Theatre in Education (6) - Reading to the end & Play section

Reading to the end of the play:  We decided to read from page 82 (Act 5 Scene 1) to the end of the play. We altered what had previously been cut from our version - we had originally cut out all of the lines that weren't part of the 'play'. However, when reading through, we realised that we needed Thesus' line "The Wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again" as the following line is in response to this comment. Therefore we have put this back in, it also very comical as James is playing both Thesus and Thisbe, so he can put his head out from the wings for his line as Theseus, to then go back and come on again as Thisbe. We also decided to put Moonshine back in, as this can be played by Lewis carrying a lantern (which we then tried later on and it was hilarious!). We had to put back in Theseus' line "Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead" and Demetrius' line "Ay, and Wall too" in order for Bottom's following line to make sense. However, as Ollie is on stage as Bottom we changed it so Lysander said Demetrius' line.

'Play' section:   We decided to set the 'play' section today. Our main focus was movement. As Wall, I shall be holding my arms out to the sides for the entire time - we are going to get sheets with a brick pattern printed on them; I'll attach them to my shoulders and wrists, so they hang down to the floor. Whenever I move, I waddle with all of my limbs stretched. To show the "chink" I put my right arm out directly in front of me, and my hand is the chink, as I create a hole for them to look through. To add more comedy in to it, we have made the most of the fact that James and Ollie are different heights - they move my arm height to suit themselves. Moreover, there is another moment in the play where Thisbe goes to kiss the chink, so as his lips approach my hand, I move my arm to the right away from him. We did try to add in another comedy moment that was quite risky - where they alter the height of my arm, we were going to have James look through the chink when the chink is quite low down... level with Pyramus' crotch. This did look really funny, especially with James' reaction... but we scrapped this as it is inappropriate for our younger audience.We also worked on the section with Thisbe and the Lion. When Rob roared as the Lion, he just managed a frightened "grrr", which added to the comedy when James did a full on scream.