Windsor Ensemble

The Windsor Ensemble will be more of he middle class families that the Pages invite to their house for the opening scene party in honor of Falstaff.  They typify the middle class values that both the Pages and Fords honor throughout.

The women are strong, independent and responsible; their servants are trustworthy and loyal; the men work hard and are the leaders of their household.  They are religious but not devout.  They are wise but not educated.  They are trustful but superstitious.  They like to work hard and play hard.  The children will be discussed at length in their own entry.  These folks raise their children to be honest, strong and loyal.  They are not afraid to discipline their children, or have their servants do it.

Garter Ensemble

The Garter Inn is a multi-purpose facility.  It is the town bar, restaurant, hotel, entertainment hot spot and brothel.  The women that work there have any number of jobs that relate to one or all of the Inn's many functions.  They serve the men and women of Windsor and do so admirably and with good intent.

They will have 2 "dances" in the production.  One that will set up the Garter Inn and what it is, who they are and what the do there.  The second dance will further the plot of the German Duke business.

Music--The Cues

Here's a working list of the musical cues to be used in the show.  This will change and grow as we develop the live music portions of the production.  I'm going to give basic breaks here--where they go in the show, the transition from what to what, as well as a general time frame, and any kind of dramatic notes, etc.

Prologue--2 to 3 minutes
Style:  Bright, happy, party music.  The band would be playing at Page's party.
Business:  Before the actual script starts, but the first moments of the show.  The town has gathered at the Page house for a party for the visiting dignitary, John Falstaff.  In the course of this piece of party music/hoe down, we meet the principal characters and establish their relationships.  I see it starting as a meeting of the townswomen--a chance to catch their breath and celebrate one another.  They would be interrupted by their kids, who would send them in a bunch of different directions.  Servants would be sent after the children.  Anne Page and her friends would come in as would Fenton and Dr. Caius.  We would see Anne's parents reacting to both men and their affection towards their daughter.  The other men (including Falstaff and his coterie) would be a part of this.  We would see Falstaff's lack of money and George Page would call everyone into dinner.  The piece would end as the party clears the stage and Shallow, Slender and Sir Hugh take it.

Music--Live vs. Pre-recorded

When working with Shakespeare material one of my first considerations technically is the soundtrack of the show.  For me so much of the storytelling comes not just from the words that are said but by the actions the characters take and the visual storytelling that compiles.  It is a supreme connection between the audio and the visual that gets the storytelling alive and in the mind of the audience.

A huge facet of that for me and my productions is music.  The music of a production can make or break it.  The first Shakespeare show I directed was told in a very modern setting with very contemporary music.  I have also worked on Shakespeare productions with traditional Elizabethan music, modern pop music, country music, and techno/rave/punk music.

Rehearsal Report--6/24

We started on sequencing the show and worked with the middle section.  It went fairly well.  My biggest struggle right now is working around conflict schedules.  We were hampered with three of the principals having previous conflicts.  It wasn't insurmountable, but it does deflate the moment somewhat. The fun part was of course cast-fun afterwards.

Fortunately, I was able to pre-block some of what we were going to cover with some of them earlier in the week, and I was able to  use the principals that were there to cover some stuff that is coming up where there are previously scheduled conflicts.  There was some really great work with Anne and Slender, in particular.  We were able to block some stuff out of the pre-planned sequence.

Production Meeting: 6/23



The Logo

 We settled on a show logo with the producers.  I like it.  It doesn't tell the story but is an intriguing image and I really like the palette.  It goes with this particular production well.  We also worked out many logistics on coordination of the two shows Mill Race Players is doing this summer.  A lot of that behind the scenes stuff is integral to the production, but affects the day to day operation little.

We have fleshed out the rest of the production staff.  I hate that we had a lready started rehearsals, but the timeline was compromised.  There are great people working on the technical end of things, and I have no fears that it's all going to be great.

Rehearsal Report--6/21

We had a great reheasal with the Garter Ensemble.  We blocked them not only into their scenes but did the big broad passes of the two "ballet" numbers.  We worked out some great business for most of them, and will develop things for the others to do.  I want each of these ladies to be featured at one point or another.  But the focus last night was to get the big broad brush strokes.  We'll do detail work in the next couple of weeks.

We also blocked all of the material in the Garter Inn with principals.  We were missing a few players do to conflicts, but we were successful in doing everything that I wanted to accomplish with the principals.  We were even able to run a few scenes twice.

Show Concepts: Pros and Cons



Okay, so I have been struggling/juggling back and forth between two concepts for Merry Wives of Windsor.  On one hand, a classic look and setting could be quite nice for this play and on the other hand, a transposition to the American West/Frontier could work exceptionally well.  When I last updated the blog I had pretty much settled my mind on one specific concept and then I went down to the park and everything shifted again.

I want to take a few minutes to lay out the pros and cons of each concept (Traditional vs. Old West).