Blocked and Loaded

All of last week, we blocked the play. (With the exception of two scenes at the end, which still need to be blocked, because of absences last week.) I didn't post about each night, because as usual, I don't find blocking rehearsals to be of much general interest.

The term itself is a bit of a misnomer, isn't it? We call it a "blocking rehearsal" sometimes, but most of the time a cast isn't rehearsing anything; they are receiving instructions as to their movements for the first time in any given scene. Often they will run through the newly given blocking once before moving on to the next scene, which I suppose makes it a sort of instant rehearsal. But truly, nothing is getting practiced. It's getting learned.

So of course, I write little about it. The truth, as I have often written here on this blog, is that I'm not a fan of blocking rehearsals, necessary though they may be.

I will mention that there is a lot of extra blocking for a non-musical. A large door on wheels is a part of nearly every scene, and getting that in place is a particular challenge. (One the actors don't generally have to deal with, though we have no running crew as of yet.) There are also scenes that verge somewhat on a "dance" even though there is no music. A certain stylistic vision of the movements of the characters that naturally springs from the nature of the piece.

This week, there has been only one rehearsal so far, on Monday. (I write this on Wednesday.) That didn't go as planned, because of two unexpected absences. The director had a family emergency. One of the actresses was missing for unknown reasons at the time. So we were short one director and one actress.

The stage manager ran rehearsal. We ran the aforementioned blocking for both acts, and though there was some remaining confusing, between the director's notes and such, we were able to cover a great deal of ground, even if we couldn't run every scene.

We all like a linear rehearsal process as the ideal. But it;s ideal because it's not always possible. But when a rehearsal time is filled with running something that must be perfected eventually, it isn't wasted time to me. The more any given section of a play is run, the better it will be, and the more time is made available to run other parts that are not as far along.  So even when things go a bit haywire, as described above, so long as the two hours are put to use practicing, I'm pretty much satisfied it was time well spent.

Tonight we rehearse again, though I don't know what is on the agenda, what with the various derailments of the week. I'd assume we'd block the final few scenes, and run those, if the director is able to return. If she is not, than I suppose we will do very much what we did on Monday, and only progress will result from hitting those scenes again. Heaven knows I could use as much practice as I can get. Lot's of lines for me in this one.

I think my stage English is improving as time goes on. Not becoming authentic, truly, but improving, and getting closer to easing the audience's suspension of disbelief. That's probably a fair goal to shoot for in the time we have. I run lines at home with the accent as well.

Some setbacks and a sluggish beginning to this one, but I have zero worries about this show at this time. Rehearsals that are mostly quiet, as these are, without too much BS can make all the difference.