Day 3
Well, yesterday was Day 3 of rehearsals, but only my second. As a writer, while the actors and directors and choreographers and whatnot get to play the day away, I get to go to work and program financial whoseitwhats.
In the various theatrical projects I've worked on, I think people are having more fun with this one than most. We've got Reed in one corner, coming up with new ways to talk about how Neopolitan Ice Cream annoys him (a little bit we removed after auditions that he's now petitioning to get back in). Then you have Laura, who seems to have found the perfect way to depict that the Oracle's brain is a computerized rolodex. And then there's Gavin, who will do a hell of a job getting the "short people" and "poor people" in the audience to quack at him. Basically the majority yesterday's rehearsal was spent laughing.
As a director I've done tablework before, but not as an author. When you're working on a new piece there's a lot of grey area. Do we cut lines, do we try them out onstage knowing we'll cut later? Do we leave the part where Reed takes off his shirt and asks people if they want to buy his clothing? Or do we do what Mike Nichols calls "killing our babies". Most of last night's rehearsal was just that, going through the script and slimming it down, or occasionally adding new lines.
Jinay, our awesome stage manager, has been keeping the most detailed notes from rehearsals. I'll be putting highlights of these in as I continue to update this blog...
In the various theatrical projects I've worked on, I think people are having more fun with this one than most. We've got Reed in one corner, coming up with new ways to talk about how Neopolitan Ice Cream annoys him (a little bit we removed after auditions that he's now petitioning to get back in). Then you have Laura, who seems to have found the perfect way to depict that the Oracle's brain is a computerized rolodex. And then there's Gavin, who will do a hell of a job getting the "short people" and "poor people" in the audience to quack at him. Basically the majority yesterday's rehearsal was spent laughing.
As a director I've done tablework before, but not as an author. When you're working on a new piece there's a lot of grey area. Do we cut lines, do we try them out onstage knowing we'll cut later? Do we leave the part where Reed takes off his shirt and asks people if they want to buy his clothing? Or do we do what Mike Nichols calls "killing our babies". Most of last night's rehearsal was just that, going through the script and slimming it down, or occasionally adding new lines.
Jinay, our awesome stage manager, has been keeping the most detailed notes from rehearsals. I'll be putting highlights of these in as I continue to update this blog...
- Da 1, 8/14: READ THRU. Great first reading. The cast did a great job with what was a lot of new material, and Greg/Bobby did an excellent job presenting the score. What we assume will be Act I began at around 11:30 (I was still running around a bit, so forgive my not-entirely-specific times on these) and ran about 55 minutes. Act II came in at about 45 minutes.
- Day 2, 8/15: MUSIC REHEARSAL. Greg worked for about 1/2 hour with the cast on "You Can Do it All", and Dan/Greg changed the lyric in Reed's riff "Oh Ye-e-e-ah" to the clever and fitting "Have Fu-u-uzz."
- Day 3, 8/16: TABLE WORK. Dan started the day in discussions with Gavin and Laura about the characters, specifically the Fuzzy Duck Theatre Company and what it is. We ran all of the "backstage" scenes (the non "Oedipus" scenes) and discussed the relationships and histories of the three characters... the last hour was good but slightly punchy.