"What seest thou else in the dark backward and abysm of time?" -- William Shakespeare
It's late and I'm tired, and I still have some work to prepare for the seminar session tomorrow. But, being a blogger of old, I know that I'm building readership, and the obligation to my throng of fans is overwhelming. Even if there are only three of you, I'm here for you!
The days go quickly, with the workload we are given, one thing leads right into another. It seems that the forty-two minutes I have for lunch during the year last longer than the hour I have here. Although the days move swiftly, there are periods when things move in slow motion. That period was today.
Part of the work we are doing here is "putting the words on their feet." A phrase I will use for the rest of my life. Performance is a major element of the Institute. I'm fine with this, and wish to incorporate much more of it in the class. We've done many fun things, including hitting each other with bandanas, 'physicalizing' words, blocking dumb shows, etc, all kinds of things we can do with kids to get them up out of their seats to bring Shakespeare to life for them. The ideas are wonderful, and I can't wait to use them. At times, (today) it can be tedious.
We have two professors who are our acting coaches. We have been divided into two groups and after a week and a half, we switch acting coaches. My current acting coach likes to act and does it professionally, and he explains how we can use the ideas in class. Ad nauseum. We've been working on the same scene from Richard III for two full sessions, and I don't think we've gotten through the whole thing more than twice. The professor gives the set up, some ideas, and tells us to run it. Great! So we do, then we read a few lines... then we get stopped, a suggestion is made, we argue the merits of the suggestion, then five more suggestions are made.... you get the idea. I usually remain quiet. Today I took a small role (yes, there are small roles, though it matters what you do with it!) and we never even got to my line. I contributed to the discussion and made some suggestions, because at times that's what I think these sessions are all about, contribution - and EVERYONE should have a say, and it should mean something. It gets frustrating, and there are many people here who are not shy about expressing it. I sort of let things go, take what I can from the session, and then worry about dinner. Some others really let it bother them, and that sucks, I don't want anyone to come away from this wonderful experience and feel like crap, or feel like they weren't considered for an opinion or contribution. Or hell, leaving with a sense of incompleteness because we never finished the damn scene. One of the many ironies floating around is a tee shirt -"I made a scene at the Folger Library." At the moment I'm hoping everyone does.
On a lighter note, tonight, usually we hang out in bunches, but this evening I hung out with my roommate. He's a great guy, from Maryland. Yeah, I pronounce it that way just to bug him, but he's awesome. Young, 28 or so, but he's got a lot of great insight to the plays, and a lot of great ideas about teaching. That's the collateral damage about being here, I'm not only learning from the Institute, but the other 24 people here, from whom I'm stealing as much as I can.
And now it seems my life is about to be rounded with sleep.
Mahalo
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1 comment:
So you had to work on a scene with a guy who acts! Oy. I'm not surprised it became tedious. Watch the movie Looking for Richard by Al Pacino, in which he stages scenes from Richard III interspersed with explorations of what Shakespeare means to modern people. It's a brilliant film.
As with all seminars, workshops, etc., take what you can use and forget the rest. There's bound to be more dross than gold.
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