Friday February 25th
WARM-UP
We warm up by saying yes. In pairs everything your partner suggests you agree to utterly: 'Hi!'. 'Hi!'. 'You look great!'. 'So do you!' 'Shall we cook an omlette?' 'Yes! Let's!' 'This is great fun!' 'Yes' Shall we crack the eggs on our heads?' 'Yes. Crack ten on mine' 'OK' all the while miming the actions.
We then do it in bigger and bigger groupings until the whole group is agreeing to whatever is proposed; jumping up and down like frogs, singing a-ring-a-ring-of-roses or doing the Hokey Cokey.
MUSIC
We listen to four or five tracks from the Brecht/Eisler CD freshly arrived from Amazon Germany. Students are asked before they hear the Overture to think of adjectives as they listen. At the end, some of the adjectives are: shocking, dramatic, lively, mysterious, searching, frantic, exciting, loud, clear ....
We listen next to Praise of Learning in which a group of workers who want to learn to read sing it to the disillusioned teacher Vessovchikov. As the recordings are in German we read the English text first:
Study your ABC. True, it's not enough, but
Study it. Don't neglect your potential
But learn! Knowledge is essential.
You must be ready to take over
(or 'You'll be the ones to give the orders' in another translation I've used)
and this in the final verse:
Don't hesitate to question things, comrade
Don't just accept them but
See for yourself.
What you yourself don't know
You don't know.
and these lines that seemed particularly graphic:
Check through the invoices.
You have to pay them.
Learn how to point to each single item
Ask how it came to be there.
You must be ready to take over.
We listen next to the song the revolutionary workers sing to Pelagea after Pavel has been arrested and shot. In particular the complex ideas contained in:
But
As he went to the wall where they intended to shoot him
He went towards a wall which had been built by men of his own kind
And the rifles they aimed at his breast, and the bullets
Had been made by men like himself. Merely absent
Were they, therefore, or dispersed...
The ideas appear to be about something very strong and concrete in his death; that even the bullets that entered his body and the rifles that fired the bullets were made by people just like him. The people who made the bullets may not have been there physically when he was shot but they were there in the form of the bullets they made, or in the form of the bricks that formed the wall in front of which he stood to be shot. So he wasn't alone. He was with his own kind. Even in his death.
All the other workers were 'merely absent.. or dispersed' but for Pavel
... were still there
And present in the work of their hands...
And then this, perhaps the most extraordinary and 'forgiving' line of all:
Not even
Those who were ordered to shoot him differed from him, or were ever incapable of learning.
The revolutionary workers sing that they haven't given up on the police or the soldiers who shoot Pavel, because they are no different from him. Or themselves. In the economic sense, they are workers too. They are part of this huge throng of people who are present at Pavel's death. Even though it is early morning when he's taken out to be shot, the workers are there in the factories and the chimneys and the guns and the bullets that form the whole picture as he is taken to the wall...
At the very moment she is told of her son's death, Pelagea Vlassova receives a song of comfort and reassurance: this was not an accident; it had a meaning. It was not in vain.
We listen to the 'Vlassovas of all Countries'. We listen out for the number of places we can make out from the German. We think we hear Shanghai, Calcutta, Berlin. Some think they hear Moscow. Hannah thought she counted ten but has forgotten some of them.
We listen to the music of 'Get Up!'. Pelagea Vlassova is ill. She is ground down by her work - and by the death of her son and the doctor has said she must rest. While she lies in her sick-bed the revolutionary chorus sing to her:
Get Up!
You are sick, but the Party's dying
You are weak, but you must help us....
WORKING ON THE TEXT
We then look at the end of Scene Two. Pelagea's flat has been raided and wrecked by the Police but they didn't find the duplicator that was hung out the window. The police have now gone but the Revolutionaries have some explaining to do - and - just as important, if not more - leaflets to distribute to encourage the Suchlinov factory workers to join tomorrow's strike...
In pairs our students prepare the text. Meanwhile chairs are set up: one on one side of the stage for Pelagea. Four chairs facing her, square on, for the Revolutionaries Andrei, Anton, Masha and Ivan. And one chair on the same side as them but not quite with them for Pelagea's son. As the text is about to make clear, he's rather Piggy in the Middle. It's his fault his mum's house has been wrecked by the Police, but the revolutionaries still have a job to do and ... it's his turn to distributes the leaflets in the factory.
This is the first time the students are not playing the text out front. But all the old 'rules' apply: read as much text as you can, look up from the text, make eye contact with who you are meant to be speaking to and say the bit of text that you have just read. If you are in the scene but don't have any text, don't look at the book. Keep your eyes in the scene. Remember, also, that, once you're up there on stage, your physicality is a big giveaway. You have to be physically in the scene the whole time - even the tiniest things 'read' to an audience watching you.
While not speaking and not looking at the book, though, you have to be ready to come in with your cue. You have to be aware of your place in the scene. In the structure of the text. Our two excellent casts are:
Group A: Louise, Rebekah, Natalie, Claudia, Charlene and Dean.
Group B: Abigail, Chris, Tanya, Carlos, Kayleigh (not Jordan) and Carly.
(Thanks for the comment pointing out my mistake, Chris, and apologies to Kayleigh).
Some of the things we discover:
The strength of the two sides. That both have 'right' on their side. When Anton says: 'There's not that much risk', Pelagea's reply is withering, and as she quite rightly concludes: 'stick your head through that noose; there's not much risk'. But at the same time, what are they to do? The stike has to be called. If they don't distribute the leaflets, who else will?
That when the revolutionary workers talk to each other about how many leaflets they have and who is meant to be distributing them, it works best when they actually say it more for Pelagea's sake than for their own. They actually know the answers to the questions they're asking one another.... What they're really doing is dropping big hints in Pelagea's direction...
That there is a musicality in the writing. Which has to be mirrored in the playing. Hannah offers us a good word: cadence. There are cadences, indeed. Not to mention phrases, 'builds' and climaxes all of which we ignore at our peril, not only within a monologue but also in long or short scenes involving two - or twenty voices.
By that logic there will also be pauses, slowing-downs, speeding-ups, bits that get louder, bits that get softer, bits that get harsher - just as in a musical score. One excellent example of this is at the end of the monologue 'Not much risk?' At the end we expect Pelagea to say: 'Pavel's not going!'. Instead she says: 'I'll go.' The actor just has to be aware of the build to a pause. The architecture of the writing. And just as with the musician reading his score, why shouldn't the actor be fully aware of that from the word go?
We continue with the idea that clarity and simplicity are everything. As ever.
And that by the end of each ninety minute session, the playing of the scene elicits a spontaneous round of applause from each audience. And rightly so. Both teams have worked really hard to focus down to exactly what was needed to make the scene clear to us. No excess gestures. No sentimentality either of voice or face or body language. Everything strong. Everything clear. For participants and observers alike.
We talk about this term - perhaps from Yoga - that there is a CORRECT ENERGY for everything. For chopping wood. For holding a baby. For splashing water on your face. Once you know what it is you're doing - you know how to do it...
Great third week. Everyone - I hope - goes away clearer.
We may be beginning to Cook on Gas.
We warm up by saying yes. In pairs everything your partner suggests you agree to utterly: 'Hi!'. 'Hi!'. 'You look great!'. 'So do you!' 'Shall we cook an omlette?' 'Yes! Let's!' 'This is great fun!' 'Yes' Shall we crack the eggs on our heads?' 'Yes. Crack ten on mine' 'OK' all the while miming the actions.
We then do it in bigger and bigger groupings until the whole group is agreeing to whatever is proposed; jumping up and down like frogs, singing a-ring-a-ring-of-roses or doing the Hokey Cokey.
MUSIC
We listen to four or five tracks from the Brecht/Eisler CD freshly arrived from Amazon Germany. Students are asked before they hear the Overture to think of adjectives as they listen. At the end, some of the adjectives are: shocking, dramatic, lively, mysterious, searching, frantic, exciting, loud, clear ....
We listen next to Praise of Learning in which a group of workers who want to learn to read sing it to the disillusioned teacher Vessovchikov. As the recordings are in German we read the English text first:
Study your ABC. True, it's not enough, but
Study it. Don't neglect your potential
But learn! Knowledge is essential.
You must be ready to take over
(or 'You'll be the ones to give the orders' in another translation I've used)
and this in the final verse:
Don't hesitate to question things, comrade
Don't just accept them but
See for yourself.
What you yourself don't know
You don't know.
and these lines that seemed particularly graphic:
Check through the invoices.
You have to pay them.
Learn how to point to each single item
Ask how it came to be there.
You must be ready to take over.
We listen next to the song the revolutionary workers sing to Pelagea after Pavel has been arrested and shot. In particular the complex ideas contained in:
But
As he went to the wall where they intended to shoot him
He went towards a wall which had been built by men of his own kind
And the rifles they aimed at his breast, and the bullets
Had been made by men like himself. Merely absent
Were they, therefore, or dispersed...
The ideas appear to be about something very strong and concrete in his death; that even the bullets that entered his body and the rifles that fired the bullets were made by people just like him. The people who made the bullets may not have been there physically when he was shot but they were there in the form of the bullets they made, or in the form of the bricks that formed the wall in front of which he stood to be shot. So he wasn't alone. He was with his own kind. Even in his death.
All the other workers were 'merely absent.. or dispersed' but for Pavel
... were still there
And present in the work of their hands...
And then this, perhaps the most extraordinary and 'forgiving' line of all:
Not even
Those who were ordered to shoot him differed from him, or were ever incapable of learning.
The revolutionary workers sing that they haven't given up on the police or the soldiers who shoot Pavel, because they are no different from him. Or themselves. In the economic sense, they are workers too. They are part of this huge throng of people who are present at Pavel's death. Even though it is early morning when he's taken out to be shot, the workers are there in the factories and the chimneys and the guns and the bullets that form the whole picture as he is taken to the wall...
At the very moment she is told of her son's death, Pelagea Vlassova receives a song of comfort and reassurance: this was not an accident; it had a meaning. It was not in vain.
We listen to the 'Vlassovas of all Countries'. We listen out for the number of places we can make out from the German. We think we hear Shanghai, Calcutta, Berlin. Some think they hear Moscow. Hannah thought she counted ten but has forgotten some of them.
We listen to the music of 'Get Up!'. Pelagea Vlassova is ill. She is ground down by her work - and by the death of her son and the doctor has said she must rest. While she lies in her sick-bed the revolutionary chorus sing to her:
Get Up!
You are sick, but the Party's dying
You are weak, but you must help us....
WORKING ON THE TEXT
We then look at the end of Scene Two. Pelagea's flat has been raided and wrecked by the Police but they didn't find the duplicator that was hung out the window. The police have now gone but the Revolutionaries have some explaining to do - and - just as important, if not more - leaflets to distribute to encourage the Suchlinov factory workers to join tomorrow's strike...
In pairs our students prepare the text. Meanwhile chairs are set up: one on one side of the stage for Pelagea. Four chairs facing her, square on, for the Revolutionaries Andrei, Anton, Masha and Ivan. And one chair on the same side as them but not quite with them for Pelagea's son. As the text is about to make clear, he's rather Piggy in the Middle. It's his fault his mum's house has been wrecked by the Police, but the revolutionaries still have a job to do and ... it's his turn to distributes the leaflets in the factory.
This is the first time the students are not playing the text out front. But all the old 'rules' apply: read as much text as you can, look up from the text, make eye contact with who you are meant to be speaking to and say the bit of text that you have just read. If you are in the scene but don't have any text, don't look at the book. Keep your eyes in the scene. Remember, also, that, once you're up there on stage, your physicality is a big giveaway. You have to be physically in the scene the whole time - even the tiniest things 'read' to an audience watching you.
While not speaking and not looking at the book, though, you have to be ready to come in with your cue. You have to be aware of your place in the scene. In the structure of the text. Our two excellent casts are:
Group A: Louise, Rebekah, Natalie, Claudia, Charlene and Dean.
Group B: Abigail, Chris, Tanya, Carlos, Kayleigh (not Jordan) and Carly.
(Thanks for the comment pointing out my mistake, Chris, and apologies to Kayleigh).
Some of the things we discover:
The strength of the two sides. That both have 'right' on their side. When Anton says: 'There's not that much risk', Pelagea's reply is withering, and as she quite rightly concludes: 'stick your head through that noose; there's not much risk'. But at the same time, what are they to do? The stike has to be called. If they don't distribute the leaflets, who else will?
That when the revolutionary workers talk to each other about how many leaflets they have and who is meant to be distributing them, it works best when they actually say it more for Pelagea's sake than for their own. They actually know the answers to the questions they're asking one another.... What they're really doing is dropping big hints in Pelagea's direction...
That there is a musicality in the writing. Which has to be mirrored in the playing. Hannah offers us a good word: cadence. There are cadences, indeed. Not to mention phrases, 'builds' and climaxes all of which we ignore at our peril, not only within a monologue but also in long or short scenes involving two - or twenty voices.
By that logic there will also be pauses, slowing-downs, speeding-ups, bits that get louder, bits that get softer, bits that get harsher - just as in a musical score. One excellent example of this is at the end of the monologue 'Not much risk?' At the end we expect Pelagea to say: 'Pavel's not going!'. Instead she says: 'I'll go.' The actor just has to be aware of the build to a pause. The architecture of the writing. And just as with the musician reading his score, why shouldn't the actor be fully aware of that from the word go?
We continue with the idea that clarity and simplicity are everything. As ever.
And that by the end of each ninety minute session, the playing of the scene elicits a spontaneous round of applause from each audience. And rightly so. Both teams have worked really hard to focus down to exactly what was needed to make the scene clear to us. No excess gestures. No sentimentality either of voice or face or body language. Everything strong. Everything clear. For participants and observers alike.
We talk about this term - perhaps from Yoga - that there is a CORRECT ENERGY for everything. For chopping wood. For holding a baby. For splashing water on your face. Once you know what it is you're doing - you know how to do it...
Great third week. Everyone - I hope - goes away clearer.
We may be beginning to Cook on Gas.
posted by Steve at 10:00 PM
1 Comments:
Correction to the Group B cast used on 25th Feb. I shared work on the scene alongside Carlos, Tanya, Carly, Abigail and Kayliegh (not Jordan).
I found playing the part of Anton a refreshing change from the comical character I had played last Semester in Chekhov's "Three Sisters". I find reading a line at a time, then delivering that line to the intended actor challenging, but grows easier with time.
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