Speaking the speech trippingly on the tongue

This weekend marks our first runs of pieces of TOS. Doing one of our acts a day, we figured out all of those moments in the play that still needed attention to make things a little clearer and cleaner. I seemed to be involved in a lot of those moments that needed cleaning, so I was one of the two actors who were working all afternoon today. Granted, we had some time off here and there, but I was stuck down at rehearsal until 5. Lucky for us, I spent some time with Krista (who plays my Bianca) before work yesterday, and we developed some specific and funny moments for the scene when I'm "teaching" her Latin. We hadn't quite found the funny in that scene, so we came up with some ideas that had everyone laughing. Our director was impressed, and he knew right away that we had done some outside work on it.

One of the things I like about this director and this process is that he understand what my instincts are and allows me to try all sorts of things as they come to mind. And while not all of them work, he is always able to explain why there is a stronger choice for any particular moment. His direction also focuses the moment for me, so that I can play the scene better. It's not just about taking out the bits and playing with ideas for business, but also about giving the notes that allow the real purpose and intent of the scene to come out and show itself among all the physical beats.

We go back to scene work for a few days, and then we have a run-through for all our designers before we go into tech rehearsals next weekend. It's hard to believe that our first show is coming up, and is only a little more than a week away. Feels like we have plenty of time, and yet we really don't have all that much time left. We're in good shape, though, and now it's just about making what we have even better.