Taking it to the next level

Tomorrow afternoon, we have a long Saturday rehearsal for The Spitfire Grill in which we are taking the show to the proverbial next level. For the first time, we are bringing the music and the staging together. We've spent the last few weeks working on each element of the show separately, and tomorrow is the chance we get to put it all together. These rehearsals are always a little shaky in the beginning, since music that we knew standing around the piano is always a bit more confusing when we're trying to walk and sing at the same time. But it's the step that we need to take. Last night was a very brief rehearsal, in which we just ran through the second act for blocking purposes. We wanted to see if there were any major traffic jams when it came to moving around the stage; since there weren't any, we went home early. Since so much of this show is based on the music, as any well-written musical must be, we've reached that point in the process where we need to bring everything together.

Tim has already mentioned that next week we will start exploring characters and relationships and things like that, but that in the meantime we must focus on the blocking and the physical staging of the show. That was certainly good news for me, since so much of what appeals to me as an actor is the exploration of those character ideas. Tim has had to bite his tongue about things like "character" and "motivation," since he wasn't going to focus on them last night. And so as a result, we go into tomorrow's rehearsal generally secure on our blocking but still unexplored in terms of real acting. These types of rehearsals are always a little tedious but important. I hope it goes well.