Rehearsal Report 2/10/14

Monday, February 10, 2014

Student Center Building / OMA 322

6:00 – 8:15pm

BLACK NATIONAL ANTHEM

• asked that everyone practice singing the song at least once every day -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya7Bn7kPkLo
• Lucia (music director) will be with us on Thursday night

Sister Pearl (Assistant Director) went over OUR DEVISING PROCESS:

• bring all your skills to the table
• intention to collaborate, network, and creators as performers
• it is an invitation to obsession
• it originates from “hunch” of a the last days of Christ in relation to the Civil Rights Movement
• pay attention to your ideas and observations, and bring into the process
• there are containers = creative limitations
• endeavor to have devisers and material in room every time
• the five stages of our devising process - research, creation, development, rehearsal, and performance

Our devising process will also include the ideas of:

• being under exquisite pressure
• being violently decisive
• shooting for the stars (exploring what is actually possible)

Members SHARED ALL THEIR SKILLS which ranged from acting, tap dance, and speaking Italian to baking, playing guitar, and public speaking. Sister Veronica shared her “research” of the STATIONS OF THE CROSS:

• traditionally 14 stations
• painting, sculpture,  and re-enactments

Brother Tyrone shared the 13 STATIONS (scenes) of THE NEGRO PASSION PLAY:

1. Mary sitting in front pew of an all-white church
2. Jesus of Nazareth and his twelve disciples holding a press conference
3. Pontius Pilot (Mayor/Sheriff “Bull” Connor-type)
4. The movement to integrate “the church”
5. Sermon on the Mount and Miracles
6. The Last Supper
7. Breakfast Table (our Garden of Gethsemane)
8. The Arrest
9. King Herod (Governor Wallace-type)
10. Journey to the cross
11. Strange Fruit (the crucifixion as told by a witness)
12. The Woman
13. Resurrection

Overview of COSTUME DESIGN with Seattle University students - Sister Brynne McKeen, Costume Designer and Sister Ariana Chriest, Assistant Costume Designer - who shared images (see PowerPoint attached) and the "symbolic" use of colors. Measurements were taken.

We explored some RITUAL, SOCIAL INTERCATION, and JIM CROW

• Sister Karen and Sister Pearl shared essay by Dr. David Pilgrim, Professor Sociology, Ferris State University, on Jim Crow law in the south
• Brother Tyrone shared the idea that the act of defying Jim Crow was a spiritual exercise in relation to the brutal system of racism
• Did a “segregation through silence” exercise to begin to understand the more difficult and emotional parts of our process. Needed to “hug it out “by the end of the exercise.

We are in the RESEARCH PHASE of our devising process. Sister Diane will be bringing a book called The Master and the Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov. Those of you who took home material to “research” be prepared to be under “exquisite pressure” to do the following on Thursday and/or Saturday:

• Three minutes to explain what you learned
• Three minutes to take and answer questions
• Three minutes to emphasize the three main point from your research

Here's the library list of research material borrowed and by whom:

• Gospel of Freedom – Sister Aline
• Last Temptation of Christ – Sister Swan
• Partners to History – Brother Marlon
• At the Hands of Persons Unknown – Sister Diane
• Time-Life Jesus – Sister Pearl

Feel free to bring a prayer, poem, quote, etc. to share at rehearsal. We  ended the evening with these WORDS OF WISDOM:

 I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended. - Nelson Mandela  Long Walk to Freedom

I am PLEASE TO ANNOUNCE that Sister Diane Beall and Sister Michelle Edwards have joined out little creative family. Please note that from here on out everyone is to address one another as Brother or Sister in relation to their first name.