Have I kept you all waiting long enough?
I thought so.
I had hoped to conjure some deeper voices in this second entry by giving our company members the opportunity to tell you a little bit about themselves, but everyone, myself included, is extraordinarily busy balancing multiple day jobs, life’s little disasters and wake up calls, and family commitments galore as all of us must, in addition to the not exactly cake-easy work of fundraising and putting up the very first production of a not-for-profit theater company. Their entries will come, and very soon I hope to post excerpts from the journals some of our apprentices are keeping of their experience so far. But for now, you’ve got me. *
I’m very happy to tell you that we have finally assembled all of our apprentices and worked out everyone’s schedules, transportation and individual goals. We’ve spent about a week’s worth of evenings sharing some of our tools for deciphering the clues hidden in Shakespeare’s texts for actors, working on speech and movement, playing theater games and learning to work as an ensemble. The enthusiasm with which this group has attacked the work is inspiring. Speaking very personally, it’s a real gift to come out of an intensive three-year masters program and be immediately surrounded by so much curiosity and so many refreshing, unique perspectives on the work we theater makers do, and more importantly, why we do it.
Last night marked the Apprentice Company’s first official rehearsal with the Professional Company. We met early last week for pizza and introductions, but this was our first working session together. It’s been fun to listen to the ACs come back from breaks exclaiming “I just saw Juliet!” and “Did you see Tybalt’s car?! It’s perfect for his character!” The fact that we’ve been working in the same building with the PCs has added an element of excitement and intrigue to the process so far. That said, the prospect of actually approaching their roles for the first time at the table with our director, Dan Swern, was daunting for some of them. I’ll admit to being a little bit nervous myself. It’s rarely easy to mesh two ensembles at first, and that is effectively what we began doing last night.
The work John Keller and I have done with the ACs on text has been mostly oriented toward getting them comfortable with iambic pentameter, introducing them to some of the things that can be learned from the way lines are punctuated, and helping those for whom classical text appears on the page the same mocking way any sort of complex mathematical equation does to me. They're learning to take deep breaths, dive in and start speaking. Last night, Dan began delving into circumstance with them. That is to say, he started asking them to imagine what it would mean to actually be the characters they’re playing. The ACs will be opening the play as the local youths who get into a brawl because of the feud between their “houses,” which in this production represent the ethnic division of New Brunswick. It’s tough to ask a high school student to imagine the truth of fighting to kill or seeing a friend’s body laid out and seeking revenge, but that’s some of what they’ll be asked to do in order to tell this story. They’ll get to imagine themselves in happy circumstances as well, but Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy and last night was the first night the weight of that sank in for them. It’s one thing to sit in a room and talk through the circumstances of the play, and it is another to see it acted out in front of you. Before last night, when we talked about the fights there was a lot of giggling and “I’m going to kick your @$$” talk thrown around, but with the professional actors in the room the story of Romeo and Juliet began to come alive in a way it never could in an English class. Not that I have anything against English classes. Believe me.
I hope you’ll hear more from the individuals themselves because I don’t like speaking for them, but I should tell you that some of our ACs are pretty insistent about only wanting to act in Spanish. This is something many of them will have the opportunity to do in our show, but it’s almost certain that each of them will have to speak at least a few lines in English in group scenes where they are communicating with a mixed crowd. Speaking up in a first rehearsal when you’re not entirely sure you know what you’re doing yet and having to do some of that speaking in a language other than your first can be very scary. Our ACs behaved professionally and met the challenge head on, taking adjustments from Dan and asking questions when they needed help with things. As we go deeper into the process I think it will be great for them to see how this is what all actors do and that having questions about circumstances and language is a good thing. They’ll get to see that they aren’t expected to know how to do everything right when they walk in the door. That’s why there’s a rehearsal process. It’s one of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn as an actor and I’m still learning it. It’s all too easy to shut down and be hard on yourself and make no choices in rehearsal because you’re afraid of making the wrong ones, but as so many brilliant teachers have told me, you have to make those wrong choices in order to find the right ones. Nothing comes of nothing. As Deborah Hedwall would say, you have to jump. So far the ACs are jumping. I can only hope they’ll keep asking themselves to jump farther.
The language issue is kind of fun. I’m experiencing a taste of healthy discomfort myself in that my character will be speaking some lines in Spanish in this production. Despite having grown up in Miami, I speak no Spanish. I understand some. I’ve watched my share of Sabado Gigante. I speak none. French, un petit peu, Spanish, not at all. It’s great. We spend a couple of hours working on the ACs' roles and then I say “Ok. Now you guys have to help me.” According to them, I still sound French. But I’ll get there. They believe in me.
On a sadder note, this week marked the passing of an extraordinary mentor and director, whom many of the members of our company will sorely miss. He implored his students to be “friends of culture.” I am very grateful to have known him.
Israel Hicks.
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_15436162?source=sb-facebook
*Please forgive the grammar. I like to start sentences with “ands” and “buts” sometimes for emphasis. If any of my beloved English professors are reading this, I know. I’m sorry. I can’t help myself. I like to think Shakespeare would approve.
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