Week Three

On the third and final Friday rehearsal with the entire ensemble, the groups ran through Julius Caesar in a number of very different ways. A rehearsal tool that some directors use is the Italian (or Spanish) style run through. The execution of this tool varies according to the director: he or she may instruct the actors to run through the entire play at lightning speed, so that they are speaking their lines clearly but at an extremely rapid pace; other directors may ask the cast to exaggerate every action, every obstacle, every conflict so that everything is heightened to an almost absurd level. Carlos and Yvette asked the casts for a combination: extremely fast and extremely exaggerated.

While the results had the student artists laughing hysterically with and, yes, at, their colleagues the exercise also produced some elements of performance that may prove very useful to the young actors. The physical acting and the vocal production in these exaggerated run-throughs were remarkable. Urgency of action became very clear. While some students felt that their behavior bordered on ridiculous, the message of the play and the truth of the characters were suddenly more clear and more relevant to the audience. The majority of student actors observed that what may be appropriate behavior in school, or on the street or waiting for class to begin in the student lounge is not necessarily appropriate behavior on stage; that, in order for something to read on stage, it must be heightened, it must be more important than our everyday lives.

After the Italian run-throughs each cast got a full rehearsal with stage lights and music followed by notes from their instructors. Overall, both casts are in a good place as they enter their final week of rehearsal. Now that they have the shape of a show, they must begin to fill in the details of the work.