The directors cast their shows on Monday afternoon, and that night, the directors led a script party in which they talked about some basics of language as the whole camp plunged into the text. Even basics like questions such as “What is verse?” and “What is prose?” turned into discussions of Christopher Marlowe’s “Mighty Line” and how his style of verse is different from Shakespeare’s “heart-robbing line.” The campers also got some basics of script preparation and how best to use the physical script. What should they write in it? What are some good ways of marking scripts? What should you do with notes from the director you get in rehearsal? One of the directors did a little activity about intention from Othello, the scene in which Iago tries to get the handkerchief from Emilia, and everyone learned about the excitement of investing each line with a clear direction and a motive.
Starting Tuesday, the camp began its regular routine. Workshops or lectures in the mornings, rehearsals in the afternoons, more workshops in the evenings. Our first lecture was with Bob Jones, ASC actor, Mary Baldwin MFA graduate, and this session’s director of Troilus and Cressida.
Bob talked about the rise of English theater, pointing out that when Shakespeare was born, theater as we think of it did not exist. There were mystery pageants, traveling acrobats, musicians, skits, jokes, dancing acts, but no theatrical industry. All that changed with the growth of London, and by the time Shakespeare was working, there was a thriving professional theatrical community. The campers all examined sketches and woodcuts of early modern playing spaces, and what these playhouses might have looked like, keeping in mind the knowledge they now all have of the Blackfriars Playhouse reconstruction we have here in Staunton.
At the end of this workshop, we looked at all of the original quarto title pages of the plays for this session and talked about the process of printing and bookshops and what sort of information worked as advertisement on the title pages. To solidify all of this information, the lecture ended with the campers breaking into groups to write and design their own title pages for the plays. The title pages sported printer’s marks, highlights from the plays, and elaborate names for the imaginary printing houses they came up with to publish their quarto texts.
Workshops so far have included clown, mask, unarmed stage combat, and music. Today there were not a few red clown noses seen among the campers. On Wednesday morning, half the camp went to a stage combat workshop with Jeremy West, fight captain for the ASC Summer and Fall seasons. Besides teaching the campers a wide variety of slaps, punches, hairpulls, drags, falls and rolls, Jeremy taught them all a great deal about learning and storytelling. A common misconception in learning a physical skill -- be it a sport, a musical instrument, or combat move -- is that speed equals quality. In any skill, the important thing is to learn specificity in technique and pattern, not to try and go at a fast pace too quickly, because fast and sloppy gets dangerous. When the campers learned to “fall” onstage, we rolled out safety mats for practicing. Really it is not “falling” so much as “controlled sitting.” If you can learn the proper technique on a mat and get all your mistakes fixed with protective cushioning, you can learn to perform the falls, rolls, and combat without a mat very safely. Jeremy challenged the campers to always think about what story they’re telling onstage. As an actor you might think falling to the ground all sleek and fast would be the most impressive thing, but perhaps a more interesting story would be a character loosing a battle to stay vertical. Which choice is best for the character? For the play?
This morning Ralph Alan Cohen, co-founder and Director of Mission for the ASC, lectured about the plays and about verse. Asking the campers for a line or two of the plays they are working on memorizing, he helped them to think about their stressed and unstressed beats, and he encouraged them all to use all the tools that Shakespeare and Marlowe give them to speak with clarity and grace. When he got onto talking about the plays, he used the same sort of material he uses in his graduate courses on Shakespeare’s plays. The campers left the lecture all buzzing with renewed enthusiasm for the plays.
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Showing posts with label troilus and cressida. Show all posts
Showing posts with label troilus and cressida. Show all posts
21 July 2011
19 July 2011
Session Two Begins
Camp begins with passion and determination. From the first introductions in the late afternoon on Sunday, these campers show their eagerness to be a part of something larger than themselves. We all sat in a circle and introduced ourselves, said where we were from and why we came to this camp, or if we were returning, what brought us back. One camper said he kept coming back because each new session, each new lecture or workshop was “a quest in excellence.” Another said, “I am here because I absolutely love to learn, I absolutely love Shakespeare, and I absolutely love people pursuing their passion.”
Many campers are interested in not only performing language but in forming it, with an abundance of writers in the camp, one voicing herself, “I do poetry, or it does me.” One camper came because she is “attracted to the humanity of Shakespeare’s characters.” Many want to learn “the craft of performing,” and how best to express themselves.
Among the fleet, we have campers experienced in swing dance, tap dance, Irish dance, clogging, waltzing, modern, jazz and ballet, contra dance, square dance and belly dance, to say nothing of lacrosse, wrestling, fencing, soccer, ice-skating, gymnastics, rollerblading, hula hooping, and pogo-stick-jumping. One camper mentioned she didn’t do much, "only" juggling. When Emily, our fire-breathing-and-juggling counselor mentioned her latest item on her list of skills was blacksmithing, one of the campers called out, “Oh! Me too!” This group seems not only to profess an outstanding number of skills, but also an overwhelming aptitude and eagerness to learn. Even those regretting their lack of skills in a certain area don’t close off their options, saying not “I don’t play any instruments” but “I don’t play any instruments... yet.”
Doreen Bechtol, the camp co-director, mentioned that when we think about putting up plays in only three weeks, with so many other lectures and workshops and plans and ideas and activities, it seems impossible. But she went on to say that that shouldn’t worry us, because doing what’s impossible is what we are all about.
Sunday evening, the whole camp trouped over to the Blackfriars Playhouse to take a tour of the building and to get a feel for the space of the playhouse. When they began exploring the space, filling it with their presence, their voices, we learned that these campers bring much more than a long list of special skills. They bring an ability to listen, to give each other focus, and to share and take the stage in turn. Even the few lines they spoke were a teaser for yesterday morning's auditions where we saw even more of their generosity in performance.
The auditions in ASCTC always hold an active place in my heart, as in them I see so much potential. Auditions are a blend of workshop activities and the traditional recitation of 10 lines of text. Beginning with running up, taking the space in turn, and sharing their names once again, the campers then learned a short round sung to them by the counselors. Once they learned the music, they broke into groups of three (or in one case, five) and schemed up and rehearsed their own performance of that song. These performances are riveting: some musically striking, some with clever staging or strong character choices, some performed in dance.
After all these short performances, the counselors break the campers into three large groups and give them ten lines of text from one of the three plays they'll be performing: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Troilus and Cressida, or Christopher Marlowe’s Dido Queen of Carthage. The groups then tell the story of these plays entirely without words, guided by the ten lines of text to create stunning stage pictures and beautiful movement work. I won’t spill too many of the secrets, as many of the images and gestures will be used in the final performances as they develop. The motto of the day remains, “Less talk, more monkey!” as the campers figure out their performance pieces with fewer words and more physical trial and error by working together.
Listening in to the directors, I could hear them asking each other, “In love with anyone yet?” “Um, yes, all of them.” “Give me any twelve of them and I’ll be happy.” And although I am uncertain how they can choose among such strong young actors, the plays are full of so many wonderful characters that I know they cannot help but choose well.
Many campers are interested in not only performing language but in forming it, with an abundance of writers in the camp, one voicing herself, “I do poetry, or it does me.” One camper came because she is “attracted to the humanity of Shakespeare’s characters.” Many want to learn “the craft of performing,” and how best to express themselves.
Among the fleet, we have campers experienced in swing dance, tap dance, Irish dance, clogging, waltzing, modern, jazz and ballet, contra dance, square dance and belly dance, to say nothing of lacrosse, wrestling, fencing, soccer, ice-skating, gymnastics, rollerblading, hula hooping, and pogo-stick-jumping. One camper mentioned she didn’t do much, "only" juggling. When Emily, our fire-breathing-and-juggling counselor mentioned her latest item on her list of skills was blacksmithing, one of the campers called out, “Oh! Me too!” This group seems not only to profess an outstanding number of skills, but also an overwhelming aptitude and eagerness to learn. Even those regretting their lack of skills in a certain area don’t close off their options, saying not “I don’t play any instruments” but “I don’t play any instruments... yet.”
Doreen Bechtol, the camp co-director, mentioned that when we think about putting up plays in only three weeks, with so many other lectures and workshops and plans and ideas and activities, it seems impossible. But she went on to say that that shouldn’t worry us, because doing what’s impossible is what we are all about.
Sunday evening, the whole camp trouped over to the Blackfriars Playhouse to take a tour of the building and to get a feel for the space of the playhouse. When they began exploring the space, filling it with their presence, their voices, we learned that these campers bring much more than a long list of special skills. They bring an ability to listen, to give each other focus, and to share and take the stage in turn. Even the few lines they spoke were a teaser for yesterday morning's auditions where we saw even more of their generosity in performance.
The auditions in ASCTC always hold an active place in my heart, as in them I see so much potential. Auditions are a blend of workshop activities and the traditional recitation of 10 lines of text. Beginning with running up, taking the space in turn, and sharing their names once again, the campers then learned a short round sung to them by the counselors. Once they learned the music, they broke into groups of three (or in one case, five) and schemed up and rehearsed their own performance of that song. These performances are riveting: some musically striking, some with clever staging or strong character choices, some performed in dance.
After all these short performances, the counselors break the campers into three large groups and give them ten lines of text from one of the three plays they'll be performing: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Troilus and Cressida, or Christopher Marlowe’s Dido Queen of Carthage. The groups then tell the story of these plays entirely without words, guided by the ten lines of text to create stunning stage pictures and beautiful movement work. I won’t spill too many of the secrets, as many of the images and gestures will be used in the final performances as they develop. The motto of the day remains, “Less talk, more monkey!” as the campers figure out their performance pieces with fewer words and more physical trial and error by working together.
Listening in to the directors, I could hear them asking each other, “In love with anyone yet?” “Um, yes, all of them.” “Give me any twelve of them and I’ll be happy.” And although I am uncertain how they can choose among such strong young actors, the plays are full of so many wonderful characters that I know they cannot help but choose well.
16 June 2011
Intro Post
American Shakespeare Center Theatre Camp 2011
The American Shakespeare Center Theatre Camp offers two summer Shakespeare intensives for ages 13-18 (residential or day camp). In each three-week session campers perform in an hour-long version of a Shakespeare play; participate in performance master classes (stage combat, dance, music, acrobatics); attend academic classes (theatre history, scansion/rhetoric, source study); and visit the Blackfriars Playhouse to watch the professional Resident and Touring Troupe actors rehearse and perform in our summer season of plays.
The shows in the camp's line-up have a Greek theme this year, in that we chose plays that Shakespeare (and Marlowe) set in Greece. In addition to studying Shakespeare and the early modern period, this summer's line-up will allow us to steep ourselves in Grecian manners, masks, and mythology. We’re also excited by the challenge of working on four plays that are new to our repertory: Two Noble Kinsmen, Timon of Athens, Troilus and Cressida, and Dido, Queen of Carthage, will see their premiere performances on the Blackfriars Stage this summer.
Session 1: June 19 – July 10, 2011- The Winter’s Tale follows the tale of King Leontes, whose irrational jealousy leads him to accuse his wife of infidelity with his best friend. After the apparent deaths of his wife and son, Leontes abandons his infant daughter, Perdita, who is taken in and raised by shepherds. Sixteen years later, a series of surprises and reunions force Leontes to re-examine his choices.
- Two Noble Kinsmen is a collaboration between Shakespeare and his successor with the King’s Men, John Fletcher, and is also an adaptation of a tale out of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Best friends Palamon and Arcite are imprisoned in Athens, and both fall in love with the same woman, the Princess Emilia, who they see from their prison window. Their friendship turns to bitter enmity, and they decide they must break out of prison and settle the rivalry with a public tournament.
- Timon of Athens begins the play as a wealthy and generous gentleman, but when his supposed friends take advantage of his benevolence, eventually driving him to bankruptcy, his attitude changes. Cynical and betrayed, Timon retreats to a cave in the woods and tries to shut out the world which continues to make demands on him.
- Troilus and Cressida takes place towards the end of the Trojan War. The eponymous lovers are separated when the Trojans offer up Cressida as a prisoner of war to the Greeks, placing considerable strain on her relationship with Troilus. Meanwhile, Agamemnon, leader of the Greeks, must try to convince his best warrior, the proud Achilles, to rejoin the fight.
- Dido, Queen of Carthage meets and falls in love with the refugee Trojan prince Aeneas in this play by Shakespeare’s contemporary, Christopher Marlowe. Though her love is fanatical and consuming, Aeneas eventually betrays her, driving her to desperate action.
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the ultimate frothy romance, Shakespeare’s classic tale of lovers, fairies, and amateur actors taking to the forest to sort out their tangled lives. The mischievous spirit Puck intervenes with a powerful love potion, while Oberon, the King of the Fairies, plays a trick on his Queen that leads her to a most unorthodox love affair.
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