Illness

Well, last night's rehearsal didn't go as planned.


I got text messages from Danny and Christiaan that they'd both be out sick with the damn thing that's going around, and Roger was unable to be at rehearsal to begin with, so we were left with almost nothing that we could rehearse productively. So I had to send home Maggie, Jessi, Eric, Aaron, and Fred, and just work the two Foustka/Vilma scenes with Walter and Alyssa.


As I've somewhat mentioned, these scenes are delicate and require a certain amount of spontaneity that gets lost in repeated rehearsals. Walter and Alyssa really "know" the scenes by now, and we can really only do each scene twice at most, discuss what's working and what's not, and move on -- any more than that, and the scenes become self-conscious and not what we're trying to do.


So we did each scene once, I think, and the opening of one scene a second time, and discussed a few subtle things, and that was pretty much what we could do. Walter had a great idea about a second meaning for one of his lines in another scene, which neither I nor Alyssa had thought of, but both of us were enthusiastic about. Walter also had some questions about his blocking during his long speeches in the office, and wondering if he was wandering around too much. I didn't think so, and (somewhat unintentionally - I was on my feet and in position) demonstrated how I thought the movement in those scenes worked best, and it seemed Walter "got it" better as a result


I really try to avoid giving line readings, or even the physical equivalent of "line readings," but sometimes it just happens, and more often than not it actually does work and speeds things along.


Frustrating not to do what I expected, but at least actual good productive work happened. I felt better by the time we were working.


Since we were done really early, and I had paid for the space, Berit and I left Walter there to work alone as he wanted to, and went home. Checking in on blogs I found a great piece by Matt Zoller Seitz on one of my favorite films, Kiss Me Deadly, and as usual when that film comes into my head, I have the immediate urge to watch it right then and there (the other film that does this for me is Lost Highway). So I put it on and enjoyed it again.


Today, Berit doesn't feel well but can't tell if she's coming down with the same ick as everyone else or it's just allergies. To a lesser extent, me too. I was planning to type up and send out some emails about costumes/props and other things that are needed to the cast, but haven't got round to it. Must do it tonight. Berit and I are going to go over to The Brick shortly and drop off some of our set pieces. The house light designer, James Bedell, is supposed to be there, hanging the house plot for the Havel Festival, and if he needs any help I'll lend a hand (I also got the wonderful news that James has been told about my desire to have at least 8 practical edison plugs on stage controllable from the board and is indeed setting that up! YES! I was really worried it wasn't going to happen, for some reason).


I have GOT to get cheerier about this show. There's no good reason for me to be moping around when it's going better than usual, at least as far as what I normally have to worry about is concerned.


Tomorrow, maybe more work at the space. Saturday, fight choreography with Walter and Alyssa under the direction of the great Qui Nguyen. Then scene work with Walter and Timothy. Sunday . . . and I cross my fingers on this one . . . a full-cast run. For real.

Documentation

In continuing to occasionally note other writings and documents that come up as a result of putting on a show, two excerpts from recent email exchanges.


First, Tim Cusack asks me some questions about the brief tango that he and Alyssa are to do in one scene, and I finally get my thoughts in order about it and answer him (as much for my own understanding as I write about it as for his):


I've found someone who's willing to work with me on the tango. Do you
have some sense yet of how long it needs to be, music you want to use,
if there should be some "event" that happens during it, etc? Any
information would be helpful.

THANK YOU. Big help and a load off my mind.

Okay, the tango I've been hearing in my head (and singing at rehearsal) is "Tango del fuego" by Lieber and Stoller, which I mainly know as a song with lyrics ("Tango" recorded by Peggy Lee in 1976 -- which I've never heard -- and by Joan Morris/William Bolcom a few years later, which is the version I know). An instrumental version is heard in the film Tempest.

The problem is, there doesn't seem to be an available recording anywhere of the full instrumental version, and the song version starts with the tango and a spoken section over it before it goes off to non-tango places. The Bolcom/Morris version has enough instrumental lead before the speaking to use, but it's done on solo piano and isn't full enough (and almost impossible for me to get right now). I'm trying to find a way to download the Peggy Lee to see if it has a usable intro, but haven't found it yet.

The only other tango I know I have handy (I'm sure I have many others but I don't know where to start digging exactly) is Weill's "Youkali Tango," which has the right beat, but the instrumentation and melody line are a bit too "gypsy-mournful" and not "seductive" enough. It should be a tango focused on the rhythm, not any melody on top, if you have any ideas. And probably not entirely "authentic" if not "poppy" -- as in, composed by Mike Stoller or Kurt Weill as opposed to something Argentinian. Which may be a key to the actual dance as well, in this play about masks and false faces and pretense, it's probably a tango "as imagined to be authentic" by these characters. While in most ways I'm trying to get away from a pure "Eastern Europe Under Communism" feeling for the play, making the metaphor more universal, it might not be bad to think of the tango as what someone in that time and place would have thought authentic.

The dance moment in the show should be about eight measures, I think; the first six consisting of three repeats of the tango "theme," then a climactic measure to finish on sharply. The tango dancer and Vilma enter stage left and make an arc towards downstage center and then up right (this is all downstage in about 6 to 8 feet by 15 feet of performance space). At the downstage center of the arc, a rose should be passed from your mouth to hers (I guess midway at the end of 4 measures). At the other end of the arc, you wind up dipping her, or at least bending her back, over Foustka, who is sitting on a bench, miserable, and after he asks her how she's doing, she spits the rose at him and answers. Roger enters SL to ask her a question, and you rise her up to answer him over your left (downstage) shoulder. As Roger exits SL, the music starts again, and you take three or four measures to exit behind the bench (there is a shoulder-high (2-dimensional) bush behind it which hides you mostly as you exit R. There is not a lot of space between the bench/bush and the exit, so it probably should be a simpler "strutting" dance on the exit, if that makes sense.

When the two of you re-enter, it's just 4 measures to a sharp ending, from the tight entrance behind the bench around into joining in the semicircle just right of center.

Well, that's probably more than enough for now on that, huh? Does that help? As soon as I'm more certain on the music, I'll email it to you, if that works for you.

best,

IWH


And in a very different mode, just a few minutes ago, a short exchange with Aaron Baker, who plays The Secret Messenger.

You see, Aaron and I went to school in Massachusetts along with Uma Thurman, and we all acted in The Crucible together - Aaron was Judge Danforth, I was Reverend Hale, Uma was Abigail Williams (of course), and we were all pretty well friendly once upon a time. Aaron headed his email, "I'm a terrible failure":


So I just saw Uma walking down the street, but I realized it too
late to accost her. Which maybe is for the best. But I apologize
for missing the opportunity to plug your play.


Aw man.

Maybe for the best, indeed. I probably would have had the same reaction, and then regretted it.

Or I would have said hi, and chatted with her briefly, as we have on a couple of occasions since school, and completely forgot to say anything about what I was doing now.

IWH