Opening Night: Heaven Can Wait

The die is cast. The Rubicon is crossed. Use whatever old expression for it you like, but opening night is behind us, and "Heaven Can Wait" is now officially underway at the Academy Theatre.

It was odd not having my entrance for 20 minutes. I have mentioned before that I've never entered a show that late in the action before. It sort of threw off my preparation rituals, and had my nerves in a different place than I am used to. It wasn't horrible, but I think I would have preferred to enter sooner, all things being equal.

On the other hand, by the time I get out there, the audience is already warmed up. So maybe there are pluses as well as minuses to the situation.

As for the quality of our first performance, I will say, first and foremost that it's hard for me to judge the overall show. I don't see the whole thing. Just the scenes I am in, and a few minutes before same. But judging by those moments, and from what I hear from my cast mates, the show went quite well. Some say better than the final dress rehearsal. I am not sure I would agree with that, but each person judges the success of an individual performance differently.

One of the main reasons I can't be as satisfied as I might have been was that during the first scene a major cue was missed, and an important entrance did not take place. After a moment of silence waiting for said entrance to occur, and a (hopefully) casual glance off stage to see that the performer in question was not about to enter, I was forced to ad-lib something.

Not that I wanted to. Not that I ever really want to do that. Not to that extent. But being on stage when a cue has been missed and the action has stopped is a bit like knowing you will vomit in the near future, but you have no idea when. You hate the idea of puking, but you just want it to be over with because the time leading up to it, knowing it is going to happen, is worse than the actual act.

Sitting on the couch next to my cast mate, with two "ghost" characters who cannot interact with us behind me, I just wanted that "I have to throw up" feeling to go away. I desperately wanted to moment to be over. So I came up with the only thing I could on the moment. I called out for the character, and instructed them to do what was they needed to do.

In other words the worst kind of jarring improvisation possible. One that telegraphs to the audience...

"Attention! Somebody has missed their cue, and the actor on stage is trying to fix the problem! Please stand by."

And stand by they did, though I think I heard someone laughing. The performer in question also stood by for another few moments, until they finally arrived. But not in the manner I had hoped, because they brought with them a character I wasn't supposed to see yet.

I turned to my co-star on the couch, skipped to my final line of the scene, and proceeded to exit as normally as I could. I acknowledged the extra character, and walked off.

I'm told by others that it was a nice cover, and that is very nice of them to say. I hope it did not look as ridiculous as it felt to me when I did it. But I honestly had no clue what else I could have done.

I actually don't remember all of those moments, now that I look back. I know one of the "ghost" characters did ad-lib something, but I don't at all remember what he said. I don't remember looking at the actress next to me, though she says I did so. And finally, I remember putting two filled whiskey glasses on the prop table. I don't remember picking them up before I left.

I sent the stage hands asunder because in my nerves I said, "we skipped about five pages", when I intended to say, "we skipped about 5 lines."

Hopefully such a mistake won't happen again. There is no reason for it to, at any rate.

I confess that that incident had me a bit more shaken than I usually am for the rest of the show. That may have been one of the reasons I dropped a line about half way through the first act. Thankfully it was probably my least significant line in the whole play, having nothing to with a major plot point. But the actress on stage covered it well. Her character is ignoring my character at that point, so she never even responds to the line I dropped. I was lucky.

My nerves tapered off a bit at intermission, but I hope to not be that edgy for that long during the remaining performances.

The gunshot went well. As did all other moments in the play for me. Execution thereof anyway. The nerves I will have to work on.

The audience was lukewarm in most places, I thought. Their favorite seemed to be the actor who played "Max Levene". They didn't laugh at a few of the laugh lines, and some of the things they managed to laugh at I didn't think were supposed to be funny. They laughed at nothing I said or did. (But I have never been sure if Tony is supposed to be that funny or not.) That's an audience for you. Tonight they may laugh at totally different things. The truth is, they probably will. No matter how much acting I do, I never fail to be awed by the mystery that is an audience dynamic.

Most of us went out for some food after the show. That was fun. (And not bad food.)

In many ways I think last night was our final dress rehearsal. Or a preview show, given that about 100 people were in the audience or so. Tonight may be the first REAL performance in the sense that the opening night hurdle is behind us. Let us hope so.

Marathon Accomplished

Tonight was the longest rehearsal thus far for "Heaven Can Wait" with the Potomac Playmakers. But it was not quite the dragging, grueling experience that I had thought it might be.

Part of the reason for that may be that I only have a medium sized role, but one that allows me to be doing something at regular intervals during Act 2. (What we went over today.) Part of that might also be that I am accustomed to three plus hour rehearsals. Granted it has not happened in a while, but I've experienced four hour rehearsals before. Sometimes such experiences get to me, but by and large I have not been adversely effected by long rehearsals.

I most cases I have friends I can talk to during the long rehearsals. I am getting to know the people in this show, but none of the friends from previous shows are in this, so I didn't even have that to make it easier, and yet i still didn't mind. Perhaps, shock of shocks, I am becoming a more patient man as time goes on. Heaven forbid, right?

Act 2,Scene 1 is the longest section of the play. Originally we were going to run the entire scene, and then run it again, but the decision was made early one to break it into informal French scenes, and replay each of those sections twice in a row before moving on. The director thought that would help pound lines into our head that we hadn't quite committed to memory yet.

On the subject of lines, everyone did a fairly good job at being off book for most of Act 2 this evening. (Especially those with the really large parts.) The overall off book quotient wasn't as high for the last third of the material we covered tonight, but that is to be expected, I think. Fatigue sets in, and those were in fact sections that we have not had much of a chance to go over so far.

For my own part, I suppose I cannot complain about my progress. I did call for a line very briefly 3 or 4 times during the evening, but I am happy to report I didn't have to call for the same lines twice at any given point. (Which says to me that they are starting to solidify in my mind.) I still want several section to come a lot more smoothly than they did, but tonight proved that what needs to be in my brain is there now. It just needs some time to take root, as it were. The same with my blocking.

The director told us that tonight was mainly for us, as opposed to her, or the overall vision of the play. A chance to get those roots I mentioned to take for all of us by getting the words said and the blocking used at the same time without books in hands. Deeper characterization will come next week, but I am proud of some of the choices I have made tonight and last night either way. Thus far I have not been told they are wrong choices, and in a few cases were told they were good choices. This pleases me, and I hope of course it continues.

One somewhat embarrassing moment came for me when I was in the prop room looking at props when I was called to the stage for a bit of blocking. So I had to be summoned more than once and held things up for a few moments. I was acting under the assumptions that I had nothing left to do in the scene, and that I would be able to hear the director is she called me. Wrong on both counts, but in my own defense, I had never been asked to perform the action in in previous rehearsals of that scene. But nobody yelled at me, so I suppose all is well.

In a way tonight was the most nerve wracking sort of rehearsal. The first off book rehearsal for the longest part of the play. There will be rehearsals in the coming weeks that are just as long, and take up just as much or even more energy, (there is a reason they call it "Hell Week"), but there will not be that fear of "doing it" for the first time. The initial spreading of the wings that is being off book is completed for the lion's share of the play, and from here on out I know what to expect. I have received my very first reading on the frequency of the signal, and that will help set the tone for the rest of the production.

So while it was not terrible, I am glad tonight's rehearsal is now behind us, and that we can get on to other things now, without having to cross that particular threshold.

The thoughts of the cast also are with our assistant director who had surgery yesterday, (I forgot to mention it then.) So we hope for a speedy recovery for her.

The next rehearsal is Monday evening; our first off book rehearsal for what the script calls Act 3. (But will not be a separate act in our production.) I am not concerned with that rehearsal much, as I have only 5 lines or so in the entire act, and I am off book for them now. My appearance in Act 3 or mostly about non-verbal acting, a subject I love to talk about.

But not tonight. Tonight I will give myself rest from the script, and get back to reviewing lines and blocking sometime tomorrow.

Four weeks from tonight, we open the show.

Monday, Monday...

Written about on a Tuesday evening.

Last night's rehearsal started at hour earlier than normal, at 6PM. This was to accomodate running both Act one and Act Two. (Remember there is a short Act Three in this play, so we weren't running the whole show.)

Nonetheless, Act 2, Scene 1 in the longest in the entire play. I am guess when all is said and done it might last 25 minutes.

But because it had already been blocked last week, it went more smoothly tonight.

I am happy to say that was "essentially" off book for two snippets; my entire appearance for Act One, and my first appearance for Act 2. Or just under half of all my lines. But I am what I call familiar with the rest of Act 2, and with some heavy reviewing I should be okay in about a week, (which is when lines are due.) I am a little concerned, but not yet worried.

I got several compliments during notes last night. One was that I was a flexible man, based on a weird stance I took during one scene. It was my poorly executed attempt to stand in the way I had been directed a few days before, but it would seem I took the directions too literally. And can and will stand in a fashion that is somewhat loser next time.

The A.D. also told me that though she normally stops laughing at lines deliveries this late into rehearsing, some of my lines still get her. She again compared my delivery to William Shatner. I suppose that can be a good thing or a bad thing, but by her tone I can tell it was a good thing. It all comes about from my efforts to speak a bit more slowly, to display this sort of relaxed approach to the horrific events that my sleazy character has put into motion. I think people will, on a subconscious level, will feel more of his nefarious qualities because of that type of delivery.

I deliver things slightly faster when the character is not alone with the co-conspirators...when he must at least give the impression that all is well. A subtle thing I do that hopefully pays off.

This reminds me that I must sit down and outline my characters backstory. I do this sometimes, and other times I do not. In fact it was been a while since I thought of doing so in such a detailed way as I have been planning. But I think in a play like this, which is a bit bigger than life, nailing down those concrete qualities can help my performance. I keep them to myself unless asked, and indeed already have some ideas in my head about it. But I want to sit down and think more about it in the near future.

One problem is that the director feels there is a bit of awkwardness between myself and the actress that plays my "love interest" when we perform. I can't really judge that yet, other than to say it does not feel awkward. But performers do not have to feel awkward in order to look it. One issue may be that the lines are those of two people that are in fact in love, or at least in lust, but that the way we have been asked to play it is less sincere than that. When it comes down to it, I think playing up the superficial lust may be helpful. But I won't be sure until we run the scene again, probably late next week. We'll get there.

Actually, she that is playing my love interest is a good deal of the way there already after last night. It seems she had a breakthrough on her way to giving the character the right amount of attitude that the director wanted. I personally can't comment much on that, because it's between her and the director, but judging by the clapping and laughing coming from the production staff, one has to conclude that something good has been struck upon.

Some other things that helped last night; I had a desk, papers, and a toy gun with which to play during the rehearsal as well. Other than the desk, none of the items will be the actual ones used in the performance, but it is easier when something is in my hand. (Other than a script.)

I am going to try to run some lines tonight, and run them a lot more tomorrow. Probably a little bit of all of my lines, but I wonder which sets of lines I should run more; the lines for the scenes that have already been blocked, or the lines for the scene we will be blocking for the first time on Thursday? I am tempted to pound the lines for the earlier scenes into my head more, since being off book for a blocking rehearsal really isn't that productive. (You have to have your book with you at all times to write down the blocking anyway.)

Our next rehearsal is this coming Thursday. In the mean time I am going to see if I can post some of the pictures I took with my cell phone of the theatre space. Check back.