In Week #4, our ensembles showed off some homemade costume pieces, played games, and shared what they would like to do in our final performances.
One of the challenges of working virtually is finding ways to keep us all engaged from our own homes. To kick off the semester, we sent all 72 of our actors, facilitators, and teaching artists custom Story Kits with visual aids, activities, and crafts specially designed for Romeo & Juliet Remix. This week, our actors were charged with making a RUFF COLLAR entirely from coffee filters!
Lucas assembles his ruff at home
The Monday ensemble shows off their ruffs for the camera
The Sunday ensemble get dramatic with their ruffs
Our narrators will wear these Shakespearean ruffs as they narrate different segments of the story, and we may also wear them to the Capulet Ball and for some other scenes in Romeo & Juliet Remix.
Want to get in on the fun? Click here to get instructions for making your own ruff!
After showing off our crafts, it was time to get down to work with our usual dance party and warm up. Every week, we have a check in question that helps us think a little more about the story we are working on, and also get to know each other a bit better. This week, our check in question was: Love is described in many ways throughout Romeo & Juliet. Different characters call it “madness”, “joy”, “heavy”, “light”, “deep”, and “fair.” How do you describe love?
We heard lots of different words like “goddess”, “family”, “rewarding”, “deep”, “hugs”, “forgiving, and “faithful”. We worked in small groups and came up with movements for our words and put these together in a little “love dance.” You can check out the Tuesday ensemble and mirror their movements in this video:
Our performance preference worksheet. We discussed these with all of our actors in rehearsal this week. How would YOU answer?
A very important part of Week #4’s lesson plan was to discuss our performance preferences. If you’ve ever seen an A.B.L.E. show before, you know we don’t follow traditional casting. In the course of a play, we might have 5 or 6 (or sometimes more!) different actors playing the same character. This gives all of our actors a chance to be “the lead” and to connect with roles that they are excited about.
For Romeo & Juliet Remix, each actor will be cast in one moment of the play. Some actors will do a monologue or a solo piece, some will work in pairs or small groups. Some may use Shakespeare’s text, and others may devise a scene in their own words or create a song or movement piece. We spent some time in breakout rooms discussing each actor’s preferences with them so our teaching artists can try to cast everyone in a character and scene they will be excited about. We will have many different Romeos, Juliets, Tybalts, Mercutios, and other citizens of Verona. We look forward to seeing all actors shine in their roles!
In between casting discussions, we played a lot of games this week including What’s in the Apothecary Shop (a new favorite!), Musical Statues, and The Balcony Game. We also spent some time reviewing our ASL.
