back again and still, for me, a day of struggling with the work. we carry on with the further developement of the ideas from yesterday. this does seem to work well, but i am still trying to somehow figure out how to shoehorn young people from today into a story that is tight enough without them.
i have an idea and wont let it go. even if it isnt working. i need to just abandon it, but am having a hard time doiong that. it is so important to me taht this play is not a history play, but rather has some resonance in today, that i am trying to get these 'young people' as characters, but not finding a way in.
i really need to abandon it and hope (and assume) that the play will find relavance with today's young people whether or not they are represented on the stage.
the outline that vice & i had has almost all been forgotten - ah, the halceon days of old.... wasnt it just two days ago that i thought he & i had the play's strucure cracked? yes, well, i was wrong......
with that abandoned outline, comes fresh ideas. i am no longer battling to find a way in, but rather letting things develop naturally. and this has legs.
the actors are great, mixing the shakespeare with the transcripts & improvisation.
the afternoon's session is short due to the fact that saths cooper has graciously accepted our invitation to speak with the Lab students about leadership, Shakespeare & his time on Robben Island. this is the third interview that we have conducted with him. all of the artists involved with this project so far agree that they like sath's view on things. although in his early 60's, he seems to have his ear firmly to the ground to what the young people of today are searching for. he takes no delight in the fact that the older generation has let down these younger ones and makes no bones about it. he accepts that more could and should have been done for those who are not fortunate enough to be politically or otherwise connected in order to have a semblance to monetary success.
he got out of politics because, as he says, he didnt want to work for 'nincompoops.' he adds that, because of that, he might be less well off in terms of money, but he feels as though he hasnt given up the struggle, but taken it on in a less political light - working with people who have suffered because of Apartheid and its affects.
