Devising is a great opportunity to share our hearts and minds with audiences. For #reconnectABLE, we are building shows based on our own lives and experiences with connection. In week #1, our actors answered a series of interview questions, and we’ve spent the weeks since using their answers to build scenes, monologues, movement pieces, and songs about connection. Devising allows us to play to each actors’ strengths and interests.
Celebrating our strengths was the theme for our ensembles this week. Our check in question was “What are your 3 greatest strengths.” After everyone shared, we played a game called affirmations. One person would declare their strength and the rest of the group would celebrate them by shouting “YES YOU ARE!” It was a great way to get psyched up for the rest of rehearsal. Here’s what each group got up to this week:
Sunday Ensemble
Teaching Artists Perry and Lawrence combed through interview responses to look for connections in different people’s answers. They used these to shape a series of monologues about topics like Social Media, Feeling Lonely, Being Afraid, and Connecting to the Movies. This week, actors worked in pairs to help shape these monologues and try them out.
They also continued to review some of the movement pieces they’ve built so far, including TikTok dances and a game called Hello/Goodbye
Virtual Ensemble
One of the questions the Virtual Ensemble answered was “if you were a celebrity, what would you be famous for?” Actors have used these answers to create a Celebrity Influencer character. We have everything from famous chefs to bloggers to fashion designers and motivational speakers. This week, actors came in costume and worked on preparing a short monologue as their character.
Monday Ensemble
The Monday ensemble is focusing a lot on finding our connections to ourselves. They’ve built a whole sequence about calming down when you feel overwhelmed or stressed. One of our favorite ways to calm down is through music. This week, they worked on a mash up of songs that help us to calm down or find our confidence. Actors worked in groups to choreograph snippets of 4 different songs including “I’ll Stand By You” by The Pretenders and “Confident” by Demi Lovato, and finished with an Elton John classic you can see in this clip.
