Today we jumped right in to moving in the space ( we were lucky enough to have the theatre to use). Both Colby and Paige were extremely exhausted from sports. Paige forgot her script and I think I almost killed her by telling her to go 'run' and get it. From there we went to the diagonal game, which was just moving in the space but using the diagonals.
Gib and her cast popped in on us for a bit and it was good to have them there. Both actors are a bit un-used to having an audience so it was good for them to have a taste of what it was like to have other people watching while they preformed. They had some problems not looking at the audience. It is the same as when Joel is in the room. Both Colby and Paige seem to stiffen a bit. They are not as big in their choices and sometimes become flustered with how they say their lines. However after a few moments both Colby and Paige fell out of the stiffness and became more comfortable. I would like to have Gib and her cast or other casts pop in on us more often because I think it will prepare the actors for what it is like when show time actually rolls around.
After Gib left with some encouraging words to both me and the cast, we continued playing. I pushed Colby to make bigger choices. He has gotten a lot better about taking side direction and takes these directions in the moment, instead of stopping the scene to ask questions. Sometimes when playing a call in response game (example: 'Where where you'... 'I was at home'), Colby only has a range of angry, going from slightly pissed off to yelling. After prompting him a few times to 'change his tactics' because Lizzy 'was not listening to him', he really got into the game switching his tactics to pleading, joking, serious, friendly. It was good to see this and I told him that he needs to apply these different tactics to the script.
It was also beneficial to see Colby change tactics because of Paige responses. With his investment in the game came her total investment in the game. At one point she got on a chair to respond to one of Colby's tactics. Other times she wouldn't even respond to his questions. This beautifully transferred into her role as Lizzy because of her reactions to James.
The other thing I worked on with Paige was her searching for Charlie. We talked about it together and Paige and I both came to the solution that though it was frantic it was really more of an avoidance technique. This improved the veracity of Lizzy character immensely.
We then did a ran through the script up until the 'push'. Both remembered the idea of the diagonals wonderfully and the overall picture of the stage looks wonderful. Both remembered their staging from the previous rehearsal which makes me very happy. They also both remembered the ideas of long pauses and hopping (Joel calls it topping in but Paige decided it should be hopping so there you go).
Though I had them stop at the push (it hasn't been choreographed yet) I let them run the whole thing without giving side direction and waiting for notes at the end. I said last time that I wanted to try to let the actors run for longer giving them time to play out the scene. It was the right descion. I am very happy with what the first half of 'The Dog' looks like.
I gave notes and we continued to run it (each time it looked better and better), until Paige had to go catch the bus.
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