beginning, she should begin as she is walking. She tried it that way and liked it a lot better. Then I teasingly reminded her about how much better she’s done when she puts down her script and just calls for lines she can’t remember, and she smiled and agreed to try it that way. The piece really took off. She is now more enthusiastic about memorizing the lines, since she feels so much better performing without that script.

Then the participant performing the drop in exercise with Rosalind’s monologue worked. She has chosen another participant with whom to do the exercise, and they spent some time working out the pauses they will take throughout the piece. When they performed, it became obvious that they were not pausing enough, as the phrases were so long that the one performing was losing steam in between them. They sat down and re-worked it, and did much better. Rosalind still wasn’t satisfied, though, so she is going to break it down more on her own and bring what she wants to do to the next session.

Next was the participant playing the King from Hamlet. Once again, she rushes through the first half of the piece and then really falls into the second half – it’s very powerful once she gets there. We talked about why that happens – why she’s not connecting as much with the first half. She said she just likes the language better toward the end – it’s more powerful. She’s also got that part of the piece closer to being memorized. I suggested that she focus more between classes on the first part, and that, once she’s memorized (or mostly there), we can do a really great exercise to get her energy moving more forward and with more power, in which she will push against my hands as I either hold my ground, push back, or retreat. This has always worked very well when I’ve either seen it done or put it into practice with other actors, so I have no doubt it will work equally well with her.

Then one of our Emilias went, with the other Emilia sitting in as Desdemona. They have decided to be each other’s Desdemona, which I think is great. This one’s first delivery was very quiet, which we asked her to work more on. The other participants love the movement she is incorporating into the piece. Her volume increased the next time, just by her being more aware of it. I then gave her an image to work with to help her with her lustiness and attitude, and that worked very well. She’s going to do a great job in performance.

Then the other Emilia performed. The reason she has the first Emilia playing her Desdemona is so that she can mouth her lines to her if she forgets, which is a great strategy, and her increased comfort definitely showed in her performance. She literally blew us away. She delivered those lines with the least stuttering yet, showing a great understanding of the material, driving home her points, and even incorporating new movement into the piece, exactly where it made sense to do so. The applause from the other participants was loud and long, and they even cheered. We all expressed how proud we are of her, and she beamed. She performed it twice more, gaining confidence each time. The improvement is more than remarkable – it is astonishing.

We then worked the Duke Frederick/Rosalind/Celia scene since they were all present. The participant playing Duke Frederick is nearly memorized, which is fantastic and has definitely motivated the other two to work on memorizing theirs. We continued to discuss physicality and the need for Rosalind and Celia to have more “spunkiness” than what the participants were playing. They incorporated both of these directions into their next performance. But we needed to raise the stakes. I asked Duke Frederick to imagine herself as someone with a lot of power over other people, and for the other two to imagine themselves standing up to someone in their own lives who has power over them. This is obviously not difficult for any of them to do. With these “what ifs” firmly in place, the scene gained a lot of energy and passion.

The women continue to make great strides every day. They are getting more and more excited to perform, and I am getting more and more excited for them to do it!