Saturday, July 08, 2006
What A Difference A Day Makes: Rehearsal Number Seventeen
What an intense day! I prepared for our production meeting in the early afternoon, made some follow up calls about some flyer distributions and the t-shirts, chatted with the SAK team about our progress-to-date, re-recorded the narrator voice-overs with Ron and Matt Read over at UCF's digital school, and then ran with Ron under a shared umbrella to our 5:00 run through... (Knowing all the while that I had two regular shows that evening after our rehearsal). We're at the point that we really need to be in the space to work the show, and so I've had to squeeze in a few odd rehearsals around space and player availability. I need to learn to pack a lunch/dinner and schedule some time to eat it!
As my blog title might suggest, I felt a lot better about today's effort both personally as a performer and directorially. It was good to have Gina back in the space - the quotes I have below are thanks to her! (That's the side of her face in the photo left!) Having worked in the show last season, Gina has a really strong sense of the overall vision and mission of the piece. We have an eerie shorthand that continues to develop and I'm particularly reliant upon her to give me focused notes as a performer. Her diligent note-taking also permits a depth of discussion after a run (particularly those that I'm playing in) that would be difficult otherwise. She's a great collaborator and I'm glad she was willing to sign back onto the project.
But enough of singing Gina's praises...! Today's run consisted of Mark, Jay, Kate and myself. It was nice to have Jay back with us between his Constant Wife performances. Charles is still away on holiday, and Robyn has had work conflicts for the last few days. I'm keen to get them back in the mix more consistently as I feel the "new" journey of the show is starting to form more clearly. It's a strange process in that so much is learnt each run in terms of new strategies, dynamics and finesses that is difficult to vocalize or pass along to those who weren't in attendance.
I had so much fun with my fellow players on stage today! Mark was a not-so-young man stuck in middle management overseeing the boss's daughter as she learnt the ropes. Jay brought his new girlfriend home to his large Greek family only to have his Aunty and Uncle react in starkly different ways. Kate was a beleaguered student who was ill-equipped to deal with the antics of her fast-talking roommate and party-hearty resident assistant, Roger. I was a paranoid jogger in love with a buff female body builder and craving love from my surrogate Irish policeman father-figure.
Here is a sampling of some of the memorable dialogue/lyric lines that Gina jotted down:
Mark as his middle-management man, at Starbuck's, drenched in bottled water: "You have moistened a man in public! You have thrown down the urban gauntlet."
David as Jay's Aunty, advising him on a suitable life partner: "A family, by definition, is defined by who it excludes."
Jay as his Irish policeman: "You'll excuse me. I'm on my way to destroy a life!"
Kate as the object of Mark's love in the final number: "A girl with a mustache doesn't get a lot of chances. I'm gonna take it while I can."
There was a playfulness today that I wish I could bottle and sell! As a company, we still need to personally review the basic units of act two as this act is, unavoidably, more difficult due to the audience's selection of the lead and the re-combination of characters seen in act one. It took a step forward today though. We have our Producer Preview tomorrow afternoon with Dave Russell in attendance. It's hard not to want to give him an "opening night" performance, but in reality we need the next week to solidify the format before a paying audience gets to experience the fruits of our labor. (That's not to say we're not making good progress - but we've only had the second act assembled for a week now, and several players are yet to get a chance to play the star role for example.) We are a little plagued with sound issues in the space again this year, so I'm hopeful that he might be able to spearhead this issue after hearing it in the house for himself. The SAK stage is apparently located in an acoustic tear in the fabric of the universe. Every night the space feels different in terms of sound and the levels constantly need adjusting...
The flyers are in and are beautiful thanks to John Carollo - if you'd like to help us distribute some, drop by SAK!! T-shirts are also on the way and should hopefully be on site by our sneak peak weekend of performances next Friday and Saturday. They are also going to be pretty snazzy!
I need to stop getting to bed at 3:00am!!!
Your up-all-night Director, David C.
What an intense day! I prepared for our production meeting in the early afternoon, made some follow up calls about some flyer distributions and the t-shirts, chatted with the SAK team about our progress-to-date, re-recorded the narrator voice-overs with Ron and Matt Read over at UCF's digital school, and then ran with Ron under a shared umbrella to our 5:00 run through... (Knowing all the while that I had two regular shows that evening after our rehearsal). We're at the point that we really need to be in the space to work the show, and so I've had to squeeze in a few odd rehearsals around space and player availability. I need to learn to pack a lunch/dinner and schedule some time to eat it!
As my blog title might suggest, I felt a lot better about today's effort both personally as a performer and directorially. It was good to have Gina back in the space - the quotes I have below are thanks to her! (That's the side of her face in the photo left!) Having worked in the show last season, Gina has a really strong sense of the overall vision and mission of the piece. We have an eerie shorthand that continues to develop and I'm particularly reliant upon her to give me focused notes as a performer. Her diligent note-taking also permits a depth of discussion after a run (particularly those that I'm playing in) that would be difficult otherwise. She's a great collaborator and I'm glad she was willing to sign back onto the project.But enough of singing Gina's praises...! Today's run consisted of Mark, Jay, Kate and myself. It was nice to have Jay back with us between his Constant Wife performances. Charles is still away on holiday, and Robyn has had work conflicts for the last few days. I'm keen to get them back in the mix more consistently as I feel the "new" journey of the show is starting to form more clearly. It's a strange process in that so much is learnt each run in terms of new strategies, dynamics and finesses that is difficult to vocalize or pass along to those who weren't in attendance.
I had so much fun with my fellow players on stage today! Mark was a not-so-young man stuck in middle management overseeing the boss's daughter as she learnt the ropes. Jay brought his new girlfriend home to his large Greek family only to have his Aunty and Uncle react in starkly different ways. Kate was a beleaguered student who was ill-equipped to deal with the antics of her fast-talking roommate and party-hearty resident assistant, Roger. I was a paranoid jogger in love with a buff female body builder and craving love from my surrogate Irish policeman father-figure.
Here is a sampling of some of the memorable dialogue/lyric lines that Gina jotted down:
Mark as his middle-management man, at Starbuck's, drenched in bottled water: "You have moistened a man in public! You have thrown down the urban gauntlet."
David as Jay's Aunty, advising him on a suitable life partner: "A family, by definition, is defined by who it excludes."
Jay as his Irish policeman: "You'll excuse me. I'm on my way to destroy a life!"
Kate as the object of Mark's love in the final number: "A girl with a mustache doesn't get a lot of chances. I'm gonna take it while I can."
There was a playfulness today that I wish I could bottle and sell! As a company, we still need to personally review the basic units of act two as this act is, unavoidably, more difficult due to the audience's selection of the lead and the re-combination of characters seen in act one. It took a step forward today though. We have our Producer Preview tomorrow afternoon with Dave Russell in attendance. It's hard not to want to give him an "opening night" performance, but in reality we need the next week to solidify the format before a paying audience gets to experience the fruits of our labor. (That's not to say we're not making good progress - but we've only had the second act assembled for a week now, and several players are yet to get a chance to play the star role for example.) We are a little plagued with sound issues in the space again this year, so I'm hopeful that he might be able to spearhead this issue after hearing it in the house for himself. The SAK stage is apparently located in an acoustic tear in the fabric of the universe. Every night the space feels different in terms of sound and the levels constantly need adjusting...
The flyers are in and are beautiful thanks to John Carollo - if you'd like to help us distribute some, drop by SAK!! T-shirts are also on the way and should hopefully be on site by our sneak peak weekend of performances next Friday and Saturday. They are also going to be pretty snazzy!
I need to stop getting to bed at 3:00am!!!
Your up-all-night Director, David C.
