Outside in

Last week, I had the actors prepare two-minute scenes from philadelphia story. The idea was to pick a scene (freely available on youtube), cast themselves (regardless of gender), memorize it and replicate it exactly, mimicking the gestures, the intonations, the blocking. Wearing the similar costumes, etc.

In order to crack the style of stage door why not approach these characters from the outside in to see where it takes the actors?

I think most importantly, these guys had fun - laughing at themselves and at each other. They experienced technically how the language and voice work. Some of them detected how a facial expression informed the objective. Others felt that that "hepburn" voice really served as a way to liberate them. Still others noticed how fast the language works.
Thank god!

And of course, meanwhile, we continue to ask the basic questions from the inside out. All in all, a pleasing experiment.