Monday, October 19th was an exciting day for Act 4 of the Jepson Shakespeare Project!

We showed up to John Marshall with enough numbers to have a successful first rehearsal. Upon our arrival, we did a quick name refresher in case they forgot ours (and we most definitely forgot some of their names). We jumped right into some acting games to warm up and get comfortable with one another. First, we played zip zap zop which actually got pretty competitive. Then, we played the Honey, will you marry me? game, which Allison had to explain to everyone. To play, you ask the person next to you “honey, will you marry me?” in a way that will make that person laugh and they are trying not to laugh or else they are out of the game. It was pretty funny since there was only one guy and six girls. Surprisingly, they all got really into the game and tried so hard to make each other laugh, us included. What I love about this group is that they are not afraid to get out of their comfort zone and are really good at participating!

After a good warm up, we had everyone get out their scripts and proceeded to do a read through of the first half of scene 1, act 4. We read from Titania’s “Come, sit thee down…” line up until the part where Theseus, Hippolyta, and Egeus enter the scene. While reading through that section, we stopped a few times to explain what was going on, and offer possible staging ideas. I wrote down their ideas in the margins of my script. We asked the students which roles they potentially wanted to play, which turned into actually casting the roles to those students. Because of our low numbers, and having all of the characters in act 4, some students had to double up. Molly, Allison and I will most likely be playing the fairies (YAY).

After we assigned roles, our group went into the hallway and ran through the first three pages of our script twice. We tried out some of the staging ideas we brainstormed earlier in the class room.

It’s awesome how enthusiastic these students are to be a part of the Jepson Shakespeare Project! When we left the rehearsal, Allison and I couldn’t get over how well they participated in the acting games and reading through the script. We look forward to meeting with them this coming Monday.

Also, the students finally decided they want to have a donkey head instead of a unicorn head for Bottom. We’re making moves…