The Apprentice Ensemble Project - A Process

Ok everyone - this is a huge post. Its unorganized, and I'll clean it up later - but I want to get it out there!

Ensemble Project

Step 1 - find two articels from the same day, different parts of the country, 22 people sit in a circle and talk about them all 
Step 2 - talk about IDEAS behind articels
Step 3 - work generation - Improv/ theatricalizing ideas 
Step 4 - Find a framing device
Step 5 - Make a freaking show
The first project we worked on as a company of 22 actors, 4 dirctors - two of which are Michael and Amy and 2 dramaturgs, was The Aprentice Ensemble Project. Before we arrived here, we were told to buy a local newspaper from where ever we were on july 12th, 2010, to read it in its entirety and find two articles that struck us. In my paper I found an article about the Barefoot Bandit (Colton Harris-Moore). We knew that were were going to have to talk about the articles and explain why we picked them when we started working on the project.
So, we arrive -
Ensemble Project Day 1 - We sat in a circle on the 4th floor of the administrative building ( which is basically our rehearsal space) and we each told about our articles, why we picked them, and then a discussion or comments would raise up and we'd just start talking. Keep in mind, that at this point we've known about each other for only days. As we went around, we started to see not only the kinds of things people were interestd in, but the things they talked about, how they talk, how they think. Stories start to pop. Monica Bergstrand told this story about how about a month before she got here, she met her dad for the first time. She's 28, and cried and laughed through the whole thing. Like, it just popped out. Several others just started coming out. It was like we were all old friends, hadn't seen each other in 20 years, and had to get everyone caught up on what was important to us. We talked all day - 9 to 5. It was a day of discovery. Not only about the project, but about each other. It was like meeting the family I'm staying with for the next 9 months.
Ah - i'd like to note that 8 of us all picked articles concerning Colton Harris-Moore or (Barefoot Bandit)
Ensemble Project Day 2 - 
    We came together, sat in a circle, and literally talked about all the ISSUES the articles brought up the day before for the entire day. Like sky is the limit, Discuss what affected you yesterday - go. And we talked, totally trusting and supporting, for another 8 hours. -

*****List of Ideas to come
Ensemble Project Day 3 - 
Alter Egos - Everyone reading this, before you read on, think about your alter ego. If you could be anything, any person, any object, any anything, what would it be? and get specifc, name, the color of shirt they're wearing, how they talk, where they're from - just give it as many details as possible. Thats one of the things we were asked to do upon arrival. On day 2, we performed them for each other. Michael said, "Ok. take 15 minutes and figure out how to personify your alter ego and then we'll perform them for each other." Panic. - I went first.
My alter ego - Desperado
Here was my brainstorm right out of my journal -
- COWBOY - Boots, chaps, whiskey, horse, the real deal
- wild west, before califonia was settled
- cattle driver
- Brown beaten hat, hole in the brim
- worn leather chaps
- boots the color of dirt, spurs
- pearl handled 6 shooter on each him - Right, Jane - for my momma - Left, Culver - Beacuse it sounds so nice
- Brown, party calico horse named O'l Wiley - Faithful companion
- Expert poker player - bluffer
- whiskey
- Dried beef
- can -o- beans
- skillet, coffee cut, pot, silverware on a ring. yes.
- Lonely, comfortable solitude
- calm, assured
- quickshot
- 1850's
- almost a ghost
- People just hear stories about him, but have never met him.

This is the bit of a monologue I worked up to introduce him-

"Howdy yall, Desperado here. I herd cattle and I play a smooth had of poker. This here's Ol' Wiley - best friend I ever had. On my hips, on the right, Jane (mimes pistol) for my momma. On the left, Culver, cause it sounds sooo nice. I make my way by the stars, town to town, saloon to saloon. My name is in the breeze. People hear it whisperin in their ear, but never see my face less I tip my brim."
- There's more I put into it when I did it, but thats were it started from -


Apprentices and alter ego names - I'll leave the details to your imagination.
Scott - John Band - 007, pimp in reno
Brandon - Pablo - hair dresser of celebrities
Kerri - Onyx - Secret agent/Assassin -
Alex Hernandez - Nelson "Party Bowl" Ramirez
Zach Virden - Don Martin - Doesn't say much, wine taster
Ellen - Mayln Moresee - Actress, famous for no reason
Martina -no name - as nameless as the earth - Seer, Wizard, possbile bringer of natural disasters, seen at several
Alex Stage - Peter Ungar - Alien,, "I am your master"
Jordan - Jerry Jive Washington "Best pianist that never gone Pro"
Monica - Kelly - Super strong, Very helpful, but no one accepts her help cause she breaks everything, Great picture hanger
Havalah - Sasha Swenson - Born in a yacht on the border of two countries, so, not a citizen of anywhere. Model
Shawn - Miss Louisianna - Won the hopscotch contest
Dinah - Humphrey - 89 years old, has escaped from 23 nursing homes, helps other senior citizens escape
Will - Smash hit - Smashes everything in 10 seconds
Daniel - Assassin/Bead collector - Kills people, paid in beads and jewels, makes jewlery with the beads and gems, sells it at fairs.

*****Six or 7 more to come -

The next thing we did, was split into groups of 4-5. We were given 15 minutes to come up with 3 ways to theatricalize the story of the Barefoot Bandit, or parts of the story or anything about him. The sky was the limit - but 3 different ways, 15 minutes.
Quickly we brainstormed all the ways theatre is presented, here is a short list
 - Narrative retelling
 - Abstraction (I don't even know if thats a word)
 - Direct address
 - Movement
 - Collection of news quotes
(I know this is a short list, we only had 15 minutes hahaah )
We came up with a radio show telling his story, a group of girls looking at his facebook fan page oogling  - the parents burst in, but then get caught up in the "Barefoot Excitement" and... something else I don't remember.
We did this all day - for two or three days - 8 hours a day, generating ideas.
It was the most creative I'd ever been in my entire life. Group sizes would vary, the length of time we had to come up with ideas flexed from 15 minutes to 45. At the end of the day, I could have fallen over. I think I did, when I got home actually. It was unbelieveable. I went home after the first day of work generatio - the one with the alter egos. So much had happened, I thought we had done the alter egos a day before. So much work had happened in 8 hours. It is, I can't explain how much work happened.
Here are some of the ideas that were put up on thier feet:
- Newsroom telling story
- ASS - Thieves club
- holding auditions for the role of "Barefoot Bandit" each actor brought a "Foot Shot"
 - Leaving water foot prints on rolled out paper
 - Coming onstage, dressing someone as a celebrity, then them singing sadly, taking off the facny clothes, " Fame, I'm gona live forever"
 - The moment you realize you're mortal and are going to die.
 - When I was 7 - our lives at 7 as oppsed to Coltons
 - Personifying his accomplis Harley Davidson Ironwing (Yes thats his real freaking name)
 - A soundscape of Colton being captured.
 - Point of no return - the idea of painting yourself into a corner (physical)
 - Scrolling movie credits of Coltons story
 - folk songs written in memory of Colton

Day 4 and 5 were more of the same - work generation - just putting ideas on their feet by what ever means we wanted to. It was at this point, that we had so many ideas, so much work out there on the table, that we were getting pretty overwhelmed by it. There was nothing holding it together no "Banks on the river to hold it in". We had half a week, over 36 hours of just creating work, creating characters and situations.
At this point, the days blend together - So I'll say by mid week two, Michael stepped in and said him and Amy and the other 2 directors Rachel and Zach had come up with an idea to frame these Ideas we had - The Barefoot Bandit's story.
We had decided that the main ideas we wanted to work with were Self Identity, Legacy, and Fame in the digital age. All of those things kind of revolved around this Barefoot Bandit article that 1/3 of us had been drawn to in the first place.
It was also at this point, after the work had been generated and the framing device set, that Michael and Amy asked permission to start making executive decesions concerning what pieces of work we would use to tell the story. - At this point, we had been working our asses off and didn't know what else we could do with it as a group of 26 individuals. Each of us had different ideas. We really needed some one to be able to make executice decesions about what to keep. - Michael and Amy stepped in to do this, and  I think there was a general sigh of relief when they asked us if they could. If they'd have said that from the beginning, I don't think we'd have liked it, or had gotten as much out of the process as we did. But right when we needed it, right when we were desperate for direction, they stepped in. - It was a fantastic way to do it. Also - this was when rehearsals for Dracula started and the folks in that would only be doing the Enseble Porject a few hours a day.

So lets see - I want to say now, we're about at the end of the 2nd week of work -
We made a time line of the Barefoot Bandit's life up to this point, and started to match up ideas from our themes, Legacy, Self Identiy, and fame, that matched them.
So we'd do a little scene about how the nickname was picked - Barefoot Bandit, then do a little bit right after that that exposed our ideas on self identity. That kind of thing.
after we had fleshed out and worked through some of the better ideas michael and Amy came up with an order.  It changed several times, but ended up looking like this -

****order ******

So we started working each of these bits - we had 4 directors, so each bit had a different director basically then when we'd show them to the company, all 4 directors would give their imput on the scene.
Once the scenes were solid - Probobly 4 days before we opened, we put in transitions - The transitions were direct quotes from his facebook fanpage that had to deal with the issues presented in the scene before or the one coming up. All of the sudden we had a show. We performed it on the 27th and 28th of August. 2 performances. The product was incredible, the process was mind blowing.

We ran it the first time 3 days before we opened 2 1/2 weeks after we started creating it.
It was 45 minutes long. It was funny, beautiful, full of ideas and sweat. I'll never forget it.