Second Rehearsal

It's been a rough week for scheduling.
But we got in a rehearsal so that was good. The cast and I were able to be in the theatre. It was helpful to give them an idea of the space we would be doing the actual performance in. We started off the night with some fun games (zip, zap, zop and angry face) with Nick's cast and Sabina's cast. Paige and Colby had some genuine reactions to it. They took a while to get into it, using full energy and commitment but after a while there was some great reactions. I want to play more games with Nick's cast. He is a very good director and has a wonderful ability to get the cast energized and focused.

Afterwards we moved on to running the script. At this point we were already two weeks in without a full run through of the script. Before we even started there was a flurry of questions. After answering them. I threw them into the scene saying just run it to the best of your ability. After four lines Colby had his already had another question.

Though I love the questions, but I still need to see Colby and Paige in action. It's important to see what lines they had trouble on and specific sections that needed to be worked. What I told them was to hold all questions to the end of rehersal. That way we can all sit down for 15 and talk out what questions they had on the script. I also think this will help get rid of questions such as "How do I say my line like this." I think as we go on it will be better for them to work it out through running the scene instead of talking it out.

 The run through was not half bad with both actors connecting with each other and using lots of energy. There was one definite problem spot at the line "Cold hands, warm heart." Colby had a hard time saying this, eventually bursting out into laughter. This caused Paige to break into laughter. The moment was very genuine and I wrote down in my notebook a very large 'KEEP'. It was some where that I never saw the line going, but Colby and Paige's reaction to it was so sincere that it didn't matter. However after the two broke into laughter Colby asked the infamous question "how do I say..." I stopped him right there and they finished the one act together.

Afterwards we talked about that line and another problem lines to figure out why they were so hard to say. To him Colby the lines seemed cheesy and not something he would say in his own life. I asked him to draw on situations and people that he knew that would say these lines. This way he could connection to the motivations of James.

With that said we sat down and ran the line 'Cold hands, warm hart.' over fifteen times. I told them only to continue the scene after I clapped my hands. The first time Colby immediately broke and asked what to do. I ignored his question and asked him to run it again. After the third time he finally started understanding the idea. During the other run through I asked Colby to change it up . Paige worked wonderfully with him playing off of him no matter what he did.

I ended by explaining that you have to say the line as it feels natural to the character. Some runs it is a serious line others its funny ect. ect. It depends on the moment and what feels the most genuine.

Hopefully as we go into the third week we can have more rehearsals!