Session 6 (July 6)

We spent the first part of the session discussing and practicing the sung, Latin version.  We worked mostly on singing our parts in the latter half of the scene, where several anapestic meters (for each of which Ada has created a different basic melody on which we can play) predominate.  The anapests are the easiest to sing, of course, because they have a steady rhythm.  We also worked on the bacchiacs, which are prominent toward the beginning of the scene and have their own melody. We will begin to practice the (relatively scarce in our scene) trochaic septenarii soon.  In the second part of the session, we ran through the English versions with their blocking.  There were several hilarious additions to the blocking today, and one line change for comic effect.  We found a prop to stand in for Nicobulus’ cane and explored the possibilities for its use in the scene.  To remind ourselves that our lines need to be directed out toward the audience, we constructed an audience member as a point on which to focus (this ”audience member” was a commedia dell’ arte mask wearing a straw hat, propped up on a table).  We have arranged an extra practice session this weekend.