And we're off!

So, here we are!  After a Holiday hiatus, Rehearsals are up and running; we've had two glorious days of full cast music rehearsals and are continuing in that vein for another week or so.  Our cast is incredibly responsive to Martin's direction.  AS always, Martin's direct and demanding style can make people a little nervous ...especially if cast members aren't 100% on the notes.  It is a note learning rehearsal as well, but Martin goes pretty fast, and cast members are definitely more comfortable if they have some familiarity with the music when they come in.  Martin is also very responsive to questions and requests for notes or harmonies, as is Carol, our accompanist.  At any rate, several seasoned Lyric members have let me know that they are looking forward to the challenge--if with a little nervousness!

At last night's rehearsal scheduling meeting, we laid out 2 weeks of rehearsal--mostly consisting of blocking.  You may have heard me say previously that blocking is...contra-indicated by my brain set-up?  Well, that's not entirely true, but to a certain extent planning for the physical movement of all those people makes me anxious.  I tend to approach it as a "back and forth" task--I give a little bit of movement, ask a lot of questions, hear what the actor thinks, then together, we adjust.  I'm approaching this task a little bit differently this time--basically just laying the basic groundwork out for people and telling them where to go on stage.  We will have to fill in the details of why?  and  what problem are you solving?  later.  We'll see how THAT goes!

One of the tasks that I was really looking forward to is the table talk sessions with actors.  It gives me a chance to share historical information, background information from the novel, thoughts about character, and most importantly for principals--how do they like to work?  I don't really know some of the actors playing principal roles (our JVJ, for one!) and it's very important to me to create a connection and a sense of trust with my actors.  I want them to know that I consider this work a collaboration, a sharing of ideas and a dialogue.  If I can't make space for what they can bring to the process, then I --and our story--is missing something.  I did meet with several people this week--including the whole group of actors involved with the docks/Lovely Ladies--and I started to get a glimpse of who these people are!  Yippee!!

I've found a very interesting question to ask while blocking with actors:  "What problem are you solving right now?"  Asking and answering that question at the start of blocking rehearsals focuses us on the action, the verbs and the doing.  You have to be engaged when you answer the question because --a boon for ALL actors:  It gives you something to DO all the time!  It is also a lot easier to understand than actions, objectives, etc.  I'm excited about using it as a tool to open dialogue and conversation about what's happening in the scenes.

Soon it will be my turn!

To the Barricades!
Kelly