180 Degrees

Last night's rehearsal had 100% attendance. We didn't rehearse everything in the production, but what we did rehearse went well, nearly everyone off book by now, and finally getting a small feel for interacting with one another.

It felt refreshing to me to be able to do this.

The leader of the company was fairly close to calling the production off. Now that we've sort of j ump started the process, everything seems to be a go. Hopefully it will remain that way.

We do still have a great deal of work, and little time to do it in. We're aren't close to performance ready. But like Churchill said early in World War II, "This isn't the end. It's not even the beginning of the end. But perhaps it is the end of the beginning."

Being off book is of course crucial to success in a show, especially this late in the process. (Even if the show is not somewhat behind schedule.) But getting a feel for one another is of near equal importance, and for a good portion of last night, that's what it was about. Some scenes were rehearsed without scripts, and a full cast for the very first time.

Thankfully, I don't dislike any of the people in these shows. It's always much more fun that way. But there is also the element of getting a feel for everyone else's performance style and pace and such during a play, whether or not you like them as a person. You can memorize every letter of a script, but until you start exchanging lines with the people playing the other roles, your work in incomplete. You can eventually recite your lines to the empty space of an absent actor, waiting for your cue from the stage manager who is reading the lines, but it's like dumping seeds onto a parking lot; something might take, but nothing will thrive.

The same is true, believe it or not, even when the actor has no lines in a given scene. Their presence has an impact on your performance that is difficult to fake when they aren't there. When my character is aware your character is present, it informs certain aspects of what I'm doing. One may hear that and think that a silent actor is no different than a silent empty chair. But they are world different.

For example in the shorter of the plays I am in, I play a man who has an assistant. My character does speak to the assistant directly a few times, but most of the time the assistant is quiet. Yet, the way I'm playing the scene now, (which is a board meeting), I'm almost always at least partially directing things toward the assistant, even though I'm actually addressing someone else, or the ether. I want the presence of that character to be a part of what my character is doing, who my character is in the scene. I want to use what the actress playing the assistant has to offer in her frequent silence.

This is of course true for any character on a stage who may not be saying anything. But given the particulars of this script, and the way I am seeing the character, the assistant is arguable the most significant presence for many moments.

I don't want to speak on behalf of the actress of course, but if I had to guess I would say she too is getting things to use from not only me, but others in the room, even during their silences, and so on all through the cast.

It is these things that take some time to develop. It is these things that begin to take form when everyone is present at rehearsal. I suppose that in an absolute emergency, such things can be partially replicated in the absence of scene partners, but one would never get as much or as deep a performance for the audience, nor as satisfying an experience for the actor. At least if the actor is me.

The next official rehearsal is Friday, but several people are going to try to meet on Thursday to go over trouble spots, and discuss issues, and I want to be there for that.

So yes, an almost complete turn around in town and productivity from the previous rehearsal night. Here's hoping it stays that way.

Crap Out

I have to unfortunately report that about half of the cast was unable to make it to last night's rehearsal. Because of this, we once again could not rehearse in any productive way.

The director of the company was, understandably, unhappy about this.

I, frankly, am becoming a bit disappointed myself. I'm still not in a panic, and I actually have less invested in the overall picture than do the leaders of the company itself. Still, I have to admit I'm starting to wonder when we will actually be rehearsing on a regular solid basis.

And when we do, will it be enough? The short answer is, it will have to be, because our director said he wouldn't allow the show to go on stage if it isn't good enough. He asked the rest of us present what we thought of that position. With regret, we all agreed; we can't put on a show that is unprepared.

That being said, the show is not cancelled as of now. The ticking of the clock is certainly becoming louder with each week that passes, but hope isn't lost. It will require more people prioritizing the show over most other things from now on, I will say, but there is time for that to happen.

We did have a bit of a discussion about acting and directing in lieu of a rehearsal.  Those of us with questions or concerns about specific aspects of the production got to bring them up. Though not a rehearsal, I think that was still a productive use of time. The show will ultimately be better for it.

I wish I had more positive, interesting things to report. But despite the best of intentions, this is how community theatre often unfolds. It seems to be more frequent with this show than most, but I can say from experience that the unwavering dedication to bring about the best show possible can sometimes be quite difficult to extract from actors and crew who volunteer.

A lot of wonderful, challenging work gets done on this level anyway, and perhaps that is the true essence and power of community theatre; thing get done anyway. The trade off is that they don't always get done anyway. They can't be forced when people have other things they are doing for much of the rehearsal process. I'm not saying I like or agree with this tendency, I don't. But if that is the tendency, all one can do is commit to a project and hope for the best.

Next rehearsal is tomorrow afternoon.

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.