Monday, April 21, 2008

Paper Cuts and Mercy Seats

Early, early, early this morning, I was driving into Philly to report to the set of Paper Cuts. I had some more big scenes to shoot this morning, and I got to drive into Philly way before rush hour, watching the sun come up over I-76. It was a bizarre and beautiful moment, although by the time I got home around 10am, I was exhausted. Well, you would be too if you had already been awake for six hours at that point in the day. So I changed back into my pjs, climbed back under the blanket, and I went back to sleep. I woke up in time to watch the afternoon episodes of "Law & Order," run half my lines before rehearsal, grab my costume, and hit the road. Although taking a nap in the afternoon never goes out of fashion (and is sometimes incredibly vital), it was a godsend today. There is no doubt that I would not have made it this long in the day without that litttle pick me up.



Tonight at TMS, we attempted our first honest runthrough, but still found ourselves stopping for tech issues, line issues, and some acting notes here and there. Some of the notes were "that's the best the scene has ever been" and one of my favorites of "in that speech, I didn't see any Nick. It was all Ben." So things are going very well in the show, although I do think tonight that I literally brought so much focus to the show that I gave myself a headache. Perhaps not the best thing for performance... or I just need to have some Excedrin backstage. I don't know what sorts of things I'll have in the future, but here is a posted photo of the set from our show. Look carefully at the window in the left side of the picture. And the fantastic prop lamp on the right side of the photo is one of the director's favorite pieces that she rented from the furniture company. The lights are not set in this photo, but this is going to be our home for the next three weeks.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Ben - I mean Nick. The premise of this play is very interesting. I'm sad that I probably won't be able to see it, especially since it seems to be such a challenge for you (although I'm sure not one that you can't conquer). Knock 'em dead!