Act I Scene I Actioning

We spend a good hour reminding ourselves of the physical side of the process we will be doing in this workshop on Shakespeare.

We do this by means of the Dumb Show from Hamlet. We do it in I minute, thirty seconds and fifteen seconds.

In groups we then look at the first scene in MSND in which we meet Egeus and the lovers. We spend ten or fifteen minutes in our 'Hamlet' groups (of four or five) familiarising ourselves with it from the point of view of Stanislavskian objectives and tactics.

We reassemble to discuss our findings. The work is good and clear.

At this point we're introduced to the methodology of Max Stafford-Clark of the Out of Joint company as described in Letters to George (Nick Hern Books 1990 P. 66 - 70). This involves assigning to each unit (often no more than a sentence or even a phrase) a TRANSITIVE verb. ie Lysander MOCKS Egeus. Theseus PLACATES Hermia. Demetrius FOCUSES Theseus etc.

Steve gives the group a list of 100 or so of these for safe keeping and use.

Bit by bit, having identified the objectives, we try to find a verb for each discrete action or tactic that the speaker employs. This is quite a thorough process but it does seem to provide yet another method for the actor to employ in her armoury.

Once again, this is not meant to be a straight-jacket for the actor but a framework to make her work more detailed and to make the analysis and thought about the work more thorough.

Out of Joint Theatre Company Website

Stanislavsky and Action

Third Session.

To begin with, in pairs we do non-contact improvisation.

Still trying to get economy of effort.
We then all choose an article of clothing to put on. A jacket, shoes, tracksuit bottoms, socks or a coat. We practise or rehearse (La repetition: rehearsal in French) this action. Then form a circle and watch each other doing it.

We notice the details. Sometimes something 'goes wrong'; a tracksuit bottom gets rucked up. We are not to worry about this. Incorporate it. Things 'go wrong' in life.

We talk about what we're seeing. It's an ACTION. It has a beginning, a middle and an end.

We then rehearse seeing how many sub-actions exist within it. We break it down into discrete movements. And count how many our ACTION contains. Some find 23. Some find fifty something.

Amazing. Fifty actions, all lined up in exactly the right order to get to the place that we're trying to get to. Something that every human being can achieve without a moments thought. But a skill, we reflect, that can be easily lost by a head injury, a stroke or Alzheimers.

We reflect also that this is a physical action with AN OBJECTIVE, i.e. to put the shoes, socks or whatever on.

Now, in front of the group, one student voluteers to do her action again blindfolded. She does. And with hardly any difference from her original effort, apart from a slight tentativeness while reaching for the article.

We ask her to do it again. This time the task is a bit more difficult. The coat is tied in knots and turned inside out. The student still fulfils her objective. So, what's different? Ah ha! She now has an OBSTACLE.

In pairs the students work together, each blindfolding the other and giving her an obstacle to overcome. All overcome their obstacles.

So, what's different? Very little. We fairly effortlessly incorporate the obstacles into the action. And no-one, once they've got round their obstacle stops there. Once over it, they continue to finish their action and achieve their objective. Without exception.

We then take the text:

A: Hello
B: Hello
A: What are you doing here?
B: It's none of your business
A: Yes it is.
B: No, it isn't.
A: Yes it is.
B: No, it isn't.
(Action)
A: Oh, that's all right then.

Students are to decide what the situation is an then together design objectives for both A and B.
It's interesting. We get a whole lot of different results. Not all of them are situations of conflict. Some are ones of attraction. One character 'chatting up' another. Or both interested in the other but too shy just to march up to them to say: 'Would you like to come to the club with me tonight?'

In which case the obstacle is their own shyness, perhaps.

Sometimes we have a situation in which a habitual shoplifter is in a store and sees the detective on the one occasion when she's actually paid for items. Her objective, hence, is to wind up the store detective. The store detective's is to catch her.In another situation a woman in a doctor's waiting room is trying to get past the receptionist.

Finally we do the Duck Pond Improvisation. Parent and Child in the park. The parent's objective is to sit in the sun as far away from the dirty and dangerous duck pond as possible - sunbathe and eat sandwiches. The child wants to feed the ducks.

Stuff comes up. At first Noura is having lots of fun being naughty, but Fola isn't fulfilling his objective enough in the role. He needs to have more STAKE in his objective. He's allowing his 'daughter' to get away with too much. It's an unequal contest. The sound of one hand clapping.

And not very interesting.

This is pointed out. He begins to fulfil his objective much more strongly.

We then add Fola's 'brother'. His objective is to 'keep the peace'. Sometimes he takes Fola's side, sometimes Noura's, not always getting on the right side of either. Now we have a three-way scene.

And as Steve points out, we could add another character (a little boy who wants Noura to go to the duckpond with her) or his snobby mum, or the parkeeper etc etc. Each one with a precise objective that keeps the tensions pulled tight across the fabric of the scene.

Finally we talk about TACTICS. The naughty daughter employs different tactics to get what she wants. If one doesn't work she switches to another. She charms on some occasions. On others she makes her mother feel guilty. She lies on a third. Deceives on a fourth - and so on.

If at first you don't succeed - try something else.

Second Session

First we do the Installation exercise. We walk round a Gallery or a place where an artist has made an installation. Ten minutes. In that time we begin to notice things in the room we haven't noticed before. Scuffs. Fluff. Marks on the ceiling. Writing on the board that hasn't been properly erased. The composition of shoes on a chair. Tidiness of someones chair. The untidiness of another's.

We compare notes. Everybody has been amazed by something that's at the same time mundane and extraordinary...

We give the feeling of this state we were in the title: 'Neutral'. It's a slow state we decide. An open state. An observant state. And, from Tai Chi, perhaps, an empty state. Not empty in a bad sense like being dead and empty. But empty, waiting to be filled up with something.

We now build onto this central, maybe impossible, neutral state. Firstly Attraction. It's higher in intensity than neutral. It's both attraction but can also be scary. Something that we might be a bit wary of. It can be a prophet that we are attracted to follow. Or a lover we are drawn to. Or the statue of the Virgin Mary. It's about being drawn. And also sometimes about having to leave that person or thing and not wanting to. To be torn both ways.

We do next California. It's loose. It's positive. It's high status. No one is better than us. No one more beautiful. We are never mean to people in that state. Never ungenerous.Why should we be? We're tanned and blond and beautiful...
We jog along the beach. Lounge on the sand. Do our exercises. Stretch out on a towel. Jive. We're cool. We're smiling a lot. We're always positive when we meet people. We're loose and we like to hang out. We're not afraid. We're not afraid to look people in the eye as equals.

We do Out-Breath or Lowest. As our breath goes out - or we sigh - we lose out energy. It just seeps away breath by breath until we sink to the floor. This is even looser than California. We're soft. When we get up from the floor we still do it on an out-breath. So even going up we're not going up 'strong', but soft. We totter. We stumble. We sag. We fall. But we always fall soft - and there are a hundred ways to fall. We do the scene from They Shoot Horses Don't They?. The 24 hour dance competitions. We - and our partner - are trying to win the big cash prize. We're staggering around. Falling (soft). Picking ourselves and each other up. But we still want to win the prize.

We do Bomb in the Room (which we later call Hesitation as well). We start back in the Art Gallery waiting for our friend. But our friend is late and we get more and more anxious. Frantic. We try a different thing. Two kids in the playground. They both want to say hello to each other but they're both shy. Their actions are Non-Stop. Or Never-Quite-Stop. Almost stopping but then starting again - sometimes with an unexpected start. We do it as a honeymoon couple. They're shy too. Don't want to appear too forward. Looking for a good night ahead but they don't really know what to do... We do it as a group with a carrier bag in the middle of the room. What's in it? It it going to explode. Mass hysteria. Mass panic.

We do Highest or 'Tragedy'. This is the most intense. Most visceral. From the centre. Massively wary of all danger. Everything is dangerous. You can't afford to take your eyes off people for a second. You may need to resort to shows of aggression but it comes as much from a profound sense of unease and danger at any sense of superiority. It's vulnerable. It's exposed.

We break.

After the break we remind ourselves of the states and then we choose a song: Row Row Row the Boat. We sing it in the states.

Then we split into pairs and sit facing one another on chairs. We practise our mini-speeches. As much to remind ourselves of the text as anything. Later, Steve calls out: "tragedy" or "california" and we have to make the gear-change from one state to the next, no matter where we are in the text at the moment he calls out.

Later still we're divided into A or B and the same thing occurs, swopping between states and A and B in rapid fire succession so that we get used to not thinking about it but doing it instinctively.

Finally A calls the states for B and then B has the chance to call the states for A.

The last part of the class, we set a chair up at one end of the room and invite people to come out with their 'speeches' while a 'prompter' or 'conductor' calls out the state as and when she fancies. Fola, Laura, Jess, Karine are some of the people we get time to see do this work. It's good and a lot of points come up.

About volume. The voice needs to be strong, whether you're doing a high state of intensity or a low one. Karine's Californian was the loudest for some reason. But it's possible to get a similar openess to the voice in Lowest, Tragedy, Attraction or whatever.

Gear Changes: take your time to make them. They don't have to be accompanied by text. Feel them. Really let them happen.Feel them happening. Don't worry about the audience. They'll be wondering why you've stopped in mid-track or mid-sentence, but that all adds to the interest. So long as something's happening.

Hesitation may be a more useful name for one of the States. It's about the uncertainty of the speaker. Low status. Shy. Afraid to speak. Afraid to have to tell you something. Hesitant. Tripping over the words. A confession maybe. A secret shame. Who knows?

We meet finally at the end and most feel this method can be useful. Not as a rigid system but as a tool to get you out of a pickle sometimes or to help you when you're blocked. But most of all to help you to realise that there is not just one way to say text. That you can always keep it fresh as you rehearse. You don't need to get stale or stuck.

My First Ever Audioblog

Ok. You can record your voice onto this blog. I've just done it. Listen:

Now, why don't you try one? Go to this link:

Audioblogger

As you go through the procedure, they will ask you for a 'Primary Phone Number'. What they're looking for is an American ten-digit number so use this one: 917 482 3027. It's for recognition purposes only. You can phone from your own British phones. All you have to do is to remember the American number every time you want to use the service. It's just like a username. Something to recognise that it's you. They will also ask you to chose a pin number. And that's it.

They will then send you a confirmation by email and a number in the US for you to ring. The one I was sent was a ten-digit number beginning with a 415 area code. When you've got your number to phone - phone it. (Not forgetting to put 001 in front of the number for America) and when you get through, an automated voice will ask you for your 'Primary' 917 482 3027 number and the pin number. Just key them in and ... Bingo. You start to speak.

And within minutes your thoughts, your voice, will be on the site. And on the web. Magic. Any time, day or night, you can add your thoughts about the work we're doing. A piece of inspiration that strikes. Maybe even a dream....

Dream at First Sight

Complications, Complications

A Good First session by most reckoning. Despite the fact that Steve goes to The Arts Factory in Parkhurst Road at 9.30, has a walk round the prison perimeter and meets and greets a couple of students who turn out not to be on his list and who, as far as they know are studying a completely different play, and not Midsummer Night's Dream at all.

Then Jacek arrives. Steve realises he has been told the wrong place and sets off for MG80. The class begins 20 minutes and more late. Hmmm.

The first half comprises a lot of contact improvisation. In pairs. Swopping pairs. Two on one. Five on one. Seven on one. One on two. Sometimes each pairing or group is left to their own devices for longer periods. Sometimes they get the instruction to change and change and change. We have a little talking, in groups of three, about what we discovered in doing this. And we have a group share about these discovery's. Stuff about freshness. Trying not to anticipate or 'help' the active partner etc.

Towards the end, before half-time, we do a Round Robin to see what we know about Shakespeare. In turn we can say one thing we know. If we don't have anything to share at that particular point we can 'pass'. We go round the circle a number of times. Sometimes people who passed on one turn of the circle think of something on the next - and say it. We're pooling our knowledge a bit.

When we come back, without recourse to the text, we try to reconstruct the play Midsummer Night's Dream. We identify the four main groups of people: The Betrothed of Athens, The Lovers, The Mechanicals and The Fairy World.

We start by looking at the lovers (plus Egeus). We have quite a hard time understanding the relationships between Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, Helena and Egeus so we 'cast' it and we ask the actors to stand 'onstage' in approximate physical relationships with one another. So we have our Hermia (Noura) in the centre with our Lysander (Fola) on her left. They hold hands. On Hermia's right is sat Demetrius but she is not holding his hand and she is turned away from him somewhat. Behind and between Demetrius and Hermia is stood Egeus, at one point putting his hand on Demetrius's head. On Hermia's far right is Helena, slightly disconnected from everyone.

The five are 'hot-seated'. Who do you love? Does he love you? What does your father think about that? What do you think he will do if you don't obey him? etc. Over a period of no more than ten minutes we establish clearly in front of the whole group the Rubik's Cube of relationships and tensions among the lovers and Egeus. But until this moment the protagonists haven't been able to speak to one another. The whole group is now split into groups of five and each group casts itself and is now allowed to interact.

An extraordinary thing happens. Within a few minutes all three groups are on their feet, struggling, arguing, pulling this way and that as all the tensions express themselves.

We sit down. We reflect on this for a moment. Everyone has seen it and felt it. Everyone has got the Lover's Dilemma from the inside. We touch briefly on objectives. How it was easy - and exciting - for everyone to play the roles - and to stick to the roles - because each participant had a clear goal or thing that they wanted.

We promised to return to this later.

We do a similar process with the Mechanicals, mainly concentrating on the Pyramus and Thysbe play. Together we establish the story. We again cast it so that we have a Wall, Moonlight, P and T a Lion and a director. And we 'perform' it there and then, including some of the lines we remember. We have the chink. We have kissing through the chink. We have the bloody handkerchief. The lion's roar. The double suicide. We also note the similarity of the story with Romeo and Juliet - and some of the parallels with the MSND story itself.

We also cast Oberon, Titania, The Changeling boy and Puck and we try to establish, physically, the relationship between them and why O wants the changeling.

And we 'reconstruct' at least half, maybe two thirds of the play including the flight into the forest, all the misadventures with the magic juice from the flower, and all the transformations up to and including Demetrius and Lysander falling in love with Helena, Hermia's rejection and Titania waking up and falling in love with Bottom.

It's the end of the three hours. We pledge to go away and read the play in the light of the concrete knowledge we now have of the relationships. We all seem to be confident that this has helped us.