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!