Words, Words, Words... An Actor's Journey: Weeks 3 and 4

Weeks three and four of the program flew by, and yet, I feel that the start of Week three was eons ago. Week three began with a little less of a rigorous schedule to accommodate for our first week of performing our Shakespeare on Love performance piece. Since there are over twenty of us apprentices, we have split our performances into two teams. We alternate traveling to the parks to perform, giving more opportunity for us to have a great variety of scenes and sonnets for our audiences. 

Watching the other teams first performance in Titus Sparrow Park on the Wednesday of Week three was really inspirational, for me at least. There were a lot of people passing through the park; bringing their children to the playground, having an picnic snack in the lazy afternoon, and some friends hanging out to show support! There were children running around during the scenes, which gave the actors a lot to work with. It was amazing to see how well the smallest children took to the scenes: laughing at the jokes, getting all excited at the twists! It was a joy to see. 

Being outside for our first performance was both exhilarating and slightly limiting. Limiting in that the sound system was non-existent. We chose not to have our mic system set up. Which was fine, we had a limited audience, but I was very conscious of trying to be heard. Most likely, I will need to be able to put it out of my mind for performances, but for the first and second performance (in Week four) I was thinking a lot about that. Henry IV, the scene I am working on, is in a good place, although both my partner and I are interested in making new decisions to (for lack of better words) keep things fresh. This is something we are going to be actively working on this week.

All's Well That Ends Well has been such an experience for me. Understudying Kersti Bryan as Helena is such an honor and I am learning so much just from sitting in on rehearsals! The time put into the words of the play are essential, and as an actor, they clarify the intent. I've never experienced this level of attention to the text and to table work before, and I must say that it makes 100% of a difference. Each actor brings their own ideas as well as the open mind to move our project, the play, forward. As I am working with mostly professional actors and actresses, I am finding it amazing to learn from them and to watch their process bringing these characters to life. Well, off to rehearsal!

Best,
Micah