Henry Invited Dress

I was going to take some time to actually write a real blog entry tonight, but by God I've been at that theatre every day for the past two weeks and I am out of energy.  So, instead of complaining, I will leave you with one parting comment from one of our rehearsals this week:

"It's a good things you've got your murder pants on." -John Harrell

As you can probably tell, despite my extreme exhaustion, this rehearsal process has been a blast. :)

He takes the crown

Today we worked the bit of the play that's in between battles (of which there are several).  Even without the complication of battles, some of today's scenes took quite a bit to get through.  Others, however, flew by and we ended up with some extra chunky breaks in between rehearsal chunks.  Overall, today's rehearsal was a lot about folks talking at each other and much less about running around and stabbing each other than the previous rehearsals have been.  Though, we're going to get to more stabbing tomorrow... which excites me. :)

The title of today's post comes from a scene we worked on today where Edward literally takes the crown right off of Henry's head.  It's a very bold move and they add to it when Hastings punches Henry to keep him from speaking.  Brutal... but effective.

I will say this:  it is very clear that these actors know their way around Shakespeare's history plays.  I don't mean the history itself, but how to stage one effectively.  They know when it's best to leave the stage doors open to aid entrances and how the flow of action works best.  For example, to make battle sounds, they know what types of drum beats work best and when to make them short vs. keeping them going under the action of a scene.  The actors also put a drum backstage for history play purposes to make it easier for folks to reach the drum in time to perform the specific cues.  That way people don't have to be running up and down stairs every time they need to play a drum.  It's brilliant!

Also, because I didn't write after Sunday's rehearsal, all we did at that rehearsal was work out the sound cues for the first half of the play.  Dear God. Battle is noisy!!!  It adds so much to the action to noise in between almost every scene though.  I won't go so far as to say that it makes you feel like you're in the middle of a battle, but it certainly makes the action onstage feel like it's taking place in the middle of a battle.

Some interesting "Henry VI, part 3" Resources

For anyone unfamiliar with Henry VI, Part 3 (which is perhaps more people than I'd like), there is a blogger reading all of Shakespeare's works in a year.  As good timing would have it, she's reading 3 Henry VI at the exact time we're rehearsing it!

Check out her blog at: http://365shakes.blogspot.com/ to keep up with her reading of this and all Shakespeare's other works!

Or, if you're up for a more academic (but still fun) approach, check out the ASC's mini study guide on the play.  You can find it here: http://americanshakespearecenter.poweredbyindigo.com/v.php?pg=116
It looks like you need a password to access the guide, so contact the ASC's education department to find if you can/how to get one.

Happy reading!!!

"Dicky your boy!" - beginning rehearsals for "Henry VI, Part 3"

Just before Romeo and Juliet was over, I started a job as the prompter and assistant stage manager for the American Shakespeare Center's (ASC) production of Henry VI, part 3.  Here at the ASC, we're in the middle of the Actor's Renaissance Season (ARS).  This means that there are no directors and the actors put together the shows themselves.  Since I moved to Staunton, I have been continually amazed at the performances that come out of the ARS.  The polish of performance put together in a mere matter of days (or only a couple weeks) is astounding.  I had thought it would lose a little of it's magic being on the inside, but I think I'm more amazed now than I was before I started work on 3 Henry VI. 

This group can work through complicated scenes collectively in less time than it took me as a solo director to chess piece actors around the stage.  They are super efficient even when they are not like-minded and can always come to consensus even if it means trying a piece of a scene several ways before they set the blocking or tone.

I know I'm using the word "amazed" a lot in this first post and perhaps in later posts I won't so much, but I am amazed as how much thought even goes in characters that only speak but once.  The actor that plays Somerset had his characters motivations thought out for the whole play, so when asked today in rehearsal, "Why are you in Edward's court if the Yorks killed your father?"  He was ready with an answer about not being powerful enough to walk away on his own.  So, he bided his time until both Clarence and Warwick walked and then took the opportunity to go with them.  He's for Henry only because he is against York.  That amount of thought for a one line character gave me pause about how much thought I give to characters who have far more lines than that.

Romeo and Juliet - Rehearsal 24 (Final Dress!)

Well, we've come to the end of this first series of blog entries.  Today was our final dress rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet.  The show goes up tomorrow and I can't tell you how proud I am of the work my gentlemen are doing.  Today's run of the show was gorgeous.  Yes, there were some flubs and minor costume issues, but the pace of the action was great and everyone was on top of their cues and their characters.  Man, what a difference a day makes.  Today, it looked like we actually have a decent show on our hands.  My doubts and fears from yesterday are gone and I'm ready for an audience to watch our hard work tomorrow.

Even still, there are some minor ticks and costume notes that I'm going to be sending out to the cast here in a few minutes.  I just can't leave well enough alone until it looks perfect.  Though, I will admit that it is certainly getting there.

A final post will follow this one as soon as I have the pictures the photographer took today.  I'll post a few of them so y'all can see just exactly what the show looked like!  Here we go!!!

Romeo and Juliet - Rehearsals 22 and 23

So... I definitely forgot to write a post after yesterday's rehearsal.  I went last minute to see a friend's production of Much Ado About Nothing and by the time I got home it was passed my bed time.  In any case, that means that today is two posts in one.

These two runs of the show disheartened me quite a bit.  We had that great run on Monday night and some great act work over the course of the week, but the run on Friday was awful.  And when I say awful, please don't underestimate just how awful it was.  It was as if all the hard and detailed work we'd been doing went right out the window and we were starting from ground zero once again.  I made an attempt not to panic and decided they must just need to get back into it after having a day off.  I breathed and decided that surely, surely it will get better tomorrow.

Well, Saturday came and better it did not get.  We were back in the performance space and people were still flubbing lines and missing entrances and the pace of the show was abysmal.  Though, as a testament to just how much I cut out of this show, it still ran at just about an hour and forty minutes.  I finally had a panic attack.  I confided in my assistant director that I was not sure we were going to pull this thing off.  She attempted to reassure me, but the attempt felt halfhearted at best.  Some of the moments were still working great (the fights, the deaths, anything with Juliet and the Nurse), but the show didn't feel like a whole thing.  It felt like a series of good moments within a loose and unorganized frame.  I was scared, and justifiably so, I think.  After the run was over, I made a point of telling the cast just how many people were very excited to see the show and to let them know that the show was looking good (I meant it, sort of).  That being said, I made it a point to tell everyone to look over their lines before tomorrow morning's run and to make sure they were in full costume because the photographer is coming to take pictures of the show. Fingers crossed.

Romeo and Juliet - Rehearsal 21

We ran the last two acts of the show tonight.  Together these acts only run at 30 minutes total, which means that we were able to run them once, do notes, and then run them again.  It was a very useful rehearsal to be able to do the toughest piece of the show twice in a row.  These acts are really starting to come together and be a cohesive story.  The first three acts all tell their stories, but the last two, I’m realizing more and more, need to come together to tell one story, especially because they are so short combined. 

We had to stop a couple of time last night.  Once to get a change right (that bier is a pain, but worth it) and once because someone was just not paying attention.  That actually frustrated me.  They all knew that we were running these acts and yet someone still wasn’t prepared for his entrance. Ugh.  Such is life, I suppose.  But, I was still irked.  Additionally, I think I need to sit down and have a chat with my two leads.  They’ve been working really well together for 99% of the process, but something has gotten them in a tiff (and I don’t think it started just last night).  I’ve already spoken with AJ briefly, so I’ll talk with Johnny tomorrow and then with both of them.  It’s funny, most other folks in the cast, I could care less if they don’t like each other, but I can’t have there being any outside tension on the real life repore between these two guys.  Everything will look wrong.  So… Mediation. Yay?

The last thing we did tonight (because there was so much left over time) was work on music.  We did “Nobody Right, Nobody Wrong” three times in a row and I have to admit it’s really starting to sound good.  Like, good enough to play in front of people.  I’m happy that the guys are really starting to get the song.  I’m really proud of it as our theme song for this show and now I’m finally proud of the way they’re starting to perform it.

After I let most everyone go, those who are part of “Fight Your Kids” did that song a couple of times as well.  This is another song that I’ve been very worried about.  But last night, it sounded great!  Now, if only AJ and Wagoner would learn the words…

Romeo and Juliet - Rehearsal 20

Before our run of act 3 today, we worked a bit on 5.1.  In one of the last opportunities I have, I wanted to make sure that this moment with Romeo was just right.  It also gave me a chance to work a bit with Brian on his Apothecary, though, to tell truth, it didn't need much work.  We focused in a bit on Romeo's "Then I deny you stars" moment.  It's such a weird flip in the script that it was coming off sounding to big for the moment.  It's not, of course, but the trick here was to up the moments after the line rather than worrying about what came before it.  It worked like a charm.  Now the moment doesn't seem so out of place with the following moments rising to meet it.  We also did some detail work with Romeo (Johnny) and the Apothecary.  I only today realized, by the way, that Romeo has a knife on him when he's attempting to come up with a solution for killing himself.  Strange, right?  Johnny made the excellent point that because he's desperate and a little out of his head, the obvious solution is not the one he thinks of; it's the most obscure.  We also did a little work with Brian to flesh out the Apothecary just a little.  And, on Katie's (my a.d.) suggestion, we now have Brian going back into his house to get the poison rather than having it on him.  It's a small change, but it also says that the Apothecary doesn't just carry illegal poisons on him all the time.  All in all, nice work.

Next, a run of act three.  I would have loved to run more of the show in the space this evening, but 4 out of my eleven cast members have class on Tuesday evenings.  This means we didn't even start the run of the act until 9:15pm.  A little late to run more than one act. However, I got even greater confidence in my cast from this small run.  They jumped into the middle of the play brilliantly; didn't even miss a beat.  I realize only now that making them do the middle of the play without the beginning is a little odd and rather difficult, but we needed to run something, and this is the part of the play that (previously) had needed the most work.  With the run on Monday and this run tonight, however, this part of the play is humming along.  We ran it in under half an hour today, which is dead on for timing and it looked good!