Week 5: Poker and press-ups
February 8, 2012
30 November 2011
We spent the last rehearsal of the day playing poker — a character improvisation led by Assistant Director Jamie Rocha. I joined the game as Curio, Jonny McGuinness as Orsino, Sargon Yelda as Valentine, and Solomon Israel as Ferdinand. To quote Sesame Street: 'One of these things is not like the other; one of these things doesn't belong.' Orsino, Valentine and Curio are from Twelfth Night, but Ferdinand is from The Tempest.
We played cards, discussing last night's (fictional) exploits at an exclusive Illyrian club. The wine was old, but the gossip new. We talked a little bit about money and drugs, but mostly we talked about women.
'Full many a lady I have eyed with best regard, and many a time
Th'harmony of their tongues hath into bondage
Brought my too diligent ear. For several virtues,
Have I like several women…'
(The Tempest. III. i. 39-43.)
Apparently Valentine is a cash-strapped gambler, Ferdinand a smooth mac-daddy, Orsino a bohemian poet, and Curio a new-money snob. The improvisation informed each of our individual characters, but also helped make connections between the plays we are performing.
2 December 2011
In The Tempest, I play a spirit. Please do not confuse 'spirit' with 'fairy.' I have been assured I will wear neither gossamer wings nor holographic spandex, flattering as they may be.
Our spirit world is dark and visceral. These 'ministers of fate' (III. iii. 61.) have lived through 13 years of imprisonment under Prospero, and inflict torture on the other beings on the island.
Of the spirits, Caliban says:
'For every trifle they are set upon me:
Sometimes like apes that mow and chatter at me
And after bite me, then like hedgehogs which
Lie tumbling in my barefoot way and mount
Their pricks at my footfall. Sometime am I
All wound with adders, who with cloven tongues
Do hiss me into madness.'
(II. ii. 8-14.)
I and the other four spirits spent most of the week in rehearsals with Choreographer Finn Walker to develop a physical vocabulary for these beings. Our objective: to make it feel like the island is ours, the Europeans are intruding on our space, and when they leave we can return to our natural state.
How we stand and move is especially important because, apart from Sandy Grierson, who plays Ariel, we don't speak. Finn leads a warmup that is focused on a connection to the 'molten core of the Earth.' We stamp our feet; we do squats; we do press-ups; we say 'down, down, down, down' as we move. Most importantly, we improvise.
We improvise in response to words Finn provides, including 'empty,' 'burst,' 'juicy,' and 'I want.' These words help us create physical states that we can tap into whenever we are on stage. After hours of rehearsals together, the spirits are becoming quite a team. Perhaps that's just a side-effect of intimate improvisations to the word 'stroke.'
by Ankur Bahl
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