Well, the train keeps running and you can either get on and enjoy the ride or stand still and watch it pass you by. I consciously chose to get on board today after a much needed, though not very effective, "day off". With a house and two kids and two dogs and career in the balance, there's never a day off. There's barely an hour off. But in my life, there is little time to ponder the details.
I say "not very effective" because as days off go, I was up and going at 6am and didn't stop till midnight. I'm not gonna go through the grocery list of things - dropping kids, school chores, picking up kids, working out - but suffice to say it would make any suburban housewife proud. And I did it all with a smile on my face. Yeah, right!
But it did provide me with a bit of perspective on this coming weeks events and I realized, with the limited time we would have on the actual set, that I should make good use of it. I was determined to get to rehearsal a bit early so I could go over my material, refreshing my memory with lines, intentions and so forth. We started off the morning with a crisp look at some of my individual scenes, first with Alyse on the "Jetty" singing Name Of The Game, then the "wedding scene" where Allison and I sing Take a Chance. Both required rather large adjustments in terms of the physical and technical elements. The stage is much larger than the rehearsal hall, and though I've spent many years working in theater, there's still that excitement that comes with actually being on the set. It made me realize that I'm gonna have to "ramp up" my performance if I'm gonna reach the back of the house, and that's to be expected. But just being on the set, walking around, getting a feel for the size and scope of the theater continued to be an eye opener.
I also realized that the more intimate work we did in the rehearsal room, though it might have felt "small" on the big stage, was actually a great place to start. It's like the seedling that needs the tiny patch of dirt and sunshine to start its growth before it takes root and flourishes. If the seedling is buried deep in the ground, flooded with water and given no light and no nurturing, there's little chance for growth. If we had simply gone right to the stage, without any chance to let the scenes "grow" organically and find their footing in the truth of the moments, the performances would be two dimensional, at best, with a lot of loud and fast singing and talking, but no real connection between actors, between the "people" in the scenes. And that's really what theater is all about, no? That connection? So it was a good thing to begin those rehearsals (what seems like eons ago) in that tiny little rehearsal room, connecting with the material and the other actors in the most intimate of ways. And now we all have a base from which to move, from which, like the seed, we can grow.
Most of the day was spent with patchwork rehearsal, putting together the scenes and spending that much needed, precious time on the set, readjusting spacing and all the while deepening our connections to each other and the material. As Allison and I ran around the set, working on Take A Chance, we laughed at how much more of an aerobic workout this was proving to be in the real space, with a rake (don't forget!) that pitches us forward over 3 degrees. That might not sound like much, but when you're jumping over furniture and running up and down stairs, it adds up! We were sweating like crazy by the time we were done, realizing the workout we would be getting every night. Who needs a gym?!
We finished the day with a quick look at one last scene, the arrival on the beach. It's a short scene-let, really, in which Rosie and Bill share an awkward and sexually tension filled moment together. It didn't take long or much to find what seemed to be a good outline, and that was it. Released for the day.
Tomorrow we move to the next level, adding more elements with full props, scenery moving (there's a lot of it) and costume parts for the "newbies". It will move very fast in the next few days, feeling (I'm guessing) like the clown feels as he's shot from the Ringling Brothers cannon - a bit dazed and extremely confused, but absolutely thrilling. Come to think of it, that's what every day in this business feels like.
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