All Together Now - Run 3. March 25

Bumpy, but promising.

That sums up the evening nicely. We ran both acts, and the run time is 2h 17. There were enough line stumbles and other pacing issues to gauge we will get about ten minutes off the run time by opening. The next run will go without break. Keep on thinking.

The start was rougher, it took a few pages for the work to click. The Disarming/Reserved moment really shines - new goal will be to find that chemistry in the early moments. The scenes followed strongly. It was especially good to see that the notes from the earlier runs being incorporated into the work. There were two moments in particular that were crystal clear, and I had never seen before. It is awfully nice to get to the point in rehearsal where the performances have enough foundation that the detail work solidifies.

We took our break a scene early so T could run upstairs and introduce the New Ideas Festival. Peter joined us at that point, and we took an extended break to check some more costume questions. More coats, some discussion of "the shoes" and - spoiler alert - feathers....So MUCH FUN!

On the down side, we ran over so I could finish notes. I HATE running over, it is disrespectful to the creative team's time and doesn't usually add much in terms of quality. But I know I will not have a chance to give notes after the run tomorrow, and I wanted to keep building on the work this week. Especially since I expect we will have a few other stakeholders in the hall tomorrow, I have a childish need to show we are getting better and better - childish because I KNOW we are getting better, but there you are...Sarah has a long commute to rehearsal, so I want to be sure she can get to her bus from now on. We have a busy few weeks, no sense in burning out now.

I am making the shot list for the PR photo shoot tomorrow. How can you make people engaged in verbal battle look cool? Or at the very least not like every other talky talk talk promo shot, or one actor staring pained at another who stares off into the middle distance with a mournful air? Hemm hemmm haw. Show is the opposite of boring, but sometimes still images of conflict can be lame. Must find the most visually engaging bits.

No rest for the wicked!

Tea for (Act) Two - Run 2, Tuesday March 24

Our evening started with more costume delights - Peter brought in several pieces for each actor, including several key items like "the sacred sweater", and he's really hitting them out of the park. He has an excellent sense of the character and ability to dress the actors, I am so happy with the looks he's acheiving. In some cases I might even vamp the transitions a bit so we can accomodate the quick changes, the looks are worth it.

This week I am trying to decide if the intermission stays out or if we run it. I still believe the show runs great without it, but having now seen the acts separately, I need to think through the story of each section, to see if that story fits our production. I would love to let Marber's word steamroll over the crowd, but I think the running time will be close to 2 hours. Will having a breath and a pint invigorate the audience or lag them? Must continue my thinking.

The rehearsal props were a godsend as well - pacing often hangs on how long it takes to move that bag/book, whatever. Cigarettes are the next thing to bring in. I wish they could smoke onstage. I wish smoking was not the great societal evil we all acknowledge it to be. The smoking in the script is quite necessary. But not enough to spark up onstage, alas. Nowadays the smoke irritates the audience so much the distraction pulls focus from the stage. Of course, watching a non-smoker actor diligently pretend to smoke onstage without lighting up can be painfully earnest as well. Still, it's the way of the world. Fighting for the right to pollute a theatre and raise the fire risks is not the way to spend my time. There are bigger fish to fry.

Such as my delightful cast, who are all hammering away at the script with a growing ferocity. Yippee! Off book is a fact. I love that, because now I can see where the line blanks may be significant (an actor forgets a line because s/he is not clear in his/her action) rather than brain freeze. At this point in rehearsal it can be a useful signpost for me. I have less and less rehearsal time open to general work in the next few weeks, so I need to prioritize what we can push further. The rest of the week is more runs, but there is detail work scheduled for the following week. This play is a collision of moments - when the pace slips in one section it can ripple through the entire piece. I need to get the momentum right.

Amusement:

I've started noting the accent slips and bringing them forward in general notes, and L helps out by checking the pronounciation. Also, this was our first return to the infamous and sexy scene 7. The result: Notes session chiefly consisted of Laura V commenting "There's no R" and me saying "keep your boobs in his face a beat longer please".

Ah, theatre!

Still the (Act) One - Run 1, Monday 23

Let's take a minute to really feel good about ourselves, shall we?

There, isn't that great? You see, we were able to run all of the first act - scenes 1 through 6 inclusive - and there's a shape. A form. Almost a function!

Seriously, this was the first time we had revisited several scenes consecutively since the stumble on March 9. In rehearsal world, that is an ice age. yet much of the positive discoverie4s and moments were left intact. Indeed, a few new moments and impulses are being discovered and explored. Bully for us!

It was a big help that we had more of our rehearsal blocks and props available. It's amazing what a difference actual cups make to a scene where actors are pretending to drink. I will keep getting those things added in as soon as possible.

This was also Sarah's first shot at seeing large sections, and getting a sense of the scope of the project. She had very few line notes, mind you - good work actor people!

My own notes were as much to myself as anyone else - sitting back in the house I am seeing more shape adjustments and tweaks. Also, I made several strident notes regarding projection and volume for the actors - but realized in scene 6 that my ears were very plugged up, and in fact my hearing was inaccurate! AHHHHH!!! I do think they did need to be louder, but it is scary to be betrayed by one's own body and senses like that.

We did notes and checked a brief section, but I was collapsing by that time, and so I called the night around 20 minutes early. I think I will boil my ears in the hopes this improves matters. Maybe develop some enchanting mentholatum body spray. At any rate, and despite lingering ills, am bouncing with delight to think of the remaining runs this week. Fun fun fun...

Floating Ah-rs, Softer tees and other accent-dental adventures - Polish 5, Sunday March 22

We are on London, in the 1990s. We have four people from diverse backgrounds. They all speak English. And not our colonialist rubbish - they speak the Queen's English. But...no one would actually speak like the Queen. And come to think of it, they wouldn't speak exactly like one another. And as a company we are moving rapidly through the polish phase of work, so it was time to sit down with a celebratory box of TimBits and figure out how we sound.

We have a resident UK expert on the team, as L has something of a working knowledge of the way people in England speak. (I'm being silly again). So I asked L to look over the script and think about the rehearsals to pull out the accent slips that bug her the most. On the whole, I do want to give back pats to the intrepid Canadians on cast who are clearly doing good work in getting the voice down - in some cases relearning phonetically. Still, we can all improve and so we went over the common problems and worked on shifting focus from the from to the rear of the mouth, to dampen the t's and float the "r"s. Also good to keep in mind: when asking a question the pitch drops rather than our North American habit of going up a tone to indicate a question. I must say, reinforcing that speech habit alone made a big difference to the way I heard Scene 6. In other accent news, we can no longer say the word DOCTOR because it now sounds absurd - you know, when you repeat a word over and over until it loses all meaning? Try it, it's weird. dawc-tah. Weird. Big thanks to Laura for lending us her ears.

With the accent talk out of the way, I only had full cast called for the morning work sessions so we hopped right into work-through mode. It was a speedy but productive morning that brought a bit more gleam to scenes 5 and 6.

The afternoon was all about Anna and Larry. For once, I had UNDERBOOKED rehearsal time! Instead of just doing a moment to moment spit polish on 4 (Aquarium) and 9 (Museum), we were able to spend considerable time on the Anna/Larry section of the exquisitely horrible scene 6 Domestic Interiors. Larry's emotional collapse is such a specific and damaging moment. We found news ways to make it hurt. Yay! I mean, good work.

Sunday was our first rehearsal with our brand new SM - SARAH! Huzzah! For me, I was still getting used to having someone to give line notes, so it was a very welcome addition to have her in the room.

Rehearsal was followed by a Production Meeting, and we had a chance to realize that progress is being made in all quarters - my focus has been with my little chicks in the cast, and it was great to get all ther other stakeholders together to see that we really are making leaps and bounds forward. Also, I can now set the schedule for April with greater confidence. GAK! APRIL!!! So soon?

On the sniffle front. Um. yes. Don't drink from my soda can yet, ladies and gents. I will recover. I will recover. I will recover. Affirmations are good. Affirmations are good. Affirmations are g....

Pointed Toes are Sexy - Polish 4, Friday March 20

This night was an extra special rehearsal, as we had an invited guest to work with L on her dance moves and physical presence in the Club scene. Carolyn, a friend of D's, is a local director and instructor whose background includes exotic dancing - and her eye and coaching were a terrific help to the staging of the scene. Scene 7 had been roughed in, blocking-wise, but there were a few key hurdles - actor confidence in unfamiliar shoes and movement, questions of the look and polish of the dancers in this sort of close quarter dancing, and the question of how to keep her active, moving and sexy while she is engaged in a LOT of complex dialogue. No mean feat!

Working with L, Carolyn was able to give her a nice overview of the movements and physical approaches to dancing in a one-on-one situation. The movements she coached gave a much better physical vocabulary for detailing the scene. Also, we learned that newbie dancers draw attention to their crotches, while experienced dancers keep the customer's focus moving and distracted with light and sexy movements through the hips, thighs and legs. Not to mention the bosoms. I don't need to mention them because it has become abundantly clear that I will be giving far more notes on breast positioning than I have for any other show, ever. It's fun to do new things.

I felt a little for S over the course of the evening - the focus was really on developing the physical story being told by Alice's body. As the only fella in the room, it was a bit like falling down the rabbit's hole to an Amazonian place where women discuss thigh placement and breast jiggle with the precision and intensity more classically reserved for complicated risotto recipes. But he was a trooper (insert sly winky face here) and managed to endure two hours of saucy ladies making alarming comments and naughty gestures. Bully for him!

The work here will need plenty of reinforcement, practice as well as rehearsal - and Carolyn (who was a godsend!) has graciously offered to come back and do a revision later in the process - an offer I certainly plan to take her up on! In the meantime, stand tall, shoulders back, and lead with the ladies...

COMING SOON! A Proper update

Hi Folks!

This is a quick note to rant and rave about the fact that my laptop internet protocols have gone ker-phlooey (I believe that is the technical term) and I am fighting with them to resume my rightful place as master of all things interwebby. I have a few blog updates waiting to be posted, and I am sorry to announce an extra delay on email receipt and response as I have less access to my accounts through husband's desktop than through my own sleek sick little Toshiba.

SNAFU, as the kids say..

But good work is happening in the hall! I will post soon!

Chachacha

L

makes things seem less...random: Polish 3, March 19

Two Hours! Jam Packed! Mayhem Ensued!

Okay, less mayhem, more productive work. But the compressed rehearsals have pros and cons. On the plus side, deadlines up the pressure and can force productivity. I am less inclined to goof. Down side: I am less inclined to goof, and I feel pressure to be productive. There is less room to let the scenes breathe. I feel the need to hit my marks, and there is less time to respond to the organic discoveries that inevitably come about when working with a cast of thinking actors.

Tonight was a good example of this - we hit Scenes 8 Restaurant and Scene 12 Postmans Park, and excellent progress was made on both scenes. In 8, the tempo of the scene needed to be quickened, and a there were new approaches to a few key mo ments. Working it, it occurred to me I need to forget that I understand the timeline - the time bend is important, and once you know it is there, you can get lost in the moment to moment work and forget the overall impact of the various reveals. It's not just what we learn, it's the order in which we learn it.

Scene 12 had less time, something which always happens in the two hour binge. I focused on the first two sections, because the last section can be worked without full cast. This part is really starting to fill in nicely. I can't take credit - A and S are each getting to the point of ownership of their characters and are comfortable enough to bounce off one another. It's always so much fun to watch actors get to that point of the rehearsal process, when the stress of line cramming and general blocking eases and the real play begins. While I may fret about getting in all the time for my precious scene work, I know that this cast and this show has a good amount of polish time, and we're making the most of it.

back pats!

In the mood for love - Polish 2, March 18

Another disclaimer to begin: I walked into rehearsal running a relatively high fever and was not strictly speaking mentally competent. Also, when I left rehearsal, I was disoriented and spent several seconds trying to remotely unlock a car which was not mine. (True story - ask L or D, they were there!). But in between, the lovely wash of rehearsal focus took over. Isn't it somehow miraculous that devoting all your energy to the scenework can fade even the most phlegmy and painful virus attack? There were moments in the course of the evening where I swear my voice sounded stronger and I was completely absorbed in the emotional narrative. Then I would step back, wheeze, and inwardly collapse. Note to self: must place child in protective bubble, not for baby's sake, but for own health. Children and their social gathering places are virus circuses.

Back to the evening at hand: Producer B was in attendance to lend a very able hand to assist with getting off book. We are now working without scripts, but until the SM situation is completely resolved we need volunteers in house to provide line safety nets. This is very useful for everyone, me included, since I cannot read the text and watch the actors simultaneously. Oh, how I wish I could - I've been trying for fifteen years, no avail. Anyway, B was able to correct jumps and iron out the kinks of misremembered words.

As well, costume designer P was in the house for the first half, and was able to get measurements etc from 3/4 of the cast. Huzzah! I am working to get the rough draft of the costume running notes to him ASAP. One nice thing about email - you can hand people paper without handing them your germs.

Scenes 2 Studio and 11 Hotel were called. We spent roughly 2/3 of the night on Scene 2. In retrospect, I wish I had more time with 11, but I can't bring myself to begrudge the time we spent in Scene 2. This early scene is crucial to set the foundation for the initial sexual triangle of the piece, and it needs to be:

1. hot
2. spicy
3. turbulent

Put like that, it sounds like Mexican food. Oh, I am still sick, my brain is full of cold medicine sillyness. Jokes aside, all three of those points are valid - we introduce Anna, we establish the relationship dynamic of Dan/Alice, and the scene is packed to the teeth with exposition. At the same time, we need to care about the romantic entanglements, and we need to find something in each character's predicament to relate to. No mean feat. To get there, we did a fairly detailed stop start, and found some truly engaging points of connection (read: hotness) conflict (read: spicy) and disruption (read: turbulent). In all, the scene is starting to really swing.

In the scene 11 work time ran away from us, so I refocused on what was necessary to accomplish - set the fight. I want D and L to begin running it at every rehearsal, and so with that in mind I spent the time working on the narrative of the fight itself and then the mechanics of the stage violence. As a result, the slap is looking fine, and we will need to find more time (invent more time? develop a time machine?) to get the rest of Scene 11 under the microscope. T'will be done.

Now to rest and think up what horrible things we humans do to one another in the morbid name of love...

Until it Shines Like The Top of the Chrysler Building - Polish 1, March 17

First, apologies all around for the missing days of rehearsal updates. A series of unfortunate events and coincidences which are neither enlightening nor amusing conspired to make the blog updates fall behind. If I had a cool story explaining why I had to wait to pick up the thread now, I would insert it ****here****. Alas, no such story exists, so it's a better use of time and bandwidth to just jump on in to the current work.

Second, I am hopped up on OTC cold remedies. This may make me overly whimsical or verbal. Apologies there too. Upside? The first person who comments on this note revealing the pop culture reference I used to title this update gets a Tim Bit of my choice, delivered either in rehearsal or I will bring it to you on opening night.

We are blocked - in the good way, as in the basic physical structure of the actor's movements have been scored and set. I will be making adjustments as we go through, based on set configurations and narrative clarification, but it is heartwarming to know we have the foundation in place. Now we have moved on to the exciting work of polish.

It's a slow start, as we focused on one major scene last night. Nevertheless, it was a pivot moment, so it felt great to get it nailed. It was an all-boys night, and while I attended to some production details D and S ran Scene 3 Internet and Scene 10 Surgery as Italian runs. D reports that they had the typing in 3 down to six minutes, which is a remarkable feat. Also, good to know, as the timing of that scene needs an audience of fresh eyes to answer some pacing questions. I am curious to see what it will run as with viewers who are unfamiliar with the text. This will likely determine how the actors gauge and time their responses - the laughs will need accommodation, but this is an unusual situation. Both D and S commented that it was neat to be doing something they had never done on stage before - and I agree, the challenge is pretty cool.

Scene 10 had a more thorough scrubbing, though we did not make it to the end. Here's a process question for you - how do you support an actor who is commanded by the stage directions to break down sobbing? I've encountered this situation before, and I don't think there is a cookie cutter director manual answer. First, you need to know why the playwright (if indeed it was the playwright and not simply an early production director with a fondness for waterworks) includes that stage direction. Like any other event in the script, it needs to follow the internal logic of the play. With Marber, who was the original director anyway, the stage directions are precise and significant. I haven't found a single one that felt contrived or artificial to the world of the play. This is a gift, as with many scripts you need to question the validity of the stage direction to determine if the described gesture or event is necessary for the action, and to which action it serves. In the case of Dan's breakdown in 10, it is clear that it must happen for Larry to truly triumph. Therefore, the factors that push Dan to lose emotional control - crying, not shouting, less common for male characters - need to be in place. I wanted this to be clearer, and so I tried to focus on the beat by beat actions at the top of the scene. There needed to be more fight in it, so he had more to risk. This scene has a danger of playing the end - once you know what Larry reveals about the girls, it is easy to get caught up the emotional consequences for Dan. But there needs to be real conflict at the beginning for the scene to have room to dance.

Getting back to my question of supporting an actor through a difficult and specific stage direction - in this case I decided to organize the scene so that he approached that moment defeated but still fighting. The practical application of this is to find ways to balance the emotional intensities throughout the scene so that he can find a specific trigger moment that will work for the character. There's a lovely sinking quality watching a person who knows they are going to learn something terrible, something they ought to have known and shouldn't need to be told. It reads well onstage, and I think will give the audience more of that delicious car-crash fascination we have with humiliation - in this case emotional. Very happy with the work both D and S are bringing to the party to make this happen.

More scenes to polish, more devastation to plot...should be a marvelously bumpy week!

All Hail the Sultan - March 8 Blocking 5

As of this writing, only four pages of the script have not been blocked. Wa-hoo! That is an earnest hoot of appreciation, not a whiff of snark to be found. The cast has made short work of this portion of the process. I would like to sound a particular bell of appreciation that everyone has made excellent progress with line memorization as well - I have no stats to back it up, but it is clear from the scenework that each actor is well down the path to off-book. High fives!

This Sunday I had some minor neurotics twitches - it was daylight savings, and we are back in Alumnae after a week "abroad" over at Dancemakers. So there were two perfectly reasonable possible reasons why we may have been missing an actor, or have someone saunter in late. I don't know why I feel I am anticipating trouble - perhaps it is somehow superstitious, the betrayals and other turmoils of the play's content put me on edge enough to be haunted by visions of abandonment. Or not. Anyway, the morning work was tinged by a hint of "no one will show up" and "they'll be late and we"ll get nothing accomplished". Crazy? Not really, just siphoning off nerves in a less than useful fashion. But I am happy, relieved and feeling silly to report that everyone was on time, we got everything done (early, again) and we are ready to put everything together for the stumble through on Monday. Phew!

The morning opened with the least active scene of the play, blocking-wise. The Internet scene (3) is at once hilarious and sad. For me, the scene skews sad, and I have to shake that impulse out and look for the shiny bits. We set the basic staging, and had several key runs at the sucker. The technical challenge of the internet slides will be considerable - not new information, but a fact that gets driven home when watching the scene without spoken dialogue. Timed, the scene runs at 11 minutes. I think it will clock closer to twenty with audience reaction and breathing space. But the choices are reading tight - during the last run I had my mind wander to a design question, realized I was out of the moment and threw my focus back to the stage - and was able to pick up where the action was after only a few moments. That speaks to a precision that can only get tighter as we do the next round of work-through.

The second morning session was a bit snugger, time-wise. We hadn't the opportunity to table work scene 7 (Club) so we were combining our initial text assault with a stab at physicalization. For some plays this is a great way to explore the script - but Closer is just too dense and structured. We do better with the time to unpack. And this Club scene is a big challenge for both characters, there is an element of danger and risk not present in many other scenes. We have a shape to it, but we will need to make this one a priority in the weeks ahead.

After break, we had a solid block of work with the remaining Larry and Anna scenes. These are both very fun to work/watch, and they are bound to get better and better as the actors get to play. The first scene was the Aquarium (4) - and it was nice to visit this one the same day as the Internet scene. It provides the argument for working this play sequentially. But we don't always have the opportunity to explore that way. So moments like this, it's good to appreciate the benefits. For me, it ensured I kept Larry's journey in mind, and stayed aware of the temptation to lampoon his humilition. The bigger payoff is in the long game, where Larry is concerned. I think we have that in the scene as set.

Last tidbit - the Anna/Larry sequence of the Museum. The notes of bitterness and longing are palpable. I think this segment is in excellent shape already.

Next move: the stumble bumble. Let the games begin!

Goodbye and Still More Goodbye - Mar 5 Blocking 4

Today I want to talk about process.

In particular, I am pondering the emotional journey and access of the director during the blocking process. If we accept that the director needs to be the perfect audience, to provide a mirror to the actors to reflect and refract their work through the emotional prisms of an engaged reactor, what is the effect of the director's own emotional state on the rehearsal and blocking process?

(I feel the need to interrupt myself to assure anyone who might read these words that last night's rehearsal was very well met, both Scene 12 Postman's Park and Scene 8 Restaurant are fully sketched out and very well blocked - amazingly so. In retrospect it was remarkable how the cast instincts and my own were in such harmony. In one case, (carefully trying to avoid spoilers in case someone unfamiliar with the script reads these words) I placed a bench onstage just left of CS and gave minimal instruction to orient the actors to the other objects in the park. I gave the actors a exploratory run of the full scene - my preferred method to start work, gives the cast room to play and find challenges, and me the chance to look for instincts and ideas that will build the best possible stage picture. Without prompting, the improvised staging was virtually identical to the staging notes I had prepared and visualized. It was almost eerie. All this to say, we had a very productive evening, finished early, and are ready to take these two challenging scenes to the microscopic test of detail and polish work.)

It is evident to anyone involved in theatrical creation that the emotional atmosphere of the rehearsal hall affects the quality (and quantity, sometimes) of the work. In every show we strive to make our rehearsal process as open and creative as possible. We are making a breathing imaginary world from the intangible mutable invisible world of our own emotions. We read words on paper and interpret those ink splats to pretend people, pretend places, pretend feelings. In a play with such passionate and painful emotional landscapes as Closer, it takes guts to pull out those emotional wisps and fashion them into a new and unsettling combinations. Everyone involved in the process has to find their own technique and method to build their section - the designers need to imagine the visual and aural spaces, the actors need to craft a complicated person, and the director needs to make sure the brave new world has cohesion and supports all the ink splots. As we all interpret our own stream, the director needs to build a valve to process all the streams and blend them to one wide river. One of the major tools for this is the ability to both connect and disconnect to the work at will. As the professional audience member, the director needs to be able to experience the work as new and unfamiliar every single time she sees it. As the master stager, the director needs to master the text, understand the characters both the writer and actors struggle to create, and be able to synthesize this connection to the physical worlds envisioned by the designer. One minute - completely plugged into your own work and the work of everyone around you (those in the room and those whose work happens outside the hall) the director shapes the theatical narrative, the next she is wiped clean and needs to watch the action unfold with virgin eyes.

With that sense of the director's role, what happens to the director's own emotional state? Many best practices advise us all to leave other concerns at the rehearsal room door so we can devote our energy to the show and the tasks at hand. Yesterday I found myself with a larger plate of stressors than usual - not show related, just life colliding with life. I can usually summon enough focus to shake off the real world while I am inventing imaginary ones, but that real world was too much with me. I want to emphasize again it was nothing show-related, all personal stuff I won't get into here. But these were the sort of emotional loose ends that flap around and give you whiplash. It took tremendous energy to watch and respond to the work of my colleagues. I know as I tried to clear myself to see the work anew I was not a blank slate, but a person with troubles of her own, so to speak.

So does this emotional awareness help or hinder the process? One tangible result was that I did not have the energy to push on when we finished the called scenes early. It would have been nice to get a jump on the museum scene, but I was not emotionally prepared and nimble enough to make the leap. In this sense, it may be a hinderance. On the other hand, audiences are not automatons. They each will bring their own baggage into the house. I now have a physical idea of how the emotionally charger reactors may receive the actors' work - an insight that may help the detail work for the final monologue.

I've worked halls where a pissed off director trampled actors and scenework. I've worked halls where a smitten director can't stop their libido buzzing long enough to solve an actor's quick change problem. I've worked halls where internal tensions poisoned all the work and made it unbearable. I take all those experiences to heart and strive to make my halls productive and responsive, both engaged and detached. My own moody blues last night have me thinking about the value of the director's feeling to the bigger process. While we cannot be slaves to feeling, there may be merit in better understanding how those moods can affect reception and communication.

Need to do something wacky and fun on the day off, Sunday's a big day!

Sweetly Terrible - Mar 4, Blocking Day 3

Woo-hoo! Scene Six has a solid shape!

I was apprehensive of this scene, mostly because I think as the actors take ownership of their characters and have the time and space to find the fills and pulls I want the blocking to support discover rather than be something we need to constantly adapt. My goal was to find a rough skeleton that had form and function. Sucess!

The studio at Dancemakers had been double booked, but fortunately the group who were working there were internal company, so they let us have the space. I set the space up so the Anna/Larry room takes about 2/3 of the stage (right and centre) and cramp Dan and Alice over left. Common entrance up left of centre... yummy. I'm such a blocking nerd.

As we've been going so far, the evening went very well, better than I would have hoped, even. We worked through the whole scene, ran it and did an ins and outs to clarify some of those difficult switches back and forth. I am curious to see what adjustments the playing space will bring, timing wise.

When we come back, I want to have more time on the interaction specifics. Both couples go through hell in this scene, and now there's an overall look, it will be important to clear it of extra movement and clean the edges to keep it streamlined. The sharper the look of the movement, the more the audience will be forced to focus on the actual emotion turbulence and action. That's where the ache and pain comes. It does seem a bit off to focus my energy on finding new ways to inflict emotional trauma on the people who pay to see the show. Strange life indeed.

SM front may be breaking - cross fingers there will be new playmates in our rehearsal hall by next week!

At the Gallery - Tues Mar 3, Blocking 2

I'm writing this blog update as I am prepping for the next day, so it seems a weird activity. So far I have found the blogging to be a great exercise post-rehearsal to get my head wrapped around the work. This week my little tyrant child is needing a lot of...everything, and I have not had a moment to breathe and reflect on the work of last night.

But as I sit here surrounded by toddler sized sliced grapes and toast points, I am warmed by thoughts of the work we accomplished yesterday. It was our first day in Dancemakers - Irish Players have Alumnae rented, and NIF is in mad mad rehearsal, so we had to find another place to play. The studio is excellent, and gave us exactly the room we needed to look at the Gallery scene (5). It gives approximately the width of the stage, and was warm! Nearly cozy, especially on a night as frigid as that.

We had a head start on the scene, with the extra time last Sunday, so we were able to make very good time through the work. It is one of the only scenes that use the full stage, so I wanted to take advantage of the space, but still needed to have some very intimate moments. The scene divides into a Dan/Alice, an Alice/Larry, a Dan/Anna, and a Larry/Anna section. The D/A is roughly CS, the A/L came DR and uses the edge of the platform (creates a really interesting shift in tone and focus - I'm falling in love with that blocking), the D/An is just DRC, mostly, with some deliberate crosses that are microstories into themselves, and the L/An focuses SL and ends UL. I'm very pleased with the variety and complexity/simplicity of the images, and for the scene with the most romantic intrigue, I think we'll go over gangbusters.

This rehearsal was very good for my director mental health. I had spent the whole day fretting no actors would show up, or be able to find the room, or....fill in the blank there. I have been wearing the SM cape draped very very loosely around my shoulders, and it's a bad fit and colour for me. I have been feeling that I am dropping balls all over the place, and really want to give my full focus to the directing task. Last night I had a bit of my "directorheroin" - my own personal slang for excellently planned and executed blocking - and it provides a solid boost both in personal and in show confidence. This was also the first time we've had full cast in to block, and the dynamic in the room is loose, but committed, fun but focused. It's a good group - not news to me or anyone who's had the pleasure to see them work, but at times when stress creeps up my neck it is very affirming to see it in action.

Up next: Scene 6 Domestic Interiors- or as my imaginary title has it...Everything Goes to S**t. Now, to make that one good fun too. Maybe I should bring a whoopee cushion.

On Your Feet! Sun Mar 1, Blocking Day 1

It's a new month, and to celebrate the cast of Closer moved into a new rehearsal phase - blocking. As I mentioned in a previous post, we were not able to recoup the table time for the scenes that had originally been slated for the first Sunday, but it was still time to move ahead, we need to keep on target if we want time to polish properly.

The day was divided into four scenes to work. We are going out of order, as day/night jobs and similar commitments have to to precedent most of the time. I think in an ideal world I would prefer to work this show consecutively. The timeline is such a vital component to the drama that being able to build from one scene to the next would have great benefit to the cast. But like everything in theatre (and life?) that would require either time or money - a part time evening /weekend rehearsal period months and months long, or four weeks paid fulltime when I could call whoever I need whenever. Ah well, since this production lives in the real world, we must forge ahead as read.

Since we are going out of order, we started blocking in an odd place, scene 10 (Larry's surgery). I say it is an odd place because the scene is something of a culmination point, not a point of departure. Still, it proved instructive as it showcased one of the primary staging challenges of the play: making the intellectual and emotional dialogue active and visually engaging. I have been thinking about this question, and the answer needs to be found in moment to moment work. Of the day, this scene took the longest to rough out, and I think part of that was finding a working rhythm.

After bashing out the skeleton of 10, we jumped back and worked 1 - so back to the beginning. The sweetness of this scene was refreshing, and the work was smooth. In this scene there were several things flagged for detail work, but the bigger picture looks clean.

After the lunch break we jumped into scene 11 (Hotel). Here was a small bump in the road - the floor in the rehearsal room was not in suitable condition for the necessary rollicking. The result is a roughed out scene with a great deal of precision work to nail down. On the plus side, we had time to spare, so we got a jump on scene 5 (gallery) and found some lovely moments in the opening Dan/Alice interaction.

The day wound up with scene 2 (Anna's studio), and the crisp work continued. I am particularly happy with the dynamics of this scene, finding the moments of contact and connection while maintaining the restraint of the situation. Gonna be de-lovely.

Any full day that breaks early and gets a little extra work done earns two thumbs up from me!