Double Day: As You Like It & Epicene

It's so late. I should be sleeping, but I'm wired from ice cream and pouring over Austin Kleon's new book Show Your Work. Austin has been an artist/writer/creative/inspiration for the past couple years. I remember stumbling across a list of tips he wish he'd learned in college. Those tips later became the book "Steal Like An Artist."

He got his start with Newspaper Blackout poetry.

Anyway, I've been following his work ever since (on Twitter and his blog and whatnot). He lives his life as if it were one long DVD special feature. That's partially why I thought blogging about the Renaissance Season would be fun to do. I'm a fan. If you're at all interested in embracing a creative life, follow him. I'm going to be exploring more of his advice in the future.

With that commercial over, I'll get back to more Ren Season updates.

The wigs of the men's dressing room.

Yesterday we had a two-show day: As You Like It matinee and then an evening performance of Epicene.

The matinee had more than 300 students. It took them a bit to warm up to the pre-show music, but once we busted out the Doobie Brothers, they were grooving. Yesterday's show also marked the most kids singing along to "Royals." Typically, there's at least three people mouthing along or moving to the song. But yesterday, there were many groups scattered throughout the playhouse singing along. I love when that happens.

In between shows, I did some cooking and reviewed some Epicene lines. I also did a great hatha yoga routine. It had been far too long.

Then: performance I'd been a little concerned about. My voice has been slowly getting back to where it was before the great cold/opening of Epicene last week. I knew I couldn't push it, but I also knew that I was able to give the audience and my castmates a show they deserved.

I guzzled as much water/tea as I could. I did my best to keep a calm headspace going before the show. I knew I had to groove but I absolutely could not push things. And on the flipside, I couldn't be overly worried or nervous about this. It's hard. Truewit is a ringleader, a trapeze artist, and a clown in this show. I believe this character thrives on verbal pyrotechnics, which requires using the extremes of the voice.

The greatest blessing from last night's show was the most generous, giggly audience of 30 I've ever witnessed. The intimate energy of that show was just what I needed for working on the delicate balance of being kind to myself and driving the show. Especially with comedies, you cannot force an audience to laugh. I do what I can to keep the cues tight and listening intently. With this small house, I think we found a good pocket of energy. I think it went well for me (from what I can tell). If nothing else, my voice felt great afterwards.

I'll leave you with that for now. We're doing As You Like It and Epicene again on Saturday in the same order. I'm hoping I'm back to 100% for those shows but that I can still maintain the delicacy with the theatrics for the rest of the run.

The Maid's Tragedy Day #1

In an effort to make these posts more visually interesting, here's a rehearsal photo from "Epicene."
But this post is all about "The Maid's Tragedy," and I have no idea if you think this photo is actually interesting.
Jay McClure must think so: he took the pic.

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We've begun rehearsing Beaumont & Fletcher's saucy revenge tragedy The Maid's Tragedy today. I for one, am relieved for the chance to take a "back seat." My part is pretty small, but I do have some sizzling one liners that you'd hear in the taverns of King's Landing on Game of Thrones. I share them with Chris Johnston too, so...we won't be having any fun at all with that....

I'm playing Diphilus (we're pronouncing it like dih-FILE-us, if you're curious).

I'm also playing Night in the masque, and given that this character is a queen, I'll probably be wearing a dress. But I haven't figured out my costume yet, so we'll see. I will be dancing. I know that much. But it looks like Greg won't be the only dude in a dress this Ren Season, folks.

We've started blocking from the beginning of the play. I'm in the first scene, welcoming my brother Melantius (Rene) from war. He's shocked to hear that his best bud, Amintor (Greg) is marrying Evadne (our sister, played by Sarah)--NOT his betrothed Aspatia (Abbi).

That's when the complications and suffering begin. It's pretty much all downhill from there.

So many of us say this, but it's true: I love the variety that comes from the seasons at ASC. If I were doing just one of these great plays, I would have a blast. But it would be tough to sustain over the course of 8 shows a week for months on end. The fact we're busting through five plays is something to relish. And they all have their merits as plays and as acting opportunities.

With this play, I'm honing my listening skills. (I mean, I'm never not, but...you'll see what I mean in a minute). I've done very little preparation for this show. My knowledge of it is basic at minimum. This isn't something I advise for any actor. I'm working under the frames of the Renaissance Season, however, working from my cue script (something I didn't do for Timon or Epicene).

Yes, I've reviewed the scenes I'm in. But given the marathon load that was Epicene, this show is a bit of a "break." I suspect I'm working more in a way that an actor on a TV series would. This is a long way of saying: the listening I have to do while I'm on stage is vital because I rarely have any sense of what will be said next. This is quite refreshing. In Epicene, I pretty much know what everyone is saying because they are my cues. That's a whole other beast. I'm charged with the responsibility of keeping the play on course. With this play, I'm very much supporting the action (and providing some twisted comic relief). I have to be there for the leads, making sure that I'm giving them enough resistance or support when necessary.

Most of the day, I worked on music. I'm hoping we can work up a Johnny Flynn song for this show. He's an English folk singer/songwriter/trumpet player/Shakespearean actor. Needless to say, I feel a kinship to this guy. John Harrell (playing Calianax) has drummed up a re-imagined version of a Pink Floyd song. We worked that up in the afternoon, and it was so much fun.

Recovery

I've lost track of the number of days. Maybe I'll figure it out sometime. Here's a quick recap of things:

THURSDAY, FEB 20
Epicene preview. I was a bit nervous, but doing the show once yesterday was a gift. The folks seemed to like it. Our pace is just off. But that is to be expected for a comedy that we've only been working on for, what, ten days or so? John Harrell mentioned in the talkback that Ben Jonson plays need to click along, and I agree. I feel a pang whenever there's a little gap in the action. The troupe is getting more and more solid with lines (myself included). Another wrench: I've picked up a cold that's been hovering around the Blackfriars. A couple of us have it. It's just a pesky cold (exacerbated by this schedule, no doubt) but it's supremely annoying.

FRIDAY, FEB 21
The afternoon we had a four-hour block to look over stuff. We tweaked some things here and there. We cut a couple lines out of the final scene, which helped smooth out some jagged edges. They both affected my cues and lines--so I made sure to review those again before the performance. We opened Epicene to a great house. The pace quickened. I nearly stopped the show on the line "How? Maim a man forever for a jest?" There was a moment of panic when I forgot to grab a gallant stool for an intricate prank scene, but I was able to get things back on track. I felt great before the show. The energy continued throughout. It was just plain ol' fun. I know I went beyond what was healthy for my voice though, and...well...you'll see how that plays out in the days to follow...

SATURDAY, FEB 22
The adrenaline got the best of me and the cold sort of returned with a vengeance. My voice felt pretty ragged. I opted out of singing "MoneyGrabber" for Timon and "Hongry" in Servant. The shows went just fine. I was incredibly hoarse during Servant, however. Fortunately, it's a tiny part. Been sipping water and teas all day.

SUNDAY, FEB 23
In bad shape voice-wise. My body/energy felt fine. The cold is pretty much gone. The vocal folds, however, are probably in shock. I did, however, sing "Royals" during the interlude. It's not a demanding song range-wise (we changed the key from the original). But my Hymen Hymn was something else. I made up the melody. I attempted to figure out a way around the hymn and the vocal choices I made, but nothing came to me. If this hadn't been the last show of the week, I may have even asked for an understudy, or some kind of re-staging of Hymen. I dunno... The end of this race was something just short of a trainwreck. I immediately went on vocal rest after the show. Our stage manager Sara appointed Symmonie (our all-time understudy) to read my lines for The Maid's Tragedy read-through that evening.

MONDAY, FEB 24
Woke up feeling incredibly rested. But remained on vocal rest through the whole day. It's getting better. This day off is exactly what I needed. I got some reading done. Worked on my cue cards for The Maid's Tragedy. I also started working on a new actor website. It's simple and pretty easy to manage. I'll share it someday once it's finished.

TUESDAY, FEB 25
That's today. I have nothing more to share (other than I'm on the lookout for a job during the months of April, May, and June).

Epicene...

I haven't abandoned this, I promise. But the work's gotta come first, and it's been a busy past week. For one, my parents visited for a few days and were able to catch performances of As You Like It, The Servant of Two Masters, and Timon of Athens. I finally completed memorizing the 500+ lines I have in Epicene.

Yesterday we had our first run of the show, which was also our dress rehearsal. Tonight, we have our first preview, and then we open tomorrow night.

The dress rehearsal was a huge gift and incredibly nerve-wracking at first. There is something luxurious about being on stage for 80% of the show: I don't have time to freak out back stage. I just have to continue pressing forward and move the story along. It's tough for the critical monkey in my head to break through. It took me a little while to find the groove, but I have a much better sense of how the show works even with 7 or so people present for the dress. After the dress was over, I felt the giant weight off my shoulders. There's still spots to sort out and certain turns of phrases to solidify, but I went through the whole show non-stop (not without calling "prithee"--including THE LAST LINE OF THE SHOW...I'll tell that story later).

Tonight will be tricky. The show is funny, but it's also witty and amusing (not always laugh-out-loud). Navigating the audience through the laughs will be the next component (as well as tightening the lines and cues), but I'm used to that (thankfully).

I'll share more thoughts/observations about this play. But for now, I'm going to take a much-needed nap. We had a matinee for As You Like It this morning with 300+ students, and I've caught a cold bug that's been floating around (GRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), so we'll see how the body/voice/mind keeps up for tonight's show. Right now, it's just a runny nose (which is a major pain).

Later all!

ARS Days 37 and 38

I'll conflate these two days because they were so similar.

That stack of cards contains only my second half lines.

We managed to stage the second half of the show. It's was a tricky beast. It involves a lot of people on stage there are lots of side conversations, asides that only some people can hear, and a 200+ line scene that is an elaborate jest for Truewit.

On Monday, I went through the scene chart and tried to devise a schedule. I worked backwards. I knew I wanted to get through the rest of the show. This meant staging 1100 lines in two days. I found a good "half-way point" (600 lines for the first day). Then, depending on the nature of the scene, I attempted to give around 45 minutes for 100 lines. It's tough because not all chunks of lines are created equal. When there are shorter scenes with only 3 or 4 people, it's easier to bust through. But when there are a lots of entrances and "business" for characters, more time is needed. Mrs. Otter beating up Captain Otter just needs more time to work out some choreography, for example.

The scene breakdowns (and I'm guessing they are editor scene breaks, but I'm not certain) act more like French scenes rather than Shakespeare scenes. A new French scene begins when a new character comes on stage. The fourth and fifth acts don't have a large passage of time among scenes. The scenes are mostly continuous (much like a Moliere play).

I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I still have a lot of work to do (we all do), but there's some comfort in getting the whole show on our feet. Our first dress rehearsal is next Wednesday.

ARS Day 36

We geared up for a Servant of Two Masters matinee. I worked diligently on my Epicene lines during the first act (about 45 minutes). The interlude bell is my cue to get prepped for the songs, so I'm able to focus on a project quietly in the rehearsal hall without having to keep an ear open for an important line cue. That's a great gift.

After the show, we had a dinner break and then returned for the final rehearsal block of the week. Sunday nights are tough. We've been working hard for six days, and our "Friday" night is on the horizon!

We start each rehearsal with a meeting to plot out the rest of the day's work. I decided to bite the bullet and bring up the furniture conundrum. People seemed to be in general agreement. It does mean that we have to do some backtracking (some time lost). I think we determined that the furniture can just be for the first act, we'll coordinate a way to remove it going into act 2. I think this will only require 45 minutes at most. The other thing to consider is: do we work on getting that in now? Or plug along?

It's hard to know, and it's really up to me. Since the furniture doesn't seem to be needed in the later scenes and I've already got some ideas on how the first scenes can incorporate it all, I figured it would be best to keep plugging along with the workthru and move along to the second half (which is unfamiliar terrain) on Tuesday. We do have a total of 36 hours of work before our first dress rehearsal (within the span of a week). I'm confident the pieces will come together in time.

The game plan for this rehearsal was to finish our workthru of the first half--the third act. Because there are so many bodies on the stage, the shape we've created is pretty solid. We didn't have to do major overhaul. Someone had a great idea for the music that bursts in on Morose's wedding reception. "Cacophony" best describes the moment. It should be a pretty fun way to end the first half of the show before interlude.

At the end of the rehearsal, I decided it would be best to have a detailed rehearsal plot for the rest of our time with this show for my own sanity. We've been taking each day in stride a bit (which isn't how we've been rehearsing the other shows this season). That said, it does mean I have to hunker down and figure it all out, which will take some time. But I'm gonna work on that right now...

ARS Day 35

Double-Show Day: Timon of Athens matinee + As You Like It on a Saturday night (! -- it's been a while)

No Epicene rehearsal.

We had a nice mid-sized crowd for Timon this afternoon. I thought the show went pretty well. BUT...

(sigh...) I called prithee at the beginning of my cave scene with Timon. (What we say instead of "line" at ASC.)

I went blank when I discovered "yond despised and ruinous man...full of decay and failing." It was a moment when I had no idea what was coming. I considered trying to struggle through it, but it was a little soliloquy, and my attempt to patch up the memory lapse would have resulted in laborious paraphrasing and stumbling that the audience would have wince at. After some quick deliberation, I called prithee. Chris, as prompter, was primed (probably alert to the longer-than-normal pause), spoke the next two words, I immediately knew where I was line-wise. It was pretty terrifying in that instant. But I think I handled the situation as best as I could.

I don't want to call "prithee" if I don't have to (I don't think anyone wants to, really). I fully expect that to happen in Epicene (not that I'm banking on it--I just know it's possible, if not likely for this particular show). There have been some moments in Timon when I've mentally jumped to other scenes. Flavius has language in speeches that, on paper, seem very similar in others. He repeats turns of phrase often enough.

Anyway, it's out of my system. It may happen again, and I'll just keep going along.

That evening we had a large crowd for As You Like It, which was a treat. We hadn't done a Saturday evening AYLI for quite some time, and it was fun. Saturday nights are often the big ticket each week. I knew we were in store for a fun show from the very beginning when people snickered throughout at Orlando's first speech. Greg has navigated it clearly, it's full of tension and some good little parenthetical remarks. He manages to create a young man with strong convictions, but also lets his doubts slip to audience members and Adam. And there's humor in that.

ARS Day 34

Started off the day with an actor-scholar council. These are podcasts where some actors discuss the creativity and challenges of working on shows. Graduate students from Mary Baldwin and members of the education department attend and ask questions. I was invited to join the As You Like It round-table and provide a voice as a first-timer to the Renaissance Season. It's a mix of scholarship talk and process. I think these are pretty interesting and enjoy hearing what actors have to say about the work. When I was looking up theatres that I would like to work at, I remember listening to as many podcasts from ASC as I could. I'll let you know when the As You Like It episode becomes available.

After that, we went back to Epicene land. The idea was to go back from the beginning and work through the first half of the show. Someone mentioned that these "work-thrus" that we've been doing of late are relatively "new" to the Renaissance Season, and that when we say work-thru, we shouldn't be hesitant to stop and actually work stuff. I know I have the temptation to want to barrel through and get on with things. With that in mind, we definitely worked on stuff. The first scene is giving me some troubles. I can't quite put my finger on it. I mean, it's kind of like an episode of Seinfeld and there's some big exposition-y things going on. Jonathan and I worked on it a bit. I switched up a couple crosses and stage pictures. After that, it felt better, but something was nagging at me. Part of the trouble is that Truewit walks into the room of his good friend Clerimont with no real agenda but to waste the day away. They gossip and chatter for a while and then Dauphine enters with news that his uncle plans to disinherit him by marrying a silent woman. That's when the play kicks into high gear. The "stasis" of the world is interrupted and isn't restored until the end of they play.

Then, during a break or something someone put a bug in my ear about furniture. That's what's missing: something to sit on! I never entertained the idea of putting furniture on stage for this show. It honestly never crossed my mind. It's not that we don't use furniture at the Blackfriars. Even last year for She Stoops to Conquer, we had quite a bit. Other actors started sharing other things from past ren seasons and other shows.

I guess I had avoided the thought because it's a bit of a logistical hassle. Anyway, the more this idea reels in my head, the more I can clearly see the kind of scene I'd been hoping for with this "addition" of furniture. It's just a shame that it's dawned on me rather late in the process. So....I've been chatting with some other actors about this over break. I think there seems to be agreement that it would be helpful and that it's possible. I will broach this on Sunday when we have rehearsal again. That's the bear. Do we go back and work implementing this significant change? Or do we charge forward? (Stay tuned...)

We continued working through the first half--not getting quite as far as we'd plan. But, from my perspective, it was a necessary to slow down and solidify moments/traffic patterns/landing jokes, etc.. I mean, we probably won't get to work on these until right before we open.

That night, we had a performance of Servant of Two Masters.

ARS Day 33

Another full day, but things went better for me. The nerves of the first day wiped away, and I was able to roll up my sleeves and get to work. We also had less to work on, which was helpful. Our goal was to stage all of act three and then run it at the end of that so we could spend a good two hours working on music.

The thing that tripped my comrades (Jonathan and Andrew, playing Clerimont and Dauphine) and I the most was eavesdropping on Captain and Mistress Otter. We're spying from the center curtain and tried a variety of combinations. I think what we've settled on is a "tee-pee" configuration with three heads on top of each other. It's tricky to get there, but I think we've figured out a way to do it. The more we run that, the easier it should get. We have other options, but this is the funniest.

I also revisited the big "railing on marriage" scene which is essentially two and a half pages of non-stop verbal pyrotechnics from yours truly. I also have a horn and a noose in the scene to use as "weapons" against John Harrell. Needless to say, it's a lot of fun (and an intense workout). His character, Morose, HATES noise. Much of the play is centered on creating a noisy hell for him. Bwahahahahahahahah.

By the days' end, we managed to stage the first half (1000+ lines). We've got just over 1000 to go. Fun fact, John Harrell cut this play. He had to take away a third of this play. If you're ever near a copy of Epicene, check it out and see the giant chunks of text--pages even--that some of the characters spew. It's astounding.

After six hours of rehearsal, we're pretty much spent. But we persevered and continued with some music. Greg brought in an AWESOME, incredibly catchy song by the Australian band The Cat Empire to work on. I'd heard of the band before, but I've never really listened to their music. Anyway, at the risk of spoiling some fun pre-show/interlude music, we started working up their song "Sly." I love it. There's a killer trumpet motif that I'm working up. So if you want a fun song to jam to this weekend, here it is. And, I promise, the lead singer is singing "funk-inflicted," not something else.

ARS Day 32

Today we started EPICENE, OR THE SILENT WOMAN by Ben Jonson.

We began with a table read of the play, which was full of laughter and groaning. There are some crazy lines and language in this play (not to mention some slightly convoluted plot points).

We've got a growing list of songs (which promise to be fun).

This is my "big" show in the Ren Season. I definitely have the most lines (500+). When you've got that load, people start looking to you for leadership. Needless to say, I've got a big load on my shoulders.

Anyway, we determined to focus on getting the first half of the play up on its feet for this first week. Time is somewhat on our side with this show (since we're in full swing with student matinees and rotating rep during the weekends). I'm grateful for that. Of course, this is a tough play to split the cast up. We can't double-dip that much. Most people are needed whenever we work scenes. It's tougher to divide and conquer. That said, there's going to be a lot of downtime for other actors, which I'm sure they will appreciate.

I was overwhelmed much of the day. The tough part is figuring out with what to really concern myself. Right now it's a jumble of recalling lines, figuring out blocking, and making sure we're all on the same page with the story and what's actually happening in the scenes. A big thing about this play is characters are commenting on other characters without them hearing (and often it's not noted whether or not it's an aside). It's tricky. I'm also one to want perfection on day one, which is just setting myself up for disappointment. All that said, we've managed to get 2 of five acts on their feet within the first day. I've already got a list of things I'd like to work out.

That's the other thing that's challenging: how much to you sketch out on the first look at scenes, or how much do you try to solidify right away? I'm feeling a pressure to just slap some paint on the canvas, hoping to get the details in later. But there's another part of me that would love to explore a little more and hope more of the scene sticks. At breaks, I frantically scribbled out blocking (which is constantly shifting).

I know it's only been day one. Things will be just fine. But this show is going to be quite the learning experience.

ARS Days 29 - 31

Well, folks, the 2014 Actors' Renaissance Season has opened three plays within a month.
That's quite the feat. The shows couldn't be more different from each other.

On Friday, we spent a bit of time looking at a couple big crowd spots, but most of the time was devoted to working up a song ("Everybody Knows"). Meanwhile, I spent some time at the theatre to work on more Epicene lines.

I was pretty nervous about opening. For whatever reason, this evening felt like a "real" opening night. There was a big home-town crowd with many familiar faces. I think the show went well. The standing ovation we received at the end was the rare "leaping out of seats" kind of ovation (which I haven't experienced for a while). People laughed a lot too. My scene with Timon at the cave had plenty of chuckles. I was startled by it (because Flavius is a pretty vulnerable situation). Afterwards, I realized that if people are laughing this late into the play at a man who has been railing against humanity for the past 45 minutes, I think we're doing something right. I'm not saying this was a laugh-riot scene, but it was energized, and people keenly listening.

I'm not above taking costumed selfies. Here's what I'm rockin' as Flavius.

The next day we had an As You Like It matinee (with 200+ people!) and then a Servant performance that evening. This was the first AYLI were people sitting in the middle section of the Lord's Room (the balcony that sits above the stage where we play most of our music during pre-show and interludes). That was a new kink into playing Hymen from above. I could only see a few actors. There was even a moment when I got on my tip-toes and had to stay up in "relevé" for a few lines. I'm not quite sure what was going on. I was most likely shouting and spitting into the ears of those young women, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Servant went just fine, I think. The long weekends of rep tend to get blurry (and I'm writing this on Monday afternoon).

On Sunday, we had a matinee of Timon. I jumped in on trumpet for "Everybody Knows." It needs some work still, but I'll get it. I wasn't thrilled with my performance. I don't wanna get bogged down by it or make excuses. But it was a long week.

I decided to give myself the rest of the night off and spend Monday (today) working on Epicene lines. I actually watched The Talented Mr. Ripley. It's been on my Netflix list for a while, and after hearing about Philip Seymour Hoffman's death, it just felt like the right thing to do (and I don't care about football). I'm always saddened to hear about the death of great artists, but this one has struck quite a nerve (one that I wasn't expecting).