Lovin' Big Love

[Tuesday morning, 8/28]

Monday night, it was just the three guys at rehearsal for Big Love, and we worked on the physical movement in a scene where the script calls for us to be throwing ourselves to the ground. Now, we all agreed that we weren’t looking forward to throwing ourselves to the ground, so with our choreographer, Robin, we worked on creating a physical sequence that would help express a series of rather long and intricate monologues. The three men have speeches that culminate in my two-page monologue about the “proper” relationship between men and women. It was a really fun thing to work on, as the three of us boys worked really well together. Ideas that we had would fuel each other, and there was a healthy degree of one-up-manship that made us want to stretch ourselves to improve the scene. Robin really enjoyed the night, saying that she had a lot of fun watching us work.

This show is turning out to be a lot of fun. That first night, driving into the distance to perform, I had a momentary flicker of anxiety. I wasn’t sure that I’d made the right decision to work on such a crazy script right before I left on tour. But from that first day, I haven’t looked back. I’m really digging the chance the script gives me to stretch myself and my performance, and it’s something that I wouldn’t have the chance to do in Philly. I also like working with our director Tim, as well as the college students. They all bring a wonderful amount of enthusiasm to the project, and while they are very serious, no one takes it too seriously. It is a great working atmosphere, and a nice escape from some actors who treat everything with such weight and severity. It’s nice to remember that this is supposed to be fun.