Home Strech...Already?!

I had a rehearsal tonight for the one act play. We also had one on Wednesday. We open a week from tonight.

Wow.

What with the casting problems, and having missed the first 4 or 5 rehearsals due to same, a play's opening has NEVER ran up on me this quickly before in my career. Just check back on this blog to confirm that. How much have I really said about it? It's not because I have nothing to say, but because we only had about 4 weeks to start with, and have only seriously got underway in the last day or two.

So what can be said about that last day or two?

A lot of work remains. We are a bit behind, in my opinion, even for a reading. But with just now finalizing a cast, that is expected, I suppose.

The timing is still being worked out. When the lines of two people have to be coordinated with the silent mouth movements of two other people, insanity can ensue. The add to that the use of props AND script, (it is a reading, remember), and you have a lot to juggle.

The script calls for headsets to be used by Kennedy and Castro. I tried that for the first time on Wednesday night, and found it very awkward. In fairness though, I was still trying to carry my script around. While I had planned to get off book for this show as much as possible, I wasn't on Wednesday, and I still needed the script, if I was to have any hope of mouthing actual lines.

There was brief talk of using phones instead of headsets. I am ok with this idea, but there seems to be some concerns about getting tangled up in the chords that would be required. I am not sure I totally understand this concern, but it is not a final decision yet.

In fact, for tonight's rehearsal, the possibility of phones was brought up again. But because we did not have the phones with us, the director asked the silent characters to use nothing...neither phone nor headset; instructing us instead to just recite the lines.

If this approach is adopted, it will be a highly;y stylized, almost art house sort of presentation, given that silent characters are mouthing words withing inches of those that speak and are heard. But this does have an advantage...I felt much more at ease about invoking JFK. My hands were free, and I was free to move around the stage as I "spoke". I did honestly feel that alot of my JFK mannerisms came more naturally to the surface this way.

As for the script, I found a nice place to tuck it away on the interpreters desk. So I can, in a very nonchalant manner, glance down at the next line, should I need two, as I am pacing back and forth. A careful turning of the page when someone else is talking, and it works out nicely. I have the freedom to move around, but the support of the script for the reading, should I get lost.

Again, the audience may find that a tad confusing. But really, my main job, I feel, is to non-verbally express the various emotions, and to invoke, convincingly, the mannerisms of JFK. Despite the shortcomings of the rehearsal, I felt very much able to do this tonight. If I can accomplish those two goals, the other things may not matter as much to me.

In fact, after my one and only spoken line, at the end of the play, the actress playing my interpreter did mention how much I sounded like JFK. So, if I look like him for the rest of the play as much as I sound like him in the end, I am getting to be in pretty good shape.

Which is good, given that we have just 4 more rehearsals. It will improve each time, once we get the 2 minute pantomime that opens the piece timed out properly.

Also got my costume today. A suit I wore for a previous production. So it fits nicely.

I signed on to this project looking for something unique and different. No doubts at all that I have achieved that.

Setback

I had my first real rehearsal forthe one act last night.

Sort of.

One of the cast members, (whom I had never met until last night), came in just in time to quit the show. She stayed and read through it twice with us, for some reason, before she left. The director knew she was going to quit. Her schedule got all goofy, it would seem.

Whatever her situation was, I wish it had been earlier in the process. We already missed 4 rehearsals because of her schedule, and all for nothing, because she is no longer in the show. This means that, best case scenario, we only have 7 chances to rehearse before we open the show on the 22nd.

That's best case scenario.

True, this is just a reading, but it is a very complicated concept piece. If we find a good replacement for the actress that left, we should still be ok, but based on yesterday's read through, we have our work cut out for us.

As for the rehearsal itself, despite being a bit rough at times, it was productive. The main problem, predictably, is getting the interpreters to wait the right amount of time to speak after I, and the Castro character start mouthing our sentences. A change in the blocking and the placement of the furniture, suggested after the practice, should rectify much of that the next time. This is because the leaders will now be visible to the interpreters, which they were not before.

I am not off book for this show, but I am off book for a bout a third of it. My prediction that being somewhat off book would make it easier was correct, however. The parts of the script that I do have memorized felt much more comfortable. I had more freedom to gesticulate, and pace around in character. I could mouth nonsense, but I am trying to do avoid that at all costs. So while I may not be able to be totally off book with the time allotted, I should be able to get close.

I also parted my hair like JFK last night. Or at least attempted to do so. It worked, sort of. You must keep in mind I have spent most of my life without any part in my hair. My hair issued to this. I may have to keep the part, even when I am not rehearsing, in order to train my hair to look like Kennedy's.

Or at least an approximation of same.

So that is where we stand. I am training my part (hair), trying to get off book, studying pictures and videos of Kennedy, and hoping we find a good replacement for the actress that quit.

This one may just be over before I feel I was ever in it! Strange set up. Imagine how stressed I would have felt if I would have kept the other large part I had...

Progress

Unfortunately, the cast of the one act play I am still has yet to meet for our first real rehearsal. I confess this concerns me a bit, but the situation will soon be rectified. Our first rehearsal will be tomorrow (Wednesday) at 7Pm. I look forward to it, as I have not yet even met everyone from the cast.

In the mean time I have been working on some ideas on how to represent JFK on stage. I have been to various places online, and studied video of him. Being a fan of JFK since I was a child I had some ideas of what to do, but studying actual video has brought things more into focus.

Granted, in nearly all of the videos, Kennedy is in a public forum, whereas in this play he is in a more private setting. However, it is the public persona that most people in the audience are going to recognize. And I imagine much of the public persona sprang forth from the private, one on one nature of the man. As is this case with most public figures.

I am watching his hands and arms the most, right now. Given that I do not actually resemble JFK in the slightest,utilizing similar hand gestures will be key in getting that moment of recognition from those in the audience who remember the President.

I have tried to find video of Kennedy gesticulated under various conditions. When he was emphatic, or telling a joke, or trying to explain something. I will then look for parts in this mostly comic script where the various moods would match such a hand gesture. At least as found on the archival footage I am observing. I already have several ideas.

Not that I am only looking at hands. The position of ones head when speaking is also a recognizable characteristic in a public figure. Ergo I am paying closer attention to all of that as well.

Alot of the movements will depend on how it is being staged and blocked. We will learn all of that tomorrow, I imagine. For though it is one of the plays intended to just be a reading, the director has already told us he would like us to be as free from scripts as possible. So I imagine desks and walking spaces will be involved.

Despite having no lines, I am also running the lines in my head. I do not know if I will attempt to be totally off book for it, but I want to be saying the gist of the lines, so that the interpreter will have something realistic to work off of, from a timing standpoint.

So that is where I am on the eve of the first rehearsal. I look forward to getting underway.