Macbeth, Again! Rehearsal Day 8

Today's rehearsal went by really fast. When we are concentrated and focused, it's easy to forget the chronological time.

After the Kyokotsu exercises, we spent good thirty minutes or so on Viewpoints. We began the session with a simple game of counting 1 to 20 while walking around in the space. The tricky part was that only one person at a time could count, and when we overlapped, we had to go back to 1 and start over. It was to built awareness of each other and group dynamic quickly. From there, we jumped into a Viewpoint exercise where I gave certain tasks for them to do while moving in the space such as finding "a gate" between two people and going through it, varying the tempo of walking, stopping, following somebody else, varying spatial relationship (how far or close you are to others), etc. By focusing on those simple tasks, the group started to tell collective stories with physical movements only. I kept making suggestions and comments to increase their awareness of what was happening. It was rather a beautiful session.

Then we spent the rest of the rehearsal time on sketching scenes. I asked the Chorus to create different qualities in their movements for different scenes. I told them the imagery I have for each scene so that they would have something to work from. 30 minutes for the creation.

While they were working on their own stuff, Tuomas, Niklas, and I went into a different room to build the first few scenes for our characters. What we did together was rather straightforward; We read aloud the lines a few times to get familiar with the rhythm of the scenes, stood up on our feet, and went through them a few more times.

In this play, there is no clear one "linear" story line. Time moves in a very strange way for each character. For example, some characters are having déjà vu experiences, going back in time, coming from the future, etc. So there are many timelines intertwining with each other. That is why reading aloud the line together is helpful for us to learn how to be independent and yet be completely aware of each other's time signature. It almost feels like a jam session where each musician is responsible for both his or her solo and the overall composition of an improvised song.

We spent the last hour or so to put together what the Chorus created and the principle characters. After watching them from outside, I gave them several adjustments to make for clarification and precision. Then the scenes slowly started to take shape. I jumped in as my characters to feel the flow of the play for myself. It was chaotic, but exciting!

Still much to sort out and work on, but now at least I know what the show could be.

By the way, in the middle of the picture below, you see our light designer Nadja Räikkä :) She was with us today in rehearsal. "It was good that I came and watched. I got more information," she said.