when a blog becomes a blog...

December 7, 2008. The show has closed. Up and down in a few days and a mountain of growth in between. All along this blog has served as a way to record the process and research surrounding the production, but now, it's going to have to change (and soon end). There is no more production. And so, I blog.

All day today I have felt that feeling you get when summer camp ends and your parents arrive to separate you from those best-friends you made for a whole year. That fear that you may never have what you had again and yet you are so damn grateful for having it in the first place. I feel like Phillip: "no anguish I have had to bear has been too heavy a price for the new life I have entered in loving her." if I sub in "the play" for "her."

On the first day of rehearsals, the familial energy in the room was astounding. The cast brought with them a generosity and artistry a director can only dream of having. But they were a dream come true. And throughout the first reading, the comedy of THE MILL ON THE FLOSS was brought out. I said, "i never knew it was so funny." And then, for about 5 weeks, it wasn't funny, until the very final performance. And it was hilarious. The show came to life and with it came the humor... that which gets us through all the hard shit. I will spend time, listing out scene by scene, the surprises that arrived in performance.

1. The more love and joy between the family in the opening scenes, the clearer understanding we have of what is so worth fighting for. There is hope for a better life in Tom. A hope that is not placed upon Maggie, but she is better suited for. Every time an actor smiles or laughs, I think a fairy is brought back to life:)
2. The word "which" and the word "witch" are used so impressively throughout the play.
3. Maggie is NOT a witch. She drowns.
4. if we believe, they will believe it. (red deep ropes, cutting hair, daddy doll, ladder boat, devil hand, hump back.
5. it is worth risking great pain (or even life) for true love. and true love comes many times in life.
6. fishing for the lucy doll doesn't work. it was an idea from another production and doesn't belong in this one
7. When Mr. Tulliver dies, it's perfect to get a laugh. He is himself up to the final moment. It's no wonder Maggie loves him so much.
8. if you use every prop in the room (the oar is the mob tool) at least twice, it has so much more depth.
9. Design is meant to enhance the story, but it is not the story, the story lives in the actors connections and relationships.
10. Details are so important. life only exists in specifics, anything less is phony.
11. The audience rooted for Phillip. But that's because I aligned Stephen with the devil. There is another way to do this next time when all three men are equally enticing. Details in the thesis book.

That's all for now.

Recap of Week 4

This is going to be fun:
In rehearsal:
1. Judy choreographs 2/3 ball
2. Tested and executed major strokes of flood
3. Animal exercise led by Maggie 4 (our AD) with exploration of animal imagery from the novel
4. Work through of major notes from run of act one.
5. Prop-thru of act one (took a few hours, but it was worth it)
6. Exploration of scenes in Act 2 (got through about half)
7. Run through of Act One with vocal coach notes
8. Stage fourth witch hanging and nightmare
9. Work out gypsy/devil sequence

In design land:
Build ongoing
Load in began
Floor finalized
Experimentation with water and shiny items and light in light lab
Figuring out props and lanterns and electrics
Finished model box!
Ongoing costume fittings

This week:
Flour test
Test burlap in lab
Paper tech
Finish working Act 2
Finish staging Ball
Touch up notes from act one run
Head downstairs for tech!
Incorporate: fire, lucy fish, and flour in rehearsal
Run-thru

Eurhythmics
Roger Sessions: The Musical Experience
Dana Friedman
November 12, 2008

The very first reaction I had when I began reading this section of THE MUSICAL EXPERIENCE is that music can be understood in three major parts: the composer, player and listener. For nearly a year, I have been directing a play focused on three actors playing one character that is divided in three. So, for me, the significance of this does not feel light or without meaning. Three is such an important number in so many dimensions; I will list a few: Holy Trinity; Triple Goddess; Three Phases of Matter; and, my favorite-- ID, EGO, and SUPEREGO. In this book, the idea is that one really is reliant upon the other to make the circle complete. One has less purpose without the other and when all three come together, anything is possible.
If one thinks of the three as a culmination of what makes up the musical experience, and if one thinks of music as life, then the first moment of the music must be breath. I love the idea that our first impulse towards rhythm is breath. For the rest of our lives, we continue breathing, but is impossible not for every breath and everything else that follows not to be a distinct, however distant, reaction to that first breath. It is on impulse that we inhale and on impulse that we exhale, and we cannot live without continuing that process. We begin to use and understand rhythm from the inside out. His “Most important idea”: tension and release. Accumulation and exhalation. This is life: Up and down. Upbeat, downbeat, give and take, contrast. At the point you cannot continue, you change. The law of dialectic and the law of physics states that something will continue to increase until it hits a critical moment and then it will change into a new thing. I live by this law and I use it in my work every day. I think Sessions would too.
Impulse and response become interchangeable. What comes first has relevance because they only exist in relation to each other and in relation to the human senses of the listener. The conductor can choose a story, and a player can also make choices and execute with precision, skill and technique, but at the end of the day, the other sounds in the air, the breath of the people and the awareness of the human mind are all variables in the musical equation. Therefore rhythm and music and even sound can never be an exact equation. Rather, they are a series of actions and reactions that continue indefinitely. Though they can be controlled in many ways, the variations are as infinite as there are grains of sand. Because the same moment never occurs twice, the same sound cannot either. As humans, and as open individuals, we can enjoy the pleasure of knowing that we have little control and therefore the world of sound and music is filled with unlimited opportunities. In theory, as soon as we define something, that thing can no longer exist because there will be a reaction to that definition.
The musical ear discriminates based on awareness, knowledge, openness, emotional state, preference, associates, compartmentalizes, fills in the spaces between sounds. Lately, I have also been taking my first figure drawing class. I am not horrible at drawing because I have learned simple lessons in scale and perspective, line weight and shape. However, the element that is most exciting is negative space. Just like we fill in the spaces between sounds with our own ideas, I can draw a portrait of a nude body and leave out certain lines. The human mind will automatically fill it in with the information it has stored. No matter who the nude may be or what shape they are in reality, the imagination will inevitably takeover. I never thought about it in terms of music. But since I have had the visual experience, I can completely understand how we do the same thing with music. This is one form of discrimination. It is not a bad thing, but a fact of human nature and another example of why music can never be actually replicated or defined—because it is dependent on the human reaction.
Even consonance and dissonance are products of interpretation based on western definitions of sounds. The space between sounds is much more universally definable.
We have to define a standard and vary from there. We are working with dialects in the play I am directing as well. The play takes place in the 1860’s in Northern England. The dialect at the time cannot be literally determined because none of us lived during that time and there were no recording devices invented yet. However, we do know the terrain and the economic and socio-political information. We also know what these northern English dialect sounds like now. With this information, we can create a proposed dialect. The fact is, however, that all of the characters in the play come from different places and different walks of life. Their upbringing, occupation, gender and many other characteristics affect their vocal sounds and patterns. As a cast, we created a neutral standard dialect. From there, each character could make alterations based on their own detailed life. This “neutral” is a made up thing. It is not real. And neither are the variations, but for the sake of defining a world. We establish “consonance and dissonance” in terms of the neutral.
A composer is like a writer, creating an aural journey. She is an inventor of a “train of thought.” In theory, this “train” can be always judged subjectively because what the composer creates does not exist prior and therefore people can respond with taste. A person can respond objectively, with technical comparisons to another piece as well. This type of comparison is intellectually satisfying, but, in my opinion, has much less value. The purpose of music, to me, has less power functioning in technical ways than it does when it is attempting to tell a story or move the listener. Even if the purpose is solely for the player or conductor, if it does not resonate on an emotional level, the value is less. In many cases, this “train of thought” can be a marriage of left and right brain functioning. The more balanced both sides are, the effectiveness is most high.

On communicating with common vocabulary and creating a language of subjective terms, I have had a lot of experience. I know that Sessions didn’t necessarily mean this literally, but since I have a limited knowledge of the world of music on an academic level, I have found other ways to respond to what I hear. Sometimes I respond physically, but often in directing, I have to find words to discuss sounds and rhythms and music with musicians, singers and actors when I don’t know the proper terms or I am trying to expressive something emotional. Since I have been working with Ali as the cellist/witch character in my play, we immediately played a game to establish a vocabulary. She began to play, and I would say a word. The words, (like: lust, grief, pride, joy, blue, yellow, red, earth, wind, fire air), made Ali play and move a certain way. I was able to see how she took a word that we both understood and turned it into sound. By doing this enough, we had a new vocabulary to communicate. We also did this with the actors and it proved extremely helpful in getting them and Ali comfortable creating a dialogue with sound and movement.
The composer/player have to keep product and the listener’s reaction out of her head or it will inform the choices. When this happens, the sound/rhythm can be less honest. This is because the music is not trying to achieve a goal that can only be defined by the listener. This is only a road to disappointment. The story can be made clear, but the reaction to it must be open to interpretation. Otherwise, there would be a wrong way to hear something and that would be very sad. Leaving music open to interpretation allows for longevity and a recurring connection no matter era or age.
It is the Listener’s joy, opportunity and right to hear, enjoy, understand and discriminate. In a world based on polls and opinions and financial significance, I am grateful for a few sacred arts. Art for art sake, with purpose and presence, will not die.

By the end of week 3.

Creating the mess is a natural part of the rehearsal process. In having more ideas than are usable, it is inevitable to arrive at a point with a certain amount of chaos. Then, you start making a list, stripping away the fat, and checking off the items until what is left is a slick and purposeful piece of theatre.

Major accomplishments of Team Floss this week:
1. working through act one
2. creating clear stories from our imaginations of witch hangings
3. working the second fight with catherine
4. finding the how of the Maggie trade-off
5. deciding on a workable floor
6. clarifying who the witch is and her sound
7. bucket fitting
8. program notes
9. so much character definition
10. puppy, horse, water, blue
11. new cast member, new trilogy
12. music choices coming in
13. build begins of costumes and set begins, light plot complete
14. marketing materials

I made assurances to the cast at the end of last week that we would be slowing down. For a few days, we really did. Now, the pace has naturally picked up again. It was necessary and important to allow some breathing time and room for growth. The principle that you only grow when you sleep certainly applies to this kind of work. If you don't rest, you'll not retain. And I say that I could happily work on this play for a year-- but the truth is, the pressure of a deadline and the intensity of the project will instill in the production a hot energy that is unmatchable in another circumstance. So, I don't really want to imagine the process another way.

It is clear to that we will just barely be ready to move downstairs into the theatre for tech, but we will be ready. The prolonged tech period due to thanksgiving will be blessing that allows us to push very hard up until that break (and then sleep (grow)). We will have choreographed, blocked and worked nearly every single moment of the quite epic play, and so, when we head down, it will feel like we are moving an army of ideas and moments. A new chaos will be created, and one moment at a time we will clean it up again. I feel a certain calm knowing this process of play-making and my personal habits so well.
I am very excited to see what we will make!

For He's A Jolly Good Fellow

Would this song be in period? the short answer is YES, but there is a long answer too.

The tune has apparently a long history, with some people dating it back to the crusades adapted from tunes by Arabs in Palestine. This interpretation is now contested as the structure of the tune is more similar to Louis XIV France. At any rate, it was known in France by the 1700's as 'Malbrouck s'en va-t-en guerre' (after the Duke of Marlborough), and it was made popular by Marie Antoinette. It was so much associated with France that Beethoven used it in a symphony to celebrate a military victory over France.

The first English use of the air seems to be a satyrical song about the siege of Gibraltar, "D'Artois returns from Spain", written about 1782.

It soon became popular in England after this, and was used chiefly as an instrumental piece for violin or flute, and finally became a teaching piece on the harpsichord. About 1830, however, somebody used the melody for the words, "We Won't Go Home Till Morning", second verse "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow", and from that time on the melody has spread all over the world.

-- From Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

Wikipedia notes that the song has different American and British lyrics:

American lyrics
For he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow
For he's a jolly good fellow (pause), which nobody can deny
Which nobody can deny, which nobody can deny
For he's a jolly good fellow (pause), which nobody can deny

British and Australian lyrics
For he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow
For he's a jolly good fellow (pause), and so say all of us
And so say all of us, and so say all of us
For he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow
For he's a jolly good fellow (pause), and so say all of us

Victorian Etiquette

Many of the Victorian etiquette rules explicitly reinforce gender and class boundaries. ladies behave differently with gentlemen or with other ladies, as well as with people of higher, same, or lower class.

here is a collection of etiquette rules culled from different sources. not all of them refer to actions in the play but they are included because they give more context. the list is already trimmed down A LOT, which gives an indication of how regimented life was.

the list is organized in sections:

The Basic Rules of Etiquette
Victorian Etiquette - Etiquette on the Street
Rules for Conversation
Etiquette in Church
Victorian Etiquette - Etiquette When Visiting
Victorian Etiquette - At Teas and Receptions
Victorian Etiquette - On Mourning
Victorian Etiquette - Breaches of Etiquette
The Qualities of a Gentleman
Rules for Balls
Courtship and Fanning Rules

after you've skimmed through this, take the test!!
this link takes you to a site where you can be in different situations and have to pick the most appropriate dress, decide what to do in response to certain events, etc. you can play as a man or a woman, at home, at the ball, at the gentleman's club, etc..

http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/keys/games/17


Victorian Etiquette - The Basic Rules of Etiquette

Remember that, valuable as is the gift of speech, silence is often more valuable.

Learn to speak in a gentle tone of voice.

Learn to say kind and pleasant things when opportunity offers.

Learn to deny yourself and prefer others.

Victorian Etiquette - Etiquette on the Street

The true lady walks the street, wrapped in a mantle of proper reserve, so impenetrable that insult and coarse familiarity shrink from her, while she, at all times, carries with her a congenial atmosphere which attracts all, and puts all at their ease.

It is proper that the lady should first recognize the gentleman. A gentleman will never fail to bow in return to a lady; but a lady may not feel at liberty to return a gentleman’s bow, which places him in a rather unpleasant position. Therefore, a lady should give the first smile or bow. She must refrain, at all times, from using the gentleman’s Christian name.

In bowing, the head should be best; a mere lowering of the eyelids, affected by some people, is rude; but etiquette does not permit a familiar nod, except between business men, or very intimate friends. In passing and repassing on a public promenade or drive, bows are exchanged only at the first meeting.

In carrying canes, umbrellas, and packages, care should be taken that they do not inconvenience others.

In meeting on a street crossing, gentlemen should make way for ladies, and younger persons for older ones.

Ladies and gentlemen, when meeting on the sidewalk, should always pass to the right.

In the evening or whenever safety may require, a gentleman should give a lady his arm.

A gentleman may take two ladies upon his arms, but under no circumstances should the lady take the arms of two gentlemen.

A gentleman will assist a lady over from an omnibus or carriage, without waiting for the formality of an introduction.

A true lady will go quietly and unobtrusively about her business when on the street, never seeking to attract the attention of the opposite sex, at the same time recognizing acquaintances with a courteous bow, and friends with pleasant words of greeting.


Rules for Conversation

Rise to one's feet as respect for an older person or dignitary.

A true gentleman tips their hat to greet a lady, opens doors, and always walks on the outside.

Conversation is not to talk continually, but to listen and speak in our turn.

Do not monopolize conversation or interrupt another speaker to finish his story for him.

Gentlemen should use but very little perfume, as too much of it is in bad taste.

A lady, when crossing the street, must raise her dress a bit above the ankle while holding the folds of her gown together in her right hand and drawing them toward the right. It was considered vulgar to raise the dress with both hands as it would show too much ankle, but was tolerated for a moment when the mud is very deep.

A young lady should be expected to shine in the art of conversation, but not too brightly. Etiquette books of the era concentrate on the voice, rather than the content of speech, encouraging her to cultivate that distinct but subdued tone.

When introduced to a man, a lady should never offer her hand, merely bow politely and say, "I am happy to make your acquaintance."

While courting, a gentleman caller might bring only certain gifts such as flowers, candy or a book. A woman could not offer a gentleman any present at all until he had extended one to her, and then something artistic, handmade and inexpensive was permissible.

A gentleman may delicately kiss a lady's hand, the forehead, or at most, the cheek.

If you are conversing with people who know less than you, do not lead the conversation where they cannot follow.

A lady should never join in any rude plays that will subject her to be kissed or handled in any way by gentlemen, e.g., if a hand reaches out to admire a breast pin, draw back and take it off for inspection.

Etiquette in Church

A gentleman should remove his hat as soon as he enters the doors of the church, and should and replace it on his head after service until he has reached the outer vestibule.

Victorian Etiquette - Etiquette When Visiting

Do not be in haste to seat yourself; one appears fully as well and talks better, standing for a few moments.

A man should always remain standing as long as there are any women standing in the room.

A man should never take any article from a woman's hands--book, cup, flower, etc.--and remain seated, she standing.

Do not meddle with, or stare at the articles in the room.

Do not call across the length of the room if you wish to address any one. Cross the room and speak to him quietly.

Do not walk around the room, examining pictures, while waiting for the hostess.

Do not introduce politics, religion or other weighty topics for conversation when making calls.

Do no, if a gentleman, seat yourself upon the sofa beside the hostess, or in near proximity, unless invited to do so.

Do not scratch your head or use a toothpick, earspoon or comb.

Use a handkerchief when necessary, but without glancing at it afterwards. Also be as quiet and unobtrusive in the action as possible.

Do not tell long stories, argue, talk scandal or rumors and do not attack the religious beliefs of anyone present.

Do not enter a room without first knocking and receiving an invitation to come in.

It is not acceptable to reject any apology directed your way. In turn, you must always offer an apology if you have caused ill feelings.

Victorian Etiquette - At Teas and Receptions

The day and hour of an afternoon tea may be written on a visiting card. For an afternoon reception, an "At Home" card is used.

Only simple refreshment should be served at an afternoon tea. Thin slices of bread and butter, sandwiches, fancy biscuits or cake, tea, coffee, or chocolate, ice-cream and bouillon. Punch and lemonade may also be served, but no wine or alcoholic drinks.Ladies Taking Tea

The hostess should shake hands with her guests and receive them cordially; any formality is out of place on an informal occasion.

If the number of guests is small, the hostess should walk about the room, talking with her visitors. If large guest list, she should remain near the door and have the aid of other ladies who should help entertain the guests, ask them to take refreshments and make introductions when necessary.

Victorian Etiquette - On Mourning

Mourning clothes are the families outward display of their inner feelings.

The deepest mourning clothes are black, symbolizing spiritual darkness. They are made from a non-reflective paramatta silk or the less expensive bombazine. The dresses are trimmed with crape in a peculiar crimped shape appearance produced by heat. Crape was chosen for mourning clothes as it doesn't combine well with any other clothing. After a period of time, the crape could be removed and the color of the dress lightened as mourning goes on to gray, mauve and then white.

Men have it easy as they simply wear their dark suits along with black gloves, hatbands and cravats. Children are not expected to wear mourning clothes, though sometimes you will find girls wearing white dresses.

The length of time spent mourning depends on your relationship to the deceased and are dictated by society. Widows are expected to wear full mourning dress for two years; everyone else less--children mourning parents or vice versa one year, for grandparents and siblings six months, aunts and uncles two months.

Victorian Etiquette - Breaches of Etiquette

To remove one's gloves when making a formal call.

To stare around the room.

For a caller who is waiting the entrance of the hostess to open the piano or touch it if it is open.

To go to the room of an invalid unless invited.

To look at your watch when calling.

To walk around the room when waiting for the hostess.

To open or shut a door, raise or lower a window curtain, or in any other way alter the arrangement of a room when visiting.

Turn your chair so that you back faces another guest.

To play with any ornament in the room or to seem to be aware of anything but the company present while visiting.

To remain when you find the host or hostess dressed to go out.

To make remarks about another caller who has just left the room.

The Qualities of a Gentleman

He acts kindly from the impulse of his kind heart.

He is brave, because, with a conscience void of offence, he has nothing to fear.

He is never embarrassed, for he respects himself and is profoundly conscious of right intentions.
He keeps his honor unstained, and to retain the good opinion of others he neglects no civility.

He respects even the prejudices of men whom he believes are honest.

He opposes without bitterness and yields without admitting defeat.

He is never arrogant, never weak.

He bears himself with dignity, but never haughtily.

Too wise to despise trifles, he is too noble to be mastered by them.

To superiors he is respectful without servility; to equals courteous; to inferiors kind.

He carries himself with grace in all places, is easy but never familiar, genteel without affection.

He unites gentleness of manner with firmness of mind.

He commands with mild authority, and asks favors with grace and assurance.

It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say he is one who never inflicts pain. This description is both refined and, as far as it goes, accurate. He is mainly occupied in merely removing the obstacles which hinder the free and unembarrassed action of those about him; and he concurs with their movements rather than takes the initiative himself.

His benefits may be considered as parallel to what are called comforts or conveniences in arrangements of a personal nature: like an easy chair or a good fire, which do their part in dispelling cold and fatigue, though nature provides both means of rest and animal heat without them.

The true gentleman in like manner carefully avoids whatever may cause ajar or a jolt in the minds of those with whom he is cast; -- all clashing of opinion, or collision of feeling, all restraint, or suspicion, or gloom, or resentment; his great concern being to make every one at their case and at home.

He has his eyes on all his company; he is tender towards the bashful, gentle towards the distant, and merciful towards the absurd; he can recollect to whom he is speaking; he guards against unseasonable allusions, or topics which may irritate; he is seldom prominent in conversation, and never wearisome. He makes light of favours while he does them, and seems to be receiving when he is conferring.

He never speaks of himself except when compelled, never defends himself by a mere retort, he has no ears for slander or gossip, is scrupulous in imputing motives to those who interfere with him, and interprets everything for the best.

He is never mean or little in his disputes, never takes unfair advantage, never mistakes personalities or sharp sayings for arguments, or insinuates evil which he dare not say out. From a long-sighted prudence, he observes the maxim of the ancient sage, that we should ever conduct ourselves towards our enemy as if he were one day to be our friend.

He has too much good sense to be affronted at insults, he is too well employed to remember injuries, and too indolent to bear malice. He is patient, forbearing, and resigned, on philosophical principles; he submits to pain, because it is inevitable, to bereavement, because it is irreparable, and to death, because it is his destiny. If he engages in controversy of any kind, his disciplined intellect preserves him from the blunder.

Rules for Balls

Any number over a hundred guests constitutes a "large ball;" under fifty it is merely a "dance."

Certain fashionables seek to gain a kind of reputation by the odd choice of their attire, and by their eagerness to seize upon the first caprices of the fashions. Propriety with difficulty tolerates these fancies of a spoiled child; but it applauds a woman of sense and taste, who is not in a hurry to follow the fashions, and asks how long they will last, before adopting them; finally, who selects and modifies them with success according to her size and figure.

We are not obliged to go exactly at the appointed hour; it is even fashionable to go an hour later. Married ladies are accompanied by their husbands; unmarried ones, by their mother, or by an escort.

A lady cannot refuse the invitation of a gentleman to dance, unless she has already accepted that of another, for she would be guilty of an incivility which might occasion trouble; she would, moreover, seem to show contempt for him whom she refused, and would expose herself to receive in secret an ill compliment from the mistress of the house. When a young lady declines dancing with a gentleman, it is her duty to give him a reason why, although some thoughtless ones do not. No matter how frivolous it may be, it is simply an act of courtesy to offer him an excuse; while, on the other hand, no gentleman ought so far to compromise his self-respect as to take the slightest offense at seeing a lady by whom he has just been refused, dance immediately after with some one else.

In inviting a lady to dance with you, the words, "Will you honor me with your hand for a quadrille?" or, "Shall I have the honor of dancing this set with you?" are more used now than "Shall I have the pleasure?" or, "Will you give me the pleasure of dancing with you."

Married or young ladies, cannot leave a ball-room or any other party, alone. The former should be accompanied by one or two other married ladies, and the latter by their mother, or by a lady to represent her.

Ladies should avoid talking too much; it will occasion remarks. It has also a bad appearance to whisper continually in the ear of your partner.

The master of the house should see that all the ladies dance; he should take notice, particularly of those who seem to serve as drapery to the walls of the ball-room, (or wall-flowers, as the familiar expression is,) and should see that they are invited to dance. But he must do this wholly unperceived, in order not to wound the self-esteem of the unfortunate ladies.

Gentlemen whom the master of the house requests to dance with these ladies, should be ready to accede to his wish, and even appear pleased at dancing with a person thus recommended to their notice.

In giving the hand for ladies chain or any other figures, those dancing should wear a smile, and accompany it with a polite inclination of the head, in the manner of a salutation. At the end of the dance, the gentleman reconducts the lady to her place, bows and thanks her for the honor which she has conferred. She also bows in silence, smiling with a gracious air.

Dance with grace and modesty, neither affect to make a parade of your knowledge; refrain from great leaps and ridiculous jumps, which would attract the attention of all towards you.

We should retire incognito, in order not to disturb the master and mistress of the house; and we should make them, during the week, a visit of thanks, at which we may converse of the pleasure of the ball and the good selection of the company.

A lady will not cross a ball-room unattended.

A gentleman will not take a vacant seat next to a lady who is a stranger to him. If she is an acquaintance, he may do so with her permission.

White kid gloves should be worn at a ball, and only be taken off at supper-time.

When a gentleman escorts a lady home from a ball, she should not invite him to enter the house; and even if she does so, he should by all means decline the invitation. he should call upon her during the next day or evening.

As the guests enter the room, it is not necessary for the lady of the house to advance each time toward the door, but merely to rise from her seat to receive their courtesies and congratulations. If, indeed, the hostess wishes to show particular favor to some peculiarly honored guests, she may introduce them to others, whose acquaintance she may imagine will be especially suitable and agreeable.

When entering a private ball or party, the visitor should invariably bow to the company. No well-bred person would omit this courtesy in entering a drawing-room; although the entrance to a large assembly may be unnoticed.

Any presentation to a lady in a public ball-room, for the mere purpose of dancing, does not entitle you to claim her acquaintance afterwards; therefore, should you meet her, at most you may lift your hat; but even that is better avoided - unless, indeed, she first bow - as neither she nor her friends can know who or what you are.

Never wait until the signal is given to take a partner, for nothing is more impolite than to invite a lady hastily, and when the dancers are already in their places; it can be allowed only when the set is incomplete.

In private parties, a lady is not to refuse the invitation of a gentleman to dance, unless she is previously engaged. the hostess must be supposed to have asked to her house only those persons whom she knows to be perfectly respectable and of unblemished character, as well as pretty equal in position; and thus, to decline the offer of any gentleman present, would be a tacit reflection on the gentleman or lady of the house.

Courtship and Fanning Rules

Courtship was considered more a career move than a romantic interlude for young men, as all of a woman's property reverted to him upon marriage. Therefore courting was taken very seriously--by both sides. Men and women were careful not to lead the other on unnecessarily.

From the time she was young, a woman was groomed for this role in life--dutiful wife and mother. Properly trained, she learned to sing, play piano or guitar, dance and be conversant about light literature of the day. She also learned French and the rules of etiquette as well as the art of conversation and the art of silence.

Coming out meant a young woman had completed her education and was officially available on the marriage mart. Financial or family circumstances might delay or move up a girl's debut, though typically, she came out when she was seventeen or eighteen. She purchased a new wardrobe for the season, in order to appear her best in public.

A girl was under her mother's wing for the first few years of her social life. She used her mother's visiting cards, or that of another female relative if her mother was dead. This same person usually served as her chaperone, as a single girl was never allowed out of the house by herself, especially in mixed company.

Courtship advanced by gradations, with couples first speaking, then walking out together, and finally keeping company after mutual attraction had been confirmed. But a gentleman had to take care in the early stages of courtship. If he was introduced to a lady at a party for the purpose for dancing, he could not automatically resume their acquaintance on the street. He had to be re-introduced by a mutual friend. And then, only upon permission of the lady.

The lower classes had opportunities to socialize at Sunday Service, Church suppers and holiday balls, while upper classes held their social events throughout the season. The season ran from April to July. Some families arrived in town earlier if Parliament was in session. A typical debutante's day meant she rose at 11a.m. or 12 noon, ate breakfast in her dressing room, attended a concert or drove in the Park, dined at eight, went to the opera, then to three or four parties until 5 a.m--all under the watchful eye of her chaperone.

Great care had to be taken at these public affairs, so as not to offend a possible suitor or his family. Following are some rules of conduct a proper female must adhere to:

* She never approached people of higher rank, unless being introduced by a mutual friend.
* People of lesser rank were always introduced to people of higher rank, and then only if the higher-ranking person had given his/her permission.
* Even after being introduced, the person of higher rank did not have to maintain the acquaintance. They could ignore, or 'cut' the person of lower rank.
* A single woman never addressed a gentleman without an introduction.
* A single woman never walked out alone. Her chaperone had to be older and preferably married.
* If she had progressed to the stage of courtship in which she walked out with a gentleman, they always walked apart. A gentleman could offer his hand over rough spots, the only contact he was allowed with a woman who was not his fiancée.
* Proper women never rode alone in a closed carriage with a man who wasn't a relative.
* She would never call upon an unmarried gentleman at his place of residence.
* She couldn't receive a man at home if she was alone. Another family member had to be present in the room.
* A gentlewoman never looked back after anyone in the street, or turned to stare at others at church, the opera, etc.
* No impure conversations were held in front of single women.
* No sexual contact was allowed before marriage. Innocence was demanded by men from girls in his class, and most especially from his future wife.
* Intelligence was not encouraged, nor was any interest in politics.

A woman was allowed some liberties, however. She could flirt with her fan, as this behavior was within the protocol of accepted behavior. Here are what different signals meant:

Fan fast--I am independent
Fan slow--I am engaged
Fan with right hand in front of face--Come on
Fan with left hand in front of face--Leave me
Fan open and shut--Kiss me
Fan open wide--Love
Fan half open--Friendship
Fan shut--Hate
Fan swinging--Can I see you home?

The Age of Innocence

What would Maggie, a 14 year old girl in Victorian England, REALLY know about denying herself (following Thomas á Kempis) in sexual terms? Quite a lot, it turns out. She was already considered of marrying age. Most girls were married by 18, and women unmarried by 25 were considered old maids.

During the time of the play, the age of consent for girls in Victorian England was 12. In 1875 it was raised to 13. In 1885, it was raised to 16. There was no age of consent for boys. Interestingly, the symbol of romantic perfection was the 'girl' more than the 'woman' (because it implied sexual innocence). Accordingly, in this period there was a substantial number of engagements between adult men and teenager girl-brides, who had sometimes first attracted their future husbands in childhood. Lots of them were celebrity engagements, including the son of the prime minister, the archbishop of Canterbury, poets, novelists, artists, and even the chief barrister of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children!

From Family Ties in Victorian England, Claudia Nelson.

Who's a Witch cont...

These "mob scenes" are actually becoming quite exciting in the world of play development. There are so many layers to this play... it's a novel, and it's epic, and these layers manifest in so many different ways that when we gather in the rehearsal room as a cast, it's necessary to use several different tactics to fully comprehend and physically articulate what's happening in the story.

A typical first tactic has been discussing why the mob scene occurs in that moment. In the story, it is clear that each event, (except the first which is the invention of the witch), comes as a direct result in going against Tom. If Tom represents that one life Maggie could live, the opposite is the life of the Witch: free, loving, limitless and unrestrained. The gulf between an identity as Tom prescribes and the life as a witch is vast and traumatic. Any leaning towards one is a kind of death towards the other life. It is this divide that manifests in 3 Maggies and creates the greatest struggle of the play. We also must keep in mind that these Mob Scenes are continuations of Maggie's journey and NOT breaks in the action.

Another tactic has been sketching (story-boarding) the mob scenes first. Another has been get on our feet and figuring it out physical with different rules involved and variations on a theme.

If the first scene invents the device of the witch and fully exists as a figment of Maggie's imagination. We must see Maggie create this scene, she is "above it all." She is the mastermind and the playmaker. It will fully activate the power of Maggie's imagination for the audience. In the first scene, we invent the witch.

In the second Mob sequence, Tom initiates Mag's trauma as he sees her make a promise to Phillip that directly upsets Tom's hold over Maggie. In this, then, Maggie is leaning towards the way of the witch and Tom chases the witch out of Maggie, the nightmare continues until Mag is in a safe place, riding away on her horse.

In the third sequence, again Mag is with Phillip considering a secret tryst and as she follows him off (with the encouragement of the witch) the mob blocks her path. Tom is there as well. She submits. Maggie One gets her to follow the witchy ways again and then as we see Maggie with Phillip in the deeps, Mrs. Pullet can come out of the mob (yes, actors this is an idea to explore) and say to Tom in the mob this story of seeing Phillip in the deeps. All the while, we are seeing a montage of Mag 2/Phillip in the deeps and time is passing. The mob disappears, the scene between Mag and Phillip continues.

Maybe.

I also just had a lovely meeting with the dramaturges. They asked questions about moments in the run, I filled them in on the shadow experience in yesterday's rehearsal, we spoke about the various ages of the characters and how that might affect interactions. Program notes are due in a couple of days so we discussed material to include as well as material NOT to include. We spent some time discussing the mob scenes and the significance of those moments in the story.

Yesterday in the first hour of rehearsal the 3 Maggies went into the light lab and we explored the color blue. All three responded to the deep connection they felt within this color. No-one was leading and all felt very present in the light. In watching them explore, I noticed the shadow was so clear when a single source lit them, we began to play with these shadows from many perspectives and grew more and more excited at this new possibility for creating a new maggie. After all, in the text, the mirror is the device, but a shadow is also a mirror and it's even closer to the soul of the character because there is no glass in between, it is light. We played with going from one shadow to two and back again, we played with climbing inside someone's shadow and the effects were mesmerizing. We will continue with the exploration. On a technical note, doing it this way is perfect for the arena setting because the floor is quite literally the backdrop.

We continue this week taking the show moment by moment. Monday we begin again with the 3 mags, work with Stephen and continue with the mob work. Tues and Wed will be similar, adding in family scenes and continuing with Tom and Phillip and begin executing the flood as well. By the end of the week I would like to begin choreography of the ball and the fights.

Who's a witch?

Last night we spend a portion of rehearsal exploring the three Maggies. We are on a quest to find the common link between them and then articulate how we go from one to the other. We began to explore religion, animals, voice and water. In religion, we spoke about the three spiritual presences in the play and if a Maggie aligns with one more than the other. All of them agree they WANT to be the witch, but at portions of the play feel most in line with the devil in attitude or in action with Thomas a Kempis.

The women also agreed that at least for young Mag, the starting animal imagery is a puppy. They built a puppy out out of imaginary clay and stepped inside it. Watching them on stage together doing just about anything is quite rewarding for me. It was amazing how even as a puppy (each had their own family dog in mind) they moved and responded differently to stimuli. They were not even thinking about Maggie, and so, I realize the differences are deep within them and so perfect.

We found a rich lower range to explore, giving Maggie an honest confident sound.

And then we decided that Maggie (for now) is water, and so we began physically exploring how that can inform the connection between them.

When the rest of the cast came in, the goal was to make the first strides at defining and staging the mob scenes. As with anything in theatre, we began slowly and worked out way to the floor and then more and more clarity came out.

I will have to write more about this later. As I need to get to rehearsal this morning.

Chi va piano va sano e va lontano.

"He who goes slowly and safely goes far."

A breath. That is what the show, actors, rehearsals and, yes, director, needed tonight. After such a high intensity, fast-paced week of a million items, we deserve to slow down and think for a moment.

Tonight, for the first hour, the Maggies sat on the floor and we spoke about the journey. We tried to find ways to articulate what Maggie is made of-- in adjectives, in verbs. We began by discussing the changing of the actors as the play progresses. Perhaps there os physical element carried through-- perhaps there is an emotional quality to the moments-- a shedding of skin... and so many more ideas came out.

We spoke about Maggie's relationship with the witch-- WHY a witch, when does she arrive? we began to discuss the Freudian implications of the journey.

In regard to the witch and dreams and fantasy:

A Dream is a Wish
In part description of his methods and results, in part autobiography, and in part speculation on the workings of the mind, The Interpretation of Dreams marks the beginning of psychoanalysis. The book also reveals Freud's powers as a writer, weaving intriguing stories together with ambitious theory. Its key idea on which so much else is built: the dream is the expression of a disguised wish.

And then we spoke about Tom and a moment later he joined the group. With "Tom", we were able to begin exploration of the sibling relationship. Perhaps a little too often I was reminded of my own brother. But we all agreed that a sibling bond is inexplicably desperate and permanent. Also, maggie's first memory is standing with Tom by the river, and so, it is fascinating to remember Freud's theory: Identification: an early, primitive kind of attachment to an object which results in incorporating some of its aspects into oneself.

(more on freud to come... but let's not get too heady all at once!)

We also got on our feet today. For me, this is what it's all about. Off to a slow and specific start, with fantastic actors who are dying to find the truth, we cannot go wrong. Honestly, this cast makes it easy for me to do my job. I have done this before, though, and I know it gets harder, but for ow, they are playing and listening and committing to the moments. The older Maggie's jumped in and played the first scene as well. This was fascinating on several levels: 1. Maggie 1 is literally getting the experience of someone else taking her part in the game (life), 2. Tom gets to play the scene with several actresses who have different tactics but the same objective, and 3. I get to see older Maggie's access a freedom ordinarily assigned to youth, but actually most interesting in adulthood.

Discoveries and Surprises: Stillness in a child, more meta-theatrical/fantasy moments, violence, oppposites, cause-and-effect, best intentions.

We ended rehearsal with a plea to the actors to RETAIN RETAIN RETAIN.

I love what I do.

Sweeping Brush Strokes

The culmination of our first full week of rehearsal-- a week packed with activities like doll-making, make-believe, read-thrus, discussion, movement exercises and rapid staging-- came to a head with our first "stumble-thru." It was a week of "new": New play, new wold, new cast, new relationships, new dialects, new clothes, new everything! With that newness comes an energy that has come up throughout this process-- we call it potential energy. It is my goal to sustain that potential energy through the last breath of the final performance.

I said to the cast after the run tonight that they just ran a marathon, in fact, I felt like I had just run one as well. Except, the truth of it is, I have trained and run a marathon (a proud moment of my life!) and that first day of training -- in my memory-- was memorably painful. Only after the 14 mile run could I imagine 18, and 21 miles seemed impossible until I ran the 18th and could keep going. The 26th mile was so painful and I was struggling, but there was no question that I would finish. We just finished about 5 miles. Tired, a long way to go, but definitely on our way.

Switching metaphors: We have laid the foundation, we know where we want to build this house, we can squint our eyes and imagine what it looks like, we can hear the life that will soon live in it, but it is not there there yet... it does not exist yet because we have only laid the foundation. However, the foundation is the most important part, without it, the house would crumble and all the work and ornamentation would be for naught.

What I saw today was a team, an ensemble, working together, focused on telling an enormous tale. There were moments of surprise and moments lost in the scuffle-- it was fast and furious an frantic-- there were at least two or three balls on the court at any given time (going with the basketball metaphor here-- can't play with more than one ball). I want to allow the breath to take over, find that single ball of tension and see it through.

I am so looking forward to slowing down and relishing in the moments in these next couple of weeks. Talking in detail about the characters, and immediately testing out the relationships will be so telling. I see in the play a need for a certain care and delicacy in the story-telling, The story is massive and exhausting, but that requires nurturing.

The actors will remain diligent in there technical work-- defining vocal and physical choices and taking care of their physical and mental health, every day bringing in richer and deeper choices. Everyday growing more equipped and comfortable with yesterday's work in order to get messy and uncomfortable all over again.

I must lookout for any moment of dishonesty or laziness or mush and wipe it away. The time has come to mature into the play. We are artists and we have many characters within us with many stories to tell, this first week only brought out the first few. I await the thousands more to come!

Dear Actors who are reading this, thank you.

Exchange rates

A very quick and dirty calculation of money in the play.

1 pound was approx. $4.86 in 1800.

300 pounds -> $1458.00 in 1800 -> $855.15 in 1840 -> $17,563.00 in 2007
100 pounds -> $486.00 in 1800 -> $285.05 in 1840 -> $5854.36 in 2007
Two half-crowns and a sixpence -> $40 in 2007

Towards a Poor Theatre

i partially re-read Jerzy Grotowski's book TOWARDS A POOR THEATRE at the laundromat today. Its quite amazing how aspects of life seem to correspond as if there were a controlling force..(of course, who's to say there isn't-- none of us really know for sure). in this case, by reading this wonderful text again, I found that the classes I am taking-- eurhythmics, figure drawing-- are so connected to the way I am approaching this show-- it is astounding. for example, thinking about shape and structure and time is easy enough in theatre, but add in a cello and a circular space, and I cannot help but respond to the time it takes to cover one moment and use that to inform the next. Because, in the world of this production, all we have to go on is contrast. I am definitely interested in exploring shape and contact this week. I will probably steal an exercise or two from the book. More than anything, reading this book is like reading a bible for the theatre. It is a truly holistic approach to theatre. There is no right and wrong, but there is ignorance of the mind, body and spirit. There is an openness that is inspiring and contagious. Here is a section that I must savor:

"We can define the theatre as "what takes place between spectator and actor. All other things are supplementary--perhaps necessary, but nevertheless supplementary."

"if the actor, by setting himself a challenge publicly challenges others, and through excess, profanation and outrageous sacrilege reveals himself by casting off his everyday mask, he makes it possible for the spectator to undertake a similar process of self-penetration."

"if it [theatre] cannot be richer than the cinema, then let it be poor. If it cannot be as lavish as television, let it be ascetic. If it cannot be a technical attraction, let it renounce all outward technique. Thus we are left with a "holy" actor in a poor theatre."

"Art is bit the source of science. It is the experience which we take upon ourselves when we open ourselves to others, when we confront ourselves with them in order to understand ourselves-- not in the scientific sense of re-creating the context of an epoch in history, but in an elementary and human sense."


STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES

I

The rhythm of life in modern civilization is characterized by pace, tension, a feeling of doom, the wish to hide our personal motives and the assumption of a variety of roles and masks in life (different ones with our family, at work, amongst friends or in community life, etc.-). We like to be "scientific", by which we mean discursive and cerebral, since this attitude is dictated by the course of civilization. But we also want to pay tribute to our biological selves, to what we might call physiological pleasures. We do not want to be restricted in this sphere. Therefore we play a double game of intellect and instinct, thought and emotion; we try to divide ourselves artificially into body and soul. When we try to liberate ourselves from it all we start to shout and stamp, we convulse to the rhythm of music. In our search for liberation we reach biological chaos. We suffer most from a lack of totality, throwing ourselves away, squandering ourselves.

Theatre - through the actor's technique, his art in which the living organism strives for higher motives - provides an opportunity for what could be called integration, the discarding of masks, the revealing of the real substance: a totality of physical and mental reactions. This opportunity must be treated in a disciplined manner, with a full awareness of the responsibilities it involves. Here we can see the theatre's therapeutic function for people in our present day civilization. It is true that the actor accomplishes this act, but he can only do so through an encounter with the spectator - intimately, visibly, not hiding behind a cameraman, wardrobe mistress, stage designer or make-up girl - in direct confrontation with him, and somehow " instead of" him. The actor's act - discarding half measures, revealing, opening up, emerging from himself as opposed to closing up - is an invitation to the spectator. This act could be compared to an act of the most deeply rooted, genuine love between two human beings - this is just a comparison since we can only refer to this "emergence from oneself" through analogy. This act, paradoxical and borderline, we call a total act. In our opinion it epitomizes the actor's deepest calling.

II

Why do we sacrifice so much energy to our art? Not in order to teach others but to learn with them what our existence, our organism, our personal and unrepeatable experience have to give us; to learn to break down the barriers which surround us and to free ourselves from the breaks which hold us back, from the lies about ourselves which we manufacture daily for ourselves and for others; to destroy the limitations caused by our ignorance and lack of courage; in short, to fill the emptiness in us: to fulfill ourselves. Art is neither a state of the soul (in the sense of some extraordinary, unpredictable moment of inspiration) nor a state of man (in the sense of a profession or social function). Art is a ripening, an evolution, an uplifting which enables us to emerge from darkness into a blaze of light.

We fight then to discover, to experience the truth about ourselves; to tear away the masks behind which we hide daily. We see theatre - especially in its palpable, carnal aspect - as a place of provocation, a challenge the actor sets himself and also, indirectly, other people. Theatre only has a meaning if it allows us to transcend our stereotyped vision, our conventional feelings and customs, our standards of judgment - not just for the sake of doing so, but so that we may experience what is real and, having already given up all daily escapes and pretenses, in a state of complete defenselessness unveil, give, discover ourselves. In this way - through shock, through the shudder which causes us to drop our dally masks and mannerisms - we are able, without hiding anything, to entrust ourselves to something we cannot name but in which live Eros and Charitas.

III

Art cannot be bound by the laws of common morality or any catechism. The actor, at least in part, is creator, model and creation rolled into one- He must not be shameless as that leads to exhibitionism. He must have courage, but not merely the courage to exhibit himself - a passive courage, we might say: the courage of the defenseless, the courage to reveal himself. Neither that which touches the interior sphere, nor the profound stripping bare of the self should be regarded as evil so long as in the process of preparation or in the completed work they produce an act of creation. If they do not come easily and if they are not signs of outburst but of mastership, then they are creative: they reveal and purify us while we transcend ourselves. Indeed, they improve us then.

For these reasons every aspect of an actor's work dealing with intimate matters should be protected from incidental remarks, indiscretions, nonchalance, idle comments and jokes. The personal realm - both spiritual and physical - must not be "swamped" by triviality, the sordidness of life and lack of tact towards oneself and others; at least not in the place of work or anywhere connected with it. This postulate sounds like an abstract moral order. It is not. It involves the very essence of the actor's calling. This calling is realized through carnality. The actor must not Illustrate but accomplish an "act of the soul" by means of his own organism. Thus he is faced with two extreme alternatives: he can either sell, dishonour, his real "incarnate" self, making himself an object of artistic prostitution; or he can give himself, sanctify his real "incarnate" self.

IV

An actor can only be guided and inspired by someone who is whole-hearted in his creative activity. The producer, while guiding and inspiring the actor, must at the same time allow himself to be guided and inspired by him- it is a question of freedom, partnership, and this does not imply a lack of discipline but a respect for the autonomy of others. Respect for the actor's autonomy does not mean lawlessness, lack of demands, never ending discussions and the replacement of action by continuous streams of words. On the contrary, respect for autonomy means enormous demands, the expectation of a maximum creative effort and the most personal revelation. Understood thus, solicitude for the actor's freedom can only be born from the plenitude of the guide and not from his lack of plenitude. Such a lack implies imposition, dictatorship, superficial dressage.

V

An act of creation has nothing to do with either external comfort or conventional human civility; that is to say working conditions in which everybody is happy. It demands a maximum of silence and a minimum of words. In this kind of creativity we discuss through proposals, actions and living organisms, not through explanations. When we finally find ourselves on the track of something difficult and often almost intangible, we have no right to lose it through frivolity and carelessness. Therefore, even during breaks after which we will be continuing with the creative process, we are obliged to observe certain natural reticences in our behaviour and even in our private affairs. This applies just as much to our own work as to the work of our partners. We must not interrupt and disorganize the work because we are hurrying to our own affairs; we must not peep, comment or make jokes about it privately. In any case, private Ideas of fun have no place in the actors calling. In our approach to creative tasks, even if the theme is a game, we must be in a state of readiness - one might even say " solemnity". Our working terminology which serves as a stimulus must not be dissociated from the work and used in a private context. Work terminology should be associated only with that which it serves.

A creative act of this quality is performed in a group, and therefore within certain limits we should restrain our creative egoism. An actor has no right to mold his partner so as to provide greater possibilities for his own performance. Nor has he the right to correct his partner unless authorized by the work leader. Intimate or drastic elements in the work of others are untouchable and should not be commented upon even in their absence. Private conflicts, quarrels, sentiments, animosities are unavoidable in any human group. It is our duty towards creation to keep them in check in so far as they might deform and wreck the work process. We are obliged to open ourselves up even towards an enemy.

VI

It has been mentioned several times already but we can never stress and explain too often the fact that we must never exploit privately anything connected with the creative act: i. e. location, costume, props, an element from the acting score a melodic theme or lines from the text. This rule applies to the smallest detail and there can be no exceptions. We did not make this rule simply to pay tribute to a special artistic devotion. We are not interested in grandeur and noble words, but our awareness and experience tell us that lack of strict adherence to such rules causes the actors score to become deprived of its psychic motives and "radiance."

VII

Order and harmony in the work of each actor are essential conditions without which a creative act cannot take place. Here we demand consistency. We demand it from the actors who come to the theatre consciously to try themselves out in something extreme, a sort of challenge seeking a total response from every one of us. They come to test themselves in something very definite that reaches beyond the meaning of "theatre" and is more like an act of living and way of existence. This outline probably sounds rather vague. If we try to explain it theoretically, we might say that the theatre and acting are for us a kind of vehicle allowing us to emerge from ourselves, to fulfill ourselves. We could go into this at great length. However, anyone who stays here longer than just the trial period is perfectly aware that what we are talking about can be grasped less through grandiose words than through details, demands and the rigours of work in all its elements. The individual who disturbs the basic elements, who does not for example respect his own and the others acting score, destroying its structure by shamming or automatic reproduction, is the very one who shakes this undeniable higher motive of our common activity. Seemingly small details form the background against which fundamental questions are decided, as for example the duty to note down elements discovered in the course of the work. We must not rely on our memory unless we feel the spontaneity of our work is being threatened, and even then we must keep a partial record. This is just as basic a rule as is strict punctuality, the thorough memorizing of the text, etc. Any form of shamming in one's work is completely inadmissible. However it does sometimes happen that an actor has to go through a scene, just outline it, in order to check its organization and the elements of his partners' actions. But even then he must follow the actions carefully, measuring himself against them, in order to comprehend their motives. This is the difference between outlining and shamming.

An actor must always be ready to join the creative act at the exact moment determined by the group. In this respect his health, physical condition and all his private affairs cease to be just his own concern. A creative act of such quality flourishes only if nourished by the living organism. Therefore we are obliged to take daily care of our bodies so we are always ready for our tasks. We must not go short of sleep for the sake of private enjoyment and then come to work tired or with a hangover. We must not come unable to concentrate. The rule here is not just one's compulsory presence in the place of work, but physical readiness to create.

VIII

Creativity, especially where acting is concerned, is boundless sincerity, yet disciplined: i.e. articulated through signs. The creator should not therefore find his material a barrier in this respect. And as the actor's material is his own body, it should be trained to obey, to be pliable, to respond passively to psychic impulses as if it did not exist during the moment of creation - by which we mean it does not offer any resistance. Spontaneity and discipline are the basic aspects of an actor's work and they require a methodical key.

Before a man decides to do something he must first work out a point of orientation and then act accordingly and in a coherent manner. This point of orientation should be quite evident to him, the result of natural convictions, prior observations and experiences in life. The basic foundations of this method constitute for our troupe this point of orientation. Our institute is geared to examining the consequences of this point of orientation. Therefore nobody who comes and stays here can claim a lack of knowledge of the troupe's methodical program. Anyone who comes and works here and then wants to keep his distance (as regards creative consciousness) shows the wrong kind of care for his own individuality. The etymological meaning of " individuality" is " indivisibility" which means complete existence in something: individuality is the very opposite of half-heartedness. We maintain, therefore, that those who come and stay here discover in our method something deeply related to them, prepared by their lives and experiences. Since they accept this consciously, we presume that each of the participants feels obliged to train creatively and try to form his own variation inseparable from himself, his own reorientation open to risks and search. For what we here call "the method" is the very opposite of any sort of prescription.

IX

The main point then is that an actor should not try to acquire any kind of recipe or build up a "box of tricks." This is no place for collecting all sorts of means of expression. The force of gravity in our work pushes the actor towards an interior ripening which expresses itself through a willingness to break through barriers, to search for a "summit", for totality.

The actor's first duty is to grasp the fact that nobody here wants to give him anything; instead they plan to take a lot from him, to take away that to which he is usually very attached: his resistance, reticence, his inclination to hide behind masks, his half-heartedness, the obstacles his body places in the way of his creative act, his habits and even his usual "good manners".

X

Before an actor is able to achieve a total act he has to fulfill a number of requirements, some of which are so subtle, so intangible, as to be practically undefinable through words. They only become plain through practical application. It is easier, however, to define conditions under which a total act cannot be achieved and which of the actor's actions make it impossible. This act cannot exist if the actor is more concerned with charm, personal success, applause and salary than with creation as understood in its highest form. It cannot exist if the actor conditions it according to the size of his part, his place in the performance, the day or kind of audience. There can be no total act if the actor, even away from the theatre, dissipates his creative impulse and, as we said before, sullies it, blocks it, particularly through incidental engagements of a doubtful nature or by the premeditated use of the creative act as a means to further own career.

Recap of Rehearsal Week One

By 2:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, the cast and I finished the large brush strokes of staging Act I. It's quite remarkable how staging a show, putting the action on the stage, can happen in so many ways. With this play, given the amount of preparation and thought I have given to the many images and events the occur, there is a lovely amount of play and freedom occurring in the rehearsal room. I like to think that this is because of the way I have structured the first week, but I know there are many more ingredients involved. The circular space invites movement and unusual relationships. The number of scenes instill a charged pace and a keen awareness to what has just happened and what comes next. The remarkable strengths of the team of actors to work as an ensemble. The individual strengths each actors brings to the floor. The absolute communal understanding that we are all telling this story together and it is the same story. And so, I feel relaxed and playful and proud of the work the actors are doing even so early in the game.

On the third rehearsal, we continued our reading of the play while charting the cardiogram of the story we are telling. We were finally able to articulate that journey of ups and downs in relation to Maggie's sense of self-worth, her ability to live freely vs. the opposite. Interestingly, Ali really locked into this idea as an a way to hook into the story of the witch. having this huge cardiogram on the wall will prove very helpful as we begin to work moments of the play. Seeing the story in front of us will keep us all on the same page. Most exciting this night, however, was the big surprise of doll-making. In this exercise, Brian diligently sewed together 15 dolls so that the actors could create dolls of their characters using mostly materials of the world. It was an opportunity to think about the characters. And we will use these dolls in rehearsal (and maybe some of them in the show!) But mostly, it was an opportunity to allow the cast to use their hands. I am interested in constantly creating series of surprises. I am interested in bringing out the whole artist in each of them. There are no limits and there are no set identities. They have thousands of possibilities. Daily, i wish to wake them up.

On the next night, we explored the relationship between the cello and movement. In order to create a dialogue between the actors and the cello, we must speak the same language. And so, the actors spent some time listening, then moving freely, eventually interacting, exploring ideas of tension, intimacy, elements etc... What we created was not just a response from actors, but it evolved into a dialogue. The cello responded to the actors and the ball was tossed back and forth. Ali said after the exercise, "that was the best score I ever played to." And then we began staging. I was nervous, I'll admit. After a year of a play begin in your head and on paper, getting up on our feet is a huge milestone. But because I have this wonderful giving and brave team of actors, they LEAPED onto the stage.

The idea of building an ensemble is quite different when the actors have all worked together before. And particularly when they have all trained together. I take pleasure in learning from them. I can see where their communal strengths lie, and I can harness their individual strengths so that they is a constant movement within them. What I intend to create is a world inside the rehearsal room. They are already an ensemble. They are becoming a culture.

At this morning's rehearsal, after our daily few minutes of dialect review, I left the room with SM and the AD and asked the actors to put on a show. They could use anything in the room and the show could be anything they wanted. And they had 15 minutes. It is so clear to me that they have caught the bug of the show. What I saw began from the moment the door opened. They filled the room with a new world, they established rules, they told a story, the used elements of costume, prop, set, sound, lighting. They know how to play and they have fun. And, luckily, so do I. This exercise was more like a warm-up, was meant to wake up our imaginations. And I needed to say nothing when it was over. I am learning how much more powerful actions can be.

The rehearsals have been slightly schizophrenic. I simply mean that I do ten things in a rehearsal instead of just one. I am happy to stop the stream of motion to tell a story. I want to be open to what they bring and respond as necessary. While we make these large staging brush strokes, new ideas for costumes and scenic and lighting pop up. This is when the process begins to grow exponentially. i know the designers see the rehearsal report at the end of each night and wonder what brought on some of these new ideas and also what causes changes to old ideas. They will will to embrace this new phase and I will do my best to articulate what happens in the room when they cannot be there. Now is when trust and collaboration is most important. I predict that within the next week, the show moves from two groups of collaborators with director in the middle, to one giant production.

This plan for this week is to continue giant brush strokes of Act II, allow for play, explore relationships, begin moment to moment work telling one story, begin looking at some of the combat and probably throw in a very rough stumble thru for the designers to see. I will remind myself of my old saying that Allegra Libonati taught me: "slowly, slowly and you will go far."

I will practice trust in myself and in the power of the story.

The Gypsies on the Common

There were some questions at Wednesday's rehearsal about the gypsies in St. Ogg's, and how much Maggie and the others might know about them (in addition to some wondering about where gypsies come from, anyway). Here's some great info on gypsies in Victorian Britain, and their historical origins. Enjoy!

--Anthea (asst. 'turg)

The Gypsies in Britain

The Gypsies have been important to the folk song tradition, both as carriers of songs and tunes and as main characters in the many variants of 'The Gypsy Laddies'. This article was put together from several sources.

As their name suggests, Gypsies were initially believed to have come from Egypt. Linguists compare Gypsy languages to historical languages; they look at words borrowed from other languages and when and where those words originally existed. It is possible to trace Gypsies back to their origin: the Sind area of India (today south central Pakistan -- the mouth of the Indus). Three separate emigrations occurred over the course of about four hundred years, traceable today in three identifiable linguistic populations: the Eastern Gypsy (Domari) in Egypt and the Middle East, the Central Gypsy (Lomavren) in Armenia and eastern Turkey, and the Western Gypsy (Romani) This last group is the population most widely dealt with in reference works and literature, and therefore most of the information here pertains to them.

The Gypsies' ancestors made their earliest official appearance in Europe, in modern-day Turkey, to around AD 855. By the 1300s, their migration had entered southeastern Europe; by the 1400s, western Europe. Finally, in the early 1500s, the Gypsies reached the British Isles. But the prejudices against Gypsies soon became manifest. The first anti-Gypsy Act in England was passed in 1530, just twenty-five years after the Gypsies' arrival there. The Act's intention was to rid the country of all Gypsies by banning further immigration and requiring the Gypsies already living in England to leave or suffer confiscation of their goods, imprisonment, and execution as felons. There are reports of deportations throughout the sixteenth century and of executions as late as the seventeenth century. In 1783, all existing laws directed specifically at Gypsies were repealed, but the discriminatory treatment continued in the form of new laws. Throughout the nineteenth century the various Poor Law, Vagrancy, Hawkers, Highways, Health, Housing and Education Acts resulted in Gypsies, and other nomads, being prosecuted (or threatened with prosecution) for such offences as setting fires, damaging grass by camping, possessing a dog without a licence or collar, fortune-telling, taking sticks and ferns without permission, damaging crops, and begging.

The Gypsies are a race of nomads. The Gypsies of nineteenth-century England travelled the countryside, carrying all their belongings in covered wagons and pitching tents wherever they stopped. For Gypsies, travelling is not a pastime or leisure activity, but a way of life. In fact, a common belief of the latter part of the nineteenth century suggested that the inclination to travel, called "wanderlust," was a product of genetic determinants. This view was the basis for the claim that "it was as natural for [the Gypsies] to move as it was for the majority of the population to stay in one place". Another argument of this time period was that itinerancy resulted from socialisation to a travelling way of life. Therefore, "being raised as a nomad and being accustomed to the rigours of travelling from an early age would undoubtedly have increased the likelihood of inter-generational itinerancy". Whatever its source, the Gypsies' itinerant lifestyle naturally made it necessary that their occupations involve mobility. It was in the economic sphere, then, that Gypsies interacted with settled society.

Both in the nineteenth century and today, Gypsies have played an important economic role in society. In nineteenth-century England, they made their living primarily by hawking (selling small homemade goods) and tinkering (repairing pots and pans). In this way, Gypsies filled the small-scale and irregular demands for goods and services in the non-Gypsy population. Gypsies also met the high demand for seasonal employment on farms. During the late summer and early autumn, Gypsies harvested fruits and vegetables. This kind of employment was "plentiful, regular, and temporary" and thus perfectly suited to the Gypsy lifestyle. They also followed a diverse number of other trades, such as chair-bottoming, basket-making, rat-catching, wire-working, grinding, fiddling, selling fruit, fish, and earthenware, and mending bellows. However, the Gypsy lifestyle was not all work and no play.

Aside from these labour-oriented functions, another activity in which the Gypsies have participated is entertaining. They danced, sang, and played musical instruments. However, the form of entertainment for which the Gypsies are perhaps the best known is fortune-telling. Taking advantage of the superstitious belief that they possessed magical powers which enabled them to see into the future, Gypsy women sold fortunes at fairs and made considerable profits. They read palms and tarot cards, and cast charms and spells. In nineteenth-century England, fortune-telling was the equivalent of the modern-day horoscope and taken as seriously by many. Others who considered fortune-telling foolish and unrealistic dismissed it as an easy way for the Gypsies to make money. However, fortune-telling was an important part of Gypsy tradition. While there were undoubtedly many imposters, some Gypsy women firmly believed in their abilities to see into the future. And, as Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald notes, "it must be remembered that deceit and imposture alone would never have built up and supported a practice that has withstood the passage of centuries and the constant attacks of progress. There must also be some truth".

Despite the important role Gypsies played in the nineteenth-century, they were not automatically accepted as equals in society. In fact, from the moment they set foot on European soil, the Gypsies were misunderstood and even feared. These feelings became manifest in prejudices, which led to discriminatory actions. At the same time, however, Victorian society found itself fascinated with these strange Gypsies. There was an ambiguous attitude in Victorian society toward Gypsies.

The Victorians' initial impression of the Gypsies was not a favourable one. At first, the prejudices against Gypsies had obvious sources. Settled society has always had a fear of foreigners, so naturally, "the earliest response to the 'Egyptian' immigrants was rooted, generally, in a xenophobic fear and mistrust of aliens". Besides being mistrusted as foreigners, the Gypsies fell victim to racial prejudice because of the colour of their skin. Even long before the nineteenth-century, "the conviction that blackness denotes inferiority was already well-rooted in the Western mind. The nearly black skins of many Gypsies marked them out to be victims of this prejudice".

The Gypsies also faced prejudices about their way of life. The Gypsies' travelling lifestyle aroused suspicion because of the common belief that "itinerancy served merely as a cloak for a deviant range of predatory, parasitic, and criminal activities". People were distrustful of Gypsies simply because they moved around a lot. Accompanying this mistrust was "a belief in the superiority of the settled over the nomadic culture and the incompatibility between the two" Nineteenth-century England was the perfect breeding-ground for this notion. As society became more industrialised, the population moved out of the untamed countryside and into the cities. While the rest of society settled down in permanent residences in the cities, the Gypsies continued their nomadic existence in what was now viewed as the wilderness. Thus, in contrast to the new ways of civilised, industrial society, the Gypsies' culture was seen as backward and primitive. As people became more settled, they began to feel that their way of life was normal. The presence of the wandering Gypsies challenged this, and caused many people to view them negatively because they were different.

The fortune-telling issue was also a source for suspicions about the Gypsies. Fortune-telling has always been associated with pagan ideas, so the presence of Gypsy fortune-tellers in a Victorian society dominated by the Church obviously caused a commotion. Added to the problem was the fact that the Gypsies "failed to practice with any conviction one or the other of the prevalent religions". Due to this apparent lack of religion, much of society in general thought Gypsies "to be inflicting their magical and devilish practices on an innocent, Christian society"

Victorian society was very hypocritical towards the Gypsies. As George K. Behlmer says, "precisely because the Gypsies stood apart from the mainstream of urban-industrial life, they held a special fascination for the critics of that life. What appeared to be a characteristic restlessness among Gypsies therefore evoked both romantic praise and systematic harassment during the last third of the nineteenth century". At the same time that the Gypsies were being discriminated against, they were also being romanticised. Some people in the crowded cities of the newly-industrialised society missed the simplicity of life in the country and were attracted to the free lifestyle of the Gypsies.

Rehearsals 1 & 2 PLUS a whole lotta in between

I suffer from the guilt of when I used to keep a diary and nearly every entry began, "it's been too long since I last wrote..."

Here's a brief update so that the wonderful details can begin.

After three attempts, today the scenic budget passed and we have a design about the go into build!
Two weeks ago, the BIG STRUGGLE was a scheduling error in which the rehearsal process as exact one week short of what a play of this size in this community and with this amount of support should have. I met with advisors, gathered support of the most affected actors, met with acting faculty who generously backed me up, did a ton of research and went into the Head;s office with a plan for an earlier start. After about a week of what I will plainly call suffering, we got the week. And so, that is why, on October 22nd, we are in our 2nd rehearsal.
The BIG PROBLEM last week was the scenic budget. Sometimes the first idea is the best idea, and in the design's case it was this amazing idea of the floor rising up when the flood came. This seemingly easy task of using a drop-cloth on the floor, and the actors lifting up the fabric, cost over a thousand dollars. That's sometimes the absurdity of what we do. I would NEVER spend a thousand dollars (in contrast to the rest of the budget) on a big piece of muslin, but labor and hours and money and space all collide and made this idea IMPOSSIBLE. And so, last weekend, Brian and I met for hours and hours to redesign. But what helped most was going to back to the WHAT. We knew exactly what this world was made of and what the flood meant, and so, there are many ways of accomplishing the HOW. Here's what was important about the flood:ecent conversations, I have done A LOT of thinking about what's most important. I think I have to remind myself and the team that when it all boils down, the story is what matters and we can tell that story even in a bare space. We have had a beautiful process, where the design has landed is quite remarkable, and now it has to undergo some "renovations."

So, here is what was most important to me as written in an email to Brian:

The environment is natural and full of life, there is movement and flow and the audience is within it.
The world is from Maggie's point of view= feminine, strong, imaginative, ritualistic and imaginative.

Things during the play I really want to work with:

spilling of flour, cleaning it up, and following through to the final image.
swinging in the bucket over the "water"
flour=water (tea party, head in bucket)
dolls= one is lucy, one is dad, one is definitely the witch, maybe one is maggie
cellist
wheelbarrow as bed, as boat? as actual wheelbarrow
for the flood: we can rethink the floor rising if absolutely necessary. But, I do want the image to be something that we are able to see Maggie make the choice to go into (drown), perhaps its a huge hoop skirt that comes out in Lucy's house, and follows through the water scenes to the end. She can pull it up herself. perhaps it's a huge pile of flour that lands over(around). I want to make sure it can seem like the others are trying to save her. Parachute, hammock... the list can go on. And there's always yarn.
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And so the design team met again the next night at my place for a meeting to really discuss these changes... change is much more difficult than new. Tensions ran higher than usual due to this change and oncoming rehearsal in a couple of days. As for me, I am going back to enjoying the calm before the storm.

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1st rehearsal notes coming. (getting a bit of distance first)
Design Presentations were outstanding. The designers must post their notes!
2nd rehearsal: Dialect work, hid-and-seek, dramaturgica question and answer, beginning of read-thru with heart-rate monitor drawn in.

Images