85%

That's about how far off book I was in actual rehearsal of the play on Friday night.

I had more of the lines in my head, but it's all a different ballgame once you are up on stage delivering them. It takes another week or so to get them to the point that you remember them under the pressure of a scene.

Plus, schedules haven't allowed my and my  main scene partner much time to run the scenes together, so that a bit of a factor as well.

I still need to study the lines, no doubt. Especially a few of the ornate ones from Laughter of the Gods. Yet it still felt good to have the script out of my hand for much of Friday's rehearsal. There is a long way to go for the whole production and a shortish amount of time remaining to get there. But even when I have to call for a line several times, a threshold always feel crossed once I perform without constantly referring to the script. The real artistic, creative work begins soon.

Sadly, that work couldn't take place for me yesterday afternoon. Too many people had to miss rehearsal, so neither or the two plays I am in could rehearse, and I was dismissed. Some good came out of it though...the whole cast for Philip Glass, the show I am not in, was present, so they got to work their show a bit extra yesterday. So though i didn't get anything done personally, the production as a whole moved forward.

That's the catch in being in an evening of one-act plays. (Which I've done several times now.) When it's an ensemble cast that appears in each, one or two people missing can derail the whole evening. So there may be less work in some areas, but it can take longer, and require more patience than a standard show in others.

In a full length show, you can generally run different scenes when people are missing. For one act plays, there is a rather gaping hole to fill in their absence. You can do it, but it requires a whole different mind sent. Plus it's less than ideal.

But that is how it goes for this production. Every production has something that drags progress a bit. I still at this point have no reason to believe it won't work out. As this blog has shown, I have been in plays that have had far less time, and were much less prepared than this one. There are some annoyances with the schedules of the actors, but I'm not even in "concerned" stage yet.

Rehearsal again tonight at 5:00PM. That is the more difficult day and time for me, as it just starts to throw off my daily rhythm. Friday is late enough for it not to matter, and usually Sunday afternoon's are flexible. Like a matinee performance. But 5:00PM is such an odd time for me.

But it's not 9:00AM, and I have been there before rehearsing and even once, performing. That, my friends, is almost not even theatre.