Some House Keeping, and Top of the Morning

First, allow me to thank "Anonymous" for having what has to be the highest "entry to comment" time ration in the history of Always Off Book. They were so kind as to make a comment the other night about my entry regarding Classic Arts Showcase...which I posted in October of 2005. They admitted to being a little behind the times, however. No matter, I welcome the comment, and hope that if they read this entry in less than two years time, they will continue to comment and contribute to the discussion.

Now for the top of the morning part...Rehearsal was not quite that early, of course, but, it was our typical Saturday morning rehearsal time.

Not quite so typical though, as for a while we were locked out of the practice area. Turns out the door had just frozen shut, but for a while, it appeared for all the world that we had been locked out.

Obviously, we got in eventually.

Today we were to be off book. I would say for most of it I was. One scene, that I was securely off book for gave me more trouble than I expected it to. But I think that was because we had never run it in this room before. And also because each actor struggled a bit with lines today. Still, overall, I felt practically off book the whole time. I have no doubt that there will be noticeable improvement in everyone's line retention by the time we meet again on Thursday.

I have been given permission to wear a ring during the play. I wanted to do this anyway, to give Geoff some sort of extra habit..something to play with as he thinks. I want it to by simple, if I can find a good, but fake simple ring. That will be one of my tasks is the coming week, so I can hopefully have one by Thursday.

The ring is of particular importance now, since I will not wearing a knife for the show. This does not bother me greatly, though I do wonder how the line "we all have knives" will go down, when half of us do not. But, there are far more significant things to concern myself with, especially since that is not even my line.

For example the candlestick attack is being redone, though it was not done today. We spoke about it briefly, and it now appears it will be a little more subtle and a little less violent. I have to say I am somewhat relieved. Not that I could not have handled the stunt eventually, but, I did feel a bit nervous at times, I confess. So I imagine we will be reworking that on Thursday.

Now that I am off book, (or will be totally be Thursday, what I was not off book for today), It is time to examine Geoff's motivations and back story in earnest. At least the part of it I can control, and create myself. I do not mean I am going to write a bio on him or anything like that, (though I have used that method before with smaller roles.) However, thinking of a few incidents from his past which might have contributed to the way he is during the play may be of benefit.

And while I am not without any notion of his motivations overall, I am now going to concentrate on them, in more detail, and on a scene by scene basis. Sharpening the nuances of the character, fleshing out my version of his personality, and, as I mentioned, coming up with some quasi-quirks. In other words, some of the most fun stuff. In initially science outranks art in any production. This show has reached the demarcation line past which the art should outrank the science of the performance. I tend to thrive most after such points.

Four weeks. Exactly four weeks from this moment I will be performing as Geoffrey. (Or roughly, as I may not be on stage at this exact moment for weeks from now.) Nonetheless, to quote a line from the play, "The sand goes pit pat on the glass"...