Leo Days 2, 3, 4 and 5 - November 1-4

Oh, the whirlwind/whirlpool!

Not to say things are bad. Not at all! But the play's recurring image of a whirlpool is echoed in the enormity of discussion and exploration that's made this past week both so short and so long. Where did it go? And where have we gotten to?

I had meant to follow up my first post on the pre-rehearsal background with a belated introduction of the players. But if the point of this blog is the how of the rehearsal process, there again seems far too much how to delay it with any who.

So, what's been going on?

Day 2

Table discussions. In other words, reading scenes, discussing what happens, or what needs to happen. While remaining very open and having many uncertainties about how to deal with individual passages, Micheline clearly knows why she likes the play and how it needs to be presented to convey this quality. Thankfully, the cast get this vision and buy it.

This gets translated scene by scene into who the characters are to each other and how they treat each other for the story to have the qualities of youthful optimism sympathetic, human imperfection that gives the play its power. Each of the actors shares their readings of each scene, naturally gravitating to the point of view of their character. Micheline negotiates the validity of each of these different positions, usually finding common ground between them and her opinion, though usually there's also a degree of adjusting and evolving of opinions on everyone's part to achieve a consensus. And while specific interpretations are far from set in stone, we manage to keep arriving at interpretations that not only explain what the text means but that identify what makes it meaningful. I note that the litmus test for a scene's analysis being truly satisfying is when the actors and director get passionate about expressing their interpretation. It isn't enough to say "the scene can be about X," it needs the extra layer of "...and it's great that we get to put X on stage." This is happening with most scenes, and it's a lot of fun to watch, and occasionally contribute to. As much as I liked the text on first reading it, my respect has grown immensely through this work.

Day 3

We finish the re-reading of scenes in the first half of the day. That is, after Day 1, it took this long to negotiate through a single "annotated" reading of the play. We've learned a good deal, identified many questions which we know will only be decided through trying out actions on our feet, others we hope will be settled once on our feet. But with 3 weeks of rehearsals, we're keen to get the show on its feet--though I can feel the fear mixed with excitement among the actors.

I've been scolded for interfering too much with actors I've directed in the past. Probably with good reason. But I'm struck by just how actively Micheline intervenes, how specific she can be with her requests as she gives the actors blocking, adjusts a physicality for purely practical reasons or an emotional interpretation. Grossly simplified examples: "Don't look at the floor, we can't see your face," or "Don't be upset by what he's saying, we need this scene to be about being built up and feeling good about who you are." All this despite the fact that Micheline swears her blocking will all change, that she invites a sense of play and change, and despite the fact that she's not imposing a pre-designed plan for action or story and freely uses ideas from the actors and adjusts what she asks as the shape of the play emerges scene by scene.

I realize that Micheline has the quality I hope to cultivate in my own directing: keeping loose about unimportant details, the better to perceive which seemingly tiny details will affect the very essence of the play, to help build a message and feeling for the audience. We could decide later on to change every last choice being made about where to stand, when to sit. That's not the point of this stage of the work even though that's the form it's taking (sometimes vaguely, sometimes very precisely). But the real underlying work is to feel out in minute detail what the play needs to be like moment by moment to have maximum impact.

Day 4

More of the same. We continue working the scenes, in order. Broad questions about what scenes are about from our reading on days 2-3 are getting answered, though some individual moments (lines, crosses, transitions from one scene to the next) are opening new questions.

Meanwhile, a lunch hour production meeting gives me a glimpse of some of the technical activity I'm otherwise been mostly removed from. The set is being built, though some of the more distinctive elements are still being tested. Costume elements are being hunted down. Top priority there is shoes, as this affects how actors stand, walk and hold themselves. Likewise, a rehearsal skirt is delivered for the one woman actor so she can feel how her clothes will impact on how she can move.

At the end of the day Micheline says she works slowly. But the stage manager and I agree that it's more that she's careful, rigorous. She takes the time to get to the essence of what a moment can be, to not let slide a vague line or unclear action. But when the meaning is known, she can be very efficient. She won't leave a scene alone just because it's plausible or can work one way, if it's not totally clear or not serving the purpose of the play as fully as she knows it can. But when these issues aren't at stake, she can find a way to stage the text in no time or turn an ugly stage picture into a pretty one with just a word.

Day 5

We're still not through the play in our sequential staging of the scenes. But we're where we need to be. Actors are starting to put their scripts down and work from memory. The text presents a challenge in the form of frequent, sudden scene transitions interspersed with direct audience address. These are getting more comfortable to negotiate. Recurring and contrasting movements is starting to appear, giving the play some overall shape, if still a bit crude and haphazard.

We'll finish blocking next Tuesday, after which we'll move from these initial staging choices, based on finding the essence of the play, to more specific and refined choices. Pretty stage pictures, pointed gestures, careful echoing of one scene's action later, these details will come later. But the architecture of the production's story and style are coming together.