MEDEA
-adapted by Franca Rame
We worked in the 222 room and we started by sharing the lines. We had to do all the work, starting with distributing the lines and finishing with the scenic motion. We couldn’t learn the lines at that moment and played with the scripts in our hands. After struggling just a little bit with adding the finishing touches to our play, we managed to put it all together. Our acting play was based and inspired by reality, in contrast to the others, who made it as abstract as they could. Our lines were about convincing Medea to change her mind and to come to the door to speak with us. My lines were at the middle of our part, so I had to take care that I would synchronize with the others and that I would always be in the story, not just when I am playing my part. Even though we could have add more things to make our part more complex, we played it as simple as we could, but making sure we kept it real.
The most interesting thing we did related to this script was the next day,on 19th, this time in the 034 room, just the two groups from “Antigone”. The others will come after us in the same room. This day, every team had to work to improve their plays. Like I said above, our last representation was really simple, so it was a good thing we had the chance to make it more interesting. We started by learning our lines and getting rid of the sheets that were getting in our way. After that, we found a place for Medea’s window on the ceiling, so we all could have the same objective: getting Medea’s attention, shouting at her window. We continued by making a “coreography”, so we could synchronize and offer a nice visual show. We finished by adding some drama by repeating key words and our play was done. Every person came with ideas and we really did a good teamwork. Our final result was an improved representation, but if I still could add something more on my group's work, it will be more movement, a better timing between our reactions and lines and a little bit more of thrill.
After both of groups showed their work, I was impresed to see how different the two plays were one from each other. Besides the fact that the other group had another lines, ours continuing theirs, they made their representation abstract and it was like a whole coreography with lines.
Sharon’s final request for us was to put the both works together, in just a few minutes. Everyone was sharing their opinion on how to combine them and in the end, we chose the best one. We let the other group start with their part, while my group was frozen behind them. When it was our tine to step in, we brought them from their abstract to our reality, making them to be witnesses to Medea’s persuasion. From my point of view, that was the greatest thing we have done till now on acting classes. Everyone was really working and trying to give the best ideas - the healthiest kind of place for improvement.
I lied when I said that was Sharon’s final request. At the very end, she asked each one of us to say what we have learned from these classes. I heard many answers, but mine was that I got to keep in mind something inspirational: the importance of being creative, finding a way for the things to work out and have a vision. Working in a crowded room can teach you a lot of things, like space awareness and being able to be productive in every situation.
The scheme we followed every class while working on “Medea” is this:
Warm up
Vocal
Physical 'Neutral'
Ensemble walking and stopping
Rehearse Medea
Put scenes togheter
P.S. I don’t have any photos from our rehearsals, but this is only proving that I did not have time for my phone.
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