"No vocals until after your dead." - JP Scheidler, Fight Choreographer
Instead of blogging after every day of fight rehearsal, it seems more efficient to me to take all the we've done in the past week and put it into one blog. However, I will break it down by day.
12/9 - 1.1 (The Brawl)
Today we worked on one of my favorite fights, the opening scene brawl between the servants. I like this fight because it's a chance for the show to show it's true colors. If you play the fight serious, we all know where the show it headed. If you play the brawl for comedy (like we're doing), you can throw the audience off entirely. JP and I latched on to the idea of fighting with whatever they had lying around. We ended up with a fight that includes a bucket, a rubber mallet, a broom, a crowbar and a glass of water. The humor of the first part of the fight sets up just how dangerous the blades are when we get to Tybalt dueling Benvolio.
The second half of the fight is really all about those swords. The other guys have pretty much backed off by that point (I would too if I saw Tybalt coming). This sword fight between Benvolio and Tybalt is short, but flashy. It's easy to tell in a very short time that these guys know their stuff and are very evenly matched. Brian Falbo (Tybalt) and Mike Hollinger (Benvolio) learned the choreography like champs. Enough so that when we came to rehearse this fight again we were doing some real detail work and vocal scoring and intention. This fight, though short, really shows off some brilliant skill.
12/10 - 5.3 (Romeo / Paris)
JP and I spoke for a long time about what we wanted this fight to be. I wanted messy, unplanned action. I very much wanted violence with a crowbar. This fight is everything I thought the Paris/Romeo fight could be and more. It makes me wince every time I watch it. It took longer than usual to lay down the choreography for this fight, I think because I wanted it to looked messy and unplanned. Plus, a rapier vs. crowbar fight is not the easiest thing to negotiate. Though, from watching JP work, you'd never know it.
Romeo, in this fight, is like the hulk. You don't want to see him when he's angry. Everything for him is already so heightened that one twitch from Paris and he flies off the handle. Paris' death is brutal and while Romeo does come off as villainous, he very clearly gives Paris the chance to walk away and shows some serious remorse once he snaps out of his fit of rage.
Johnny (Romeo) and Bobby (Paris) were very patient as JP worked his magic with this fight. They played with moves until they found ones that worked just right and were easy going about going back and adjusting things to keep things flowing correctly. This fight is very rough and very slow, but with time and some precision work, it will look even more painful than it already does.
1.1 (Benvolio / Tybalt)
We worked again on the sword fight from the first scene, making little twitches and clarifying intentions. This fight is getting to look pretty darn good, if I may say so. Brian and Mike are starting to really get into the character choices that go with all the choreography they're doing.
5.3 (Juliet's death)
We did a brief stint with AJ (Juliet), working on Juliet's death. I let JP know that I wanted somewhere between the traditional "oh it doesn't even hurt" death and a long drawn out torturous experience. What we came up with was something short and to the point, but still painful enough so that the audience knows she did not take the easy way out. JP worked with AJ on how to vary the sounds for the three different sections of the stabbing. First is a sharp intake of breath, second a very guttural sound and third is a release of air as she dies. AJ has instructions to work on the sequence over the break and play with where the text should fall and we'll fine-tune it when we all get back in January.
12/11 - 5.3 (Romeo / Paris)
We rounded back on the Paris/Romeo fight today. After some rest, this fight is looking even better. JP and Johnny and Bobby were able to fine-tune a lot of the messier moments so that they are happening more safely and with more precision. Today wasn't really about character or intention. It was just about making sure that things were happening safely and correctly so that we can start speeding the fight up when we get back from break.
3.1 (Mercutio / Tybalt)
Oh boy. This fight. It is one of the prettiest things I have ever seen. It is elegant and light. The perfect duel where no one is aiming to kill, just maim or severely injure. I was set on this fight being as quick as possible, but after seeing what JP put together with Brian (Tybalt) and Zach (Mercutio), I am in love with the fight being a little bit longer. The story of this fight plays out very well at the length that it's at. Basically, in our version of the story, Tybalt is never looking to kill Mercutio, that's the reason he runs once he realizes that he's actually stabbed Mercutio.
Other than wanting the fight to be short-ish, I didn't have a lot of thoughts on the topic, but JP brought up an interesting point about a real fight master rivalry going on around the time that Romeo and Juliet was written. Two fight masters who used two different fighting styles. One of them was always trying to get the other one to fight him. Sound familiar? That rivalry is what JP based this fight on... and it worked brilliantly.
12/13 - 3.1 (Romeo / Tybalt)
Like the Romeo / Paris fight, this one is messy. Romeo only fights when he loses control. He beats Tybalt here, not by being better, but by being completely unconventional. I was interested, at first, in having this fight be not a fight at all. I wanted Tybalt to not even finish his line before being run through. But again, I bow to the wisdom of JP and I love the result. This fight is exactly what it should be. Tybalt does everything right and Romeo still beats him. Tybalt doesn't go down without a fight and Romeo doesn't beat him on skill alone. Romeo only beats him because he goes into a berserker rage.
That's the summation of our first week's worth of rehearsals. More to come starting January 10!
Monday, December 13, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Romeo and Juliet - First Music Meeting
Today (12/6) I met with my three music directors. Instead of putting the burden of music direction for the whole show onto one person, I've doled the duties out to three of my actors. I have 9 songs in this show, so each of them will take on three songs. What we discussed today were basics of how to do each song acoustically, if there were cuts we were making and generally what I was looking for as far as sound. We'll take this post song by song:
1. Stars by Switchfoot (Zach in charge)
This song starts with some very fancy guitar work which we are cutting. I instructed Zach to simplify as much as he needed to. We've got two singers who can either switch off singing or add in harmonies if they can. Zach and Brian will be playing guitar. We're cutting the final repeat of the song.
2. For What it's Worth by Buffalo Springfield (Brian in charge)
We decided at our music meeting to add Zach to this song. His sole job is to play the harmonics all the way through. This song is very straightforward because it's fairly simple. The only thing we're cutting is all the solos in between verses. We're ending the song with a slight retard instead of trying to do a live fade.
3. Fight Your Kids by The Chalets (Zach in charge)
This is by far and away the hardest song we're attempting. I told Zach that if we just can't make it work, we'll cut it, but I'm all for attempt it and so it he. This song is going to be mostly rhythm and some guitar thrown in as Zach can figure out chords and the like. It's a strange song with a wacky beat, but will be amazing if we can get it working. Zach's up for the challenge!
4. King's Highway by Tom Petty (Mike in charge)
This song is four and a half chords. It's very easy and we're just playing it straight through.
5. Nobody Right, Nobody Wrong by Michael Franti and Spearhead (Zach in charge)
Zach wants to play the beginning of this song, so he's taking the first chorus. After that, we're going to break up the rest of the song between the rest of the cast and make this a whole company number. I decided on this because this song represents the whole show for me. Once I break everything up, we'll be able to all rehearse it together.
After this, we will be performing a short song between each act break. Each of these songs will be under 2 minutes long and serve as short interludes where people can stretch their legs or use the restroom if needed.
6. I Fell in Love Without You by Motion City Soundtrack (Brian in charge)
This song is just over 2 minutes even at full speed. We won't be doing it that fast, so we're cutting one of the three verses to make sure we keep it at 2 minutes. Other than that, fairly simple chords and not much else to say.
7. All I need by Mat Kearney (Brian in charge)
This song is actually about a flood, but the imagery is perfect for Romeo and Juliet. Again, we're only doing about half the song. Brian knows to just skip from verse to verse and this song is fairly simple once you leave out the bridge bits between verses.
8. Medicine Man by The Hush Sound (Mike in charge)
We will perform this song with no instruments, just clapping and a tambourine. Again, as simple as we can make it. Mike has an idea about tuning some PVC pipes... but we'll see if that actually plays out.
9. The Noose by A Perfect Circle (Mike in charge)
Mike is playing this song alone. We've already gone over chords and figured out how to simplify some of the rhythms. He will be playing and singing only the first verse and chorus. This song, I have to say, is already closest to finished product.
1. Stars by Switchfoot (Zach in charge)
This song starts with some very fancy guitar work which we are cutting. I instructed Zach to simplify as much as he needed to. We've got two singers who can either switch off singing or add in harmonies if they can. Zach and Brian will be playing guitar. We're cutting the final repeat of the song.
2. For What it's Worth by Buffalo Springfield (Brian in charge)
We decided at our music meeting to add Zach to this song. His sole job is to play the harmonics all the way through. This song is very straightforward because it's fairly simple. The only thing we're cutting is all the solos in between verses. We're ending the song with a slight retard instead of trying to do a live fade.
3. Fight Your Kids by The Chalets (Zach in charge)
This is by far and away the hardest song we're attempting. I told Zach that if we just can't make it work, we'll cut it, but I'm all for attempt it and so it he. This song is going to be mostly rhythm and some guitar thrown in as Zach can figure out chords and the like. It's a strange song with a wacky beat, but will be amazing if we can get it working. Zach's up for the challenge!
4. King's Highway by Tom Petty (Mike in charge)
This song is four and a half chords. It's very easy and we're just playing it straight through.
5. Nobody Right, Nobody Wrong by Michael Franti and Spearhead (Zach in charge)
Zach wants to play the beginning of this song, so he's taking the first chorus. After that, we're going to break up the rest of the song between the rest of the cast and make this a whole company number. I decided on this because this song represents the whole show for me. Once I break everything up, we'll be able to all rehearse it together.
After this, we will be performing a short song between each act break. Each of these songs will be under 2 minutes long and serve as short interludes where people can stretch their legs or use the restroom if needed.
6. I Fell in Love Without You by Motion City Soundtrack (Brian in charge)
This song is just over 2 minutes even at full speed. We won't be doing it that fast, so we're cutting one of the three verses to make sure we keep it at 2 minutes. Other than that, fairly simple chords and not much else to say.
7. All I need by Mat Kearney (Brian in charge)
This song is actually about a flood, but the imagery is perfect for Romeo and Juliet. Again, we're only doing about half the song. Brian knows to just skip from verse to verse and this song is fairly simple once you leave out the bridge bits between verses.
8. Medicine Man by The Hush Sound (Mike in charge)
We will perform this song with no instruments, just clapping and a tambourine. Again, as simple as we can make it. Mike has an idea about tuning some PVC pipes... but we'll see if that actually plays out.
9. The Noose by A Perfect Circle (Mike in charge)
Mike is playing this song alone. We've already gone over chords and figured out how to simplify some of the rhythms. He will be playing and singing only the first verse and chorus. This song, I have to say, is already closest to finished product.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Romeo and Juliet - First Cast Meeting
Well, here we are. The very beginning of my MFA thesis project. I have chosen, for my thesis, to put on an all-male production of Romeo and Juliet. While this is hardly a new concept, I hope to gain some insights into the challenges Shakespeare faced in writing for an all-male company. I'm also very interested in how an Early Modern-type cast works in a theatre that is designed to be Early Modern-esque (i.e. the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, VA).
Now that we're caught up on what I'm doing and why, let's talk briefly about our first company meeting. I was very excited to finally have (almost) everyone in the same room to kick off the process. It's been a very long road to get to this point and it's nice to leave it in the actors hands and let them start to figure things out.
First, here is a breakdown of my cast (in alphabetical order):
Johnny Adkins - Romeo, Gregory
Zach Brown - Mercutio, Montague, Musician 1, Friar John
Bobby Byers - Paris, Citizen, Montague Servant
Jeff Chips - Lady Capulet
Brian Falbo - Tybalt, Apothecary, Paris' Boy
Michael Hollinger - Benvolio, Balthazar, Chorus, Musician 2
Jay Knowlton - Capulet
Paul Rycik - the Prince, Peter
Glenn Schudel - Friar Lawrence, Sampson
AJ Sclafani - Juliet, Abram
Michael Wagoner - Nurse, Lady Montague, the Watch
Moving on, this meeting was basically about logistics. I handed out scripts, words and chords for the songs we're doing, music CDs and we attempted to start to set a first rehearsal date (more on that in a moment). Lastly, my lovely costume designer/coordinator, Carmel Clavin, set about taking folks measurements and photographs and we started having a serious discussion about what we want the general look of the costumes to be, which translates to the over all look of the show because we will not have a set or lighting.
As far as first rehearsal goes, I was intending to have a first meeting where we did a circle run of the show as a sort of kick-off to the whole process. After speaking with Mike Hollinger (Benvolio, Fight Captain) after the meeting, I've settled on a new plan for the general shape of our rehearsal process.
Starting in December, before Winter break, we will only be working fight choreography, music, and possibly a little bit of the dance (for 1.5) between Juliet and Paris. Consequently, no big first rehearsal, just a bunch of little rehearsals to get us going. Everyone will go away for the break with three tasks: 1. learn your fight choreography, 2. learn your music, 3. memorize your lines. Once folks start to get back from break in January (as early as Jan. 3), I will start working and blocking small scenes as I have the people to work them. Once everyone is back, we will do a full Ren-style* run of the whole show. This will give everyone a sense of the whole show and a good spring board into the last push of the process through to opening on Feb. 7.
So, as first meetings go, I'd say this one was fairly successful.
*Renaissance Run – a run of the show where the actors figure out everything from blocking to props to costumes without the help of a director. For my “Ren-style” run, the actors will not worry about costumes and hopefully we'll have all our props by then. So, it's more about allowing each of them to come up with the arch of the whole show for each of their characters without my help.
Now that we're caught up on what I'm doing and why, let's talk briefly about our first company meeting. I was very excited to finally have (almost) everyone in the same room to kick off the process. It's been a very long road to get to this point and it's nice to leave it in the actors hands and let them start to figure things out.
First, here is a breakdown of my cast (in alphabetical order):
Johnny Adkins - Romeo, Gregory
Zach Brown - Mercutio, Montague, Musician 1, Friar John
Bobby Byers - Paris, Citizen, Montague Servant
Jeff Chips - Lady Capulet
Brian Falbo - Tybalt, Apothecary, Paris' Boy
Michael Hollinger - Benvolio, Balthazar, Chorus, Musician 2
Jay Knowlton - Capulet
Paul Rycik - the Prince, Peter
Glenn Schudel - Friar Lawrence, Sampson
AJ Sclafani - Juliet, Abram
Michael Wagoner - Nurse, Lady Montague, the Watch
Moving on, this meeting was basically about logistics. I handed out scripts, words and chords for the songs we're doing, music CDs and we attempted to start to set a first rehearsal date (more on that in a moment). Lastly, my lovely costume designer/coordinator, Carmel Clavin, set about taking folks measurements and photographs and we started having a serious discussion about what we want the general look of the costumes to be, which translates to the over all look of the show because we will not have a set or lighting.
As far as first rehearsal goes, I was intending to have a first meeting where we did a circle run of the show as a sort of kick-off to the whole process. After speaking with Mike Hollinger (Benvolio, Fight Captain) after the meeting, I've settled on a new plan for the general shape of our rehearsal process.
Starting in December, before Winter break, we will only be working fight choreography, music, and possibly a little bit of the dance (for 1.5) between Juliet and Paris. Consequently, no big first rehearsal, just a bunch of little rehearsals to get us going. Everyone will go away for the break with three tasks: 1. learn your fight choreography, 2. learn your music, 3. memorize your lines. Once folks start to get back from break in January (as early as Jan. 3), I will start working and blocking small scenes as I have the people to work them. Once everyone is back, we will do a full Ren-style* run of the whole show. This will give everyone a sense of the whole show and a good spring board into the last push of the process through to opening on Feb. 7.
So, as first meetings go, I'd say this one was fairly successful.
*Renaissance Run – a run of the show where the actors figure out everything from blocking to props to costumes without the help of a director. For my “Ren-style” run, the actors will not worry about costumes and hopefully we'll have all our props by then. So, it's more about allowing each of them to come up with the arch of the whole show for each of their characters without my help.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
The Beginning
Because this is the first post, I thought I should take the time to explain the purpose of my blog. This is a blog of my theatrical exploits: acting, teching, and directing. Each blog post represents a rehearsal, meeting or performance of the particular show I am working on. Each post will be titled with the show and short description of what's happening that day. Thanks for reading!
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