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Preparations
Apr. 22nd, 2006 10:30 amPutting things together for tomorrow's first "rehearsal" (meeting, really) for That's What We're Here For.
Listened to most of the sound cues again this morning, and let some more images seep into my head for how to stage them. As I think of the big group numbers at the start and close of each act, I can imagine Tim Cusack, friend and a master judge of camp, sitting in the audience laughing hysterically, so I'm probably on the right track.
It will be both fun and icky/painful to stage these kitschfests. I need to get those tapes from Moira Stone of her show choir competitions, which she offered for reference, though previously-repressed memories of happily watching the Donny & Marie and Sonny & Cher shows as a small child are coming back to me, and all the variety show tropes therein. {{shudder, sob}} Show/swing choir, trade shows, variety show sketches and musical numbers, audio and visual industrial promotions -- that's this show alright. Well, I've done some pretty good theatre in the past by rehabilitating a 19th-Century temperance play (Ten Nights in a Bar-Room) and a religious pageant (T.S. Eliot's The Rock) so why not another unsettlingly square and "presentational" form of theatre?
I also looked up which episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 have the short industrial/educational films I also wanted to show the cast, so I could pull the tapes out. I'll carry my VCR and the tapes to the space tonight, so I don't have to schlep them really early tomorrow morning when I'll be tired and grumpy.
I also looked for the films that I know but don't have copies of online by googling the Prelinger Archive, and instead I got the Internet Moving Image Archive, which turned out to be a mindblower -- not only all the Prelinger Archives, but massive amounts otherwise. Too much damned information. Too many damned possibilities. I downloaded the two films I was looking for, and then a few others that may be useful.
Video is suddenly becoming much, MUCH more important in this show than I had anticipated.
After writing that last sentence I got caught up for 10 minutes looking for more short films on the Moving Image website. This is going to be dangerous and seductive. I'll want to squeeze in tangential items that don't belong just because I like them. Must put the kibosh on that RIGHT NOW.
How the hell am I going to put this show together? Suddenly, that thought occurs to me again. I simply have to stand there and commit to things unquestioningly the first time out as they come out of my brain and my mouth, and then fix them later if they don't work.
I think I will wind up needing multiple private meetings with each individual actor as well at their leisure. Rehearsal with everyone is going to have to be all about grand gestures; I'll need to work on the little fiddily bits one-on-one with each performer.
I believe I will have to lecture a bit to the company tomorrow about some of my philosophies behind what I do and why I do it tomorrow. Oh, dear. I've always avoided that in the past, but I may have to explain where some of this show is coming from in order for the cast to "get it" fully enough to do it right. Just have to be quick and focused about it -- get it over with. Nothing more horrible than a director going on and on about his "aesthetic." Make ya wanna fwow up.
These people trust me, and I have earned their trust. I have earned their trust by guiding many of them to do their best work, always with a firm and steady hand. I'm now asking for their trust in leading them without any kind of firm or steady support, and asking them to help me figure out what to do next. They are good workers. They are professionals. They are craftsmen, tradespeople, who know their jobs and how to do them very VERY well. I worry at times that there will be a lack of focus from the company in working this way, that chaos will ensue. I should not. This cast will not let that happen. I will not let that happen.
Huh. Mantra for That's What We're Here For (an american pageant). Something to say in the mirror before rehearsals.
In other crafts news, Adventures of Caveman Robot was well-performed and well-received last night and I was happy with my work, despite a couple of problems -- my singing felt a bit oddly weak, like I couldn't belt out in the bass register as I usually do; I also stumbled noticeably over one line (distracted by audience laughter from the friend in the front row, bad actor! bad actor!), and I jumped a whole section of text in one scene, where I got distracted by another actor jumping over one of my lines. The line he had jumped was a late addition to the script, and I'm still unsteady about it, and it distracted me to the point that I jumped to another late addition to the script that I'm also unsteady about (I haven't internalized these lines as much as the others, and whenever I do them, there's a part of my brain that is still seeing and reading them off of the script page, written in the margin in my handwriting where they've been inserted).
Also, I've been called back for pickups on the voiceover work I did last week. $ka-CHING!$
And I won't get to finishing Martin Denton's podcast material for nytheatre.com until tomorrow, not yesterday or today as I told Martin and Rochelle. I'm sure it'll be fine.
And I think I'll email some friends and colleagues about this blog now, and make it a bit less coy and secretive.
Maybe some of them can suggest solutions for some odd computing problems -- on my laptop (Windows, don't like it,I'm a MacHead, but it's free), none of the browsers are loading background images/colors, which makes some pages ugly, and some unreadable (I get white text on white background). It happens in all browsers (I switched from IE to Mozilla Firefox recently) so it's something in the general settings of the laptop, but I can't find anything to change it.
Also, for some reason, links I put into these posts work just fine on my home computer, but when I check them on the laptop, the addresses get screwed up -- my journal address gets added to the link -- so the links are broken. Any ideas why?
Youth wants to know! Food time. More after rehearsal tomorrow . . .
Listened to most of the sound cues again this morning, and let some more images seep into my head for how to stage them. As I think of the big group numbers at the start and close of each act, I can imagine Tim Cusack, friend and a master judge of camp, sitting in the audience laughing hysterically, so I'm probably on the right track.
It will be both fun and icky/painful to stage these kitschfests. I need to get those tapes from Moira Stone of her show choir competitions, which she offered for reference, though previously-repressed memories of happily watching the Donny & Marie and Sonny & Cher shows as a small child are coming back to me, and all the variety show tropes therein. {{shudder, sob}} Show/swing choir, trade shows, variety show sketches and musical numbers, audio and visual industrial promotions -- that's this show alright. Well, I've done some pretty good theatre in the past by rehabilitating a 19th-Century temperance play (Ten Nights in a Bar-Room) and a religious pageant (T.S. Eliot's The Rock) so why not another unsettlingly square and "presentational" form of theatre?
I also looked up which episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 have the short industrial/educational films I also wanted to show the cast, so I could pull the tapes out. I'll carry my VCR and the tapes to the space tonight, so I don't have to schlep them really early tomorrow morning when I'll be tired and grumpy.
I also looked for the films that I know but don't have copies of online by googling the Prelinger Archive, and instead I got the Internet Moving Image Archive, which turned out to be a mindblower -- not only all the Prelinger Archives, but massive amounts otherwise. Too much damned information. Too many damned possibilities. I downloaded the two films I was looking for, and then a few others that may be useful.
Video is suddenly becoming much, MUCH more important in this show than I had anticipated.
After writing that last sentence I got caught up for 10 minutes looking for more short films on the Moving Image website. This is going to be dangerous and seductive. I'll want to squeeze in tangential items that don't belong just because I like them. Must put the kibosh on that RIGHT NOW.
How the hell am I going to put this show together? Suddenly, that thought occurs to me again. I simply have to stand there and commit to things unquestioningly the first time out as they come out of my brain and my mouth, and then fix them later if they don't work.
I think I will wind up needing multiple private meetings with each individual actor as well at their leisure. Rehearsal with everyone is going to have to be all about grand gestures; I'll need to work on the little fiddily bits one-on-one with each performer.
I believe I will have to lecture a bit to the company tomorrow about some of my philosophies behind what I do and why I do it tomorrow. Oh, dear. I've always avoided that in the past, but I may have to explain where some of this show is coming from in order for the cast to "get it" fully enough to do it right. Just have to be quick and focused about it -- get it over with. Nothing more horrible than a director going on and on about his "aesthetic." Make ya wanna fwow up.
These people trust me, and I have earned their trust. I have earned their trust by guiding many of them to do their best work, always with a firm and steady hand. I'm now asking for their trust in leading them without any kind of firm or steady support, and asking them to help me figure out what to do next. They are good workers. They are professionals. They are craftsmen, tradespeople, who know their jobs and how to do them very VERY well. I worry at times that there will be a lack of focus from the company in working this way, that chaos will ensue. I should not. This cast will not let that happen. I will not let that happen.
Huh. Mantra for That's What We're Here For (an american pageant). Something to say in the mirror before rehearsals.
In other crafts news, Adventures of Caveman Robot was well-performed and well-received last night and I was happy with my work, despite a couple of problems -- my singing felt a bit oddly weak, like I couldn't belt out in the bass register as I usually do; I also stumbled noticeably over one line (distracted by audience laughter from the friend in the front row, bad actor! bad actor!), and I jumped a whole section of text in one scene, where I got distracted by another actor jumping over one of my lines. The line he had jumped was a late addition to the script, and I'm still unsteady about it, and it distracted me to the point that I jumped to another late addition to the script that I'm also unsteady about (I haven't internalized these lines as much as the others, and whenever I do them, there's a part of my brain that is still seeing and reading them off of the script page, written in the margin in my handwriting where they've been inserted).
Also, I've been called back for pickups on the voiceover work I did last week. $ka-CHING!$
And I won't get to finishing Martin Denton's podcast material for nytheatre.com until tomorrow, not yesterday or today as I told Martin and Rochelle. I'm sure it'll be fine.
And I think I'll email some friends and colleagues about this blog now, and make it a bit less coy and secretive.
Maybe some of them can suggest solutions for some odd computing problems -- on my laptop (Windows, don't like it,I'm a MacHead, but it's free), none of the browsers are loading background images/colors, which makes some pages ugly, and some unreadable (I get white text on white background). It happens in all browsers (I switched from IE to Mozilla Firefox recently) so it's something in the general settings of the laptop, but I can't find anything to change it.
Also, for some reason, links I put into these posts work just fine on my home computer, but when I check them on the laptop, the addresses get screwed up -- my journal address gets added to the link -- so the links are broken. Any ideas why?
Youth wants to know! Food time. More after rehearsal tomorrow . . .
