We’re halfway through the semester and the clock is ticking! This week, our ensembles gathered around the virtual campfire to bring some shape, personality, and stagecraft to our original stories.
The Monday B ensemble gathers around their campfires ready to share some stories.
in the first 5 weeks of rehearsal, our ensembles worked together to devise 8 original stories about mythical creatures. We built original characters, settings, plots, and themes from our imaginations. You can click a button below to read an overview of each story.
Over the mid-semester break, our teaching artists took time to craft loose scripts and to assign the cast and crew for each tale. We stepped back into rehearsal this week with the goal of giving each story more personality and flair. This looks different for each tale. Here are some of the ways we’re customizing these original tales:
Dialogue
In some scripts actors are writing their own dialogue. In these two scripts from the Tuesday ensemble, you can see Arin and Sean left room for their actors to personalize what their characters say and make their scenes and monologues feel organic to them.
Movement
In some stories we have to build action sequences or important moments of physical storytelling. For The Betrayal of the Taniwha, actors Ben and Andrew focused on choreographing a secret handshake for their characters, and also building a sequence of swimming across the ocean. You can see what they made in this practice video:
Music
Many stories like The Road to the TriOlympic Games, The Contest at the Creepy Castle, The Love Song of the Fairy & the Centaur, The Quest for the Dragon’s Eye, and The Sickness at Fire Lake are incorporating music. These groups started working on melodies and lyrics for their songs this week and will continue to build them in later rehearsals. The actors in the Monday A ensemble are actually using one sea shanty to connect both of their stories. They’ll be playing their tin can drums too!
The Monday A ensemble shows off their homemade drums.
Special Skills
Other actors are focusing on showing off specific skillsets in their story. For example, many actors in The Love Song of the Fairy and the Centaur are eager to incorporate American Sign Language into their performances. Here’s our fabulous facilitators Nette and Amy working with Sam R to learn a short scene in ASL.
During the next 2 weeks of rehearsal, we’ll continue to build on these segments. We’ll also make and source our own costumes and props from our homes, and start to play with framing and different ways of filming our scenes. Then we’ll be ready to film in week #9!
Our devised projects are always special because they allow our ensembles to share their hearts, minds, and imaginations in so many different ways! They allow us to show our whole selves to an audience, and really call on all the talents of our teaching and facilitation team as well as our actors. Devising is hard work but it is so rewarding!
We hope you’ll stick with us as our stories continue to take shape!
