With a new format to Wednesday evenings after the end of N2C, I was surprised with a four hour rehearsal of Antigone. No complaining though, it was pretty fun. The first half was taken up with Chorus work, firstly experimenting with puppeting for the fight scene between Eteocles and Polynices and then blocking more of the first scene.
As Mr Chipp (not an exact quote but in as many words... I think) experimenting may not produce results but it is always helpful... And fun. The aim was to create a slightly believable puppet out of items of clothing to portray the fight scene, we didn't get very far with this despite a lot of experimentation with ideas. I think people tried too hard to make it look realistic, in all effective puppet work that I've seen (haven't got masses of experience) it hasn't mattered wether the puppet looks real, it's about how real the movement is. My group were going too much for making the audience think it looked real, though some ideas like having one of the group get into the coat then slip out whilst others hold it in place did create a good shape in the coat as it fitted around the body, and made it look less like 'just a coat.' I also think one of the problems came from too many bodies trying to move the clothes around meaning that it obstructed the view of the coat from the audience (theoretical audience). I think the most effective comes from the most simple, and I thought having a real hand emerge from the coat made it look more realistic, and I think the best thing would be to have a really big coat with a hat emerging from it and two people buttoned inside operating the arms. I also think the polythene suggested just made it too large and the figure the other group was frankly terrifying.
Giving up on the puppets for a bit, we decided to carry on with the giant 'Chorus' monologue we began before Christmas which meant my bit! The idea is to make me look a bit rushed off my feet, so the rest of the cast come up to me in masses with sheets of paper for me to look at. I really liked doing this and although at first I felt a little stressed having masses of paper shoved in my face, got used to it pretty quick and tried to relax into a tired but thorough and calm King. I found it quite hard to hear the cues for various actions such as dropping paper and moving forward over the rustling of paper and moving of feet, but with practice I should be able to get those pretty accurate.
The next two hours concentrated on the scene between Antigone and Creon which takes up a third of the play. Didn't finish, blocking it, but we got a good chunk thoroughly run through. Probably go wrong for the next couple of weeks but I'll get it into my head soon enough. There was a lot of walking behind Antigone with right-angles to follow the edge of the stage which I cannot get right because it just doesn't feel right (hehe ironic) and I can't seem to pronounce "Ecclesiastical Rigmorale" or remember not to say "Pocket" but "mini" instead. Apart from that, it felt pretty good. How to say the lines and move around the stage basically feels a hell of a lot more comfortable now having gone through it, and I think it will really help with learning the lines.
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