For my own sake I want to give a summary of where we are and what we will do next.
We have done a lot of training, and this is essential. The students are trained and share a
common vocabulary of both movement and devising technique. I can now say to a
group: create a movement piece that focuses on the idea of covering up a sacred place,
and within 15 minutes the group will create something that I feel can go on stage. This
helps enormously in the final stages of story creation and rehearsal. We are now learning
about the possibilities that shadow will bring to our show. Christine Marie will be coming tomorrow for another instructional session with the ensemble. Then, we have to do the hard
work of actually creating a story line. I will be adding two days of work time each week for those
students who are interested in helping build what I call a frame story. The simplest way
to understand a frame story is that it is the narrative by which the entire play hangs. A
frame story employs a narrative technique whereby an introductory main story is
composed, at least in part, for the purpose of setting the stage for a fictitious narrative or
organizing a set of shorter stories, each of which is a story within a story. The frame story
leads readers from the first story into the smaller one within it. The Arabian Nights
employs this quite well. In order to present all the disconnected folktales that comprises
this work, we have the frame story that connects it: Scheherazade's need to keep herself
alive. It is also present in the Odyssey, Ovid’s Metamorphoses and countless other
works.
I will work with students on ideas: One that we I am thinking about is having the Hagia
Sophia itself as a narrator, telling his/her story through journal entries. Another possibility employs the
use of a group of children that get locked into the Hagia Sophia and encounter it’s past
through a night in the museum. Either will allow us to use much of the material we
developed in the first stages, outlined above, and hang it together.
After the frame story is agreed on and developed we will create scenes in small groups.
The process will look something like this: I will outline all the things we have done and
ask if anyone sees anything that they worked on earlier in our process that they would
now like to more fully develop into a scene with characters and words. The ensemble
will thus break into smaller independent groups that will further develop scenes or, seek
to create new ones. It is essential here, for your own sanity as the director/playwrite to
have students perform these undertakings for each other at least once a week if not devote
the last half hour of each session to it. Also, telling students that they are responsible for
writing down dialogue and movement sequences—in a sense they write out their scenes
fully and submit them to you. One technique I began using last year that is effective is
after students present works that seemingly have no relation to each other I ask two
members from one group to meet with two members of the other group to find ways of
linking the two. Let’s say there are five groups presenting, groups 1-5. Then I’d say:
two members from group 1 meet with two members of group 2 link their work:
specifically they are to find a way that the end of group 1’s piece leads to the beginning
of group 2’s work. At the same time group 2 will send two members to group 3 to link
the end of group two with the beginning of group 3…and so on and so on until the end of
one group links to the beginning of another and all the groups are linked. Then we
present our finished product.
I also will ask students that wish to do so to create monologues for characters they think
might exist in our play (for example at this stage I could see a monologue of one of the
first architects, or of Justinian, or of Mehmet II, the moment he walks into the Hagia
Sophia after conquering Constantinople, or of an Islamic Artist who is adding script to
the building, or of a Crusader who is stripping the Hagia Sophia of it’s gold artifiact, or
of Leo III who pronounced the Icons blasphemous….I will ask the students what
historical characters might be in our piece and have them write monologues for them. I
will also ask them what fictional characters might inhabit our play and to create
monologues for them. One character I am interested in would be an Islamic artists
apprentice (in this way the character gets to be someone the age of our students) who is
ordered by Sultan to cover up some of the murals depicting the prophet Jesus. And
perhaps a Christian apprentice under the court of Leo III who is ordered to do the same
thing. Both because the art is considered against the principles of the religious teachings
of. Yet, to this young artist, even though the work is against the religious teachings and
he is obligated to follow the rules both of his/her religion and his/her leader, the work is
beautiful, as a work of art. What conflict can this create for our character? As I think on
this it might be a good thing for both characters to exist.
Not all the monologues will make their way into the final script, but what is essential in
this next phase is for lots of material to be created—all types: scenes, monologues,
tableuxs, movement pieces, and of course our new ideas: shadows.
The next step is to take all the material and write. I give the ensemble
2-3 weeks off and I write. Sometimes, depending on the quality of the material the
students give me, I use some of their work in its entirety. Other times I find I have to
write a play, beginning to end, without any of their work within. But always it is inspired
and influenced by the work we did as an ensemble. Other devising artists do not take on
this role and leave the responsibility up to the students. This is your call. I find,
however, with middle school students it is best for me to take their work as inspiration
and do the best I can as an experience playwrite and theatre director to create a piece of
theatre that reflects both their ideas and my knowledge of theatre.
And then, the final stage. You have a play written and now it needs to be treated as a
play. We cast it, rehearse it and finally perform it. Books are written about casting and
rehearsing a play, but I will add this: as a devised piece the rehearsal process goes much
more quickly the closer the students are to the material. I try and give parts to the
students that created them (i.e. if a student wrote a compelling monologue for Justinian, it
is best if that student gets to perform it). However, I ask for input from the students on
how they want to proceed with the casting process. The more invested they are in it the
smoother it goes. Not all students are as invested in performing as they are in the
creation. Each group is different.
I am excited by where we are and anxious to know what we will create.
We have done a lot of training, and this is essential. The students are trained and share a
common vocabulary of both movement and devising technique. I can now say to a
group: create a movement piece that focuses on the idea of covering up a sacred place,
and within 15 minutes the group will create something that I feel can go on stage. This
helps enormously in the final stages of story creation and rehearsal. We are now learning
about the possibilities that shadow will bring to our show. Christine Marie will be coming tomorrow for another instructional session with the ensemble. Then, we have to do the hard
work of actually creating a story line. I will be adding two days of work time each week for those
students who are interested in helping build what I call a frame story. The simplest way
to understand a frame story is that it is the narrative by which the entire play hangs. A
frame story employs a narrative technique whereby an introductory main story is
composed, at least in part, for the purpose of setting the stage for a fictitious narrative or
organizing a set of shorter stories, each of which is a story within a story. The frame story
leads readers from the first story into the smaller one within it. The Arabian Nights
employs this quite well. In order to present all the disconnected folktales that comprises
this work, we have the frame story that connects it: Scheherazade's need to keep herself
alive. It is also present in the Odyssey, Ovid’s Metamorphoses and countless other
works.
I will work with students on ideas: One that we I am thinking about is having the Hagia
Sophia itself as a narrator, telling his/her story through journal entries. Another possibility employs the
use of a group of children that get locked into the Hagia Sophia and encounter it’s past
through a night in the museum. Either will allow us to use much of the material we
developed in the first stages, outlined above, and hang it together.
After the frame story is agreed on and developed we will create scenes in small groups.
The process will look something like this: I will outline all the things we have done and
ask if anyone sees anything that they worked on earlier in our process that they would
now like to more fully develop into a scene with characters and words. The ensemble
will thus break into smaller independent groups that will further develop scenes or, seek
to create new ones. It is essential here, for your own sanity as the director/playwrite to
have students perform these undertakings for each other at least once a week if not devote
the last half hour of each session to it. Also, telling students that they are responsible for
writing down dialogue and movement sequences—in a sense they write out their scenes
fully and submit them to you. One technique I began using last year that is effective is
after students present works that seemingly have no relation to each other I ask two
members from one group to meet with two members of the other group to find ways of
linking the two. Let’s say there are five groups presenting, groups 1-5. Then I’d say:
two members from group 1 meet with two members of group 2 link their work:
specifically they are to find a way that the end of group 1’s piece leads to the beginning
of group 2’s work. At the same time group 2 will send two members to group 3 to link
the end of group two with the beginning of group 3…and so on and so on until the end of
one group links to the beginning of another and all the groups are linked. Then we
present our finished product.
I also will ask students that wish to do so to create monologues for characters they think
might exist in our play (for example at this stage I could see a monologue of one of the
first architects, or of Justinian, or of Mehmet II, the moment he walks into the Hagia
Sophia after conquering Constantinople, or of an Islamic Artist who is adding script to
the building, or of a Crusader who is stripping the Hagia Sophia of it’s gold artifiact, or
of Leo III who pronounced the Icons blasphemous….I will ask the students what
historical characters might be in our piece and have them write monologues for them. I
will also ask them what fictional characters might inhabit our play and to create
monologues for them. One character I am interested in would be an Islamic artists
apprentice (in this way the character gets to be someone the age of our students) who is
ordered by Sultan to cover up some of the murals depicting the prophet Jesus. And
perhaps a Christian apprentice under the court of Leo III who is ordered to do the same
thing. Both because the art is considered against the principles of the religious teachings
of. Yet, to this young artist, even though the work is against the religious teachings and
he is obligated to follow the rules both of his/her religion and his/her leader, the work is
beautiful, as a work of art. What conflict can this create for our character? As I think on
this it might be a good thing for both characters to exist.
Not all the monologues will make their way into the final script, but what is essential in
this next phase is for lots of material to be created—all types: scenes, monologues,
tableuxs, movement pieces, and of course our new ideas: shadows.
The next step is to take all the material and write. I give the ensemble
2-3 weeks off and I write. Sometimes, depending on the quality of the material the
students give me, I use some of their work in its entirety. Other times I find I have to
write a play, beginning to end, without any of their work within. But always it is inspired
and influenced by the work we did as an ensemble. Other devising artists do not take on
this role and leave the responsibility up to the students. This is your call. I find,
however, with middle school students it is best for me to take their work as inspiration
and do the best I can as an experience playwrite and theatre director to create a piece of
theatre that reflects both their ideas and my knowledge of theatre.
And then, the final stage. You have a play written and now it needs to be treated as a
play. We cast it, rehearse it and finally perform it. Books are written about casting and
rehearsing a play, but I will add this: as a devised piece the rehearsal process goes much
more quickly the closer the students are to the material. I try and give parts to the
students that created them (i.e. if a student wrote a compelling monologue for Justinian, it
is best if that student gets to perform it). However, I ask for input from the students on
how they want to proceed with the casting process. The more invested they are in it the
smoother it goes. Not all students are as invested in performing as they are in the
creation. Each group is different.
I am excited by where we are and anxious to know what we will create.
No comments:
Post a Comment