Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Day two - I rehearse therefore I am

Howdy,

Today was the second day of rehearsal. I'll sum up day one: Brilliant.
The designers were brilliant, stage management brilliant, our P.A.'s Becky and Lauren - brilliant. Scott - nuff said.
The introduction to the depth of the play and what is about was lovely. Very glad that John Gould Rubin, Marieke, and Kpoe came down to start us off officially. There is tremendous enthusiasm for the play and the process. After much talking and enthusiasm around the play and process, we finally got to do what we were actually there to do. Read the play.
Eric T. Miller and Jamie D. Dunn - are brilliant. No joke. Thrilled that they are part of the development process of this play and they will be wonderful together but most of all I think they will bring to the play what Scott needs in order to make it as strong as possible. We read. And now for the important part of the process burriend in the blog - Scott and I went out, got a little falafal and talked about the text. We identified a section of the play he rewrote during the first reading at the intensive and talked about how it needs to get more specific. I won't mention what part, because hopefully you'll come to see the play and not be waiting for it, you'll just see a lovely smooth fully realized text that needs to be produced in every theater and university across this great land of out. Okay, it was great to really get to revisit the text and identify the parts that he is most interested in looking at. Because it is a development project - it is for that purpose.
Day two:
Read thru sections, discussed, reread - got a better, deeper understanding of how the play works. Oh, and finding how the honesty of the play helps with the humor. That seems to be best discovery so far. Also, it turns out we have now rehearsed as much as we did for the Barn Series and already the play has revealed itself to be deeper and more specific than it was a year and half ago. Plays take time to reveal themselves - it is a joy to have this time.
Tomorrow we start on our feet.
Okay - here is my test if anyone is reading this blog, we are considering opening up rehearsals starting next week. If you are interested in dropping in on the process let me know by posting a comment. We might run a section at the end of rehearsal or something, but since the final 'product' of this workshop is to present a rehearsal - we thought maybe we'd present a bunch of rehearsals. So comment, let us know if you want to check it out.
This blog is very long considering I thought I had little to say - but I will report that: David Jackson, asst. director found great research on polio today, Eric T. has been reading his bible - good for the preacher man, kpoe taught us how to make the rehearsal coffee (praise the lord) - Lauren and Becky are on it, they also got props from the office today for us - thanks to them, and Bennington. Jessica Felix is the best. And Lea our costume designer said she might blog after she comes this weekend from Florida. Point of interest - she lives 20 minutes from the where the play takes place. Okay, that's a point of interest to me, but she does get to tell me about the landscape and the trees that the play would take place in, if we had a tree - I get to tell her about the rehearsals it is taking place in. Which is a fun even exchange.

Goodnight,

Padraic

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Whaaaasssss uuupppppppp! I can"t wait to see the show! I remenber over a year ago Scott telling me about his idea for the play and spending as much free time bringing his experiences and ideas onto paper(often napkins) It was so great to share the early development and when I heard it was being produced......I was very proud and excited for Scott. Now it is in your hands to bring it home and I can't wait to see what yoous guys have in the store for me and us New Yorkas! Godpeed:-) DJ Von