Month: January 2017

Rehearsal Plan:

1. Business
2. Meditation
3. Qualities of Movement
4. Vocal Warmup
5. Blocking

Notes:

1. I didn’t really have much business today, but I checked in with everybody to see how their first day of classes went. Everybody, including myself, was a little tired and a little deflated.
2. Meditation was very good today. Our stretches were a little tougher than usual because everyone was so tense, so I spent extra time on each movement, trying to encourage deep stretches. I actually layer down for meditation today because I was feeling very blocked and very tight. It was helpful to lie down and physically relax myself along with the cast and stage manager because I emerged from the meditation with a renewed purpose and a glowing sense of positivity.
3. Every day Eric and Tom, improve and specify their qualities of movement. Tom has really been investing in exploring different rhythms of flying and the unpredictability is having positive effects on his performance. Eric is adding more and more radiating power into his movements and especially into his psychological gesture. I’ve actually seen him use his gesture a number of times in different iterations during blocking.
4. Vocal warm up was a little concerning. I’m really stressing to Tom and Eric the necessity of protecting their voice inside and outside of rehearsal. Tom’s voice seems to be doing well despite the fact that he has been getting over a cold. However, I’m really worried about Eric’s voice. It is very hoarse and breaks whenever he tries to move into a higher register. I told him not to worry about projection for now because I don’t want him to damage it further, but their performance is very quiet currently, and that will not work while they’re outside. Hopefully, he takes my advice and rests up tomorrow night when we don’t have rehearsal, and we can work on exploring volume and vocal variety on thursday.
5. Blocking was much more encouraging today. The cast definitely spent some time with their lines last night and it showed in how much smoother the run was. Because of this, I was also able to dig much deeper into some of the specifics of the scenes. Both of them are doing a really good job of crafting their own little moments, but I am occasionally having difficulty getting them to make some of the changes I want. However, this could be my fault for not clearly expressing exactly what it is I want them to do. Either way,Every day is a massive improvement, and I can’t ask for much more than that.

I am excited to continue working on the show on Thursday!

Rehearsal Plan:

1. Business
2. Meditation
3. Qualities of Movement
4. Blocking

Notes:

1. Business was short today. I did a quick check-in to see how everybody was doing.
2. Meditation was good! I spent a little extra time stretching everybody out and centering them because I knew today was going to be a little bumpy.
3. Qualities of Movement was the best that I had seen it! Both Tom and Eric were making very specific very physically adventurous choices.
4. Blocking was a little hard today, but for a first crack at it, I’m really happy with how it went. We got through the entire show despite having to stop quite a few times. They’re lines were not so well memorized as I had originally thought, but I’m sure that will clean up with further rehearsals. I also noticed that because they were focusing so hard on the lines, they lost all of the physical and vocal work we’ve been doing. They lost a lot of the exploration I’ve been trying to foster, so we’re going to have to work on feeling more comfortable.

A wonderful first blocking session!

Rehearsal Plan:

1. Business
2. Meditation
3. Qualities of Movement/ Psychological Gesture
4. Vocal work (Chekov shakes out and tornado, projection and enunciation)
5. Columbian hypnosis and mirroring
6. Textual investigation
7. Meisner Continuation

Notes:

1. We just did a quick review of what happened yesterday, specifically on the qualities of movement.
2. Meditation was good today, but I felt like I needed to find more balance and center. I probably would have benefitted from my own meditation ritual!
3. The cast is going even deeper into their physicality which is great. Today I also asked them to bring in their voice and see how their chosen quality of movement would affect that. I found that Eric had a very compelling heartbeat rhythm to his physicality that translated well into his voice. Tom discovered some arrhythmia to Havilland that caused a lot of really awesome vocal variety.
4. Today I taught them the shake out as a warm up technique for their voices. At first, they were very tentative about trusting each other to hold them up, but eventually they got into it a little more.  I think that this exercise is really going to help them find a good vocal base from which to build. They also really enjoyed the tornado exercise. Both Tom and Eric said that it helped them figure out where their natural range is and what type of exclamations are vocally comfortable for them. However, Tom did crack his head on the stage, so I emphasized the importance of being gentle to their bodies.
5. I was pleasantly surprised by the columbine hypnosis and mirroring exercise. Eric and Tom were very in tune with one another, and didn’t have any difficulty getting through their lines while mirroring. They also shared the lead almost seamlessly. I’m pleased that I won’t have to do too much relationship building between them!
6. We spent a little bit of time investigating before Meisner, exactly what is implied in the script. We answered a lot of questions about the murders and the methods of murder, but there were several areas that I am still a little unclear on the implications of the text.
7. Meisner was good again! We started where we left off last night. Tom and Eric are continuing to discover hidden meaning in the line, and I’m so excited to block them tomorrow!

Another awesome rehearsal!