Haley's first rehearsal for The Catbird Seat

On Monday and Tuesday of this week I had my first two rehearsals. The first thing we did was read through my adaptation. Directing an adaptation will be tough, I can tell already. Not only am I working on my own spin of a story, but I am trusting my own stage directions, wording, and my own instinkts. And, I keep finding typos. But my cast is so enthusistic and ready to keep working. I trust them to put this on its feet.

Communication is key in directing. I am trying to communicate my vision as clearly as I can without suffocating them with all my ideas. I started working with pronunciation, something this piece needs, with some wordy and quick lines. I tought them a few tongue twisters early on. "I bought a box of biscuts. A box of mixed biscuts and a biscut mixer." Its amazing how much easier that sentance reads in your head than out loud. I am asking them to slow it down, and over articulate each word. I will start asking them to put motivation behind the words too. As long as they make a choice, admitting to buying a box of biscuts could be an apology to their mother or their political campaign ad on national TV.  I just want them to decide and run with it.

Like Sarah said, emphasizing putting motivation behind each line is very important to me. It's what makes us believe the actors. I have a good game for next rehearsal which I hope will communicate this idea to them. I've told them that each of their character has two sides. There are key points in the script where the character completely changes motivation, gets an idea, or even becomes a narrator. For some, two different personas are necessary. I warmed up on Tuesday with "Speaking of," a game in which actors pick up on a word in the last sentance the previous actor said, and they bring up a new idea "speaking of" whatever it was. This requires them to get an idea. I asked them to have a physical reaction to getting the idea, like jumping in place. This might be entirely artificial now, but the game was a great warm up for the work they did that day. We went through some of Emma and Aaron's lines together and I asked them specifically about motivation. I asked what was different before and after key events. I also asked questions concerning their relationship, and how their relationship contributes to how they treat each other. They were asking good questions too. Our next rehearsal is tomorrow.