And ready for you to view at this afternoon’s show of “Shrew” at Radford Theatre!
See you at 2pm everyone!
PS: One BIG caveat to mention, Max Bialystock did NOT produce this show – our producer ROCKS and this show is freaking awesome, I promise you will not be singing this song out of Radford Theatre today! 😉
Let Vi Hart talk to you about creating, art, music, and copyright law… it is a bit relevant to our creating process of taking “Taming of the Shrew”.
This is similar to the process our cast and crew undertook (albeit in a much longer time period than 30 minutes!) from the original Shakespeare to a modern adaptation!
Happy Friday and see you tomorrow at Radford and Pulaski!
Friday, June 28th:
Even newer folks to the theatre may know some rehearsal language – upstage, downstage, “let’s take five…” But did you know that sometimes productions may call for a whole unique language of their own? That is definitely true of “Taming of the Shrew”!
One of my favorite lines from a rehearsl in a timing exercise between Gremio and Hortensio went something like this:
“Growl Mississippi, growl Mississippi, growl Mississippi, STOP!”
(Can you find out where this moment is in the show?)
Not all examples are as grand and silly as this one, but some other samples of rehearsal language revolved around our unique props – like the pool noodles we use instead of weapons (“Noodle me!”); or character’s names adapted for actions (like it is said of Petruchio in the play, we’ve been “Kated”!). I’ll see if I can have the actors comment in this post below some of their favorite examples of langauge used during rehearsals! We’ll make it a little interactive that way.
But an equally neat phenomena that occured, was after actors learned the Shakespeare – they would use it outside of rehearsals! It was not uncommon for me to ask an actor how they were doing and they reply back “How but well?” or even something as small as a “FIE!” you could be hear shouted as a call of joy or a frustrated explative.
And why not? One of the more famous expressions from this play that is STILL used in everyday speech is “break the ice” which means to meet someone, or more so in the context of the play, to chat up a pretty girl. Shakespeare has had a proud influence on modern language, so it’s always an interesting dichotmy that many of his works still intimidate actors and readers.
We hope that this play is definitely relatable to the audience, as it has become such a major, FUN part of the lives of the cast and crew! See what types of a language you can hear that sounds fun and familiar to you when you come and see the show – which opens TOMORROW! How exciting!
We’ll see you next time… er, tomorrow! And we absolutely cannot wait to actually see you!
We got Kate in the forground, and Clark Kent in the back… Can you imagine if Superman was Petruchio and what type of movie that may be? We can only think that it would HAVE to be hilarious!
Very cool old projector! We won’t be using any movies or projections in our show – but many people in our cast work at movie theatres and are movie buffs, so this is still quite awesome to be able to see up close!
A better love story than Kate and Petruchio? Similar maybe? It seemed appropriate to see this hanging in the foyer before seeing “Shrew”! (Maybe “Maltese Falcon” is a bit more apt… Sam Spade is a bit ‘Petruchio-ish’ with the ladies in that one…)
Our stage awaits!
We’ve made it to the big time – we’re in The Burgs!
Photos courtesy of Michael Shroyer. (link to the rest of his online “Open Air Shakespeare” album featuring the cast and crew: http://roanoke.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=1673846&CategoryID=76425)
Here’s a link to the article, check it out!
http://blogs.roanoke.com/theburgs/features/2013/06/27/open-air-shakespeare-theater-group-on-the-go/
And we will see you this SATURDAY:
Matinee performance at 2pm at the one, the only, the newly renovated Radford Theatre.
Evening performance at 7pm at the Pulaski Theatre.
Please leave us a comment, email us, or check our show page for more information!
Then you must have the rain!
I think this is a good sign for our show! We’re the gold at the end of it – if I may be so bold!
While it had been pretty awfully storming around Blacksburg today – so bad all of the servers went down at the CRC and Tech at around 4pm! (That’s pretty bad, especially, since most work is done via email and online nowadays…) BUT OUR SIGN IS STILL UP! This sign:
I’m very proud of that fact! It survived the rain, and it is bright and pink as ever!
But Marco and Luca (https://www.facebook.com/questions/138766499659029/) came through for us again! And provided us with one of the GREATEST SHOW MOMENTS EVER!
OMG – do my eyes decieve me, or is that the Pedant ON AN ACTUAL BALCONY! Not that a small lift on the stage is problematic – but our Pedant has GOT SOME LUNGS on him, and this was absolutely brilliant to watch unfold. We were all very giddy that this worked out so well and was so dynamic and visually striking – and it worked! And even with that neat vertical addition – our show was right on pace (1:45! That’s great timing for our show!)
This space is really magical and gives us a lot of room to play with! We really hope we can maybe work in another show inbetween the 30th and the 4th maybe here? VOTE for our performance at the Marco and Luca link above!
Some of our other favorite playful moments from this evening’s rehearsal were:
This sexy statue couple reminded us of when Kate first met Petruchio…
The Hokie Bird is ready to do some noodle battle with our “Shrew” Cast!
And this fierce Hokie Bird also being a “SHREW TAMER”! (BTW, you can buy those lovely buttons for $2/each at EVERY performance, so decide right now if you are the Shrew and your honey is the Tamer or vice versa, because you are going to want to get a pair!)
Which inspired one of cast members to find this video to describe Kate:
(Thanks, Jay!)
My motto (old vaudeville comedy appropriate) for this week of rehearsal to the actors is this: “I need you guys to be how I like my men – LOUD AND FAST!” And as long as we keep up that energy, then we really are golden for performances.
Seriously, you guys, we can’t wait for you to see us at Radford Theatre (https://www.facebook.com/RadfordTheatre) IN TWO DAYS!
We may even be “Pee our pants” excited!
(But we’ll contain ourselves during performances, we promise!)
Wednesday, June 26th:
I’m a firm believer not only in the running gag, but also the looooooong gag. I’m not sure what else to call it, but it’s generally a joke, where initially it isn’t very funny, or not funny at all, but with the passing of time it becomes funnier.
I’m not ready yet to offer up an example from the show – but I can let you in one that was in a “Midsummer” I was in once! When Bottom plays Pyramus and says his speech: “Now I am dead, now I am fled, my soul is in the sky….” At the end he has a repeated “die”. Well, the director that staged that had Bottom run all over the auditorium, up and down the balcony, screaming “die” about every four counts, until he finally came back around and “died” on the stage. I’ve take that model – which, although I’m sure there is a technical name for it – I’ve adapted the term “The Long Con” for it; simple because it sounds cool.
Obviously, since there is a post dedicated to this event – you can imagine this happens quite a bit throughout the course of the play. Three very good examples to watch when you come and see the show will be Kate, Grumio, and the Pedant. They all have very different examples of “The Long Con”.
KATE:
I think that Kate’s example is the most realistic. Kate is the straight man in a joke that is funny because he behavior persists organically. Everything Kate does is in reaction to the team of “Bros” also known as Petruchio, Hortensio, and Grumio – her “Long Con” isn’t a consciously choice, rather a reaction to their persistant behavior towards her.
GRUMIO:
Grumio is more of a clown, his “Long Con” is more of a stylized choice for him, but he plays it up for laughs – almost in a breaking the 4th wall type of moment. If Grumio persists, it is a choice on his part to get a reaction out of people like Kate, or people like you out in the audience!
PEDANT:
The Pedant’s example of “The Long Con” reminds me a lot of how Neil Simon’s “Out of Breath” example in “Barefoot in the Park”, here’s a desciption of it from IMDB.com:
“A running gag is the absence of an elevator to get to the newlyweds’ 6th-floor apartment; new arrivals are out of breath throughout the film. For its release in France, however, the dubbed dialogue placed the apartment on the 9th floor (equivalent to the 10th floor in the US), since in France, older buildings with six stories and no elevator are not uncommon and audiences wouldn’t have understood why climbing the stairs was so arduous.”
The Pedant’s “Long Con” is one born out of his cluelessness and practical purposes for the world of the play – he may be a bit more stepped into the world of Kate, than the world of Grumio when it comes to gags…
So, what would you call this device?
Here’s a clip I always reference, as Hank says, “Don’t worry, it’ll come around again if we keep doing it!” And it will, and it does, and it works great with audiences! WHAT’S that type of joke called? Cause I like it! And you’ll see it A LOT in “Shrew”.
We’ll see you next time!
Monday, June 24th:
We’ve talked a lot about working from the text of the script – but what about deviating from the text? Is that even allowed?
Of course it is! Since we know about how physically demanding physical comedy can be already, and how much we’ve relied on Italian Commedia which relates to a lot of phsyical movement and posturing, why not put in some visual gags?
I don’t want to give toooooo much away, but I think I may have to offer up some examples here! Two major relationships in the play that really play up visual gags are Lucentio and Tranio, and Pedant and Vincentio. Moments with these two groups of actors actually will take a long break in the dialogue to perform visual gags.
And of course one of my favorite visual gags from the show comes in with this set piece:
An Ooh-la-la Jersey Girl Pin-up located in Petruchio’s bachelor pad when he brings Kate home for the first time after their wedding! (Half-naked folks are always funny, right?) The comedy isn’t really coming from Shakespeare (although, he might approve, who knows!) but it instead comes from Petruchio’s bachelor life, and him having to make concessions about his personal habits, just as Kate has done, in this new marriage. It is something that is a human universal element that makes this awkward moment on stage funny – something that I know Shakespeare does and would definitely approve of!
The trick about visual gags and physical comedy in a play – is making sure it always enhances the entire piece, and never detracts for less value. I think that the cast has really worked hard to make that happen in working with costumes, set pieces, props, and each other.
Think of visual gags like this – a good litmus test for them is, if we removed all of the dialogue fromt he scene, would the audeince still understand it and think that what was happening is funny? You’ve seen our mostly silent commercials now, and I think that we could say that this was true! You don’t have to hear the lines to realize that something VERY funny is going on in this scene, and maybe you might chuckle a bit at that non-verbal sillliness of it all.
When you watch the show, see where you can spot moments that highlight a visual gag that is either led and directed by the text, or maybe deviates from the script entirely!
We’ll see you next time!
Hello Lord and Ladies!
Please enjoy our commercial of our latest production – The Taming of the Shrew!
Yesterday, we took advantage of the fantastic weather and great scenery and went outside to rehearse! Now, we didn’t have Smithfield Pavilion (our usual rehearsal home) because of an event taking place there last night, instead, we usually rehearse over at the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center (VT CRC). But it was SO nice – we couldn’t stay inside! So we hopped over the hill to play in the amphitheater – boy, was it worth it! No one was using it, and it was a fun space to play in!
We also “inked” up our bodies to be walking advertisements this weekend – so whether we are at the laundrymat, Kroger, Best Buy… anywhere around town – we are able to talk about the show in an interesting and novel manner. That way, we use our natural gregariousness as performers, and we don’t have to rely on fliering or soliciting – it’s a novel, fun and engaging way to be connected and attached to our community!
Here are some of our favorite shots from the evening’s rehearsal, including our juggling Lucentio’s knuckles, a bad-ass Kate, and Petruchio all decked out for Bianca’s wedding feast. It was a fantastic, magical day – and SO MUCH FUN! We can only imagine how much fun the performances will actually be next week!
Open Air Shakespeare NRV 