well and truly done

Thank you, theater magic.

It's been a long, exhausting process. The drive is close to an hour each way. There have been actors missing rehearsals, actors missing lines, actors missing props.

Props missing.

Scenic elements unseen until literally the eleventh hour... well, not literally the eleventh hour because we were kicked out of the rehearsal space at the ninth hour, but you get the drift...

AND YET...

It happened. The actors hit their marks. The scenic elements not only set the stage but lifted the actors and supported the play.

The props functioned and gathered laughs of their own.

It worked.

Magic. Miracles.

I guess I'm still a believer.

:-)

The Good Person of Szechuan.

never enough time

We are around the corner from tech. Just a couple run throughs left.

Some things are starting to come together... little by little. But I still feel like we could use another couple of weeks.

This in spite of the fact that actually, for this play, we miraculously acquired a couple of "extra" weeks- because a performance two weeks before the actual run was canceled due to actions of another organization.

We are thrilled about the "found" weeks and have used them well.

Still, if we just had a couple more weeks... apparently, rehearsal periods are like purses. It doesn't matter what you have- you always fill it and wish for just a bit more (time/room).

artistry

     "And knowing, too, that this sort of artistry could not endure past the shaping moment, could only be spoken of after by those who recalled, or misrecalled, who had seen and half seen and not seen at all, distorted by memory and desire and ignorance, the achievement of it written as if on water or sand.
     "It mattered, terribly, and just now it didn't matter at all. Or could the fragility, the defining impermanence actually intensify the glory?" - Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay

I like this commentary on the ephemeral artistry of performance.

I hate this play (again)

It's that time again.

Actors are calling for "line!" right and left. Entrances are late. Props are forgotten.

I have given the same note to the same actor EIGHTEEN TIMES.

(Well, maybe only twelve. Okay, maybe only seven. BUT A LOT, OKAY?)

It looks like tech is just around the corner.

If I didn't know, from long experience, that this always happens, I would be more panicked than I am.

But, this always happens.

And, of course, I always panic.

I understand why it happens: We've pulled the play apart to work on individual moments, and now it feels like bits and pieces of something that will never come together.

It's hard to get the overall sweep of the play, when working the individual moments/scenes/details.

Especially with Brecht's deliberately episodic structure.

AND of course the actors are not confident of their lines...

So I panic.

I always do.

But- usually- somehow, through theater magic, it all comes together.

Here is hoping that theater magic is about to happen!

Directing Good People in Good Person

I am not one of those directors that sits down with the script and plans the entire

mise en scène. No. I am one of those directors that works with the living, breathing actors and discovers new possibilities at every rehearsal.

This is not to say that I don't have a plan. I have a plan- it's just quite open-ended.

The design of the set suggests some of the movements: This area will be where the gods appear to Wang; this area will be Shen Te's shop.

Then the movements grow out of the relationships that develop between the characters and the actors. Moments are discovered that must be private; moments are discovered that are overt conflict. These will mean turns or crosses away, or crosses toward, movements to pursue or escape.

While this form of blocking takes a bit longer, I believe it is easier for actors to remember. More than that, this form of blocking belongs to the actor- and the character- and is rooted in the internal as well as external action of each scene.