just about halfway through rehearsals; at least that is what erin told lauren, laura and i (yeah, that's right, there is a lauren, a laura and a lauri in the cast, thinking of renaming melusina "laurelusina" - there are also 3 pisces; no fire in the group at all!) and we realized that we weren't doing as bad as we could be, all things considered. it is a very difficult piece, with lots of allusion and wordplay and a great deal of physicality. we've started adding the music as well. lauren has come up with some beautiful melodies. i think my favorite right now is the "junkyard blues."
monday night we attempted a run, or rather stumble-thru of the show. i left feeling exhilarated and exhausted. it is interesting to me that the process of this show is reflecting the writing, absolute opposites. i am and i am not. i feel like i go back and forth between divine inspiration and utter confusion. the characters i am playing are difficult for me, true stretches, i am enjoying the work, but it *is* hard. even my short solo dance is a movement challenge, as it is a style of dance i have not really studied at all. i have always wanted to study duncan dance though and this is a good intro. several years ago this woman read my palm and one of the things she said was that she saw me working with children and teaching isadora style dance. the movement is really beautiful though. the butoh and duncan combined with the circus backgounds of laura and mel is unique and strange and wonderful; and not like any dance i have done before.
tonite we are to work the 2nd and 3rd iterations of the show - this will make sense when you see it - and i am really excited about breaking the piece down again aand again into its smallest parts, even though there are still places where i don't know what's going on or where i am supposed to be!
i guess that is part of the thrill of this. i know that i will be working and learning and practicing until opening night and i am sure we will be discovering elements throughout the run.
now it's time to get my tea ready and get ready to go.
oxxxo,
aglaia, the one who measures
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007
the unique situation
we are already in the third week of Antigone rehearsals. it seems to have flown by. this process has been incredible so far; academic, stimulating, challenging on many levels. it is such a pleasure to work with a director like erin who is not only a supersmart girl, but also has a deep understanding of theater and actors. she gives us the tools to to make "choices" - a particular acting pet peeve of mine is when a director says "make a choice" when you ask for specific input, then overlooks telling you what choices were strong and which ones didn't play - and gives direct, intelligent and thoughtful responses to our work.
in the first week, we spent time together developing vocabulary and attempting a get a handle on the language and ideas in the script. working with christina, our choreographer, using a combination of butoh and duncan techniques, we are creating unique dance segments. i am looking forward to the next music rehearsal as well, when we will continue exploration of the songs with our unusual and not-quite_instrument instruments.
it is actually time right now to dress and head out, so i say good bye for now. there is so much more to share, this is to be continued...
~aglaia, the one who measures
in the first week, we spent time together developing vocabulary and attempting a get a handle on the language and ideas in the script. working with christina, our choreographer, using a combination of butoh and duncan techniques, we are creating unique dance segments. i am looking forward to the next music rehearsal as well, when we will continue exploration of the songs with our unusual and not-quite_instrument instruments.
it is actually time right now to dress and head out, so i say good bye for now. there is so much more to share, this is to be continued...
~aglaia, the one who measures
Sunday, September 16, 2007
I am and am not named Antigone
It's my introduction to Woman's Will and we're wrapping up what has easily been the most curious and multidimensional week of rehearsal I've ever experienced.
Coming myself from a mixed background of traditional theater, physical theater and clown, I've participated in the creation of work with all kinds of different texts: solid and static text; no text; physical "text" without words, borrowed and reconstructed text, original text created by by the performers in rehearsal. BUT! I've never before encountered a text that is, in fact, a solid and set text, a PLAY, but with no formal indication of which lines belong to whom, or in fact which lines are lines and which are stage directions ... stage directions such as: "Time does not like this remark. Becomes a weasel, or a vicious hedgehog, backs up, puffed up in raging horripilation."
In school, I loved studying poetry - I being able to take the time to enjoy every contour and resonance of a single word, and the relationship of those contours and resonance with those of every other word around it. My clown teacher likes to say that clowning is a kind of poetry, in which every moment and image is intense, distilled, resonant. Here is theater, a play, in which this exploration is textual and physical: three dimensional exploration of language - and the philosophy, and the history, of the story of Antigone.
We have sat together amidst piles of big sheets of papers, free-associating around words and images from this play: Eggs. Eyes. Spiders. Web. Cat's Cradle. We have taken time to vocalize words from the text, finding every corner of every consonant and every possible shape of every vowel, every way of putting them all together with variation in pitch, speed, breath, timbre, looking for the sounds of the three Furies (also the three Graces, also the three Facts)... We have found different ways of moving individually and together to shapeshift as these characters do.
Shapeshifting, role-playing: They all are and are not themselves and one another.
This is the tip of the iceberg!
--Clotho, the one who spins
Coming myself from a mixed background of traditional theater, physical theater and clown, I've participated in the creation of work with all kinds of different texts: solid and static text; no text; physical "text" without words, borrowed and reconstructed text, original text created by by the performers in rehearsal. BUT! I've never before encountered a text that is, in fact, a solid and set text, a PLAY, but with no formal indication of which lines belong to whom, or in fact which lines are lines and which are stage directions ... stage directions such as: "Time does not like this remark. Becomes a weasel, or a vicious hedgehog, backs up, puffed up in raging horripilation."
In school, I loved studying poetry - I being able to take the time to enjoy every contour and resonance of a single word, and the relationship of those contours and resonance with those of every other word around it. My clown teacher likes to say that clowning is a kind of poetry, in which every moment and image is intense, distilled, resonant. Here is theater, a play, in which this exploration is textual and physical: three dimensional exploration of language - and the philosophy, and the history, of the story of Antigone.
We have sat together amidst piles of big sheets of papers, free-associating around words and images from this play: Eggs. Eyes. Spiders. Web. Cat's Cradle. We have taken time to vocalize words from the text, finding every corner of every consonant and every possible shape of every vowel, every way of putting them all together with variation in pitch, speed, breath, timbre, looking for the sounds of the three Furies (also the three Graces, also the three Facts)... We have found different ways of moving individually and together to shapeshift as these characters do.
Shapeshifting, role-playing: They all are and are not themselves and one another.
This is the tip of the iceberg!
--Clotho, the one who spins
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Woman's Will presents Mac Wellman's ANTIGONE
COMING SOON TO
TEMESCAL ARTS CENTER:
Mac Wellman's ANTIGONE
October 19 to November 11, 2007
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 8pm
Tickets $25-15 sliding scale
ABOUT THIS BLOG:
ANTIGONE actors discuss the rehearsal process of this collaborative drama, dance, movement, and music piece by award-winning wordsmith Mac Wellman.
ABOUT THE SHOW
Join the circle as the Three Fates wind the strands of their own immortal lives into ours while they re-generate and distill one of the world's legends. This is not the Greek tragedy you read in school but a pre-historical/hysterical, paradoxical/paroxysmal celebration of storytelling that asks the musical question, "What is more weird than man... or woman?"
Not at all the story of Sophocles' Antigone, but a kaleidoscopic exploration of its themes interpreted through the delirious scribblings of the Three Fates (yes, those Three Fates) under the interfering eye of a character known as "The Shriek Operator", this mind-bending musing, this devilish dreamland will electrify even your jaded mind.
More information at http://www.womanswill.org/antigone.html
ABOUT THE COMPANY
www.womanswill.org
Woman's Will, the Bay Area's all-female Shakespeare company, exists to provide opportunities for women and girls to work together in a supportive yet challenging environment, to entertain and educate through high quality classes and performances, and to expand the boundaries in which audiences and artists see themselves. Woman's Will is a multi-ethnic company that operates under a strict policy of non-discrimination and strives for triple accessibility at every event: all people must be able to reach our events, afford our events, and relate to our events. Finally, and most importantly, we love our work, and it shows. Our actor- and text-based productions are both intelligent and visceral, yet clearly told so even the youngest members of your family can join in the fun. Relax with a picnic and some friends, and let us show you what wonders arise under the influence of a Woman's Will.
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