kjl 13 May, 2008
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That final reflection 12 May, 2008
Posted by Kate Foy in rehearsals.add a comment
Just a last reminder that your final reflection is due on Tuesday 13 May (tomorrow) at high noon. You were advised of this in an earlier email. If you have been keeping your reflective posts up, then this should be a snap!
To assist you in preparing a great response, Bernadette and I have set some topic questions which you must answer in your submission. These questions have been posted to you via Study Desk so please check there for the requirements. You might also receive these in your personal email boxes if this is the address you have supplied to USQ.
We are asking that you make the response private. Now there are two ways to do this: on the blog page itself or via an email attachment.
If you go with the blog, log in first and create your post as a ‘Comment.’ Don’t actually write within the page as some of you have been doing. Go ahead and write your comment, and hit ‘Say It!’ when finished. I have turned on comment moderation. This means that only the examiners can see what you write; no one else can.
Alternatively, you could write the post in Word and send it to both Bernadette and I as a mail attachment. Your choice.
I know that three of you have your own blogs which you have been keeping separate from the class Rimers’ blog. You can follow the same steps. Of course you can also email it to us as an attachment.
Either way, the blog must be signed off by you, or the email submission done and ready for submission by midday Tuesday May 13.
Enjoy! I look forward to reading your submissions.
It’s a, Nice Day for, an After Party… 11 May, 2008
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WooHoo! Team, we have pretty much made it, only one more show and it’s time to drink our characters away by pushing their souls to the bottom of our glasses, bottles, cans, jugs, urns, vases, heck even kegs. The party is at 4 Norah street and will be starting at 6pm. I won’t tell you the directions because that’s what i phone book is for… USE IT!
Also whatever is left over from the Candybar, will be at the party, but there won’t be much, so by all means, if you want to eat, bring your own food. Invite anyone from the Theatre Department, first years, second years, third years, Theatre studies (all years) and the all mighty Stage Manager’s, and if they are feeling up to it, the directors and head examiners, you know who you are!
Now I’ll tell you without asking. My master is the Great rich Capulet; and, if you are not of the house of Montague, i pray come and crush a cup of wine. Rest you merry.
See you all there!
Break a Collective Leg 8 May, 2008
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Enjoy tonight and the rest of the season. The hard work has been done, now time to have the best kind of fun as you meet the audience and tell the tale!
Break a Leg 8 May, 2008
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I just want to wish you all the best for tonight and the season. Trust that your process has been very strong and now it’s time to fly. Thanks for sharing your imagination, creativity and talent with me. : )
A Day Off and the Power of Craft 5 May, 2008
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Some times you need to step back and enjoy what it is about performing that lured you here in the first place.
This is from the 1933 Marx Bros movie Duck Soup and is the origin of that theatre game. Now how did Groucho do that! And how good is that mime!
Piece of trivia. It was recorded on a Saturday morning with no sound crew. They rehearsed it once, and shot it in one take.
Reconnecting with the Story 4 May, 2008
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Now that we have been focusing on the technical elements of the play for the past week it is time to return to the text and remind ourselves of what the playwright may have been trying to communicate to an audience. I urge you to do a thorough reading of the text on your day off.
Below are a numbers of ideas, theories, questions etc that I’d like you to contemplate…some of it may inform your work.
Eva says: “Everybody knows what they WANT it’s just what they think they can DO that they don’t know”. Wow, what a line! To me it’s the most important idea in the play. All the characters seem to want a peaceful, God loving, forgiving, compassionate life but they don’t seem to realise what they are all capable of. They want to be kind but they are capable of rape and murder. They want to be accepting but they are capable of harsh judgement. So often in life we are surprised by what we are actually capable of, of what we can DO. Often it doesn’t have anything to do with what we really WANT. What does your character WANT in life? AND / BUT what does your character DO in life?
The people praise Driver like he is Jesus Christ himself. I think they love him much more than Jesus. They see him as a young man who was sacrificed for no good reason. I could go on forever about the parallels that I think the playwright draws between Driver and Jesus but I’m sure I’d drive you all crazy. So, instead, I simply urge you to find the religious reverence your character has for Driver.
I do have to say this about Driver and Jesus though: throughout the play we gather that Driver was actually violent towards women, and loved the fame and adoration he received from driving slot cars. We could say that he is guilty of at least two of the deadly sins: lust and pride. Skelly goes so far as to say that Driver “wasn’t human”. What I would like to posit is this: if the people of Eldricht are actually followers of the egocentic, inhuman Driver instead of the compassionate, forgiving God are they following a fasle prophet, an anti-christ, a person who has robbed them of their humanity? ……just a thought : )
If you remember the table work and the sense memory work we did right back at the beginning of the rehearsal process, you’d remember we made strong connections with how “broken” the town is. It’s a ghost town. This is a town where industry, retail and farming is not in good shape. The people are poor and they don’t seem to be able to find a way to save themselves from what could be seen as a financial recession. Most young peple have to move away in order to find work. The ones that stick around are mostly unemployed (or at least underemployed) and bored. To top it all off, it looks like they are in for a drought. I’m sure that in this environment the men of the town must feel at a loss. In an age when the man was the “bread winner” and the “head of the house”, the men of Eldricht must feel weak, unmasculine. I think they have lost sight of what it means to be honourable men because they have lost full employment and therefore a sense of purpose and identity. For the men of the cast: please consider how your character has been effected by the economic downturn emotionally and morally. How do we sense the effect of the downturn in your actions / relationships with others? Jenna: does Wilma call out “Papa” because she grieves the loss of “real men” in the town?
Another theory on the state of Eldricht: if you look through history and find communities of people who find themselves in this sort of predicament we often find a certain type of behaviour emerging. “Scape-goating” is what I like to call it. What I mean is this: when people’s lives start to full apart they need to find something or someone to blame for their hardship, they find a “scape goat”. As you all know, in the lead up to World War II the Jewish people were blamed for the financial hardships being experienced by the German people. The Jewish people were not only made out to be greedy and rich by the Nazis but the propaganda made them out to be evil. Many Germans who were suffering decided to take comfort in the views of the Nazis and blame all their troubles on a completely innocent group of people. It seems to me that suffering can lead to people “scape-goating” which in turn leads to hatred which then leads to one group of people wanting to kill another group of people, or in the case of Eldricht, kill an individual. Please consider the suffering that your character has experienced in recent years that may be resulting in such a deep distrust and hatred of the “evil” Skelly.
Some questions:
* Has your character been “bruised” by living in this town? We know Mary is bruised literally but I think there are others that may be metaphorically bruised.
* Does your character call to God with a capital G or a lower case g. Why?
* Does your character want “truth” or does s/he want “order”?
* Does your character want to be responsible for his/her own actions or does s/he want the Church or the Law to always play the disciplinarian parent? So, is your character really an adult or a child?
* Men of the cast: are you refered to as a “man” or a “boy”? How does that make you feel?
* When is God at work in the town and when is Satan at work in the town?
* What happens to the people of a town, or a nation for that matter, when they are at war? (As you know, this play is set during the Vietnam War). What is our response to violence and death in a time of war?
Oh, I could rattle on for hours sharing my theories etc on the play but I think that’ll do for tonight. Thanks for your work today. It’s such a rich play with so many poignant messages for an audience. Please continue to consider what it is your character has to share with the people of 2008.
Cheers,
b
May 3: Dress Rehearsal 1 3 May, 2008
Posted by Kate Foy in rehearsals.Tags: rehearsals
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A good night tonight with a few tech glitches, few acting glitches and in fact a step up all round. There was the sound and feel of real acting in the air as scene partners took one another along for a good ride.
The integration of the rhythm and tempo of scenes, transitions and sound and lighting cues remains to be finessed, but the structure is firm and I get a real sense that the team is coming together as an ensemble. With another 4 dress rehearsals before opening night on Thursday, there is a real opportunity now for everyone to be the best they can be and to make the collective work stunning.
What remains a challenge now is the voice work which remains under par. Tomorrow morning’s workshop will address the needs of the acting company in a direct and obvious way. Hopefully the fix will provide the next big step up for all.
Here we go!
April 30: Another rehearsal room run 30 April, 2008
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This afternoon’s run, our last in the rehearsal room where we began this journey at the start of semester, was the last comfort stop. From here on in, we are in performance conditions, and that means the whole project is at the pointy end of things.
The flow of the story is beginning to happen and the events are coming clearer as actions are played more securely and stronger character choices made. I smell confidence cooking. This is always good. And the actors are beginning to know where they need to go next; taking charge of their own development. This is also always good, and especially with actors in training, many of whom depend more than they should on the director in the creative decision-making process.
From now on, it’s into tech which is always a difficult time for all. For the actor it’s a bit of a hiatus … you can feel as though the play has gone away, to be replaced by mechanistic considerations like timing of cues, finding lights and so on. This is all part of the process of course, and it’s through these considerations that the play and the production as a whole steps up to the next level of engagement with the ways and means of the theatre. Next, it’s the audience to contend with.
But for now, it’s making the final step from rehearsal room into the performance space. It’s an exciting time when costume, makeup, props, lighting, furniture, the set … the new space itself … are integrated into the ‘pure’ acting work that has characterised rehearsals thus far. Time to focus and to trust the work and one another.
Here we go!
April 29: In two places at once 29 April, 2008
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Sometimes it happens that way. Today for a couple of hours plotting the sound and lighting cues for Act 2. Working a swing-shift with Bernadette in the rehearsal room and Arts Theatre. Got excited again at how sound and light ‘painting’ gives so much to the acting work on the floor … like a sound track does to a good movie. It enhances everything without being obvious. I’m shaking the heck out of the aesthetics of minimalism. For this show, the acting is all and sound and light are partners in the storytelling. The crew are fantastic and have prepped beautifully. Welcome onboard.
Back to the rehearsal room for a run of Act 2 and oh, thank you … we’re gradually clawing back lost ground and with a new enthusiasm and focus that I have not seen before. It has been there all along as I’d hoped. A big learning for everyone I think.
Now on to the up close and personal polishing and refining. Into the sound studio at 8am for God’s sake to record the Patsy and Walter (ahem) moments. The things we do in the name of art.
