Days 9, 10, & 11 (7/19-7/21)

When we returned to class on Friday (after our 'weekend') we started by reflecting on the production of "Dream" we had all seen.  This play has born the brunt of our study, so each of us had plenty to say, both critical and complementary, reflecting on our own expectations and imagining the play as if our students could see it.  We worked some more on warm-ups and text work with Tom Davey and then after lunch had a session with Mary McNulty, whom I had gotten to observe working with eleven-year-olds last week.  She used essentially the same practice on we adults as she had on the young students, but extended up just a bit, on Helena and the scene where she is chased by both Demitrius and Lysander.

Saturday we began with a two-hour rehearsal for our various scenes, and all of us, I think, felt we could have done better at memorizing our lines and all of the other things our directors expected of us, like working with the meter and rhyme, and the audience, and our diction, and actions.  It did give us more respect for actors.  After lunch we worked again with Tom and then had a two-hour voice workshop with the dynamic Sarah Case.  Like all of the Globe professionals we have worked with, Sarah started with movement, the physical.  We were led through an extended vocal warm-up, which included alot of swinging the whole body around, and then added some of the text from our scenes.  Long ago, in another life, I had worked with a private vocal coach in NY on the advice of my teacher at H.B. Studios.  We sat at her dining room table and practiced vocal exercises, but I was never encouraged to use more of my body than my mouth.  So the Globe practice is very different, and I like it quite a lot.

After dinner a bunch of us walked up-river to see another production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, at The Bridge Theatre.  The contemporary arena stage theatre is opposite the Tower Bridge that you can see in the background of this photo:

The production was in some ways the opposite of The Globe production, as it used lots of technical effects, including playing areas, many with beds and some with trapdoors in the beds, that got rolled into various positions, lights, electronic music and other sound, and, most notably, 'silks', like trapezes, that the fairies could play on, taking advantage of the vertical space.  I sat in the third ring, for about 27 pounds.  All-in-all, this show was exciting and visually stunning.  Also, the production made the interesting choice of switching all of Oberon and Titania's lines, so it was Oberon, who is played a trick on and Titania who gains the upper hand.  The actors in these roles double for Theseus and Hippolota, and something of the 'dream' carries over into their world, so that Hippolota, the captive bride, gains power, rather than losing it when she marries.

Game of Thrones fans will note Gwendoline Christie  

 During Intermission

Sunday began with a bit of a glitch when the puppeteer we were supposed to work with didn't show up.  Suddenly we had two-and-a-half hours of free time.  I scooted over to The Tower of London.  If only it hadn't been Sunday; the world heritage site was jammed with tourists, and I didn't have time to wait in the queue to see the crown jewels.  The place is still chillingly atmospheric, with its history of torture and imprisonment.  I am thinking especially of Henry the VIII's wives, and their friends and relations, and Thomas Moore and Oliver Cromwell.  I did climb, with pounding heart and shaking knees, a steep spiral staircase into a tower room where the carved "graffiti" of prisoners waiting to die had been preserved.  

 the menagerie that was once kept here, prisoners like the human captives.

These are sculptures but they represent

A view from what was once a moat; note the high-tide mark on the walls.

Inside the castle walls

"The raven himself is hoarse who croaks the entrance of Duncan under my battlements."

I hopped into a London black cab and dashed back to the studio, carrying a sandwich to eat on the way, and wasn't late for rehearsal.  We did a bit better at our scene and worked out some crucial transitions during the two-hour rehearsal.  Some lines will be played for laughs.  Hopefully it will be fun and funny.