April 1st, 2009

Hi All,

Another day, another rehearsal! Hope everyone had a nice April Fool's Day. Tomorrow's rehearsal will be at 6:30 in TF Green 112, but only the Macbeths are called. Hope the witches have a nice evening, and we will see you Friday at 6.

After warming up and playing the vampire game (No rule: No vamp-backs), we divided up into two groups: Nick and Hannah went to work on monologues, while the witches stayed to explore their characters. We looked at what it means to be a witch, and what it means to be a witch impersonating a human. For the first exercise, everyone picked their favorite part of their bodies and lead from that area. Then everyone picked a different part and acted as though it had been removed. Finally, everyone picked their least favorite part, used it as a weapon, threw it in an imaginary cauldron in the center of the room, and set Harry on fire. We then returned to animal motionswalking on the grid as animals. Everyone chose a gesture they felt represented their animals and confined it to the right foot. Then we focused on how that gesture would respond to time, and then how it would respond to stimuli in the room (Special Moment: Harry's paw thing). Finally, we responded to different thicknesses of the surrounding air. The basic idea behind all of these exercises was that when the witches are human, there are concious efforts to act as humans. The witches in their natural states are different. Think about other gestures that might fit your animalistic state.

We then moved on to my favorite part of the evening: the story of how Mark got hit by a bus. The activity started out as everyone telling the the story from different perspectives, and we ended up acting it out. This is where today's quote of the day comes from: "Run over my son and I'll shoot you in the face" --Emma.

We then came back together to work on some scenes. For Act I, Scene IV, we started out by having those who had lines read them, playing with tempo, while those without had to respond with a gesture. Poor Jen had to stretch out eating an apple longer than anyone should eat an apple. Then we acted out the scene, with everyone being assigned a motion/objective: Macbeth wanted to get close to Duncan but could only interact with Banquo and Duncan, Duncan stood on a chair, Malcolm had to help him down, and the Witches wanted to keep Macbeth from getting to Duncan. Then we redid the scene with expanded objectives: Macbeth had to circle until his first line, when he paced; Duncan wanted to make everyone stand still; Banquo followed Macbeth, Malcolm had to be put on a pedestal, when everyone would lower themselves; and the Witches kept Macbeth from crossing a line.

For Act I, Scene II we read through the text, and then did the whole one person in the center game (ideas for a name?) while Arik, Emily, and I read the text. For Act I, Scene I, the three female witches used a scarf as magical item that bonded them, first chanting right next to it then spreading out across the room. We tried different ways of saying the text (little girls, high schoolers, old men, seductively) and then mixed up those ways throughout the text. Finally, we took a quick look at the beginning of Act I, Scene III, reading the text as Russian cooks. Kudos to everyone for the accents.

As you can see, it was a very full day. Everyone did a great job, and we will see you in the near future!

~Carolyn