Ren Season Days 1 and 2

I'm exhausted.

We've had two days of rehearsal. That's 16 hours. As You Like It is on its feet--music, fights, and all (to some degree at least).

On the first day, we started off with a meeting. It was full of introductions and notes about costumes, props. We have help from people in costumes and props to guide us, but it's up to the actor to figure out what he/she wants to use for the show.

 Some advice from the seasoned pros who've done the Actor's Renaissance Season:
--"Your idea is better than my no idea."
--"Don't freak out about only getting 15 minutes to work on a scene. You can get a lot done in that time." (some paraphrase of that, anyway)
--"It's fine. It'll be fine."

Then, we were off to the races.

Tracie (playing Rosalind) made a schedule for the day. The goal was to get through the first act by the first day. There's some figure of allotting so many minutes to rehearse a set number of lines. It worked pretty well, from what I can tell. Whenever folks weren't on the stage working on scenes, they worked on music and undergo the great costume hunt.

Day two was similar. I got into the theatre a half hour early to go through the costume stock (when I wasn't working scenes, I was figuring out a bunch of music stuff. It was a minimal costume day while attempted to get my bearings). This version of As You Like It is in a kind of vague 1920s/30s world. I say that pretty loosely--we're not afraid of anachronisms here (thank goodness). I'm playing FIVE characters (the most I've ever done for a show): Adam, Martext, William a Page, and Hymen. I think I've found a pair of pants that will work for Adam, William, the Page. The stuff I'm wearing for the other characters can just go over the pants. I've got a variety of hats pulled. I need to track down a couple shirts yet. I don't think my costumes changes are too fast (but I'll find that out tomorrow).

I played around with a cane for Adam, but that impairs his mobility more than I'd like. So I scrapped that. Maybe it'll come back. That prop does allow to signify age since I'm not doing any kind of makeup or hair (that could all change). But I know of some spry 80-year-olds....

THERE'S A DRESS REHEARSAL TOMORROW AFTERNOON.

I'm not too worried about this show. I do need to transcribe a trumpet solo from this great song: "Couldn't Get It Right" (which will take some time) and I'm also singing this song ...

(Our version isn't quite like this, but I think should you all watch this)

There's a lot more I could write. But I'm exhausted. I'm not too worried about this show (and I'm incredibly grateful that I've done AYLI before). There's a lot of work to do, but from what I can tell, we're in okay shape.

The other shows however...I have a lot of work to do on those. Servant of Two Masters starts on Sunday night with a read-through. And then there's three more plays after that...

G'night.