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Days and nights constructing an actual script for That's What We're Here For.
I really thought the show would all be so image based, with such fragmentary text, that there wouldn't be a full-out written script, but nope, I had to sit down and put everything we've done into script form to make it all make sense as a whole, and put in certain other elements. It's become less of a revue and more of a play as we've been working, so I now have to treat it that way.
It's been a surprising slog of writing -- the original creative work has been coming easy, I'm happy with the dialogue and other ideas I'm coming up with at this point, but the transcribing of the song lyrics lip-synced in the show, and the rewriting of Berit's shorthand blocking notes into something intelligible and readable, has turned out to be more time-consuming and irritating than I expected. I'd forgotten I actually spend time making stage directions interesting to read and stylistically adaptive for what I'm trying to describe; I thought I'd just be writing out football plays.
Had a wonderful couple of individual rehearsals yesterday (well, Wednesday) with Maggie and Stacia to make their "big" scenes clearer to all of us. I'd already structured Maggie's big movement scene, but it needed something else, and we worked it all out. Maggie needed a bit more "story" to make the reasoning behind the scene have clarity for her, I think. I was reticent about adding more story to the movement piece, as I felt the quality of movement was in and of itself the story, emotionally and logically, and thought too much more would make the underlying subtext of the scene into actual text. Between the two of us, I think we found the right balance to make the scene and character arc more playable, while retaining the purity and ambiguity of the movement. I also figured out more stuff to give the other actors in the scene -- I had things for them to do in each verse of the Dylan song that scores the scene, but it turned out it wasn't enough, and they were just vamping forever on the same gestures. So, more things for everyone to do. Subtle, but more.
Stacia's two "fantasy" scenes were still a big blank, but we got on our feet and it all suddenly became clear, thank god. I was worried I'd have nothing there, but suddenly we made it real.
We also made it ridiculously complex, full of props and set pieces that now have to be created. Berit had been making a lot of good suggestions as to what we could do in Stacia's "kitchen of tomorrow" fantasy, and after a while of this she, the master prop/set builder as well as my assistant/production manager, finally realized to her horror, "I've just spent the last half hour making up three full days of work for myself, haven't I?" Yes, darling, you did . . . and thank you . . .
Now, I'm burnt, but I gotta get up early tomorrow and get back to finishing this script. It'll probably be 60-70 pages long, and only pages 1 to 28 are FINISHED. 29 to 37 are mostly there, but need fixing and work, and the rest (5 pages right now, all of Act II) is pretty much scene heading and blocking notes. Well, we have enough to work with tomorrow night.
I know I'll make this work somehow, and I love how the script is turning out, but how the hell this is going to happen the way it deserves to with the time/money/storage space I have available.
I really thought the show would all be so image based, with such fragmentary text, that there wouldn't be a full-out written script, but nope, I had to sit down and put everything we've done into script form to make it all make sense as a whole, and put in certain other elements. It's become less of a revue and more of a play as we've been working, so I now have to treat it that way.
It's been a surprising slog of writing -- the original creative work has been coming easy, I'm happy with the dialogue and other ideas I'm coming up with at this point, but the transcribing of the song lyrics lip-synced in the show, and the rewriting of Berit's shorthand blocking notes into something intelligible and readable, has turned out to be more time-consuming and irritating than I expected. I'd forgotten I actually spend time making stage directions interesting to read and stylistically adaptive for what I'm trying to describe; I thought I'd just be writing out football plays.
Had a wonderful couple of individual rehearsals yesterday (well, Wednesday) with Maggie and Stacia to make their "big" scenes clearer to all of us. I'd already structured Maggie's big movement scene, but it needed something else, and we worked it all out. Maggie needed a bit more "story" to make the reasoning behind the scene have clarity for her, I think. I was reticent about adding more story to the movement piece, as I felt the quality of movement was in and of itself the story, emotionally and logically, and thought too much more would make the underlying subtext of the scene into actual text. Between the two of us, I think we found the right balance to make the scene and character arc more playable, while retaining the purity and ambiguity of the movement. I also figured out more stuff to give the other actors in the scene -- I had things for them to do in each verse of the Dylan song that scores the scene, but it turned out it wasn't enough, and they were just vamping forever on the same gestures. So, more things for everyone to do. Subtle, but more.
Stacia's two "fantasy" scenes were still a big blank, but we got on our feet and it all suddenly became clear, thank god. I was worried I'd have nothing there, but suddenly we made it real.
We also made it ridiculously complex, full of props and set pieces that now have to be created. Berit had been making a lot of good suggestions as to what we could do in Stacia's "kitchen of tomorrow" fantasy, and after a while of this she, the master prop/set builder as well as my assistant/production manager, finally realized to her horror, "I've just spent the last half hour making up three full days of work for myself, haven't I?" Yes, darling, you did . . . and thank you . . .
Now, I'm burnt, but I gotta get up early tomorrow and get back to finishing this script. It'll probably be 60-70 pages long, and only pages 1 to 28 are FINISHED. 29 to 37 are mostly there, but need fixing and work, and the rest (5 pages right now, all of Act II) is pretty much scene heading and blocking notes. Well, we have enough to work with tomorrow night.
I know I'll make this work somehow, and I love how the script is turning out, but how the hell this is going to happen the way it deserves to with the time/money/storage space I have available.
