character work

The cast will now comment about their characters, as explored in rehearsal on Friday.

Take it away, ladies and gents!

I am not my

What a fabulous rehearsal we had tonight! I went in a bit nervous, because I was going to use an exercise I had done in the physical theatre workshop I took in June, and I could only remember doing the exercise, but not anything precise from what Michael (the facilitator) had said. The actors all fully gave into the exercise, however, and blew me away. Here's a clip from the exercise:



I also wanted to share some photos from various rehearsals.

Our first read-through:


The magnificent Cassie Ahiers, stage manager /assistant director of sorts

Look at that seriousness! From left to right: Jack Gallagher (Jacob et al); Diane McNulty (Jewel); and Paul "Pauly Pocket" Cervenka (Young Man et al). It's ridiculous how good Jack and Diane (!) look together as father and daughter.

Some of our lovely ladies: Maggie O'Keefe, who is the assistant projection designer, but was so kindly filling in for another actor that day; Emily "Meow" Williams (Samantha); and BrittneyLove Smith (Beatrice et al).

The cupcakes I made for the first read-through. Pumpkin with apple butter frosting. They were just so-so, not my best work ever.

Contact improv with our choreographer, Sarah Seeber:

And from the design meeting:

Alex Bozeman, our set designer, sharing her inspiration and ideas with the seemingly baffled Pauly Pocket and maybe less so Kelly Baskin (our ASM).

So many thoughts!

I wrote this last night, but my internet wasn't working, so I'm just publishing it now:

Just got home after a wonderful rehearsal, started off with design presentations from Nivan, Alex, and Ben. It was all very conceptual, and might have been hard for the cast to dive into, but that's okay, because we are at six weeks til load in! And I think we're onto something really ... well, really rise in my stomach and chest wonderful. I can't really describe my excitement - you'd have to see it in me.

Ben - something to think about - where the scenes are places on stage. When would it, if it does indeed, be helpful to put scenes in the same area on stage?

The disco ball breaking - I had a thought about this last night during while salivating in the performance (as Alex noted) that is Jonsi. He used these lights that flashed, along with rain being projected on stage, getting faster and faster ... well, you just need to see it to understand it. But holy mother of god, was it affective. A(h) - ffective. If we used those lights right as the disco ball breaks (which could be behind the rear projection scrim, and thus hidden or taken up), sound of the breaking with blackout, sirens wailing (they don't have to be literal sirens wailing, I fully believe that there should be a distortion of sirens wailing) then fade up on them in a cab, kind of blurry...hazy. Not quite all conscious.

That could possibly work.

Ah yes - in rehearsal tonight, Emily Meow brought up that if we say that something isn't real, we lessen the importance of it . Such an intuitive, completely valid point. So instead of discussing reality and dream worlds, I invite us all to say what they really are - conscious and unconscious. Out of conscious perception. Not completely conscious. Hallucinations - a state of mind experienced by so many Americans, when they are hopped up on caffeine or sugar, or drowning in preservatives or booze.