KEEPING IT FRESH: The cast improvise a fun run

The cast have worked really hard within such a short space of time and I’m really proud and impressed at what they have accomplished so far! Very well done to all involved!

To breath some life back into the performance after repetitive rehearsals I asked them to do a “fun run”.

The rules are that they can completely change their character and therefore the interpretation by altering their use of voice, movement and body language. They must also attempt to stay focused at all times, which is difficult when the person you are playing opposite is acting out of character!

The fun run took place during one of our half term rehearsals. The following videos show how hard the cast have worked. To be able to improvise new characters, to play and have fun with the script, shows how well they understand the story and the script. It hilarious! Enjoy…

Part one:

Part two:

We value the arts!

Ensemble workshop: Exploring set possibilities

After warming up, we set to work exploring the themes:

• Love and Hate
• Peace and War

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After looking at a range of images detailing the types of alters you find in Catholic Churches, we created a range of still images. After analysing them all, we decided this one was the most successful.

We shall use this as the set for:

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We then worked on how we thought the Capulet Monument might look:

Cast workshop with the National Youth Theatre

On Tuesday 14th September cast members were allowed out of afternoon classes to do a workshop with the National Youth Theatre at the Carriageworks Theatre:

Workshop written up by Isabelle Poveda [ Tybalt ]

We arrived at the carriage works in true style, on a big yellow bus to be exact!

Our workshop began with our first sight of the stage we will be performing on. We got to know the stage by doing some space usage activities including walking round the stage performing commands on demand such as ‘jump’, ‘stop’, ‘go’ and ‘clap’ which is easy enough but when the commands and actions are swapped round it can get confusing. For example, when ‘go’ meant ‘stop’ there were usually a few people waving their arms around wildly as they tried to regain balance after wrongly launching forwards. And when ‘clap’ meant ‘jump’ there was always one person who sounded an embarrassingly loud clap as everyone else jumped.

For some of our activities we had to pair up with some one from the other school which was interesting and everyone got on well, some more than others as it was revealed that Steven [Romeo] had an admirer!

Next, an Eastenders version of ‘oy, av it, no’ where if you were to shout “you’re not my mother!” the choral reply would be “Yes I am!” and everyone would run around frantically to switch places.

Then it was time for Steven and Bella to take to the stage as Romeo and Juliet for the kiss scene! Their excellent performance put the other school to shame and the convincing chemistry between the two must have broken Steven’s admirer’s heart!

After a short break during which a tramp gave Bella six pence, we did a voice activity altering pitch, pace and volume where we witnessed Abbey’s super fast, very high version of “He’s dead!” which was quite entertaining.

Then we said our goodbyes and off we went back to our not so stylish big yellow bus, and returned to school more confident, six pence richer and Steven’s ego slightly larger.

In all- a successful trip!

Second Workshop

Continuing to shape our interpretation….

Last workshop we began forming an aesthetic and understanding of the two opposing families. To further build the world of the play the company begins to consider the setting:

The first question we needed to answer is where/what is Verona?

The cast completed a brainstorming session, the results are as follows:

Although the main points are listed on the image above, the cast had a discussion about being on holiday in European cities that was really atmospheric. Considering many sensory elements that added to the understanding of the environment, such as the ‘warm hazy heat’ and the ‘mumbled chatter and chinking of glass and crockery as people eat outside in cafes’. ‘Maybe the soft sound of a solo busker not too far off in the distance?’ ‘The pace is slower and more chilled than here in England.’

According to this abridged version of Romeo and Juliet, much of the action takes place in 3 main locations: A Street, Friar Lawrence’s Cell and the Capulet’s household. From the previous task on the creation of Verona, we liked the idea of a main square, perhaps this could be where many of the scenes located on “A Street” could take place? We developed the idea of a main square:

Lily sketched out her understanding of this square as the cast discussed the space/location:

I love this idea of a fountain in the centre of the square. Could this be made of actors, painted in grey, dry, crumbly, stone-like paint? Where else can these ‘statues’ be used? Hmmm… could be very useful? Are they the entire set?!! What is this fountain in the centre of the main square? What does it symbolise? Do they become gothic-like gargoyle adorning the Capulet mansion? Are they the Capulet’s monument? The city walls? How would they feature in the Capulet’s Ball, when Romeo and Juliet meet? Are they the backdrop behind the alter at Friar Lawrence’s place? This scene in the film Devil’s Advocate comes to mind…

Lots of work-shopping of this to come!

As the Capulet house had already been imagined in the previous planning session, the other main location we needed to consider was Friar Lawrence’s Cell. The general picture that is forming for the overall feel and aesthetic, lead the group quite naturally, onto a very catholic and fairly gothic environment:

The cast has now created a response to the environment and atmosphere they wish to portray:

These two previous sessions have allowed me to get a strong sense of the collective vision towards the play. Interestingly, the setting has evolved as a very historical, classic and rich European city in which, a modern world inhabits. I love this as the classic setting really reflects the concept of ‘ancient grudge’ and presents a sense of old money, a world of characters that have lived in prosperity for decades, yet plagued by hate and violence. The play is therefore, very much the culmination of an epic story that has spanned generations. The contrast of modern identifiable characters against a classic background will put emphasis on this. The fusion of old and now will be interesting and help marry this old play script giving it relevance and keeping it fresh for a contemporary audience.

Exciting times ahead! I can now devise workshops that are a product of our collective vision; it’s going to be amazing! Very very well done to everyone who has turned up to these initial planning sessions. I’ve been so impressed with your hard work, dedication and attitude. Let’s keep this up and hit the ground running when we get back [refreshed?] in September!

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Continuing to learn the plot:

After this short session, I pull out giant bags of popcorn and we sat ourselves down to a screening of Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 interpretation of Romeo and Juliet. As we watch it I ask the students to be aware of their responses as an audience member at certain moments in the story:

First Workshop

[Written up by Miss Hill]

WHAT’S THE PLOT?
The cast are divided into to two teams: Montegues and Caplets. They are given a bag each with numerous paragraphs that contain the synopsis of the play’s plot. It’s a hard task. They know bits, some more than others. We establish what we know; I establish what they don’t know and we agree to have a ‘cinema night’ one evening after school. [It has to be the modern version and we need popcorn.] After being laughed at because I said I’d bring in the video as apparently you can only use the term DVD nowadays, we move on.

Cast are given scripts and allocated parts. We look at the first two lines of the prologue: “Two households both alike in dignity”. I’m happy everyone knows that the two households are Montagues and Capulets and we iron out any pronunciation issues and make sure everyone knows that it’s Romeo who is the Montague and Juliet is Capulet.

WHO ARE THESE FAMILIES?
We know that they are “both alike in dignity” and that they both must have a degree of wealth and power within their city [Verona] and that they are enemies of each other. A couple of the cast members picked up on the words “ancient grudge” in the prologue and they said that they felt like “the families had hated each other for so long, they didn’t even know how or why they’re feuding began”.

As we are all in agreement to produce a modern version of script, I present the idea that perhaps the Capulet’s are rich and celebrity like, where as the Montague’s are rich and more business like. The cast like the idea of the frivolous Capulets, but want the Montagues to be more like organised gangsters – ‘a bit like the Godfather’.

So, we were starting to build up a picture of these two families. The cast got into two groups and I asked them to imagine that they were a fly on the wall in either the Capulet or Montague house. What could they see? What could they hear? What did it smell like? One person scribed as everyone in the group built on what the last person had offered: “I see a leopard-print carpets”; the next “I see white leather sofas”.

See images for results of our created environments:





I then asked the cast to lie down and shut their eyes. I read out each of the two different worlds and asked them to picture what they had created. After, I asked them about the atmosphere the homes created. How does it feel to be in the two homes? The general consensus was that the Montague house is “more for show than a home” not somewhere you could live in, “very neat and organized”. The Capulet household is a more inviting and homely space. A party house… “sounds bloody great”!

Time to get moving. We do the “click-catch” game as a focus warm-up. After a short movement exercise, walking around the room in different ‘states’ we begin to ‘see’ the two different households by doing the what I call “Resevoir Dog walk”: with the cast split into two groups they take it in turns to walk towards each other – first as the Capulets, then as the Montagues. The gangs walk towards their audience; the very nature of the forward force within the movement is threatening; however, they contain different qualities that are hard to put into words. Both groups presented similar interpretations of the family walking in this Gang-like formation. The Capulet’s movement had a stronger sense of freedom and more attitude than the Montagues and although formation was not thought about prior to the activity the strength and controlled movement of the Montagues gave them an air of order and discipline.

QUSETIONS ARE ARISING:
With a strengthening sense of the environments and movement within the two households, this brings about questions that we need to address:

1.What is the place [Verona] like in which these two households are situated?
2.What impact does the emerging lifestyles of the two families have on characterisation and the interpersonal relationships between the characters?

IDEAS BEGIN TO FLOW:
The cast were asked to begin to consider these questions in light of our modern interpretation and flipped genders. How are these characters beginning to emerge for us? We are beginning to have a lot to play with!

Eleanor and Daniel came up with the idea that Montague and his personal ‘right-hand woman’ who is to be a combination of the characters Lady Montague and Abraham are often at odds with each other, portraying a love/hate relationship. I like this idea, although I feel it was born out of them desperately wanting to absolve any possibility that may result in them having to have a passionate snog! But there is still time to develop this subtext into some kind of oppressed sexual tension! Mwhahaha!

THE OPENING:
We go back to the script and read the first two pages. Why has Shakespeare started the play like this? What is he trying to achieve? What do the audience need to know?

We realise that the prologue tells you the whole story before it even starts! We decide that the opening “Do you bite your thumb at us sir” fight scene is important because we need to establish the following facts during the opening of the play:

1. The two different households The depth of their hatred
2. The aggression/danger and level of violence involved.
3. We also agree we need to present and make clear as many of the characters as possible, as soon as possible.

INSPIRATION FOR OPENING SEQUENCE FROM FRANTIC ASSEMBLY:
In class, prior to this first rehearsal we did a workshop, based on a devising technique by Frantic Assembly. See website for demo: Click for link

We played around with the devising technique showing our ideas and working out what worked and didn’t work. We improvised loosely to the devising technique to look for incidental moments that were working for us and played around with different styles and number of performers. We added subtext through facial expressions and then this began to impact upon the movement.

I wanted to see if we could develop this use of physicality to create an essence of the two families on stage as an opening sequence. Could we introduce props to this way of working? If so what props would represent each family?

Suggestions were as follows:
Capulets: Champagne Glasses / stacks/wedges of money [paper] / cigars
Montague: Briefcases / documents / pens / envelopes / packages

INTERESTING RESULTS / DEVELOPMENTS:
The cast were grouped as follows and after each grouping is a short account of notable moments that came form the exercise:

Juliet and Tybalt: they played around with the props such as make-up. It was suggested that they were getting ready for a night out, which then impacted on…
Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio: who decided that they should also be getting ready for a night out.
This is brilliant as we then discussed that it gives a real sense of time and purpose to the scene. It would also lead us nicely to the idea that the following fight scene, takes place during a night out on the town!
Capulet, his maids and Lady Capulet: as ‘french maid’ style characters the idea of these three nurses fussing over Capulet. The movement that developed showed the girls manipulating him – moving him into relaxing positions [puppet–like?] drinking his champagne, smoking his cigar, he didn’t lift a finger. The movement and concept were powerful. It clearly showed Capulet at the head of the household, the wealth and his social position.
Montague and his right-hand lady: we mirrored this concept for Montague, using the props that are mentioned early.

After employing this devising technique and adapting it to our means we now have a strong idea of how the first moments of our play will run!

The workshop was at an end at this point, so watch this space to see how these scenes develop and follow our developmental workshops!