The People and Poet's Heart
This summer I directed two short plays, The People by Susan Glaspell and Poet’s Heart by Maxwell Bodenheim, in three days. The actors came and lived at my house, we blocked, memorized, and polished the shows during that time.
Together the performances stood at a bit more than half an hour, involved 9 actors and had a fully functioning set. I called it guerilla theater, and planned on taking the plays on an unplanned tour of Montpelier, but due to bad weather we performed inside the Unitarian Church. I utilized one of my favorite directing techniques heavily during this production, and had the actors do a few runs singing through the show instead of speaking the lines like they normally would (I have a recording on the side). This breaks down actor’s self consciousness, inspires them to take more risks, builds community, and helps the actors develop a new understanding of the musicality of language. |
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