Eleven hours is really no time at all considering how much
time is usually spent in the rehearsal hall, but it does wonders for an
unrehearsed cast. Not only is this where they get their first impressions of
what the performance will be like, but this also their time to see what the
audience sees, and to watch how our technique works from the perspective of an
audience member. This is their only time to hear each other’s voices as they
give stage directions. Here is where their chemistry is discovered and
nurtured. This is when they discover how to connect with their fellow actors and
to keep their eyes and ears open while they are working from the text in real
time. They are learning to walk, talk, act, think, read, listen and watch all
at the same time.
It is always encouraging to see actors understand how well
what seem to be completely arbitrary directions tell a story. Even those who
come with solidly formed ideas about what should happen in a given scene or on
stage in general come away with something new, even if it is a new question.
The queries arising from our workshops are always interesting and compelling. Actors have great questions, and the comments
and feedback created by this work give us a chance to better explain the
technique and refine how we discuss what it is we do.
Great moments of creativity and immediacy grow once actors
trust the rules of the technique. It is amazing how the characters and scenes
become relevant and how much more the audience invests in them. This particular
workshop gave us moments of people slithering across the stage like a snake, a
lively debate about exactly what ‘it’ meant in a scene, a stuffed lion
portraying the cutest Julius Caesar that anyone has ever seen and a
demonstration of the limits of mugging.
The end of the workshop is almost like Christmas when the
cast members receive their packets with their cue scripts and track
information. Now they have opened their presents, and are at home playing with
them before bringing their homework to their text sessions over the coming
weeks. Now the hard work begins, but while everyone is going over their lines
on their own, they have a much better idea about what their work will look like
on stage.
As we move forward, we hope to make these intensive
workshops a more frequent occurrence, open to anyone who is interested in
approaching Shakespeare from a new direction. We look forward to seeing you
there.
-Andy Kirtland, Managing Director
The Unrehearsed Shakespeare Project
