Last Friday Dress Rehearsal

General Notes:

I’m making the decision: NO CLING-FILM, MAKE-UP ETC. Only our own natural and gorgeous faces.

The back-lighting torches and the acting is interesting enough.

I will also make sure all the torches are charged, give them to certain dependable-looking members members of the audience, sit them in the front row and ask them to light the main actors in each scene. I will definitely ask Hetty to be one of the torchbearers.

The BIG note is really a collective one. To re-emphasise the shape-making and image-making potential of the whole group. See the Strehler post that follows this one…

To emphasise: your focus – when you are watching as a witch – has to be on the speaker. As if your particular witch has never heard this story before and is hanging on every word said. Nothing should look relaxed. Nothing should look taken for granted. Each witch-watcher has to make it look that her life depends on the outcome of each scene on M or Lady M’s decisions and actions …

Also, as a general rule, as witches, strike an interesting pose in an interesting position at the BEGINNING of a scene and only move IF SOMETHING SPECIFIC IN THE SCENE MAKES YOU MOVE, including, of course, an M or a Lady M moving through the space. Get out of their way! They’re the King and Queen etc. Otherwise, generally the movement needs to be minimal, during scenes

Of course, in the banquet scene, when you are a Lord and an active participant in the scene, you react and move completely differently – you are ‘in’ the scene.

Chanatelle. Much better work on Friday. However, don’t stick your bum out at the back and your chin out at the front when you’re getting into High Intensity acting. Instead open your kwa, connect your feel to the ground and lower your centre of gravity. Sticking bum and chin out means, effectively you’re not balanced. The Macduff was very good, playing off the audience. Don’t rest on your laurels now but go forward and be even better. By the way, you were LATE IN JUMPING UP AS THE EQUIVACATOR ON FRIDAY. Please check your cue again.

Kendra. Very good work on both pieces. Obviously the Lennox has had little or no rehearsal but even in the two times we ran it, it was already coming on by leaps and bounds so keep looking at the lines and just remember the note about not moving along the table. What you were doing – getting comfortable, crouching – standing – sitting on your heels etc all works and feel the freedom to do the whole speech within those parameters and it will be great. We will do a little work on the crowd reaction to your speech during the hour we have to warm up and get ready so don’t worry. The scene won’t be naff by the time it’s seen Monday at 3.30 or whatever..

Sarah Jane. Felt you’d lost impetus a bit on Friday – maybe because you’d missed the previous rehearsal. In running terms, you seemed ‘behind the pace’. But I hope that’s just a blip because your work has been good up to now. Don’t forget to play as much as you dare OUT FRONT, connecting early with the audience. Look out towards them reading your letter to them etc. See also note to Gemma about the witches on the table. The lines from all of you seemed a bit dull and mechanical… In everything you do, keep it fresh! Surprise yourself. Have fun… Don’t just go through the motions…. or tick the boxes…

Lee. Don’t drop your voice at any point during the performance, which you started doing on Friday. The lack of light in the space and maybe the proximity of the audience was lulling you into thinking you don’t have to project. I’ve been very pleased with your work over the semester but we don’t want anything to let you down at the last moment Also remember my previous notes to play M as ‘OLD’ as you can, lowering your voice and to really relish everything you say. Make sure that Mac is a much older, and a completely different man from Banquo…. Also: Pronunciation, pronunciation, pronunciation!!! You don’t have to rush anything!.

Juan. Good work on Friday – now just enjoy the performance on Monday and see if you can keep discovering little things as you’re playing. Keep in mind the note about not ‘pushing’ the emotions and just be as clear as you can in your diction. Also take the note that now that you’re playing so well with SJ and Emma, just try and include the audience more in it. You tend to leave them out of the equation. Maybe some lines you can play off the audience? Some moments when you can look into the audience for a reaction?

Kate. Still feel you need to go a lot further with your ‘knitting together’ of ‘moves’. Because that’s just what too many of them look like at present – moves. You don’t seem to have incorporated them into your performance. Your note, then, is to be light and nimble and dynamic. As if anything can happen at any time. Really listen and react to the other actors. And rehearse and rehearse and rehearse your text… Also don’t hit individual words in any sentence but speak the sentence naturally, punctuating it as you would normal speech. All your lines make perfect sense. Don’t colour them or embroider them or make them at all artificial sounding. The ‘poetry’ will take care of itself as long as you know what you’re saying and say the words in the right order.

Emma. Still not enough kwa during the going out with the daggers moment on Friday but maybe you were thrown by the red cloth. I’m asking Juan to leave it when he sets down the knives … and I think you pick it up somehow and hold it by a corner for the last moments of the scene. Let’s look at those two moments on Monday. Remind me on Monday. The diction is good but don’t let it fall back between now and Monday afternoon. And keep remembering about sticky out bottoms.

Abi. Good work on Friday. Was there one line of yours that Kendra said in the banquet? Or did I imagine that? I want you to do all the lines in that scene. Lady Duff. Good shape and it’s all there so just try to keep it as fresh and spontaneous as possible, have fun with it and see if you can find one of two more new moments of your own with it. I think I missed the smack bottom Friday. Make it very visible, it’s fun. Keep your voice strong, clear and HEARD and when you go to get the brush let the audience in more on that moment up at the table. Death good. The Cabbage moment can be held in a feeze-frame longer and we need to get everyone else to frame it with their own actions. Remind me we need to do this at 1.00 on Monday.

Gemma. Same note as I’ve given a few people. It can be very good, your work, but make sure you keep it fresh. Be in each scene for the very first time. Listen as if you’ve never heard any of the play before. That’s the secret. Be surprised. Surprise yourself. Don’t find yourself ‘ticking off’ the scenes. Or thinking: ‘ Oh, right, this is the scene where I have to climb onto the table and stick my arm up in the air etc. Feel it! Experience it. Apropos of which, the witch on the table can be more sinuous and snake-like. All the table witches from ‘Call to Forres’ were a bit dull, slow on their cues and leaden on Friday. Make sure they get that note. By the way, Glamis is pronounced GLARMS. One syllable to rhyme with ARMS.

Paul. Same as note for Gemma. Keep it fresh. Don’t rush, but make sure that your first Porter lines are heard by the audience – and that you connect with them eye-contact wise. Eye contact with them throughout is very important. You did a good job of remembering that the Porter is having fun – you can still go further with this. It’s a case of: ‘Watch this folks!!!” Hopefully you’ll get some feedback from the audience that you can play off. If you don’t get feedback enjoy it all the more. If you do get feedback, then play the feedback… The Scottish is good. Take your time. Also a bit of bottom sticking out detected on Friday. Keep a good, low, open Kwa so you always look centred. Sort with Chanatelle the equivacator cue. I think she was late…