Rehearsing the Four Groups

Work with the teams individually.

Team 2 Suzie, Stephanie, Noura and Kellie, Rebecca and Tracey making good progress marking out the scene and finding some good physical tactics. The text needs to be studied and learned and more physical variety put into it. Good.

Team I with Hannah, Annalaura, Keira, Stephanie, Laura, Nicola. This developed into working line-acting. Slowly we established the 'rules' for this:

Straight line across the front of the stage. Don't step off it. Any movement along the line or change of position is fine - so long as the actor rejoins the line as soon as is possible. Also we found we all needed to develop the full range of vocal energy. Group had to be given permission to use the top of their range 'Tragic' intensity. Otherwise it was all too polite. All too RSC.

Did the 'fight' between Dem and Lys with Herm and Eg joining in. Did A/L's interruption. NEXT WEEK MUST WORK WITH NICOLA ON END OF THAT ACT AND SECOND SCENE.

Team three. We sat back down again. Tried to locate the text. At the moment all the energy is being dissipated and generalised. This text may also benefit from line acting. Did work on getting Jessica and V to find their 'tragic' intensity. J did it without furrowing her brow, finally, and V did it by not flinging her eyes and hands around. Karine and Rhian seem to be able to locate it.

Saying, too that this wasn't a state they needed to be in all the time - but it is a state that they needed to be able to reach at will.

Work on Scenes

Lot of work together on Act 2 Scene 1 line 188 on. We remind ourselves about how the language works and of the playfulness of the language:

I love thee not, therefore pursue me not...

The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me...

And here am I, and wood within this wood...

And how we can make the language work for us. Take our time. Observe the full stops. The mid-line breaks. Let the words carry us as the water carries a good swimmer.

We then work the scene.

What comes out is a strengthening of Helena. She's much more powerful than her words might seem. But nor should we overlook the violence of the language, action and tactics employed by both sides. She says she'll be like a dog following Demetrius around. He can abuse her, ignore her and even beat her as long as she can follow. The worst thing he can do will be the best thing for her. This is pure S and M.

Demetrius then points out how vulnerable in the wood at night with someone who hates her and can't shake her off. And in effect, threatens to rape her.

To which, we wondered, does she in effect reply: 'Come on then, big boy!'? Whatever. Does this scare the bejesus out of him because his next thought is to run away: 'I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes', thus prompting Rebecca and others to wonder if Helena comes across as a bunny boiler....

We spoke a lot about the escape to the wood releasing the inhibitions of the lovers. They behave more extremely and more recklessly outside the confines of Athenian society and social restraint. This even before they get 'magic-ed'.

We talk about this being taken to another place in Shakespeare. Exile. Banishment. Shipwreck.About Dreams and Ghosts and the exercise of the imagination which is so lacking in - for example - Emmerdale...

Decided that the stakes have been raised in the forest. Lots of Passion. No inhibitions. From both protagonists. And actors.

After the break a lot of work with Team 3. Particularly what's going on between Helena and Hermia. How Hermia is genuinely trying to reassure Helena that this is not some trick they're playing on her, but then when she realises that Lysander is genuinely in love with her rival, turns on Helena with a vengeance.

Then, twenty minutes with Team 2. Work with Stephanie Mac trying to get more seductiveness out of her. More mockery. Which will give Susie more to work off. This before we add physical actions. Then some work with Tracey.

And a promise to work first with Team one next week.

Also the plan to meet at 10 and then to spend an hour with each group while the others rehearse elsewhere.

Also to 'mop up' anybody who felt they wanted a bit more to do by giving them parts in an 'improvised' Pyramus and Thisbe show at the end of the showing in five weeks time.

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An alternative way of contacting me, by the way, - if you don't want to do it via the blog itself - is via the intenal phone system. Above is my extension number. It has a voicemail facility and I would normally pick up messages at these times:

Monday Morning/Lunchtime
Wednesday Morning/Lunchtime
and Thursday Morning early or Thurday Lunchtime
sometimes Friday.

I can access the number from outside college but I'm only likely to do that when I'm expecting a call.

Dream Groups

More text work and actioning. A lot of work with Fola and Annalaura. It's not enough just to know the actioning verbs you've chosen. You have to carry them out 100%. If Egeus's first tactic to get Theseus's support is to CHARM him, then a scowly charm will not do. Fola cannot afford to say the words 'full of vexation come I' with vexation in his voice. The vexation needs dressing in charm.

Similarly, though we may have decided that this isn't the first time Egeus has 'gone off on one' and that, in truth, the last thing Theseus needs to be sorting out on the eve of his wedding is a big family problem, the poor old Duke of Athens (with his objective of RESOLVING CONFLICTS WITHIN THE STATE, say,) would no doubt want to WELCOME Egeus.

Later he may need to PLACATE, to WARM, to MOLLIFY, to SOOTHE, to COMPLIMENT, to REMIND and to COAX. But he may also need to WARN. And even to THREATEN in order to get the two (four?) sides in the dispute to come to their senses.

And as we began to discover, by taking the time to decide the units and assign action verbs to them, we are beginning to analyse and understand the underlying structure of the scene. An understanding that benefits all concerned.

We then begin to have a shared Architecture of the Scene. And by Architecture, is meant not just the ground-plan, but everything right up to the roof-top into which may be accommodated every fixture and fitting. This may be one:

Egeus enters to CHARM his Duke. Theseus, already alert to the implications of Egeus's arrival, nonetheless, WELCOMES him. Egeus then FLATTERS his daughter and ENTHUSES Theseus with Demetrius's qualities which Hermia BLOCKS. The Duke SOOTHES Hermia's worries, but WARNS her not to defy the law etc etc.

This gives the actors a frame on which to hang the scene. It's not rigid. It can be adapted. It can be completely changed. But in the very act of doing it we are beginning to understand the scene. To make sense of it together. To de-mystify it. And, hopefully, to build a good foundation on which the scene will work when, finally, we put it on its feet.

The scene also begins its journey from the page to the space. The actors begin to study the map. To plan a route. If we were singers, it would be our score. If dancers the dance itself.

This is all as Stanislavsky and Max Stafford-Clark would have intended.

But this is not the only work that needs to be done. We all need to ask questions about, for example, why Hermia is on stage in the first place. Why didn't she say to Egeus: " You go to Court if you want. I'm not having my dirty linen aired in public."

It raises questions of her power in the society we create in the play. Of her need not to get on the wrong side of her father. Of her duty to her father. Her love for him. Of her need to appear the wronged one in the eyes of public opinion.

* * *

We also did work on Being Men. Walking and following. Copying models. We started with Fola - as he's the only man in the group - but we were soon being men like everyone else.

We then had a little go at being girly before we split into two groups and were male and female lovers. Walking. Embracing. Proposing. Giving lover's presents to one another.

We also had a thought about costume for the performance. Rebecca, it seems, may be able to meet many of our needs....

THE CASTING

I've decided to go with the list exactly as it was written down. That seems fine. So:

Act I and the first bit of Act 2 for Hannah, Nicola, Stephanie and Keira. Fola, Laura Jayne and Anna Laura.

Act 2 Main for Sue, Stephanie M, Tracey and Rebecca.

and

Act 3 for Karine, Verity, Rhian and Jess.

Puck and Oberon are Noura and Kellie

I am aware that Laura Jayne as Hippolyta is only one line.... she will have a nice role in the Play Scene.

If anyone else feels they aren't getting enough, they will have a nice role in the play scene as Pyramus, Thisbe, Moonshine etc. Please make any gripes and unhappinesses clear to me next Wednesday.

Fifth Session

Casting the Dream

We spend most of today deciding who is going to say what and how they're going to say it.
Firstly a little demonstration of how to read over your book, exchange as much eye contact as possible and have your feet planted firmly on the floor.

We then split into groups to practice doing this for a while.

We come together and see the results of our labours. Hannah and Kellie and the Stephanies. At first there is not as much energy in the work as is required. And not as much understanding of the text as is needed; what the protagonists are saying to one another. What effect they are trying to achieve with their words. Since she hasn't done this before Kellie is sounding like a speak your weight machine. But once she understands what's meant and required, it comes to life. Good. Stephanie 2 also shows a good natural quality for her role. Karine also a valuable and active participant.

Likewise Stephanie M at first speaks a bit like Stephen Hawking, but once we start doing the Whisperer on the group and suggesting actioning verbs: ALERTS, for example, life is breathed into the scene. We even decide, later, that Stephanie M's action verb should actually not be 'alerts' but something like 'cheers' or 'encourages' (rallies?). That she's saying: Blimey; everyone's getting married now; if only we had Bottom, we'd all be on our way to Hollywood next week...

Jess and Verity have a go. They're already sounding engaged with one another, but, there again, it is a scene of argument. Once again, we employ actioning verbs to try to see the tactics or units more clearly. When are they 'mocking'? When 'crushing'? When 'humiliating'? We do a little work too on Verity's verbs towards the men when Jess tries to scratch out her eyes...

We definitely avoid any terms like 'they are getting angry with' or 'they are hurt by' or etc.

Finally, Susan, Rebecca and Noura have a go, though R thinks they're not ready. And, once again, at first, it is wooden and stilted. But once we begin, together, to understand what is being said and why it is being said, the scene comes to life.

We realise that everything has a meaning. Everything has a reason for being in the scene. That we always have to remember Shakespeare sitting at his laptop going: 'what if both Demetrius and Lysander wake up and the first person they see is Helena...? And what if, a moment later Hermia walks in - and, of course, they both totally ignore her...? The audience are going to love this one...'

And if we don't understand what we're saying, or if we don't understand why Shakespeare put it in the scene and can't work it out, then we'll cut it out and won't say it.

This is not magic. It's not about great acting. Or having a stunning intellect. It's about working it out for ourselves so we're confident with what we're doing and saying. And why we're doing and saying.

After Break Steve suggests that the work centres basically around the story of the lovers. We go through the text and discover that there are three groups of scenes in which the main part of their story is told. A kind of introduction, a complication and a resolution.

We gradually, as much physically, as for any other reason, cast three 'teams's of lovers and an Egeus and Theseus and a Puck and Oberon.

We also decide that if the non-lovers have less to do, then we might do the Mechanicals play at the end of the three lovers scenes as a way of making everything fair and equal.