Meeting Recap: Oct. 2-3 in NYC

The Cast: Todd d'Amour, Elizabeth Hope Williams and Conor McGuigan.

Last weekend we met for the first time as a cast: Todd d'Amour, Conor McGuigan, Elizabeth Hope Williams and I all gathered in Paradizo Dance's studio for the weekend and went through a thing or two.  Here's how we progressed in our first preparatory meeting for our rehearsal period:

October 2nd:
We got a bit of a late start, which was just as well, since it meant that I could catch Conor and Elizabeth up on some basics of acrobalance.

• For roughly an hour we worked on basing and flying angel and thigh-stand.
• Once all met, we reviewed some of the basic commedia dell'arte characters and their physical characteristics, eventually branching out into interpreting them into more modern contexts.
• From there we moved on to some scenario work.  We took one of the Scala scenarios - Flavio's Disgrace, a production of which I had just directed with the students of Marywood - and worked on how to learn a story by the story and incident, rather than by lines or character.  This included:
• Breaking down a story into simple, single actions
• Learning how to memorize simple action sequence
• Learning the sequence from different perspectives
• Varying the basic circumstances of the scenario
• In the scenario work, we examined some style elements; namely:
• "One thing at a time."
• Committed physical choices and gestures.
• Rhythmic unity.
• We moved on to examining clowning from there, including:
• Practicing "just being" with an audience.
• "The Interview" exercise.
• Brief review of "1-2-3" clown types.
• We ended the day with conditioning by working with the commedia animal forms we learned from Angelo Crotti:
• Dog
• Cat
• Frog
• Lizard/Crocodile

At the cap, we had some casual conversation about the show to come.


October 3rd:
The day began with discussion, and moved into exploring themes, largely through improvisation.

• There was much ecstatic dancing to big brass music.
• Acrobalance: In addition to practicing thigh-stand and angel poses, we worked with head- and hand-stands and learned shoulder-sit.
• We began a discussion of themes and ideas for show content.  Some of this content included (Players - please add to this list as you remember; both for new subjects I missed and ones you want to fill in.):
• Vast economic disparity, then and now.
• Spending vast amounts on entertainment in times of great struggle.
• The entertainment people resort to when they're poor.
• Culture gaps between the young and the old, and the conflict that creates.
• Todd's story: Mom finally getting to Yankee Stadium.
• New archetype relationships: e.g., master & apprentice.
• Inherited knowledge as something going extinct; are our brains changing into ciphers instead of strongholds?
• Seeing faces in everything (pareidolia) and making faces in everything (simulacra).
• Puppetry as themes, puppetry as practice.
• Practical actions performed live on stage (i.e., building something, cooking, etc.).
• Possible preference for "base characters"; definite priority for getting in-depth with a character.
• The differences of demeanor when you change who you're around.
• Unexpected transformation.
• We warmed up with a little further scenario practice.
• We applied some of the themes through two basic improvisation scenarios:
• Teaching, Building & Destroying: A master teaches a student something, and eventually an interloper destroys that thing.
• Pizza Making - Master: E; Apprentice: T; Interloper: C (this is also the one that made me realize the WEIRD initial thing)
•  Carpentry - Master: C; Apprentice: T; Interloper: E
• Feng Shui / Painting - Master: T; Apprentice: E; Interloper: C
• Self-Defense - Master: T; Apprentice: C; Interloper: E
• Old, Young & Compromise: An older person and a younger one come into a conflict through a disagreement in culture, and eventually a third enters to resolve the conflict.
• Video Games - Old: C; Young: E; Interloper: T
•  Lost / "Coke Machine" - Old: T; Young: C; Interloper: E
• Math - Old: E; Young: T; Interloper: C
• After a break, we examined acting with objects.  After choosing an object from the room, the performers improvised a scene with that object as though it were new to them, and they were having a dialogue with it that included emotional response.
• As a final action, we did a few things for the video camera:
• Improvised marionette dancing incorporating acrobalance and oral accompaniment.
• Two improvised scenes along the lines of the others.
• We closed out with upper-body conditioning - push-ups, pull-ups and one-minute handstands.

All-in-all, a great weekend.  I look forward to the next one in November.  In the meantime, let's collaborate here! Look for thematic posts from me in the coming weeks, and start a little writing yourselves about whatever you will (but be sure one or two have to do with character[s], too).  Avanti!