Let me elaborate: to begin with, rehearsal was great. We started with the meet and greet (it seems like a terrific group of people) and then there was a long discussion about the history of the show. Also, a lot was said about the unique challenges of replacing a character in a long running production. But what makes this unique is that, unlike the "cookie cutter" replacements, where an actor simply does the same thing at the same time in the same place as his or her predecessor, we are being asked - encouraged, actually - to think outside that box and create the role anew. To find new answers to the questions that this script and this story holds. This is not only refreshing, it's invigorating! It's great, once again, to be thought of and respected as an individual and have your unique talents and gifts appreciated and encouraged. Yes, this is gonna be fun!
After this discussion, we had three hours of music rehearsal where we worked on four of the group numbers from the show, including "Waterloo" and "Voulez Vous". There's an awful lot of falsetto singing, so my upper register is gonna get a helluva nice workout.
Following a short lunch, David (the actor playing Harry) and myself spent an hour doing "table work" with our director Martha, discussing in depth the nature of the relationships between the "fathers" in the show and the daughter, Sophie. Good scripts, like the one for Mamma Mia, provide clues about the nature of relationships, but at the same time leave "space" to interpret these relationships and discover their meaning. And as they (the Mamma Mia production team over the years) have discovered (and we will discover anew), with each cast change comes an entirely fresh interpretation of the story. Thereby keeping it updated and fresh for each new audience that sees it. The goal is to tell this joyful story as best we can and share it, as a gift, anew with the audience. Our gift to them. A wonderful thought.
So the overwhelming part of the process so far is not the rehearsal, which is delightful, but the paperwork, which is abundant. Pages of W-2's and I-9's and 401K's and Direct Deposits and Emergency contacts and sexual harassment agreement's (15 pages of sexual harassment agreements - not to agree to sexually harass, but to understand and agree not to sexually harass) and contracts. Contracts, contracts, contracts. You don't just sign one, but you sign the same one over and over and over. One for you, one for the producer, one for Actors Equity, one for your agent, one for... Everybody gets a piece of the pie, so everybody gets a copy of the contract. No tree saving here. But it's certainly necessary.
And that's it for day one. Tomorrow, more singing and we begin dancing. Now THAT'S gonna be interesting...
hey uncle pat, it's jake, thanks a lot for the kind words. ya, i really enjoy doing it. i hope i can make some kind of career out of it.
ReplyDeleteanyways, about THIS blog. it's great. i'm so happy you made it. i've read all the posts so far and i'm enjoying every second. congratulations on this. i'm really excited to come see you perform. keep up the blogging.