Jepson Shakespeare Project Production Blog

This week, the kids were a lot more obnoxious that they usually are. A few of the girls in our group like to be rough with one another while a few of the others just sit in chairs in the corner like this is the last thing they want to be doing. It is really difficult for me to see this because I want the kids to have fun with this play and not feel like it is just another chore on there list of things they have to do for the day. Our goal for the next session is to play more games with the kids and be more interactive instead of just sitting and reading through the script. Hopefully they will get a little more out of it this way!

We again had a very productive rehearsal this week at youth life. With only two more rehearsals before the show, there is definitely a sense of urgency among the students to do well in rehearsal so that they can impress everyone durring the show. I can honestly say that I was very surprised by this urgency because up to this point the students had shown little interest in how they performed come showtime. This week at our rehearsal we had three students, however, the three students that were in attendance were those with the largest single roles, thus it was good to have them practice together.

One great thing about this week was that we were able to run through the script through its entirety, and the students were finally able to implement their own stage notes into the scripts. I thought that both of these tasks that we accomplished this week were extremely monuments in moving forward and making progress ahead of the performance. Despite getting a lot done again this week, we had our usual setbacks of the students getting distracted from time to time. However, I have noticed that the students have been getting better and better each week about putting more focus into the performance. Despite only having two rehearsals left until the performance, I am extremely optimistic that our students will be prepared and confident on stage.

Just under one month until the show! It’s been a great experience so far, and it’s been great to see the growth of the students that always or frequently arrive, and the enthusiasm and ability of the students that have shown up maybe once or twice!

At rehearsal on 11/4, we had five students. Christina, Rufus, and Jacob all returned, and so did Dale. Finally, Jayvon showed up, which was crazy because we haven’t seen him in over a month! Since Christina, Rufus, and Jacob have been showing up so frequently, we felt confident enough that we could officially cast them. Christina is our Feste, Rufus is our Sebastian, and Jacob is our Sir Toby. It feels really good to know who is playing these big parts! For this rehearsal, Dale was Sir Andrew and Jayvon was Malvolio.

We broke into groups. While Maddie took Christina and Jayvon to work on lines, Natalie and I stayed with Rufus, Dale, and Jacob to work on the staging of Scene 1. We staged some very simple stage combat (get ready for their fake slaps, they’re so funny!) and walked through the first scene. Then we worked on the lines in the scene, and made the three of them say their lines as loud as they possibly could (since they all have trouble projecting). This was a super-productive work session for Natalie and I, and Maddie told us that she was making great progress with Christina.

At the very end of rehearsal, we had a brief conversation with Timone, who offered us some suggestions if the students are unmotivated. While I definitely appreciate his input, I am not worried too much about having to use this reinforcement, because the students are all doing great! It might not be bad to have something for that purpose, though, if necessary (like Hershey Kisses or some other candy)

We’re in a really good place!

On Thursday (11/10), we had a new mix of students again.  We had two returning students and two new students.  The new students participate in the Act IV group, and so they were familiar to the structure of rehearsals.  We have had one consistent student attend all of our rehearsals throughout the project.  It has been exciting to watch him throughout each stage of the production.  The spontaneity of attendance has also added an element of excitement to the project.

We are lucky to hold our rehearsals in the space where the performance will actually occur in December.  This week we began blocking our scenes and had the students practice on the Chapel stage.  We improvised parts, and all of the students were flexible and open to playing different roles.  We emphasized where the students will stand on the stage while performing, encouraged them to face the audience, and suggested that they try to project their voices. 

Some students are stronger readers than others, but they can all get through their lines.  We had to occasionally remind certain students to be patient while other students might be struggling to read their lines.  We emphasized that it was okay for them to feel as though the lines are difficult, but that they will become easier to read with practice.  While some students are self-sufficient on stage, others need a little coaching as to when to read their parts.  We might have to be on stage with them while they are performing to help them through the scenes, but we will continue to try to get them more comfortable reading and following along with the script independently.

My favorite part of rehearsal this week was when a new student, Dale, added some needed comedy into the scene.  Dale was reading Toby’s part, and before every line he would read Toby’s full name, “Sir Toby Belch,” followed by an “Excuse me.”

On Thursday (11/3), our St. Joe’s students had a conflict and we were unable to have rehearsal.  Next rehearsal we plan to continue reading through the scenes with the students and mixing up the roles.  We also plan to begin blocking the scenes on the stage.

We had two students for our seventh week, which was not ideal but ended up almost as a blessing in disguise. we kicked off our rehearsal by reading through part of the scene for the director of the Youth Life program. Hopefully that gave the students some confidence for when they are in front of a full audience. We then were able to break into two groups with our two students. TJ worked with Adrian and AJ and I worked with Khalil. I was very proud of how far Khalil has come since the beginning of this project. By working with just him, we were able to really help him read through his lines and help him fully understand it. AJ and I were also able to get to know him better and learn of his passion for basketball, and his dreams of going to college. I am glad that he felt comfortable enough to talk to us about things like school because it is so important at his age to be able to do that. Knowing that doing this Shakespeare project is bringing him some motivation to keep trying in school means the world. Hopefully we can keep his spirits high and form the kind of trust with the other students that we are building with Khalil. I think Act V will definitely benefit from more open communication between TJ, AJ, and myself and the students. We all want to get to know each other so I think from now on we could take a few minutes at our rehearsals to just talk to each other about things outside of Shakespeare to improve our relationships with one another. This also reminds the students that we are just like them, students, and are only there to help.

Week 6 provided a solid rehearsal for Act V. We were able to run through the script with all of our students and once again discuss who their characters were and how they would feel with different lines. We tried to keep the kids focused by playing the one word sentence game, but some were a little tougher than others. The girls grew a bit restless that the boys were not completely following the instructions, so there was a bit of tension there. We made an effort to get one good sentence before returning to our play rehearsal. The lines are starting to sound more like Shakespeare and I can only imagine will continue to improve in the weeks leading to the final production.

Most of our students had a homecoming flag football game scheduled during the same time as our session this week so unfortunately St.Joseph’s had to cancel again. Hopefully next week we will be back on and can get started on some actual stage direction with the students to start preparing them for the final performance which is quickly approaching.

I was unable to attend this week due to prior travel arrangements again. I am disappointed that I have had to miss two important sessions, but luckily Matt and Lexi have kept me up to date when I have had to miss. They reported back that, as planned, they did a read through of the script with the students that showed up – this time five new students showed up along with three of the students from the past session. They explained that they had to improvise for role assignments because of the change in students attending but that they had a really great, productive session. They said that during the read through everyone read the lines very well which sounds very promising for our progress with the group going forward. Knowing that the students are able and willing to tackle the tough Shakespeare language is great and I can’t wait to be in attendance for the next session.

Due to the students being on a college tour that took longer than expected, this session was unfortunately cancelled. While it is a bummer not to begin the process of rehearsing with the students, we look forward to getting started on this process the next time we meet with them. For the next meeting we plan to have our script as finalized as possible so that we can do a read through with the students in the parts that they requested. We are all hoping this goes well so that for the next class we can do read throughs while actually going through some of the physical acting involved in ACT III.