The week began with passing donkeys on the walk down to Rhodes. Made me smile as the cast was teasing Sisonke, calling him donkey, and this is how I was assisted in learning the pronunciation of his name.
We rehearsed in the main Rhodes theatre this week as it is university holidays, the students are on holidays and venues have freed up. Our 3 Act plan was mostly successful, especially in finding smooth ways to move the set as part of the action, with only a few re-schedules to work around our dance instructors. It was great to see them working on pantzula and hip-hop. Again, I only wish I could joined in. Pantzula apparently (according to google) means “to waddle like a duck / walk with protruded buttocks. It is a township dance, used to express themselves and also a way of life. It expressed their lives as a reflection of the violence of the township culture. The dance set them free from parental dominance and it gave them freedom without prejudice”. It involves tap and glide movements and has some aspects similar to the gumboot dance.
Dion and I thought it would be fun to have an homage to West Side Story in the Pantzula piece, so I taught Rocky the move I love so much from the musical, and he converted it into the funky Pantzula stlye and it has became the punctuating finale moment to the dance off. Tre cool.
A typical week 3. Some comfort in this lack of cultural difference in this regard. A little more pressure, a lot more stress. Moodiness amongst the cast. The occasional snap. But I’m learning quickly that this group has been together for so long that they have developed their own way of dealing with issues. These moods, these snaps, are short though sharp and pass quickly into resolution. In fact, it seems their method is quite efficient. I’m certain now that I am the one who is most confronted in these instances. During one mini-crisis, I asked “is everyone okay? Do you want to talk about it?” (bearing in mind that half of these moments occur in Xhosa so I hardly have a clue what’s going on, just lots of intense clicking sounds). And Ilana replied: “Don’t worry, this is just what we do”.
Wednesday evening I saw some incredible live music at a local bar called Pirates (I love the name). One of the performers was absolutely amazing and it blew my mind to find him here in little Grahamstown. Jeff Buckley-esque in looks (although blonde) and voice, Dave Knowles was extraordinary, and I would put money on him being on the international scene in the next year or two (if he isn’t already??). Alongside the great music was a great conversation with a philosophy student from Rhodes, who had just given a paper that day on the virtuosity argument for vegetarianism and veganism. She gave me a copy of her paper to read. A very fun evening albeit a few too many whiskeys for a school night.
Thursday was more of the same, not whiskey, but blocking and detailing and transitions and dance-off practice.
Friday was a hectic morning, still trying to detail, implementing new line cuts and not quite getting through a full run before the showing. The showing went well, and served its’ purpose in highlighting what needs to be done now. Also, Janet gave us excellent notes to work with, many of which were thoughts we’d had ourselves, so it was encouraging that we must be thinking in the right direction. It ran for and hour and a half – oops! So more drastic line cuts to be done – brutal dismissals of whole scenes. The pace needs serious attention towards the end, which will be aided by the cuts and some stylistic changes to unify from the opening to the end. Lots of other small language based notes I took, but overall, Dion and I were pretty darn impressed that the actors got through it, and all they had achieved in less than 15 days rehearsal, for most of them, on their first ever Shakespeare. Lots to do before the first performance at the KwaZulu Natal school festival next thursday, but sooo wonderful that we will have two more weeks after this tour, to continue refining and playing with the show.
The majority of the week was spent internet-less, but this time I haven’t used up the bandwidth, something is wrong with the network and it is not my fault.
i miss grahamstown terribly, but must agree with you- Dave Knowles is rather amazing...or at least he was the last time i saw him. glad you were able to catch him perform, its magic!
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