Week 4, we focused on review and learning more of the plot of Cyrano while continuing to build our ensemble skills like listening, focus, and sharing.
As always, we kicked things off with some great dance parties showing off and copying each other’s moves. Warm ups led us straight into the work of the evening, beginning with check in. As you’ve seen from previous weeks, check in is an important time for us to connect as an ensemble, but we’re also reflecting on elements of the story and how we relate to these characters and events. Since today was focused on Act III, we checked in around a particular moment when Christian almost blows things with Roxanne and asked our actors to think about what would be a “dealbreaker” for them with someone they liked.
Lucy: bad temper
Lucas: creeps who stare or are fresh.
Maria: mean, bad attitude.
Sam P: nasty people with evil hearts
Samuel: bullies who spit and kick
Alena: bullies who are rude, people who point in your face
Quincy: too flirty and distracting, people who hug too hard
Sam R: uses bad words or mean words
Claire: someone who calls you names
Colleen: texting me too much and stirring up drama
Peter: staring at me
Emily K: stupidity
Emma: fighting, angry people
Anna: calling someone names
Hannah: jealousy
Ben: Bad words, not liking my family
We thought it was really interesting that across both of our ensembles, no one mentioned anything about physical appearance and that how we treat each other seems to be more important than what we look like. There’s so much to relate to in Cyrano!
The rest of the session focused on review with both ensembles practicing their swordfights, and then digging deeper into the Play Plot for Act III. Act III contains the famous balcony scene and we are so excited that for our May 17th performance at The Yard at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, we’ll have an actual balcony to perform with! Be sure to grab your tickets to see this special one-night-only performance. All seats are $15 and all proceeds come straight back to our program thanks to our generous friends at CST!
