Job 3 - Turn up for First Day of Rehearsals at least 15 minutes early
February 17, 2012
We started rehearsals with a meet and greet and then got stuck in to our first two weeks of workshop: improvisations, games, team-buliding exercises, etc.
The real luxury of this, is that, as well as allowing the cast time to get to know each other before diving straight into scene-work, it allows us to create a shared experience of the world of the play, independent of the text.
The thing about Shakespeare, is that it is very easy to get caught up in an awe-filled reverence of the magnitude of the text. Creating a 'let's pretend' world of games and improvs, with the actors in their French and English teams from the play, sets up a more relaxed and playful relationship to the story and the characters.
We also discover that asking the cast to speak a made-up, gobbledy-gook language is a really effective way of helping this to happen, as it switches off the temptation to look for psychological justification, and allows them to improvise more freely.
At the end of the two weeks, we finally come to the text itself and have a read-through. After this, the cast will go to work with Roxanna on Richard III full time for a fortnight. Maria's off to Sweden, Stage Management rub their hands in glee at this pleasant tonic of an early holiday, and I'll be left to... oh God - ruminate about the role of the Assistant Director...
by Sophie Ivatts
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