July 20, 2010

It’s Tuesday of our final week at The Globe. I’ve been remiss in updating my blog as I’ve been trying to move it to another site. Since I haven’t had any luck with that I’m going to update this blog. Rest assured that I’ll put the new link on this blog when it’s all figured out!

Friday evening July 16^th we rehearsed our small scenes on The Globe stage. This was a truly magical experience. Five of us, five teachers from America, plus our British director, literally working on, playing on, exploring this stage, The Globe stage, which is as renowned in our theatre history as the ancient Greek stages. So, what in my opinion makes this experience unique? Well, first we are on stage at midnight – it’s quiet and empty. There’s a solemn atmosphere and yet it’s magically all lit up – all lit up on the stage and the audience, from the yard to the galleries, right up to the boxes. It’s easy to believe that you’re connection extends beyond the stage right to the audience at your feet and further, but never much further, to those seated in the galleries and boxes around the yard. We only had 30 minutes, but we began to make the space our home, moving in the whole space, playing, skipping, sitting, climbing stairs and filling the space with our lines from one actor to another and from actor to imaginary audience member. Connection.

And this is where The Globe stage becomes like other stages, in our work, our playing of the work, our playing with each other as our acting partners, our exploration of the relationships between characters and the actions (both implicit and hidden) of those famous Shakespearean words –

“Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee:

Making that vision of a dagger with which to murder Duncan specific and real is what counts, so connection with words and connection with an acting partner, which in the case of the above example becomes the audience. And of course, there is connection with the space. How to make what is a massive space specific to the action that’s occurring? Rehearsals for this continue – our whole group performs a series of scenes that tie the play together from beginning to end. The scenes will be performed using various techniques and will tell the story of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Duncan, the Witches and Macduff, Malcolm and all the others in this tale of power, ambition, witchcraft and horror. How will our production differ from that of 1606 – there’s no recording to tell us and few writings, though we have a glimpse into the world of Elizabethan Theatre, (I believe I’ll save that for another post.) What remains the same is the story, the action and the characters who live and breath that story, performing Macbeth again this Thursday evening at the witching hour!