Blocking the scenes

Blocking is a theater term which means to move the actors about the stage so as not to have them run into furniture, fall into the orchestra pit, or smash into each other. Right now I am rereading the script and underlining various parts so that I know how to block each scene.

Shakespeare is a little tricky when it comes to blocking. All the stage direction in Shakespeare is written within the text of the script, not like a modern play where the directions are written in italics. Will gives us all sorts of clues as to how to block the scenes. I study the verbs carefully so that I may stay true to Will's intent. For example, when Will writes Nick Bottom's line ... let the audience look to their eyes, I will move storms... Bottom needs to mime tears pouring out of his eyes. So I keep studying the script. That's the challenge of doing Shakespeare rather than just reading the scripts as if they were works of literature, which they're not. Will wrote plays.


If you are at all interested in Shakespeare I urge you to attend a play or rent a movie. If you open one of his scripts and just read it without seeing the action, you will most likely close it and wonder what language it is written in. It took me awhile to learn Shakespeare's language and after 15 years I am only somewhat fluent. I ruminate over soliloquies and sometimes get trapped by certain phrases and then I traverse the thicket-of-unknowing until I find my way by going to the dictionary. I will never be an expert but I do know it is worth spending long hours with this genius. Will's scripts take a lot of study to perform, and his lessons are deep and lasting and worth all the effort.

Will has shown me the beauty of using just the right verb, turning a phrase into a life lesson, and seeing the world through his poet's eyes. And that's just the beginning. Through the years Will has entertained, delighted and ticked-off audiences throughout the world. For over 400 years the world has performed Shakespeare and that's quite a tradition to follow. Each year, at this time, we ready ourselves to be changed by this lively tradition we take part in. If we follow with intention and integrity, we too get the opportunity to plug into the transformative ritual of bringing Shakespeare alive.

As I study the script to get the blocking I know that theater directors, for centuries, have done the same thing. All of us have our own unique way of translating the text into movement onstage. The blocking is the action that brings the language alive. Will reminds me that how we move through life is as important as what we say.