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.

Read the names of the actors and so grow to a point

Last night I sent the cast list to all the actors. Just before I pressed "send" I winced. I was thinking perhaps this is the year when kids will all like their parts. I know they won't all be delighted, but I also know that they will step into their roles and give us their best. Will tells me, "The actors are at hand; and, by their show, You shall know all that you are like to know." I nod, he winks, and I know he's right. After our young actors spend time and thought on their parts they learn to love them.

So the weekend was kind of hard for the kids, waiting is not something young people do with a lot of patience. Over the past two days a few kids sent me cryptic emails letting me know which parts they thought they might like. Three of them came to my door with fresh-baked cookies on a plate and offered them to me. I invited them in and we had a wonderful visit talking and laughing about things and then one of them turned to me and said,"So, who do you think Puck will be?" It was very cute, these little cookie-fairies trying to charm the cast list out of me. I smiled, most seriously, and told them I wasn't sure.

Now they all know who Puck is, or I should say, who the Pucks are, as I split the role in half and we cast it with two talented dancers. I also added a fiddling elf to the script as we have a young man who plays violin. I created three narrators; Philostrate, who is in the original and then Philomena and Patience. They have the job of bridging the play to the audience. I made them the wedding planners because as the play opens Theseus, the Duke, and Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons, are planning to be married. "Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword And won thy love...But I will wed thee in another key, With pomp, with triumph, and with reveling." That's where the wedding planners come in.

There will be lots of music and dancing. This year we have three musicans who compose the music and play the score during the show. Right now, the kids can only imagine this year's production but starting Febuary 20th rehearsals begin and when we step onto the stage we know anything is possible. The empty stage, like out-stretched cupped-hands, embraces the world of potential. Let the Dream Begin!