Friday, November 9, 2018

Now is the Winter of Our Discontent.



Our lessons continued this morning with 3 intensive workshops. Embedded stage directions are found within the dialogue, ie, "I will strike you with my sword" indicates the need for a sword prop, and "thou must arise now" indicating movement.  There were no directors or stage directions given by Shakespeare.  Actors (and today's directors) must find all movement, props, proximity within the dialogue.  

Direct Address examined how and/or when the actor engaged the audience.  Blackfriars Theater uses a thrust stage, which is one that projects into the audience.  They also leave the lights on throughout the production.  All of this acts to engage the audience with the players, the players with the audience, and the audience with each other.  At the discretion of the actor, he/she may directly address the audience with dialogue, gesture or touching.  

The final, and best, workshop was a study and discussion of Richard III, the play we saw this evening.  We've seen this play several times so have a somewhat basic grasp of the plot and characters.  What benefited me from the discussion was the final take away of, "don't try to figure constantly how one character is related to another.  Just enjoy the scene, the drama happening between and among the characters.  

For the most part I have enjoyed the workshops, the people in our group and the performances.  The knowledge and experience within the group is wildly varied and that makes for a tough workshop that can satisfy all people at all times.  So, truly, we weren't that discontented.

This afternoon was free, and we went to the Woodrow Wilson birth home and the Presidential Museum. At the Wilson house where we were negatively impressed with his enhancement of legalized segregation in the Federal Offices. He was initially opposed to women's voting rights.  Not a stellar man. 

Richard III was a bit of a surprise in that it was played with comedic relief, which we thought was overdone at times particularly the murder of Clarence scene.  The audience was involved in several scenes (Direct Address).  All in all a delightful night and week.   No additional pictures today.  It was raining, and I was negligent.