Tech-tech-teching....

We are now finished two days of our three-day technical rehearsal process for EECD. It's a slow process because our show is so tech-heavy. There are complicated light cues, sound cues, pre-recorded video cues, live video cues, plus the actors running around and doing stuff. So it's no wonder that the show is taking a while to work through cue-by-cue. But so far, there have been no major headaches or trainwrecks from my point of view. Sure it's going slowly, especially since I don't really have a whole lot to do in terms of actual stage minutes, but I never really mind sitting in a rehearsal and watching other folks work.

One thing I really enjoy about working in this company, with this group of professionals, is the chance to sit and listen to what they talk about and how they work together. When I'm trying to be a smart actor, I always try to listen to what everyone around me is saying. Being around so much talent is a great opportunity to pick up tricks and little hints and things that will help me in future projects and future auditions. I can help other auditions in the future, as well as impress my current director/co-artists with my talent, energy, spirit, and general awesomeness. So much of this business is making connections and fostering those sorts of friendships, so that the next time this director needs someone, he will think of me.

Not too shabby....

Another afternoon rehearsal tonight, and only our second full run-through of the entire play. For only our second time, we did a great job. The timing was just about the same as it was for our first run, and we're just going to get stronger and better with every run we do. We're learning our lines, our fights, all of our everything, and it's going to get leaner and leaner by the time we start performances next week. Tech is this weekend. I know, this weekend, and that's a little crazy. But we did learn tonight that the theatre doesn't believe in those long "10 out of 12" tech days, where the actors/crew literally work 10 hours out of a 12 hour call. That was some pleasant news for us.

I had a little bit of fun tonight during our initial fight call, though. When we were working on the powerbomb, my partner and I started to go up into the lift, we lost our timing and our grip, and I ended up falling back onto the canvas. I landed on my head, clocked myself good, and then rolled down onto my back. I'm not going to lie, it hurt. The stage manager was down to take care of things in a heartbeat. I took a minute or so to just lie there on the canvas before I was ready to get up, and then I spent the rest of the day trying to work it off. I kept stretching, took some medicine, and just took care of myself. Now, sitting at my desk, it feels much better even if I'm not all the way back to 100%. But even with that little injury, we could still do the match sequence and make it look great. It only gets better from here.

After-action (brief)

So, last night's rehearsal wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. While I am involved in a lot of the physical work, there is enough without me to keep things interesting. And the sequence we worked out for the first time yesterday isn't as much of a "match" as it is a "rehearsal." So it's nice to have a low-impact, low-tension action scene right at the top of the show, since it just wakes the body up without really being too brutal.

The brutal one is the beginning of the second act, which ends with me getting powerbombed. We worked on that last night, and I learned how to do the move in isolation. We did it perfectly twice all by itself. But then when it came time to actually run the whole match with the move at the end, but it didn't quite work. That's the biggest thing I now need to focus on. Sure I have style points to earn with the rest of the fight, and acting points to earn with my other characters. But the powerbomb is the only move that I still need to practice to get to the point where I can make it perfect every time.

Office days?

In my current show, EECD, I play several professional wrestlers who get their asses kicked in a variety of ways. We spent three days last week working with a former pro wrestler who taught us all the basics that we were going to need to learn - how to fall, how to take a punch, how to throw a punch. It was an intimidating few days, especially since I'm the general punching bag of the show and have to do most of the "heavy lifting." It was hard on my body and hard on my mind, but after the three days I was starting to feel a little tougher and hardier. Course, a few days later I pulled a muscle, but that's another story.

Tonight is our second round of training and fight choreography. I still have to learn how to do the powerbomb since the wear-and-tear on my body was standing in my way last week. I'm not gonna lie, it's a scary thing that I'm not sure I am capable of doing. But the alternatives scare me even more, so I'm really determined to get myself into shape to do it. I worry that this is my last chance tonight, since we'd have to find an alternative if it doesn't work. Time to use all my energy and power. I'll let you know how it goes.

Dropping off the Inter-map

Folks, I apologize for not being more on-the-ball when it comes to blogging lately. Which is really funny, ironic, and counter-productive, because for the last two weeks I've been producing my first play as a part of Fringe Wilmington '09. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was a big success for Radio Hound down in Delaware, and our artistic team is going to be meeting soon to discuss our next project. There are several theatre festivals coming up, and we also have a chance to rent out a theatre space in Philadelphia to produce a Philly-premiere of one of our projects. Plus, I'm currently rehearsing EECD, which is going to be a wild ride of a show, and I will try to keep up-to-date about that. I promise.

Opening weekend

Last Thursday, we opened D&S and then had two more performances on Saturday. The opening went very well, and we finally got a sense of what people think of our show. It was something of a relief to know that it was funny and moving and effective in all the ways that we think it is. One of my scenes was funny at the reading, and then funny in rehearsals, and then the jokes started feeling a little flat. It was because the director/staff had heard them and seen them so much, but the audience that had never seen the scene before laughed long and hard. I got off stage and smiled at the woman in the scene with me.

The Saturday matinee was a little off, maybe either because of a lack of focus, an abundance of drinking, or the sunlight streaming through the windows backstage. We had a little meeting before the evening show to talk about focus and intention and actor-things like that, and then we nailed the second show. We have a line-through scheduled before our next show on Thursday, and then another double show on Saturday that we should be better prepared for. And that's the run. Ah, Fringe.

Once more....

Tonight is our final dress rehearsal for D&S. We had a very good run last night in the theatre, and we have another one tonight. Our director said that last night we put up a very strong skeleton framework for the show, and so tonight at rehearsal we need to work on pulling more of the heart and spirit into everything. We are also having line problems. It's an interesting problem to have this late in the game, but there is it. We are working on such a language-heavy play, we have spent months now focusing on the language and making sure that we are getting word-perfect on all our lines. As the shows get closer, though, we are still focused on getting all of our words correct, the director noticed that we are sometimes leaving the immediate world of the play to "fix" a mistake that we've made. Or else she can see us concentrating on the words that come next.

When I do talkbacks with student audiences, one of the questions that always comes up is "how do you learn all those lines?" Every actor has a different answer as to how they memorize. But the more interesting problem to me is - how do you make those lines feel like realistic speech and not just the words that you're saying? Personally, that is always a step that comes very late in the process for me. I will usually always focus on the blocking first and then the text second. Once the lines and the moves are firmly in my body, it is a lot easier for me to engage my imagination and let the words live as natural reactions in my body. It's usually then, once I've mastered all those technical details, that I can really let myself live in the moment. Lucky for me, that usually happens in the week before we open, and I'm able to play in those moments for the run of the show.