Final Thursday Rehearsal

I am a bit behind on updating, but not by much, so bear with me.

Thursday was indeed the final time we will rehearse the show on a Thursday. Or not, depending on how you look at it. I suppose technically this Thursday will also be a rehearsal, but since it is open to the public as a free preview, I am not quite considering it a rehearsal in the traditional sense.

It was also, as far as I am able to remember, the first time so far that the entire cast was present in the theatre at one time. After terrible schedules, illnesses, recasting and other loveliness, Richard III's entire cast ran the entire show for the first time. Exciting? Well...

The director, who spent most of her time in the booth working light and sound cues, was not altogether happy with the rehearsal. There were moments, she said, but overall it was a slower, less energetic rehearsal than the previous night's. It is difficult for me to comment upon that, since I don't see much of the play when I am not on stage. But the director knows what she is talking about, so I imagine if she felt it was lethargic, than it certainly was so.

I suppose that means myself, as well, though I received no particular note. Yet when a whole show is slower, and individual performance usually follows suit in ways that the actor is unaware of. I know I once again flubbed in my big scene, and that is starting to annoy me. Not concern me yet, as I have been going over it, and I have three more nights to get it right. Plus it is the only section that I have consistently tripped during. That being said, I have to truly focus in these final nights to get it correct. I have an escape plan if it comes to that, but I am not going to let it come to that. (There is a section in every show, it seems...)

Hopefully everyone else will begin to iron out their own little difficulties tonight as well. For the director told us on Thursday, (we didn't rehearse Friday) that come Monday there were to be no more books on stage, and no more calling for lines. That may present with a bit of a struggle tonight and even tomorrow in certain aspects of the production. But when you get to that point, you get there. Nothing can be done about it except to plow through and fix things.

I am still getting used to how much time I have between scenes. In some, I have quite a bit of time. In others, I go right back out on stage after the end of a scene. I don't miss cues, but I feel better when I know exactly when I am going and staying. One truth is forming in my mind though; at no point do I have to rush. I have enough time to get my bearings in each scene change. Not always a great deal of time, but it's there. Further, in all of the moments where I need the most time, I do indeed have it. If I remind myself that I have a few minutes when those scenes end, I won't run around crazy looking for the script.

If we were doing Hamlet I'd know by default where we were all the time. But before appearing in it I had read this play far less often, and so some of the sequences are still fuzzy. It's improving though. I am not worried about that either.

Tonight we try performing in costumes, to see how they work. And thus begins a week that is longer than most. For each night we rehearse, and then jump right into the one preview, the opener, nd the two shows afterward. And then this production will "bid the world goodnight." But that is quite a ways off for now in theatre time. First things first..onward to tech week.