All Rise!

Tonight in rehearsal we ran through the blocking of the courtroom scenes (which constitute most of my stage time.) This is the first time we had ever run them. It went fairly well, despite having several people from the crowd missing from the rehearsal. There is plenty of time to work on that, however.

I do not move much during the three scenes that take place in the courtroom. When I do move, I have a table that is my home base, as it were, which I always return to. This means I have little blocking to commit to memory.

The director said I would have some leeway to walk around as I addressed the court, as well as those in the gallery of the court. I took some of that leeway, and felt very lawyer like, walking around, making statements, etc. I had not been in lawyer mode sense my old mock trial days back in high school, so that was fun.

The whole night was fun actually. In a very laid back way. Of course the rehearsals will get more hectic as we get closer to opening night, but tonight was a very leisurely run through of three scenes, and it was nice to be getting into the groove of the show in such a manner.

The director seems to view my character very much as I have viewed him. That is to say, that Mara is a decent guy, caught up in a lot of antics he views as silly and outlandish. A tad cynical, but mostly just concerned with the integrity of the court, Mara need not be played as a mean bastard, the director told me. I love it when a director and myself see eye to eye on such things. After that, I felt quite at ease with my characterization.

Another thing that helped me get in gear was eyeglasses. I did indeed find a pair, (several pair, actually) from the costume room. Not having worn glasses before, I mostly deferred to the costume designer as to what looked right. At one point during a break, she brought in one of the pairs I had looked at previously, sans lenses. I tried them on, and she liked the way they looked. Cast mates did as well. The glasses felt very comfortable and light on my face. Presto! New costume piece.

I am very glad the glasses issue worked out. It added more depth to the character, and if I may say so, the scene. I plan to wear the glasses for all rehearsals now, just to get used to them.

It's all starting to come together now. I think it will prove to be quite a fun show.
My next rehearsal is the day after tomorrow, when we will run all of act 2 for the first time. Hopefully enough people will be there for the crowded courtroom scene. If not, at least I have my eyeglasses. All is well.