We had a great class tonight. Our goal tonight was to learn a new Victorian Parlor game and to finish up with scene four. We started out with the traditional dance party. Andrew and Sam enjoyed the inclusion of a song from the Hamilton soundtrack. After Hamilton we made our circle Kaylie led us in our warm up. We were all wooden puppets. Our hands were the first to come alive as they broke free and stretched from our torso. Then our legs, followed by our faces. Soon we could move with full range. We then worked through some vocal warm-ups and tongue twisters. Before moving on to our new game we talked through our check in question. “What animal would you be?” Of course being the excellent ensemble that they are our actors couldn’t help but demonstrate their animals. Andrew would be a monkey and Sam F. an elephant. Anna stretched out her neck as she said giraffe.
Kaylie explained our new Victorian Parlor game, “Who has the slipper?” In order to save our precious noses we used a feather duster at Peter and Kendra’s suggestion. The games works like this, we all sit on the floor in a tight circle there is one person in the middle and they have to close their eyes. Once their eyes are closed one person in the circle holds the duster behind their back and then passes it behind someone else’s back and on around the circle. With little warning the person in the middle opens their eyes and has to guess who is holding the duster. We had a lot of fun and got to play with the challenge of how do we show that we might have the duster even if we don’t? What clues can you use to see if you are being bluffed? Lucy imagined that her hands were tied and tricked several of us into thinking that she had the duster. Everyone enjoyed it so much that we decided to play an extra round instead of playing a more familiar game. After everyone had a turn we moved onto the script.
We had a quick review of the characters and then jumped right into scene four. Last week we left off with Scrooge and the Spirit of Christmas Present. They had just visited the Cratchit house where Scrooge had to see how much joy they all got from being with family. The Spirit as played by Sam R. then took Scrooge as played by Claire to the home of Scrooge’s nephew Fred. Andrew as Fred told his party guests how he would invite Scrooge over for Christmas no matter how many rejections he got. Next the Spirit took Scrooge to an ally in the city and warned him of ignorance and want (Claire and Anna) and just how destructive they can be. The role of Scrooge switched to Sam F. and Lucy became the Third Spirit. Lucy took him to the London Exchange where they heard that no one would miss the man that just died, then to the home of the man as strangers divided his things amongst themselves. Then to the home of the grieving Cratchits, and finally to a graveyard where he finds that the dead man is himself. Scene four ends with Scrooge back in his room, there is still time.
aBefore ending class Kaylie took us through the song and this time we broke into groups and tried it as a round. We have some amazing musicians as they caught on almost immediately, it is going to sound beautiful. After music we gathered into our circle and checked out with and then Claire, who had the most recent birthday, led us all in I Take. Next week we finish the play.
