Blocking is Done!

At least until we change it. But that is the nature of a show.

Still, last night we got down on paper all of the blocking for A Christmas Carol. We finished act 2, and then re-ran part of act one for the sake of an actor who was missing when we first went through it, and will also miss the next 3 rehearsals. Not to mention the fact that we needed to test that set blocking against the new lay out of the stage. No major problems.

I think the next thing I need to work extra hard on, other than getting off book, is accents. To me, a few of my characters sound too much a like. Which would be excusable, since the same guy is playing all of them, but I'd like to vary things a bit. Old Joe stands out the most, and sounds the least like any of the others. The biggest differentiation I want to make is between Frederick, the brother of Dickens himself, and Fred, the nephew of Scrooge. Peter Cratchit will eventually just be a slightly higher pitched voice. Younger Scrooge will be tricky. I am going to try to emulate some of the diction and accent of the man who plays the older Scrooge throughout the play. I also plan to copy some of his hand gestures. (Which will become more clear once nobody is holding their scripts anymore.)

There is still some work to do on the set, and when it is done, Old Joe will have a platform to stand on towering above those who are selling Scrooge's stuff. I look forward to really perfecting this scene, as I have been in more than one version of it over the years. Plus, this Old Joe had a bit of an edge. You almost get the sense he has a knife in his belt, ready to expertly slice someone up should the annoy him for too long. It's a short scene and a minor character, but a memorable one, and I think I'll play around with that motivation a while. (It will be aided by the fact that I'll be wearing an eye patch. At least that is the director's plan for now.)

Blocking rehearsals, i confess, don't usually make for great blog fodder, and this one is no exception. How much can one really say at this stage? "We blocked this scene or that". If there were major problem I would report them, but there were none so far. So the deeper stuff will wait for next week's rehearsals. And especially the week after that when we are to be off book.