A.B.L.E.’ s ensembles for teens and adults are rehearsing two different shows to share with audiences this spring! Each week, we’ll take you behind the scenes of our rehearsals. Click here to catch up on past installments.
Week 2 of rehearsals flew by for A.B.L.E.’s ensembles. This week, our goal was to start to dig into the stories we’re telling. One is 430 years old, and the other is still being written. Read on to see more…
Teen Ensembles (Monday & Friday)
This week, we started to dive into the story of Comedy of Errors. The story centers around Antipholus of Syracuse who is searching for his long lost twin brother (also named Antipholus). He finds himself in the town of Ephesus and people seem to be acting very strangely; his lifelong friend and servant, Dromio, is acting forgetful and lying, and, everywhere he goes, people know his name even though he’s never met them before - one even claims to be married to him! Antipholus maybe this is the work of witchcraft or sorcery? Either way, it’s strange!
Our teens started rehearsal with a check in reflecting on times we’d gone somewhere new and, like Antipholus, encountered difficulty. We shared experiences of going places where the didn’t speak the language, going away to camp and missing friends and family from home, or starting new schools and having to adjust to new expectations and more homework.
From there we dove into character reviews with an A.B.L.E. favorite - Here to There! In this game, we get to walk across the room as different characters, exploring their various character traits. We saw adventurous Antipholuses, patient Lucianas, pushy Nells, and more.
And then is was time for Play Plots! These are shortened versions of each scene. A narrator reads out the action, and actors listen carefully for their roles, hopping up onstage when called, miming the action, and inserting some dialogue too. This week, we focused on Acts 1 and 2, and also started to play more with the Foley elements of our story. Only 3 more acts to go!
Adult Ensemble (Tuesday)
This was a big day for our adult ensemble as we set to work devising our original stories! We kicked things off with a fun dance party, a focused warm up, and a check in thinking about objects we’ve brought home as souvenirs. From there we played some ensemble games to get us listening to each other, saying yes, and sparking our imaginations. To Be is a new game for us this semester that involves passing energy around the circle with a variety of Shakespearean sayings. What Are You Doing? is a favorite improv game that has us suggesting different activities to each other - we did yoga, brushed our teeth, went surfing, became dogs, and so much more!
What are you doing? Being a dog!
The bulk of class was spent devising stories around our special Shakespeare inspired objects - a handkerchief, a skull, a crown, a ring, and a lantern. We spread these objects around the room with a facilitator and a big piece of paper at each station. Actors broke into pairs or trios and rotated around the room, with each group answering a different question about each object:
WHO does it belong to?
WHERE was it found and where does our story take place?
WHEN was it made and when does our story take place?
WHY is it special?
HOW does our story end?
Each actor had a chance to answer one question about each object, and put their input into each story, so these stories truly belong to everyone. And they are, in a word - FABULOUS! We have Hamlet's deadly handkerchief, an ancient skull guarded by a Hyena army, the magic crown of a cowboy princes, the ring that was stolen by Becky the scuba diving maid in an attempt to break up Prince Eric and Ariel, and a surprise horcrux. In the weeks to come, we’ll flesh out the stories further, and decide how the stories weave together - there’s already been talk of a time machine!
At our post-class meeting, many members of the facilitator team expressed this was their “favorite class ever” because of the excellent teamwork, flexibility, and imagination demonstrated by each of our actors!
