Summer's not quite over, and since we're missing a few key cast members (our "Sam" is still in San Diego and our "Tanya" is still on Broadway), this is a fairly light week for rehearsal. So when I was told that I only had a 1 1/2 hour rehearsal today, I figured I could combine my time at work with some late summer play time with my kids. I took them on an adventure they've longed for but I've neglected for some time: the top of the Empire State Building! My kids have been "jones-ing" to see it for a while now, and I haven't been there for years, so we took advantage of a late summer day and went to the top. It was beautiful, to say the least. But the last time I went, I felt like I just walked in, paid for a ticket, and rode the elevator to the top. Now it's like going to Disney! You wait behind stanchion ropes in this line, then you wait behind more stanchion ropes in that line, then you take everything off (practically) as if you're going through airport security, then you wait in some more lines behind some more stanchion ropes. It took nearly 45 minutes from the minute we walked in the door on 5Th Ave to walk out onto the rooftop deck. But on a gorgeous day like today, it was worth it. And hey, I got to spend some quality time with my kids, so I can't beat that. 4 postcards (for my daughter) and 1 Empire State Lego Building project (for my son) totalling nearly $40 later, we were outta there and on our way to MM! We stopped off for a quick slice - my kids get hungry so it was more like 2 slices each - and we buckled down into my mid-afternoon rehearsal.
Over the years, and with the help of my wife who really knows how to care for kids, I've learned the trick of diversion and distraction. If left to my own devices, I would've merely told my kids to sit down and wait for me. For an hour and a half? Never gonna happen. But I've learned - gotta keep 'em busy. So I was like Santa on Christmas morning when we arrived at the studio. (It also helped that our babysitter Sarah met us in the lobby to hang with them.) I opened my bag and there were treats and drinks and handheld video games and the piece de resistance - a portable DVD player and 2 movies to choose from: Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler and the Tim Burton directed Coraline. They opted for Bedtime Stories and were on their way.
In the meantime, I ducked into my rehearsal and spend a wonderful nearly 2 hours with my director Martha and my "Rosie" Allison mulling over more script and story and trying to decipher which character knew which when. If that sounds confusing, that's the point. The wonderful thing about MM!, for those who've yet to see it, is (beyond the obvious ABBA music) the mystery that lay within the story - a young girl getting married, not knowing who her father really is. Regardless of your feelings about a grown woman who would put herself in that kind of a position (getting pregnant at the age of twenty-something having been promiscuous with many men and not knowing the father of her child), I think MM is a very refreshing story about their search. The mother's search for her true love and the father of her grown child, the daughters search for her father and her destiny and, coincidentally, each of the other's characters search for themselves. In the case of my character Bill, it's almost a search to find some stability after a lifetime of living out of a back pack and being the adventurer. Or is he? Perhaps he talks the big talk but in the end has always been a bit of a homebody, almost trying to live up to an expectation that was inadvertently placed on him by others. Or, even more difficult, by himself. Fascinating and rich material.
Anyway, I'm getting a bit carried away with the intricacies of the role and the possibilities, but these are the kinds of discussions we are having right now in rehearsal and I find them fascinating. In fact I find theater, and acting in particular, to be not only about the show, but more importantly, about the human condition and the human psyche. I always felt that if there was no such thing as acting and no career path to follow I would have ended up being a psychiatrist. I love delving into the personal motivation behind why people do what they do. This is going to sound a bit controversial, I know, but I was asked at a dinner party many years ago (as if I go to a lot of dinner parties!) if I could meet anyone living or dead (the old "living or dead" game), who would it be? While others mentioned names like "Jesus" or "Gandhi", my first thought was "Hitler". I mean why not? Who wouldn't want to know what went through the mind of a guy like that! I wouldn't want to be his friend, and I sure wouldn't want to be his enemy, but I would be very interested to know what was going on in his psyche, to understand what drove him to be the man he was.
Bet you didn't count on that kind of a post from a blog on Mamma Mia, huh? Well neither did I, to be honest. I just write what comes to mind.
In any event, the more time we spend delving into the story and the relationships (and the inevitable and idle theater chatter that goes with any rehearsal - "I remember when I played the ringmaster in the Ringling Circus..." true story, but we'll get to that in another post), the more enjoyable this process becomes.
Tomorrow, more singing, more dancing and another costume fitting. I've got one word - and I fear to say it - SPANDEX.
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