today was a good day. It felt 'regular' – like we are getting into a routine and we are making progress. It felt like everyone knew their jobs and it was making sense. Transcripts in the morning & scene / character development in the afternoon.
Today, we are looking at the Former Political Prisoners themselves. Just before lunch, I ask each of the actors to choose their 'favourite' two FPP's. Their assignment after lunch is to come up with a two minute monologue which incorporates some of the Shakespearian texts & the transcripts. They attack this task with gusto. I think that they are excited to have the focus on the Veterans who are the centre of this play. I give them 30 minutes to edit down a monologue, which they do exceedingly well.
Dan portrays Sonny.
Omphile portrays Saths
Mnetisci portrays Michael
&
Kabelo portrays Theo.
Having never seen the men or watched the interview tapes, all they could rely upon are the transcripts & their creativity. I dont want them to watch the tapes before committing to creating something based on the transcripts & their artistry. This, I think, prevents them from trying to immitate them ratehr than find their essential traits, which is within the transcripts.
They perform their monologues & we hotseat them to further develop the FPP characters.
Afterwards, we brainstorm all of the scenes that they remember having created over the last three days. We also prepare questions for Saths Cooper who will be coming to the theatre on Tuesday.
Their homework is to create another monologue based on another of the Veterans. I look forward to seeing them tomorrow......
