The last 3 trainingsessions

Just to keep an update on what we have done so far during the trainingsession.

We start each time with a 10 minute body warm-up given by any groupmember that is willing to do so.

Than a 10 minute vocal warm-up given by christina. If she is abscent, the one leading the session does a vocal warm-up.

The first training we used the chairs to step on on every 5th beat, and get of on the first. We have done this all togetheter and individually with the other taking the chairs away once you have used it.

Then we did some partnerwork with, did you see that. And we ended the session with puppet work where we all did our speech whilst being puppeted by to others.

I can't recap the second session as I had to work elsewhere, so now about what we did last night.

We started with the bow and arrow. To make sure that we are specific on the counts.

Than we worked with the tennisball. Mastering it more and more, with the group counting one to five, throwing on 5, catching on 1. The person in the middle did their speech following the groups rythm. If you forgot a line, you have to wait till the group was counting 1 again to start with that line.

Once all had done there speeches, we did it again but with a silent count from the group.

We ended this session Barking about.

Blog for 2 evenings

 Trainingsession Monday December 5th.

On Sinterklaasavond a bunch of us (appr. 10 people) gathered at Jet's apartment, where we, instead of celebrating Sinterklaas, worked hard at our Shakespeare tools.

Jet took it upon her to lead the warm-up and Anne-May directed the rest of the session.

We worked on techniques that Tim taught us on the Sunday of our weekend with him.

 Like: the singaa, the Greek helmet and the in-toning and later walking the verse and dancing it.

 Which was pretty cool I can tell you - it was really great fun to be amidst a group of people dancing whilst everybody is murmuring Shakespeare's lines.

We also did the exercise where one of us said the monologue and the others all danced the verse to that.

 Then we were divided in 4 groups and worked on the various parts of Act 2 of Hamlet, using the `I'm going to win this/I win, I can solve this/solved, You don't understand/you see'.

 We ended the evening with the exercise where one stands in the middle of the circle and says `you'or `now' after each line of his/her monologue.

 It was fun and very useful.

Thanks to Anne-May for initiating this and to Jet for graciously offering her apartment as our venue for training!

 

 

So we decided that a trainingsession starts at 8 pm sharp and when people are late, they just quietly enter and participate.

We started off with 8 people and later a 9^th came along.

Bart led the whole evening.

He started with asking us to imagine what, at the end of the session, would have made this a good trainingsession for each of us. And then say that out loud.

 In my case: doing an exercise that I really don't like but still, after having done it, can see the benefit of. Then we had to imagine what action we ourselves had to take to make that happen. We didn't have to say that out loud, so I won't do that here either.

Then we did the warm-up which involved doing some games where we ran around and clung to each other, exercised our spine and strengthened our thighmuscles and did some stretching. Then we did some voice-work.

We ended with the clapcircle which is too complicated to explain here, hopefully Tim will do that next week, it is one of his exercises.

Then we split up in pairs, doing our monologues while the other person interrupted us, at any given moment, with the question `is this about the moon, your father, the fishes, whatever' and then the speaker had to say `no, this is about you'.

This is one of these exercises that I really don't get because (with my monologue at least) it is sooo not true, but Bart who was visiting all the groups said: just do it and see what happens and the amazing thing was that it really started to work for me - it touched me and my monologue became more mine. I really started to love it. Other people noticed a difference in their physical behaviour towards each other or thought of tricks to remember which line they were on or experienced frustration.

Then we changed into different pairs and this time we had to interrupt and ask: `when did you think of this' and we had to answer `just now' and say the line again.

Or, if there was a bunch of things being said at once, like f.i. `stands he, or sits he, or does he walk, or is he on his horse',: `why is the second better than the first, or the third better than the first or the last better than the previous one' and then we just repeated our sentence, only way more conscious of what we were saying.

Then we translated/interpreted/said-in-our-own-words-as-we-understand-it-at-this-moment-in-time the 3^rd and 4^th part of Act 2; then we did part 2 again, which we had started on last week but had not yet finished.

We just played, no interruptions or discussions. At the end Bart asked our opinion on it. People knew that they had missed out on text and in my case, I liked Polonius a lot having interpreted him in my own words, more so than doing him in Shakespeare's word, sorry Bill.

Then we still had some time left and we spent that in groups working on the new scenes we have to know for next week, using the balls.

 At the end Bart asked us to remember what we had thought of in the beginning, what would make this a really good trainingsession and give it a number, rate it - we were asked to stand against the wall varying between 1 and 10.

I stood at 9.

It was a really nice evening and a great preparation for next week.

 

 Love,

 Maud

 

7 december 2011

Bart will lead the coming session.

We will start with our warm-up of max 20 minuten. Than we will work on our speeches in pairs where we will focus on the meaning of the lines.

And we will finish with act II in our own words.

We will train from 20:00 till 22:00. And will start at 20:00 sharp.

 

30 november

Dear all,

As I keep joking to those writing the blog that I expect it in verse, I'll take on the challenge myself:

'Twas yesterday we had our second session,

Exploring further all we learned from Tim.

So many enthousiastic people showed

Up for this training at the Crea theatre.

We warmed our bodies led by Esmeralda,

Then Jurre helped us get our voices ready.

Like horses then we hopped around the room

To settle the iambic in our bodies:

Ta-dam ta-dam ta-dam ta-dam ta-dam,

And one and two and three and four and five.

Next:

While we kept gallopping onto ths rythm,

The last stressed syllable we threw the ball,

To speak the first stress of the line that followed

The moment that we caught the ball again.

Then we spoke out our speeches all together

In one same rythm, which required much

Of all our concentration but we did it!

This done we formed a circle once again.

One in the middle who would speak her speech.

'What studied torments, tyrant, has't for me?'

One of the others repeated a word,

As for example 'Torments?' he would say.

'Yes, torments' would then be the answer to that.

Which would be followed by the next line spoken.

Next question was then to ask 'Are you sure?'

Which would be answered by 'Yes, I am sure.'

Last exercise in th'circle was to change

One word out of the line that had been said.

'The casting forth to crows thy baby daughter'

Was spoken and the question asked could be:

'So do you mean to say your grandmother?'

The answer then would be: 'Oh no, I mean

The casting forth to crows thy baby daughter.'

Through these good practices we learned to say

The words with more conviction and more power,

And know that these words that we choose to utter

Are the exact and true words only that

 We want and need to say at this time now.

Then we proceeded to the scenes from Hamlet

Oft called the greatest play in history.

We spoke the text we learned in our own words

So that we comprehend the meaning of it.

There followed some discussion on this matter:

Do we interpret or do we translate?!

For now, we said, we do interpretation

Though some discussion may be needed sometimes

To clarify the meaning of some lines.

For further understanding of the text

Young Bart has given to us some great tips:

The book that is called 'Shakespeare's Words' is one,

The other is online: No Fear Shakespeare.

These tips you can find on our website's forum.

Then one last note for those of us that will

Not be participating in the feast

Of Sinterklaas this 5th December coming.

There is a session scheduled for that night

From eight to ten held in my humble home.

All details have been sent to you by email.

I'd like to thank you all for your indulgence

By granting me the joy this rainy morning

To write this blog for you in my best verse.

It may be far from how great Shakespeare's was

But know it as my hommage to the Bard.

 

 

 

Training session 28-11-2011

And there we were: on our own! No TC to whip us into discipline, to lead us safely past the treacherous ravines of the iambic pentameter, to help us discern between the purposeful idiosyncrasies of metre and the downright crackpot inventions of our well-intentioned but unadapted left brain hemispheres. In short: we had to find our bearings a bit.

But fortunately there was Amber! Amber had taken up the challenging task of brandishing the whip over the anarchic lot that we undoubtedly are. Undaunted by a recent food poisoning she guided us confidently through some warm-up exercises, including (but not limited to) shaking, stretching and massaging each other's outward limbs and flourishes, after which some vocal stretching followed. Since Christina wasn't there to provide us with a clear and confident pitch, it was here that the piano (unexpectedly but aptly provided by the venue) came in handy and helped our sing-aaahs to stay more or less in tune.

Our vocal chords thus ready for some action, Amber intended to inflict some confusion on our enunciation apparatus and had us chant some consonant-oriented tongue-twisters such as "pretty preposterous peculiarities" and "rare rural eroticisms" to name but a few. Fortunately Claire came to our aid pronunciationwise and transformed the initial cacophony into something one's ears could sometimes almost make sense of.

After which the tennis balls were brought out.

After some teething problems we managed to actually reproduce the throw-and-catch exercise Tim taught us, and we worked our way through a few speeches. Individually at first, but then we threw a ball around the circle, while any actor who felt up to the task stood in the middle. The initial idea was that anyone who would hesitate more than a beat or so would be out, but our comraderie got in the way and we were too nice to each other to really uphold that rule. Happily, everyone got stricter as we went along, thus providing a genuine sense of victory and accomplishment for those of us who could actually get to the end of their speeches wihout faltering.

We tried the same with the scenes of Act II and this was a little more challanging, mainly because of shared lines, which involve catching and throwing that are sometimes quite close.

It must be said that several people had made quite some progress. Specifically in knowing when to catch and when to throw and how to speak a line of verse so that other people will know when to throw. It must also be said that we still have some work to do in terms of learning lines and finding a way of coping with the frustration that comes with black-outs, uncertainty of pronunciation and the sheer stress of having already caught the ball and still frantically trying to come up with the first stressed syllable of the next line.

Cheers to Amber for biting the bullet of leading the first session. Jurre's up next. See you all on Wednesday 30th at Crea!

Anne-May suggested that if enough people can attend, a session could still be held on 5 December (previously cancelled due to Pakjesavond). If you're interested, let her know her by email and you'll be kept abreast.

Yours truly,
Bart