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.