AYLI, Rehearsal 5: THE BIG SCENE (3.2)

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What an incredible start to the rehearsal process! We worked on Act III, scene 2, the “big scene” where Rosalind and Orlando finally meet in the forest.

But first…

I had asked the entire cast to be there for our first full night, so we warmed up with Clark — with some fabulous variations — and played with p. 3 of the Lessac consonants. Chas introduced himself.

We decided as a cast to pronounce it ROZZalind rather than ROSEalind. (Pretty standard, but it works either way.)

I described — without being able to remember the technical rhetorical term — how Shakespeare repeatedly uses a “this &&& that” structure in the text, balancing one word/phrase against another or echoing the same word/phrase from line to line. For example, the scene between Corin and Touchstone is overrun with this structure:

  • Truly, shepherd, in respect of itself, it is a good life;

    • &&& but in respect that it is a shepherd’s life, it is naught.

  • In respect that it is solitary, I like it very well;

    • &&& but in respect that it is private, it is a very vile life.

  • I earn that I eat,

    • &&& get that I wear;

  • owe no man hate,

    • &&& envy no man’s happiness;

  • glad of other men’s good,

    • &&& content with my harm;

Then I offered everyone the opportunity to contribute to the show by composing one or more of the songs:

  • 2.5: “Greenwood Tree,” upbeat, acoustic, plan for the punchline of Jaques’s Ducdame

  • 2.7: “Blow, blow, thou winter wind,” a capella, start with solo, drums join in, harmony on refrain, gentle (we’re feeding/sheltering Adam and Orlando in the background)

  • 4.2: “Take no score,” the Dead Deer song, just a jolly song for guys to tote the dead deer offstage

  • 5.3: “Lover and his lass,” acoustic, fun, upbeat; throwaway, since the only reason for the scene is to a) separate the two days of 5.2 and 5.4; and b) Bill was contractually obligated to provide a song for the clown. (Otherwise the clown was apt to improvise in the middle of some other scene, viz., 3.3.)

And then we began to learn the choreography for the final dance. Yesterday I pushed through and composed the hymn to Juno, which I admitted I was not fond of as a piece, but when that same music is turned into a gigue it’s pretty good. As I said last night, no one will remember the hymn, but they’ll go out humming the gigue.

Such concentration! The joy will come later. Probably.

The dance is faster and there’s more to it, but this is the basic step. FULL DISCLOSURE: This is the basic step of the Gigue from Karl Heinz Taubert’s Höfische Tänze: ihre Geschichte und Choreographie. #StealFromTheBest (See, cast, I told you I could teach you most social dances from the past 500 years.)

For those who missed it and want to keep up, here are the steps:

  • slide, and

  • slide, and

  • stomp, stomp, stomp — turning 180° (NOTE: in the video, I am saying ‘stomp and stomp and turn, turn, turn’; it’s the same thing.)

  • do it again (2)

  • do it again (3)

  • look to your right, walk in a semicircle to the other person’s place

Then we let everyone go who was not in 3.2 and got to work.

For the first session of each scene, I told the actors not to worry about blocking. That will come when scripts are not in front of our faces and we have our actual set pieces to play with.

We started with Touchstone/Corin, discussing the difference in the two characters’ personal tempos. Corin, as our Spirit of the Wood, is simple, ageless, Taoist: he is not rattled in the least by Touchstone’s sophisticated barbs. He steadily tends to his business (in this case, adjusting and adding to the forest/green drops) and lets Touchstone prattle on. He is content and eternal and will be so long after Touchstone is no longer around.

Touchstone, on the other hand, is used to the big city/court life, and has not changed his mind about country living since his arrival in the Forest in 2.4. For Amanda, this means finding the clown’s inner grouch and letting us laugh at it.

Speaking of clown… THERE IS NO FOURTH WALL.

I sent Amanda and Alexander out to the lobby to keep working on the scene. (Robert and Garrick were also sent out there to work on their scene.)

We then worked Rosalind/Celia. Due to an unfortunate brain fart on my part, I didn’t realize Embree had a scheduled absence; our intrepid AD Cindy stepped in and is in the running to replace her daughter in the role. We explored the dynamics of the scene: Rosalind of course tumbles immediately that it has to be Orlando writing the poetry (confirmed by Celia’s “chain about his neck” line), so the whole scene is Celia jerking her around, and Rosalind putting off the discovery as a frisson of pleasure as long as she can.

We added in an extra-textual “Orlando!” for the girls to swoon over, and then Rosalind panics. Mariel is already discovering the nuances of Ros’s dilemma.

[It occurs to me now that we missed working on Rosalind and Touchstone’s repartee over the poetry.)

Next up, Orlando’s entrance, which Robert nailed. He invented the business of slapping his poetry high up on the proscenium posts, which then served us well in the Ganymede/Orlando scene. He was quick to find Orlando’s essential ridiculousness and probably thought he was over the top. He was not.

Then it was on to Orlando/Jaques. Robert and Garrick’s work in the lobby showed — they were already getting laughs from us. I love it when the actors can find the comic pauses in the text!

Finally it was time for Orlando/Rosalind. Robert and Mariel nailed it. There’s no other way to say it. We played with Rosalind’s insinuation of herself into Orlando’s company. Mariel had already found the places where she’s having to stay on her toes to keep her identity secret; part of the fun of the role is how the normally in-charge Rosalind is sometimes thrown off-balance and has to tapdance to recover.

Mariel was able to use Robert’s previous placement of his poetry on the stage L proscenium to begin her taunting of him. Robert’s increasing embarrassment and discomfort as Mariel kept going on and on about the idiot hanging poetry all over the forest was wonderful, and when he finally admitted, “I am he,” Cindy and I were on the floor.

We pinpointed Rosalind’s line, “But are you so much in love as your rhymes speak?” as the moment when she, without him seeing, asks the question in all seriousness: so much depends on his answer.

These two were so good that I broke my own rule of cutting us off exactly at 9:30. But soon we stopped and will pick up tonight (Tuesday).