Creeping up Slowly

We have just had another rehearsal for Winter's Tale, Hector has improved greatly, and it was the first rehearsal with Florizel and Perdita.

Instead of running lines, we focused more on exercises to get the cast freed-up. This didn't quite go as well as it could have since the actor playing Perdita was at rehearsal on-time and - naturally enough - got pissed off that the others were late; we started our 1400 rehearsal at 1430 once it became clear some actors weren't going to show up. However there was great energy between the two throughout the exercises. We started with mirroring and, since this worked so well, we went onto Two Men in an Empty Space. Nothing much happened but the two had a fantastic potential space between them and we even discovered that the actor playing Perdita was definitely the dominant partner.

We followed these two exercises with Line Swapping. I could sense that neither actors were particularly interested but - with a bit of gentle prodding - we started to get somewhere. Instead of simply going over the same thing constantly and not getting any form of variation, I varied my tactics and threw in some side-coaching to keep the actors on task. The actors at least eventually varied how the lines were spoken. However, they hesitated to use their bodies when saying lines and I was forced to changed my focus again. I tried statues but again the actors would not give me any "big" offers so I mobilised the good old extend/advance, which got them working much better. At one point, one actor didn't actually make an offer for the provocation "bastard" but I could see the potential in her pose. After a few extensions she fully embodied the "bastard" who is alone, out-cast, and carries the weight of social opprobrium; from a simple nothing of an offer we can make a stronger offer that actually means something.

We then went back to working with the script. Florizel and Perdita are so in love that they should revel in each other's company. However, the two actors simply walked onto the stage apart and stood "chatting." I asked them to link arms and skip on instead; what a change in energy! Instead of just walking and standing around, the rest of the scene was imbrued with such life and bubbliness that the actors wanted to interact together more. It really is amazing how a simple direction can make wonderful changes to the resulting scene.

So inspired by the results with these two, I tried the exercises on the rest of the cast. I feel we now need to shift our focus to getting more action into the lines since we are getting far too much standing around talking; I am worried that if the actors don't start acting now then they will get into the habit of simply reciting their lines. To this end, I got them to do Line Swap and Statues. Hector surprised me exceedingly. Although he did withdraw at one point - by sitting on the steps during the exercises - I simply carried on rather than taking him to task for his withdrawal. He did join in the Statues exercise well and actually seemed to enjoy it!

I then asked to see the scene Hector and his partners had been working on whilst I was rehearsing with Florizel and Perdita. There was such a change! He was off-book totally - only needing a couple of prompts - as was everyone else! This, I think, gave him such confidence that he was more free with himself and endowed his movement with much more intention. Now, we just have to work on understanding the script more fully so the meaning can come across better.