We began our MX F rehearsal in the stairway between the art wing and the hallway to Joel's classroom. I stopped my cast here and told them to run through the script, but to strictly limit themselves to going up and down the staircase. Both were confused at first, but they did adapt to the changed conditions quickly. Up until then, we've only rehearsed the script in Conant or the theatre classroom, playing with the one act thrust stage in mind. I hoped that performing the piece in a different space would open up the actors' minds to different possibilities for movement. Calli took to the new stage very well, and played with a lot of different angles while going through her script. She was constantly moving up and down the stairs throughout her "psychotic idiosyncrasies" passages, and I liked best the moments when she would talk to Nick from a higher landing. One thing both Calli and Nick are apt to doing is breaking character in small moments. If something slightly funny or awkward happens, they break to laugh about it, and Calli occasionally will look at me while Nick is speaking. I was surprised with Nick's performance on the stairwell. He continued to make low-energy choices, and would continuously break character when he wasn't speaking to lean against the stair railings. He definitely was not listening to Calli, and was not committing to the notes I had given him earlier. I was kind of shocked that he felt that he could pull this when the performances are coming up so soon.
Once the run-through finished, we went back to the theatre classroom, and I told it to them straight. I made it clear that, this late in the process, we cannot have breaking of character or sinking into an "everyday body" and making low energy choices. From now on, I need both of them to be incredibly committed and to take the notes that I give them seriously instead of making the same repeated mistakes. While I understand that we had a shorter rehearsal process than expected due to scheduling and that we're still trying to explore the script and the characters, we have to move fast. This was more directed to Nick than Calli, but I think the note applies to both. So, we did a short warmup (after the run through) in which I told them to get out of their everyday bodies. I then had them play "Yes, and..." to scheme how to kill their boss. The exercise did not go very well - I think that they were not very concerned with topping in on each other. Then, I gave them a situational improv exercise in which Quinn and Evan run into each other on the street. I loved how Calli took this - she's really got her character down and can apply it to different situations, which works well. Nick improved a lot here, too. I kept drilling him about his walking throughout the course of the rehearsal, so he made a distinct effort to really walk the way Evan might walk. I appreciated this choice much more - how he was walking before was exactly how he walks normally, so I told him to forget about how Nick Papazian walks and to walk like Evan Anderson. Overall, I think I need to help him get out of his head a little bit. Calli is very natural, which works for her character well, and I think I need to bring that out in Nick more.
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