Hi Friends!
It’s been some time since you’ve heard from the Peripatetic Players, and we wanted to tell you – WE’VE MISSED YOU!
The past year (and then some) has been EXTREME in all the ways it could be. Ensemble members have begun and completed grad school, started new jobs and kept old ones, performed in and produced online performances, and some are even in the process of buying a home! Amidst all of that, we continue to learn and educate ourselves on how to defy white supremacy culture, in all its forms, and work towards consensus-based decision making.
It’s *a lot* and we are so happy to be doing it!
Our ensemble has been fortunate to safely gather a handful of times this late spring and summer, we look forward to continuing to come together as an ensemble and create art not only for ourselves, but for you!
Here are some things that we would love to share with you!
You know how Shakespeare wrote all of those plays during the plague? Well, earlier this year, Marlene (Princess Gwen) finished writing the first draft of an adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. She started adapting The Two Towers in 2020, and finished The Return of the King in 2021. She hosted an online (private) reading, with friends near and far.
Rebecca (Madame D.) spent quarantine in graduate school at UC Berkeley, working toward a Masters in Education. This August she begins teaching 9th and 12th grade English at Albany High School.
An eye to the future!
Our next moves, so to speak, are to shake off the dust from our costumes, stretch our muscles, pull out our notebooks, and really start to train together as a theatrical ensemble. For those of you who might be unfamiliar with that means (and what we keep referring too), here’s an idea of what an afternoon (~4 hours) might look like when we participate in ensemble development:
- We start by checking-in with each other, how we are doing, what are our access needs, and what we need to be present in the moment.
- We then proceed to do a physical warm-up, including stretching, vocal exercises & singing, and playing games (Pass the Face is an eternal favorite).
- Next, we usually “take a walk around the room” to get into the mindset of our Peripatetic Players characters. Sometimes we repeat gestures, or small vocal phrases to help!
- Once we feel like we are in the “body” of our Peripatetic Players characters, we start to play! This can be different theatre games, or reading stories, or singing songs, but this is when the real magic begins!
One thing from these longer ensemble days is that we also look towards what we might want our next production to be. Part of this is us as a group learning how to reclaim/restructure/reinvent stories in a way that feels safe, appropriate, inclusive, exciting, and worth telling.
We hope to use the above work to develop an informal, invitation-only performance of A Lord of a Ring In A Suitcase for the winter, where we will formally introduce and welcome Crash and Inspector Quimbley. Check them out here & here!
Our utmost goal is to back in parks and public spaces by Summer 2022 for our annual summer performances! We’ve missed you all so much, and we hope you are finding ways to thrive in your homes & communities, and raising up those around you.
The Peripatetic Players 