Warm and Crisp and Even Keel.

When a rehearsal process goes by without any major hitches this late in the game, I am starting to realize there may be less to write about each night. No doubt this is a good problem to have, at least from the standpoint of the show. Perhaps not for this blog.

Yet it is true. No major mishaps, problems or concerns have been present in our last few rehearsals. Today was no exception. A stride has very nearly been hit by us all.

We did have some light cues tonight, as well as sound. No costumes required tonight.

One different thing about tonight was that the director mentioned she would only be paying attention to and pointing out the negatives, or the things that needed work during notes. Yet even with that plan, she didn't have to say much, and truth be told she still threw in compliments anyway.

My only error was very nearly tripping over a trunk on stage while trying to back out of the room as the Ghost of Christmas Future. I never quite go totally backwards, so I have never had any problems exiting before. But I wasn't injured, so no harm done.

I mentioned previously that I didn't think I was internalizing all of my scenes as much as I wanted to. Tonight I think I noticed that some moments are more internalized than others. The first scene with Fred certainly is very nearly. Tonight, the Old Joe scene felt as though it was very much the closest to being as internal as I like to be. ( I even threw in an extra moment of wiping my dirty hands on one of the other actors in the scene at one point.)

I still need to work on getting the sometimes chaotic party scene to feel more real to me. There is a lot going on in that one, and the word game has gone a bit rough the last two evenings. We covered well, but it still has some road blocks. I may be sacrificing internal energy of character in order to be ready for possible mistakes, and I shouldn't do so. Not in that fashion at least. I think I am not alone. The other three in that scene also proceed with a bit more caution than is ideal for now. We have six more time to get it right, however, so I am not worried much.

The break up scene with Belle is getting closer to being internalized for me, though not quite there. "Belle" herself has thus far not felt totally satisfied with her part in the scene. Though I have no complaints as her opposite, the scene will go better if both parties feel that they are nailing it. Again, there is plenty of time to get it where we both want it to be. (Which for me means, again, feeling it internally as well as externally.)

It really is time for me to be artistic as opposed to technical with some of these moments. I sometimes have a tendency to spend more energy on making sure my performance is technically flawless than I do on making it feel real to me. That ratio almost always becomes a bit more balanced the minute I step in front of an audience, but it should be closer to equal long before that. I suppose sometimes it is the fear of lines being lost or something. I don;t have it for every show. But I have some of it for this show. Who knows why? But no more excuses for me. It is time to fine tune, and give those extras I know are within me for these roles. It is time to polish, even if a few technical aspects are closer to 90% as opposed to 100%. I am promising you, loyal blog reader, here and now, that I will be doing exactly that in the coming days.