Romeo and Juliet - Rehearsal 2

Now that we're into scene rehearsals, each day will be broken down by the scenes that we worked on.

2.1 and 3.5 (Romeo and Juliet only)
This was our first shot at the two major scenes between Romeo and Juliet.  Both, coincidentally, involve the balcony.  I've worked on the actual balcony scene (2.1) with Johnny and AJ before for a class.  This time around, I wanted to make sure the characters we were establishing worked in the context of the play and that the blocking we had was audience friendly as well as working for the actors.  The guys did a lovely job.  They took the characters to places that are new for these characters and the stuff they came up with was amazing.  Johnny asked how much of the stage was open to him.  When I told him that the whole theatre was open, he jumped down into the audience to give his first lines sitting with the the audience members.

Johnny and AJ got 2.1 down so quickly that we moved on to 3.5 much quicker than I'd planned for.  Their last moments alive together in this play are looking so tender and beautiful.  Standing on the balcony, holding each other, they look completely at home.  I was amazed at how little direction I needed to give them.  I did some very minor tweaks once we got the basic blocking shape down, but one of the reasons I cast these two guys is because I saw in their auditions that they knew these characters.  They each had a sense, even then, of who these characters are and how they would react in certain situations.

2.5 (Romeo, Juliet, and the Friar)
This scene needed a few little tweaks to get the blocking just right, but they had the character bits down right from the start.  They had more questions about this scene than about the balcony scenes.  They had small questions about what certain lines mean and specific reactions.  But again, we got through this scene so quickly that we moved on to scene 4.1... and the fun began.

4.1 (Friar Lawrence, Juliet, Paris)
I had a notion about this scene as we started to rehearse it.  As AJ (Juliet) and Glenn (Friar) started to work on the end of this scene, I saw how the beginning of it should look.  The blocking for this scene is an exact mirror of 2.5 (the wedding scene).  Though, the result of this scene is a little different than its mirror, but the blocking plays out beautifully.  My only hope is that someone will notice.  And, even if they don't, I'm very proud of how clever this juxt-a-position.

3.1 (Mercutio, Benvolio, Tybalt, Romeo)
We only worked the beginning part of this scene tonight.  I wanted some good time on this fight while we had our actual performance space.  It's rare to get rehearsals in the Blackfriars as often as we have them, so I wanted to take advantage of it.  These two fights and the surrounding scene is looking really great.  Of course, this evening there were the obvious flubs and boggles because of the need to have scripts, but the shape here is coming together.  Of course, JP, my fight choreographer, is mostly to thank for the beginning shape of this scene.  In order to choreograph the fight, he had to block a bit at the top of the scene as well (including where people enter from).  It took the guys a bit to get back into the swing of the fight, but once they did, it started progressing very quickly from where they left it in December when JP choreographed it.  We could have spent a lot more time on this scene than I did this evening.  But, I ended us sooner than I would have liked to because Brian (Tybalt) is not feeling well.  There's no point in hammering through the scene too much if he's not really feeling up to fighting.

"I Fell in Love Without You" by Motion City Soundtrack
We had another very short music rehearsal this evening.  Hollinger and Brian did some quick work on the song that will go in between acts 1 and 2.  This song didn't come together quite as beautifully as the pieces last night, but it will certainly get there.  There's some odd rhythmic things that, once they get worked out, will make this song really stand out.  With just a bit more work,  this song will be rockin' (so don't bother knockin').