First Week of Rehearsals

April 7-11
Nicholas Guarracino

This week was my first week of rehearsals. Specifically, I had 1.5 of them.

The 0.5 is from Monday. That day we were missing Julian, so we only did read through's. Still, I was given a good impression. Both Seabass and Athena were comfortable with their lines, and willing to lend themselves to the roles.

Thursday was the first actual rehearsal. That day we had Julian, Seabass, and Athena. That day we did as follows.

1. We did a moving through he space exercise in which everyone had to choose a certain body part. That exaggerated body part became their character, as they played through this exercise in exaggeration.
2. Read through with BASIC blocking. No music, no props, just lines and moving. And it was... acceptable? I liked where things were going, but we were rough around the edges. Julian, bless his heart, gets straight into character but improved too much, and had a bit of a stutter (but, admittedly, he knew how to work with it well). Athena, who is to be a gun toting cop woman, did not have the weight in her voice of a person actually holding a gun. Seabass said his lines well, but they were a bit flat. I needed to inject energy into this cast.
3. IMPROV! There is no better way other than a direct IV drip of adrenaline to inject energy into a group. First I pretended to own a jewelry store and had everybody rob me. Not only did this get everyone in the mood to be serious and playful, it also scared me. Athena is a calm and collected robber, pointing the gun and issuing demands. Seabass starts out low key, before forcing you to the ground with the gun. Julian was the scariest. He didn't use the pretend gun. He put me in a half nelson and told me not to call the cops. You can learn a lot about a person from their criminal style. Then I had Seabass sell me butter, Athena arrest me, and Julian convince me to play chess. But instead of actually playing chess, I told him to try convincing Gurney (Seabass), saying he might actually concede. Then officer Callahan (Athena) came on the scene to investigate. I told them to keep this improve going up until the point that they were in their spots for the beginning of the play. Then we began, this fantastic energy in everyone.
4. The second run through was amazing. Ya, the blocking and the lines need work, but most of the stuff they did hit the nail squarely on the head. Julian especially surprised me. You know that feeling you get when something you image comes out exactly as you imagine it? Julian replicated what I dreamed for his role near perfectly at times. It was... kind of creepy. 

I ended the rehearsal with a quick talk about line memorization and memorization techniques (singing, transcribing, etc.) There were a few quick tangents about how Callahan was originally a man, how being chosen for something is your motivation for succeeding at it, the nature of satire and grotesqueness. I'm really bad at tangents. All in all, I am happy to have started the process off right.