Theatrical Homework

We had rehearsal on Wednesday night, during which we finished our two-night work-through of the show. We broke it down by scenes, and then we spent time looking at those scenes slowly and deliberately. Tim is also very interested in gesture work, creating physical movements that can express and capture the essence of any scene. A good gesture, he implies, can convey story far more effectively than the text alone. And then when we lay text across those gestures, the scenes spring to life. They are now layered and evocative, far more than they would have been if we were merely speaking the words.

So for our next rehearsal on Saturday, Tim gave us all the “homework” of coming up with five gestures that we can use for our character. He further qualified that by saying that this did not apply to all the gestures that we had already come up with. So as I strive to maintain my self-imposed goal of being off-book on Saturday, I also need to come up with five gestures. I know that the physical sequence from the previous entry is calling for some very strong gestures, so I’ll just have to spend some time on Friday or Saturday morning playing around. I’d love to come up with gestures inspired by pop culture, like poses from Superman, Star Wars, or even Zorro.