Quotes from tech

We’re in tech/previews now.

The great thing is that we get 5 previews and are able to rehearse in between. As our director said yesterday: “Everything we do is 50%, the other 50 is the audience.” She also informed us to “breathe with the audience.”

We had about 20-some people for the first ever preview. It was great to have them there. They were hesitant to laugh (we’re not quite sure how funny this show is). Afterwards, I chatted with a couple and one guy said that this reminded him of a Coen brothers film. I thought that was extremely appropriate.

Here are some other fun quotes. I’m not sure how well these translate on a blog post, but here we go:

• Director to the cast: “There’s no reason to be nice to each other…let it be the most dysfunctional family in 2010…it’s not a comedy of manners.”

• Director: “Is it time? Should we be acting?” (We had been on break for a while)

• Jeffrey Hatcher, who wrote the adaptation of this script: “I think Foldal should enter holding his severed foot.” (He’s describing a character whose foot is run over by a sleigh and comes limping on stage.)

• Director: I just messed this up.

Stage Manager: You’re right.
(The director had moved a chair onstage to explain some blocking. It moved off its spot, which had yet to be marked with spike tape)

• “We’ll just work through the show—I’ve got a list that could choke a horse.”
(The director met with the cast after the first preview performance the next day for rehearsal)


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A major note I received from our second preview is this tendency to move during funny lines.  This distracts the clarity of the humor; it pulls focus and the joke is lost.  I should know better right now, but it's been difficult to ascertain which lines are actually funny.  Now that we have preview audiences, we're getting more accustomed to the laughing bits.  I shall be still from now on!

I've also had a fun challenge of acting with both a hat (a back military-type thing) and some black gloves.  The show takes place in the winter in Norway, so things are cold (duh).  There's some precision with these accessories that cannot be taken lightly.  The last thing you want is a whole bunch of glove lazzi when you're trying to tell your mother off on an exit.

A lot of the work that I'm doing with this show has been an exercise in clarity and focus.  We've been working a lot of details that make all the difference in the world.  Until now it's been a bit dodgy and inconsistent from my perspective, but I get the sense that I'm starting to lock in the character.  The director says my performance has been growing steadily.  The self-consciousness is slipping away, thank goodness.

Ibsen in 2010

I've been rehearsing regularly for the upcoming Ibsen production. We start tech on Tuesday, and I hear that we're going to do the whole "10 of 12's," which means that we rehearse for 10 hours in the span of 12. We get two hours off for dinner. This means starting at noon and going until midnight.

I have a feeling we'll be using all the time during tech week.

I'm only in two acts (out of four) and they're split up, so I'm not too worried about exhaustion (though I could be putting my foot in my mouth about that). The lines are down, but now I have more work to add in all the innuendo. Because that has been severely lacking.

The director has told me repeatedly that I'm not playing this in 2010. It's as if I'm from some other period. She told me to heighten the juice in the relationship with Fanny and to think more "preppy." I kind of obsessed over this note (because this isn't the first time I've heard this, and it's just aggravating to hear the same note and must be even more bothersome to give the same not over and over). Today's run of the act felt like a marked improvement, but the director had to move on to other bits (so I'm not quite sure what she thinks of it). We've spent MANY, MANY hours on the first act. I decided to come to work and rehearsal with nice jeans, a polo, and glasses (I know, real preppy--but it helped). I also stopped thinking about what my body was doing and imposed a kind of mental swagger to everything. We'll see how that translates, but I'm definitely not as discouraged as I have been the past couple days.

It just dawned on me that I've never played something so close to my age and time that I'm living right now. You'd think that be a piece of cake...that's not been the case so far.

Audiences begin coming to previews next Friday!

Gosh, then I start rehearsals for Picasso at the Lapin Agile in a few weeks. This is a long bout of acting!

I aim to post some more pictures of Death and the Ploughman. I think there are some good gems after a photo shoot we did last week.

The only other thing I can say is this: thank goodness the weather's getting nicer. It was over 80 degrees yesterday! This is Minnesota, people. This is awesome.

Performing one show, rehearsing another

The silence over here can only be explained by the rigors of tech week layered with a desk job at the same company AND beginning rehearsals for John Gabriel Borkman. Needless to say, I've been overwhelmed.

But talking to audience members after the show eliminates all the anxiety I had about Death and the Ploughman. It seems to be received well. There's good buzz about according to some other company members. We've provided a doozy of a play. A couple people even told us that this production was certainly comparable, if not better than the stuff they see in the Cities (and a lot that's in the Cities is good).

I'm relieved. I didn't know how this particular show was going to pan out. I'm having a good time, but it's difficult work that requires absolute specificity with so much text to chew through. I've been battling a sore, tired throat and have a bit of a cold.

We've only got six more performances for Death and the Ploughman. Click on the link to see some pictures from the show. It just looks BEAUTIFUL on stage. There's so much color. If only you could hear the music we have as underscoring. This is a show of which I'm incredibly proud.

Tonight is a gala for the apprentices. I've got some friends attending the next few performances. It's a great time. Spring has sprung and I've got a great sense of rejuvenation.

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As far as John Gabriel Borkman is concerned....

Jeffrey Hatcher, renowned playwright, has written an adaptation of Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman. He's made it more conversational and less British than previous translations. We're setting this in a non-specific contemporary world (and we're very conscious of the Bernie Madoff scandal).

I just did a costume fitting and it's exciting to have this energy swirling for another production already! At the moment, I'm in skinny black jeans with a dress shirt, tie, and hip charcoal coat with big ol' buttons everywhere. It's very hip. I'm playing Erhart, John's son (who wants nothing to do with his family).

This rehearsal process is very interesting. There's a lot of mystery to the story, and something the cast is working to collectively find answers.

Our "homework" for next week:

Every character will show their greatest moment of happiness and greatest moment of sadness (prior to the play). Each must involve the plot and one moment must involve another character within the story. This is away of creating a living history so that we can turn to those moments as they inform us with what is happening on stage. I'm excited, there's going to be quite a lot of creativity and imagination (of course) for this to thrive.

But now, I have to clean my room. It's in such a shambles and fueling any stress I'm going through for the past week. Maybe I'll catch up on Lost before then.