The Joys of Progress

Today was a sort of last minute rehearsal for the show. Due to one of my cast mates being stuck in horrible traffic, I had to close the rehearsal planned for yesterday.

We made up for it tonight though. We found a small room upstairs, and did a reading, without any of the minimal blocking. (That’s one reason I love readings.)

Let me say that I am very pleased with the progress we made tonight. To clarify, I have been pleased with the work we have done from the very beginning. Yet tonight in particular saw several key moments in the development of the show.

Without getting into specific wordy details here, I will say that there is a scene, several minutes in duration, in the middle of the play, wherein I am not on stage. During such time, it is just the two actresses. One plays my character’s girlfriend, and that other plays his overbearing sister.

As I have envisioned the show, it is during this scene that the two characters, antagonistic to one another for most of the play, come to an “almost understanding”. At least on a temporary basis. While said transition was always present with these two actresses, tonight it was much more defined, and well timed. The transition back into that slight antagonism once my character returns was just as seamless. It was very rewarding as the director to observe this. They should both be proud.

For now, there will be a hiatus of about ten days, as one of the actresses will be traveling. But I am not at all concerned about this. Indeed, after reading through the script twice this evening, the three of us had a very constructive conversation pertaining to where the play is headed, and how on target we all feel about everything.

As one of the actresses pointed out, this would go really well as a fully staged production, and not just a reading. I agreed, but I also feel fortunate to have this script for our purposes. It is very dialogue and character based, and as I told the rest of the cast, it will suffer far less from being rendered as a reading than some other scripts may have.Indeed in some ways it will force all three of us to play up the dialogue and the writing even more. One of the reasons I was glad to take on this project.

So that is where things stand. A mild breakthrough for one of the scenes today, an overall recognition of our mutual confidence in each other and the show, and a hiatus that begins on a very positive note. I very much look forward to resuming our rehearsals.