Friday, January 8, 2010

January 7th rehearsal

Today seemed to be less intense. The idea of school and rehearsal are sinking faster into our brains. Our bodies are still getting used to the long hours and movement.

There were a lot more vocal warm-ups today. The cast learned "Zoo, woo, shaw." This warm-up focuses on the range of your vocals. There is movement that goes along with the vocals. This movement matches where the sound is coming from in your body. Joanna and Maria led us in this warm-up at a pace that everyone was able to keep up with.

Before I had the cast draw, I led them through a trust and detail exercise. I learned it from a friend wanted to try it out: Everyone stands in a circle facing the same direction. They close their eyes and start to explore the person in front of them. They want to memorize their hair, their back muscles, their clothing, etc. Keeping their eyes closed, I strategically placed the cast members a different parts on the stage. They then had to find the person in front of them by just feeling for the detail they memorized earlier. The goal is to reform the circle they began in by just touch and trust. They were successful both times they did the exercise!!

Todays drawing: Someone you look up to.

The cast is really starting to have fun with their drawings and think outside of the box. One person drew Gene Simmons from kiss as their hero!

We continued to block today and got to some of the fun parts in the script. The cast really loves to become kids! There is a scene where the chorus and Benjamin play tag. I had to run through it quite a few times, to make sure that the environment and blocking was safe for their rough-play. By the end of this they were all sweating and catching their breath! We skipped a few scenes with just Mother, Father, and Benjamin and focused on the scenes with the chorus. After a physically exhausting rehearsal I sent the chorus home early and kept Zane, Joanna, and Emily to go back to the 2 scenes we skipped.
As we began to do one of the scenes, I realized something wasn't working. Images were not grabbing my eye. Something was wrong....it was the set. I don't have a set designer because I wanted the set to be a collaboration between director and actor. That is exactly what happened last night. The four of us sat and ran through ideas of how the blocks could be more interestingly and strategically placed on the stage. We figured it out!!!!!!!

It was really satisfying working together with my cast members to create a great set to play on! We had fun doing it and the collaboration was thought-provoking. It is a really great feeling when you accomplish something so creative with your actors.

After this session of building ideas, it was time to go home and get some rest. I don't need anyone getting sick! Next rehearsal is on Saturday and I am pumped to show the rest of the cast the new and improved set!!!

3 comments:

  1. I'm so glad we were able to work together to figure out the problems in the set. This new design will work so much better.

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  2. I've been telling all of my friends and family that I'm in this really sad play at the end of January. Well, last night I realized that I have been oversimplifying it. This play truly does celebrate a very special life. I had so much fun blocking the "tag" scene and the scenes with the teachers and students: it's hilarious. David Saar obviously wanted audiences to get a kick out of how funny his son was.

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  3. Working out the set situation was so awesome and fulfilling. Up until now, I haven't really experienced such a director-actor collaboration outside of the acting process and it was a really nice feeling. I really feel as if this is our show now.

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