Today we worked the bit of the play that's in between battles (of which there are several). Even without the complication of battles, some of today's scenes took quite a bit to get through. Others, however, flew by and we ended up with some extra chunky breaks in between rehearsal chunks. Overall, today's rehearsal was a lot about folks talking at each other and much less about running around and stabbing each other than the previous rehearsals have been. Though, we're going to get to more stabbing tomorrow... which excites me. :)
The title of today's post comes from a scene we worked on today where Edward literally takes the crown right off of Henry's head. It's a very bold move and they add to it when Hastings punches Henry to keep him from speaking. Brutal... but effective.
I will say this: it is very clear that these actors know their way around Shakespeare's history plays. I don't mean the history itself, but how to stage one effectively. They know when it's best to leave the stage doors open to aid entrances and how the flow of action works best. For example, to make battle sounds, they know what types of drum beats work best and when to make them short vs. keeping them going under the action of a scene. The actors also put a drum backstage for history play purposes to make it easier for folks to reach the drum in time to perform the specific cues. That way people don't have to be running up and down stairs every time they need to play a drum. It's brilliant!
Also, because I didn't write after Sunday's rehearsal, all we did at that rehearsal was work out the sound cues for the first half of the play. Dear God. Battle is noisy!!! It adds so much to the action to noise in between almost every scene though. I won't go so far as to say that it makes you feel like you're in the middle of a battle, but it certainly makes the action onstage feel like it's taking place in the middle of a battle.
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