Late on Sunday afternoon I had to cut class because I had bought a ticket for Six, a musical about the six wives of Henry the Eighth in the West End. When I bought the ticket I didn't realize it was for 4:00 which conflicted with a vocal workshop. I couldn't exchange my ticket so I decided to see the show but I felt guilty for missing class. I got some notes from a good student. 😇 The audience seemed to adore the show (Which features a hit song, very now, that I have heard my students playing) but I am just not a lover of musical theatre and as a feminist I did have problems with the storyline which features a group of women competing to see who suffered the most married to King Henry. Then they try at the end to say they were all in it together and so on; but no, I don't buy it.
Today was a wonderful day at The Globe. In the morning we were split up into small groups so that three of us could each join a group of visiting school children and see what the teaching artist did with them. Mary was the skilled actress and teacher to whom my group and about twenty-five seventh-graders and their two teachers were assigned. First she brought the children into The Globe, and they had pretty much the same tour myself and my colleagues had experienced just a few days back:
We thought it was interesting that nothing was really simplified or spoon-fed to the school children, but that they were encouraged to answer and ask questions just like we teachers had been. Aside from the fact that the 'yard' part is open to the skies (this is where I will see tomorrow's show from) and that the cheap seats are right up close, the big take away is that actors have to keep moving in order to be seen from all parts of the theatre. After the tour, Mary led the students into a rehearsal room and seamlessly brought them through a close reading of a scene that was combined with purposeful movement derived directly from the words of the play in about 40 minutes. The students in our group were enthusiastically and energetically engaged throughout and a couple of them just shone with acting talent. The movement came first and the students were almost 'accidentally acting' as one of my colleagues said, before they had time to think about it.
After lunch we had a magical movement workshop with Glynn MacDonald. She started class by tapping a tambourine until we had all understood that we were to form a circle.
She is a magnetic personality and has been teaching for fifty years. She seemed to bring each person what he or she needed, using plenty of blue language and humor for some, warmth and friendship for others, and a spiritual approach for yet others. Her concept is Alexander Technique (Alexander was a Shakespearian actor who lost his voice) and it revolves around the idea of a psycho-physical connection or embodiment. She taught us about two main concepts: the four elements and the four archetypes: The Sovereign, The Magician, The Warrior, and The Lover, each of which can be realized by the actor through simple gestures and specific posture. Also, Glynn constantly quoted Shakespeare and other poetry and ended the class with the beginning and end of T.S. Elliot's Little Gidding:
We shall not cease from exploration ...
...And all shall be well and
All manner of things shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.
This folded nicely into both her work on the elements and, of course, the Tudor Rose.
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