"Rehearsal"

This belated entry is written to mention that I met with my scene partner for "Love Letters" the other day. It went well.

As I have been saying, I have not been pouring over this script, in hopes of keeping it more spontaneous. I have been wanting to keep that distance from the material, so it really does feel like I am reading letters. Reading them from some distance in time. That was my initial view of the script.

As I read with her, that idea stayed mostly intact. However, the fine median between being as consumed by the emotion of the moment, and being cold and robotic was harder to strike than I initially thought.

It simply cannot be conversational. Though many I feel would be tempted to make it that way, I think one loses the idea that these are in fact snippets of letters. However, I don't want to be too clinical, which I may have been at times, when I read the letters.

Part of the problem is, I do not want to invoke a child when reading the letters from childhood. That would border on the odd I think. But I also don't want to read them as I would a letter from Voltaire or something like that. Again, that balance is a very fine one, and one that I hope to strike as I perform it tonight.

In one sense, have so little time can be intimidating. But on the other hand, it is providing a certain excitement to the proceedings. This worked in my favor for the last reading I did, and I think it will work in my favor this time. (The champagne being served to the audience probably will not hurt either.)

Either way, I am in fact going over some of the parts again...just to make them a little smoother, without losing the reading letters quality.

There was also talk of my partner and I taking the reading to other venues in the coming weeks. Nothing has been set up yet, but I do enjoy the notion of taking it elsewhere. I always had fun with traveling shows, and while this hardly qualifies as a complex affair, there is still an air of performing by the seat of your pants that would go along with taking this act to other venues.

Plus, it could be good publicity for the theatre.

There you have it. Check back here in less than 24 hours for an overview of how it all went!