Choral work

In the last exercise of the second class we completed some Choral work. We used the following speech from Macbeth, Act One, Scene three:
All Witches:

"The weird sisters, hand in hand,
Posters of the sea and land,
Thus to go about, about:
Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine,
And thrice again, to make up nine
Peace!- The charm's wound up."

Steve went around the table and allocated single words from the above text, in order individually for the group. Then after we received the words that we would say we went through a reading around the table. This first recital sounded rather disjointed and unconnected because we all did not carry through intentions, and the words seemed to get lost by the end of the speech. We then walked into the space, memorising the speech, and formed a circle. This circle was in the same order as the text, so everyone stood next to the person saying a word before their word and the person after. Reciting the text in this circle was good because it allowed us to get a bit of a momentum going, and the text sped up slightly, but we then developed this further.

We moved around the space and faced different directions, then we went over the text. When standing in this way of not looking at the whole class we were asked by Steven to extend the words that we were saying so that they sounded like they were coming from one person as opposed to numerous people. In this manner words flowed more as they did not stop abruptly often ending when the next person began their word. We used this last idea twice and the last time we performed we were reminded to keep the text fresh, on-going, alive and constantly energised. In this exercise it was important to always have awareness of the others speaking in the space.

This speech is an example of poetry or verse used in Shakespeare. In this speech repetition is used in some parts including "About, about" and "Thrice...," Rhyme is also used "hand and land" "Mine and nine"

Positives of Choral work: The whole cast of Macbeth are involved in this speech, Connected characters, Many perspectives of the witches can be seen in the various members.

Negatives of Choral work: Depending on the way the words are spoken the text can become unrealistic and monotone.