ABSTRACT
This chapter takes the reader inside the workings of Tina Packer’s rehearsal room as she collaborates with her creative team to manifest a production of Cymbeline (2017). The final play in her acting and/or directing of Shakespeare’s entire dramatic canon, Packer goes from ‘looking through a glass darkly’ to ‘brewing a magical potion,’ as the reader journeys with her and her cast through four weeks of rehearsal into performance. Detailed are: Packer’s collaboration with designers; pre-rehearsal preparation; her ‘text progression’ (including working the play on its feet; ensemble discussions involving checking inwith actors’ experiences and reinforcing their discoveries; dropping in scenes; and ‘staging the scenes in detail’). Also noted are the ways in which Shakespeare & Company’s Training (including Voice and Text; Movement/Dance; and Fight) is incorporated into the Performance aesthetic. The process of allowing the play to ‘reveal’ itself is described: revealed literally in terms of the design and storytelling; revealed metaphorically in terms of the alchemical and unconscious resonances in Cymbeline; and revealed tonally in terms of the audience’s responses to Shakespeare’s rollercoaster juxtaposition of tragedy, comedy and the downright ludicrous.
