After: Rehearsal Week 1

Week 1 of Rehearsal: 

I had two rehearsals this week with my cast. For the first Rehearsal it was only an MX block so I wanted to jump right into the script and see what they could do with it. I did a little bit of a warm up with improv and told Lizzy to tell me about the time her best friend Bill tripped her. When I wanted Margaret to start where Lizzy left off I would clap and have it be an exercise in topping in on one another. This didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped. I kept prompting Lizzy to give me the back story of what event happened and not just how she felt about her friend Bill tripping her but she never really got there. After that quick warm-up (attempt at a warm up) We started from the beginning of the text up until Margaret's ranting line. I told them to get up in the space and just play it out. At first there was no energy on either end but by the third time running through it they got a handle for the text and started to put more energy into it. 

During the Second Rehearsal on Thursday we had more time to play so I told them to come in with a song prepared to sing it. They didn't need to memorize it or anything. They just needed to have a song ready to perform. Since Margaret is a singer, I limited her to Alicia keys and Beyonce in order to get her out of her comfort zone as well as Lizzy. Lizzy started out very concerned because she doesn't sing so she, at first, didn't have fun with it. I told her to not care about how it sounds. She loosened up a little but then right back into laughing at herself about it instead of taking the fun seriously. (if that makes ANY sense) I prompted her with the idea that she just had a really bad day and I'm Yours is blasting on the radio while you are driving. This really got her loosened up and she started dancing and moving around. After Lizzy, Margaret got up to sing Girl on Fire. She was doing so well singing it and performing it. The chorus came along which is 100% out of Margaret's range and instead of just belting it off key she laughed and said, "I Can't hit that" Lizzy and I both showed her what she had to do even if it didn't sound good. This was different for her because she is used to being on key with songs. She got out of her comfort zone and belted it out and it really brought up the energy for the rehearsal. We did table talk after. Looking back I should have just let them play out the scene like I did the first rehearsal. I ended up on the verge of giving them line reads so I need to find ways around telling them how to say things. After reading through the section I wanted to go over We did blocking for the first scene where Glynda is trying to catch Cindy before going into "Off Limits" They seemed to have had a good amount of fun with this so the energy was very present. I am excited to see what choices they can make in the upcoming rehearsals and to see what kind of staging we can find together. 

I found that doing an upbeat warm-up does help a lot with the energy of the rest of rehearsal so even during MX rehearsals I need to find something fun to do before hand. Lizzy and I found, together, how to portray the fairy side of her. We discovered what we like to call the Fairy voice. I want her to make big choices with movement  because there is very little mandatory staging so the more movement to portray her being a fairy the better. Also, it will help fill the space with movement instead of stillness. 

I plan on having 3 rehearsals this upcoming week and hope to find more out as we go. I hope to see big choices and I am really excited to see what we can come up with together.