Extra Monday

As I mentioned at the end of my last entry, I thought perhaps I'd be able to attend last night's rehearsal, despite being unavailable most Mondays. My other engagement did end up not happening, and I had time to shift everything else in order to get to rehearsal last night during that black of time.

And what happened on this, my extra day?

To begin with, the director announced that two actors will be no longer be in the show. To compensate for this, several changes have taken place. Two of the small characters will be eliminated, and consolidated with another. In another case, some of the lines will be reassigned to other characters. Finally, one of the actors heretofore playing only a small part in one scene will now be playing larger roles in several scenes. So, quite a bit more work is required for some, and it may take a bit longer to get things on track with the changes.

Truth be told, I don't anticipate these changes affecting what I do very much. The biggest change to one of my scenes would be my biggest scene, where all of the lines for Lord Mayor have been assigned to various citizens in the crowd. Some of those lines may have to be altered a bit. Other than that, it is the same scene. Beyond that, everything else that I have been doing should remain unchanged, as I never addressed the other excised character at any point.

Much of the set painting and dressing is completed. Perhaps I will try to get a shot of that to post here, though I always say that and usually forget to do so.

We worked all of Act I last night. No easy task because again we where several actors short. I am happy to report, however, that I was off book for what little I do in Act I. Actually, it is no little thing that I do in the one scene in this act in which I appear. Given how I have interpreted the role, Buckingham must enter already weary of too many people in too short a time. Then his anxiety must build slowly but visibly as Gloucester enters and begins needling the Woodvilles. Finally, as Queen Margaret enters and begins cursing people, this tension and anxiety (no doubt a mix of awkwardness as well as some degree of fear for this crazy woman) Buckingham finally tries to silence her, and perhaps by implication, all of them.

I have not yet been able to run that part with the actress playing Margaret. Yet I know her well and have worked with her many times, so I anticipate no problems getting to where we need to be with that. The point being there is a build that I felt with the scene even in her absence. Almost nerve wracking, which it should be. That is what I want to convey to the audience.

We ran the act twice last night. Again, most of the action for that act doesn't include me, but I was happy to show up to get in as much rehearsal as possible. I don't yet know about next Monday.

Tonight we run Act II. I have a bit more to do in that Act, but not much. I am, however, off book for Act II, to the best of my memory. It feels good to just be delivering the lines with no book, even if these are still early, choppy rehearsals.