2.0
I've spoken with Hollinger (the chorus) before about my ideas about this particular "character." He is very clearly the only outside voice in this whole play. This gives him leave to speak his lines like a storyteller instead of making them up on the spot. However, my biggest idea is that the Chorus for this play really is Benvolio. We're not making them the same character, but I've always felt that Benvolio is really the only character left at the end of this play to pass the story on. He's been around for the whole of it, he's this plays Horatio. Mike is bringing just a touch of his Benvolio to the Chorus, but I don't want it over stated or the show will start to look very concept-y and I don't want that either. This is the only time where we specifically have time blocked off to work the Chorus alone and it was good to see it one its feet and see what Mike brings to it, but we certainly won't need to hit it again.
5.1
We only rehearsed the first part of this scene today because one of my actors read the schedule wrong. But, we did some decent work getting the relationship between Romeo and Balthazar established. Missing the one actor did give us a chance to work on the "Then I deny you stars" moment a little more than we might have otherwise, which was good. It's a tricky moment that most Romeos scream instead of really getting inside it to find a real way to play it. Johnny's initial instinct was to go more soft and rage than loud and angry. Since we've built a Romeo that has that blind rage streak in him, this seems like the right choice. Right now, the moment sounds like a lion roaring (but not quite that loud, just the same tone and pitch), which has a very different and interesting feel to it. We'll see how it plays in context, but for now, we're going to roll with it.
2.3 and 3.2
These are the two big Nurse (Wagoner) and Juliet (AJ) scenes. We've set up, again, a mirror between these scenes to create a contrast between the comedy part of this play and the tragedy part of this play. We've got almost the same beginning to the scene: the same entrances, the same starting dynamic. More and more I'm liking this idea of creating mirrors with staging, especially in a play that so clearly has a distinct break between comic and tragic. We're making those mirrors over that line right now, where a scene with certain characters on one side and that other of the comic/tragic break will start out looking the same and end very differently. As for these scenes, I am having piles of fun working with these two guys. They are a laugh a minute in rehearsals, but know how to clamp it down and get to work as well. The virtue of scheduling in more rehearsal time than we need on scenes is that we can get a little sidetracked and still come out on time. Wagoner and AJ have a really great dynamic not only as scene partners, but also as women. These two have latched onto the nuances of moving and interacting like women surprisingly fast. Every once in a while, they still stop to ask questions about how women physically interact when talking to one another, but they mostly just go for it and I stop them if something isn't right. Long story short, these scenes are looking really great.
1.3
This is the first scene in the show with all three of our ladies. Being such, I wanted to make sure we built some time into this rehearsal to go over walking and talking like women. We first blocked the scene so I could get Paul (Peter) out of there. This didn't take a whole lot of time. It's a fairly simple scene that's also fairly short. Once we had it blocked and I let Paul go, we started in with out "Walk like a woman" lessons. Katie (my assistant director) took a first crack at them, with learning how to walk with hips instead of shoulders and finding balance on the balls of their feet. We're not going to put them in heels, but it's important (even as a faux woman) to know how that affects you because it helps you understand how a woman's body moves. We also went over how women hug and interact in the touchy feely sort of way. We were about to work on it with Jeff (Lady Capulet) when he said this: "I don't think Lady Capulet's much of a hugger." Katie and I were forced to agree with him. So he's off the hook for most forms of touching. Beyond this, Carmel (my costume designer) came in and worked with them on some basic belly dance technique. She's a belly dance instructor and was able to go over some points of how the hips move that Katie and I weren't able to quite articulate. We then went over make-up basics and tested out some ideas on the boys. Sometime in the next few days, I'll post pictures of our first make-up attempts. They need some work, but as a start, they're very good.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Romeo and Juliet - Rehearsal 4
2.2
This scene between Friar Lawrence (Glenn) and Romeo (Johnny) is an interesting little beast. There's a lot of story packed into this page and a half. There's also the problem of the speech the Friar has to give at the top of the scene. First off, it's boring, but you can't cut it out completely because you need to establish that the Friar works with flowers and herbs and that's why he knows how to make the "dangerous zombie potion"(or the one that make Juliet look dead) from the fourth act. So, we're starting to work with how to make this information more interesting. It's going to take some work, but I think we're already on a good track with it. The scene itself was wonky until I told Glenn to just hold center as Johnny bounced around the stage around him. Once we did this, the dynamic of the scene was much easier to discern and much clearer to the watcher. These guys have found some very fun moments in this scene, and some very unexpected moments as well. We were working the first part of the scene, where Romeo comes in and the Friar doesn't automatically see him has always been a bit of a puzzler to me. We decided that if it's not quite light out then the Friar wouldn't exactly be able to see who he's talking to. But, next time around, Johnny snuck in and put his hands over Glenn's eyes. It was just childish enough to really show Romeo's age, but it also, in one moment, gives a very clear idea of the relationship between these two characters.
1.2
It's two, two, two scenes in one! Luckily, this two scene debacle is a lot shorter and easier to sort out than last nights scenes. This one went very well. We got the blocking sorted for the whole thing fairly quickly, which meant that I was able to let Paris (Bobby) and Capulet (for today, my stage manager Angelina) go. Though, I suppose it just meant that Angelina could go back to being stage manager. This scene is odd in the sense that the beginning of the scene is all exposition explaining where we are in the story and the end of the scene is the same, except funny. We worked a bit of comedy into the beginning of the scene by having Peter (Paul) sleeping until he's told to do something. It's subtle, but it does tie the two halves to the scene together fairly well. Johnny (Romeo) also found an interesting dynamic in the latter part of the scene that brings out an interesting note about Romeo. He gets caught up in his "emo" anger so much so that he doesn't quite come out of it when he finally starts talking to Peter. It makes for a very different sort of scene than how I've scene this played before.
3.5
We were missing Jay (Capulet) to work on these next two scenes, so we didn't do a whole lot of character work and mostly focused on getting the blocking solid. In that sense, the rehearsal was a very successful one. For this scene specifically, we only worked on the last part of the scene, also known as "Capulet family fun time." Since I had already worked the portion with Romeo, we were able to skip over that portion of the scene for tonight and just block the last part. We tried it a couple of ways and established a blocking that looked neat and tidy while still giving Jay room to play around once he gets in there. Because we didn't have Jay, we took some time to work a little bit on how women interact with other women. We'll get to that more tomorrow, but I figured since we had the time, we should start it now. And, that little bit of direction actually helped the scene quite a bit.
4.2
This scene is very short. It's maybe a page long, maybe. It has basically the same shape as the other scene, but is much more polite and "happier" than the other scene. I put happy in quotes because Juliet is certainly not happy about what she is having to do. We had so much time to play around with this scene, that I tweaked the Nurse's (Wagoner) blocking several times until we got it right. The scene is simple and lovely; one calm moment in the surround storm that is the last half of this play.
This scene between Friar Lawrence (Glenn) and Romeo (Johnny) is an interesting little beast. There's a lot of story packed into this page and a half. There's also the problem of the speech the Friar has to give at the top of the scene. First off, it's boring, but you can't cut it out completely because you need to establish that the Friar works with flowers and herbs and that's why he knows how to make the "dangerous zombie potion"(or the one that make Juliet look dead) from the fourth act. So, we're starting to work with how to make this information more interesting. It's going to take some work, but I think we're already on a good track with it. The scene itself was wonky until I told Glenn to just hold center as Johnny bounced around the stage around him. Once we did this, the dynamic of the scene was much easier to discern and much clearer to the watcher. These guys have found some very fun moments in this scene, and some very unexpected moments as well. We were working the first part of the scene, where Romeo comes in and the Friar doesn't automatically see him has always been a bit of a puzzler to me. We decided that if it's not quite light out then the Friar wouldn't exactly be able to see who he's talking to. But, next time around, Johnny snuck in and put his hands over Glenn's eyes. It was just childish enough to really show Romeo's age, but it also, in one moment, gives a very clear idea of the relationship between these two characters.
1.2
It's two, two, two scenes in one! Luckily, this two scene debacle is a lot shorter and easier to sort out than last nights scenes. This one went very well. We got the blocking sorted for the whole thing fairly quickly, which meant that I was able to let Paris (Bobby) and Capulet (for today, my stage manager Angelina) go. Though, I suppose it just meant that Angelina could go back to being stage manager. This scene is odd in the sense that the beginning of the scene is all exposition explaining where we are in the story and the end of the scene is the same, except funny. We worked a bit of comedy into the beginning of the scene by having Peter (Paul) sleeping until he's told to do something. It's subtle, but it does tie the two halves to the scene together fairly well. Johnny (Romeo) also found an interesting dynamic in the latter part of the scene that brings out an interesting note about Romeo. He gets caught up in his "emo" anger so much so that he doesn't quite come out of it when he finally starts talking to Peter. It makes for a very different sort of scene than how I've scene this played before.
3.5
We were missing Jay (Capulet) to work on these next two scenes, so we didn't do a whole lot of character work and mostly focused on getting the blocking solid. In that sense, the rehearsal was a very successful one. For this scene specifically, we only worked on the last part of the scene, also known as "Capulet family fun time." Since I had already worked the portion with Romeo, we were able to skip over that portion of the scene for tonight and just block the last part. We tried it a couple of ways and established a blocking that looked neat and tidy while still giving Jay room to play around once he gets in there. Because we didn't have Jay, we took some time to work a little bit on how women interact with other women. We'll get to that more tomorrow, but I figured since we had the time, we should start it now. And, that little bit of direction actually helped the scene quite a bit.
4.2
This scene is very short. It's maybe a page long, maybe. It has basically the same shape as the other scene, but is much more polite and "happier" than the other scene. I put happy in quotes because Juliet is certainly not happy about what she is having to do. We had so much time to play around with this scene, that I tweaked the Nurse's (Wagoner) blocking several times until we got it right. The scene is simple and lovely; one calm moment in the surround storm that is the last half of this play.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Romeo and Juliet - Rehearsal 3
1.1
This was the first scene that I needed everyone for. Surprisingly, the staging of this first big group scene went fairly quick. We were able to block through the whole scene, work the end with Johnny (Romeo), Hollinger (Benvolio), Montague (Zach), and Lady Montague (Wagoner). The guys in the brawl at the beginning got a break while we worked through the end of the scene a few times. Once that was nailed down, we went back through the whole scene a couple times before focusing in on the opening brawl. We worked the fight several times today. Once the small details were sorted, the brawl came back together easily. And, by the end of rehearsal, the guys were able to speed it up just a little. There were some timing issues at first, but they sorted out with a second run. All in all, fairly easy going.
5.3
This is the final scene of the show and it is a beast. It took me almost an hour and a half to get all the blocking mess sorted out. I had to rearrange some of the blocking right from the off because of how I want the bier to come onstage. Also, it took longer because folks had a lot of specific questions about character motivation and how long it takes to get from one place onstage to another. Once we finally got all the traffic patterns sorted, the scene ran fairly smooth as far as blocking goes. Though, it was a long haul to get there. After we blocked out the scene, we went back to work the fight between Paris (Bobby) and Romeo (Johnny) at the top of the scene. It came back together quickly and we moved onto Romeo and Juliet's deaths. We started with AJ (Juliet) just lying on the ground, until I realized that this wasn't going to help the actual staging at all. Once we had AJ lay on a table, the blocking for their deaths came together beautifully. Unfortunately, now that I know what their deaths look like, I need to flip flop the positions of all the people onstage at the end of the play. But, if the price is having Romeo and Juliet's deaths look just right, then I'm ok with rearranging positions after their deaths.
"King's Highway" by Tom Petty
The guys on this song did most of the work on this song today while we were working were working on Romeo and Juliet's deaths. I heard their last run thru of the song and it's certainly coming along. Though, to be fair, it is a three chord song that sings and plays through fairly simply. All in all, sounding good.
"Medicine Man" by The Hush Sound
We don't have all the pieces to really put this song together yet. AJ and Wagoner sang through the song with just Hollinger playing the base line. Sounds good until such time as we get the specialized and weird instruments that Hollinger's cooking up.
This was the first scene that I needed everyone for. Surprisingly, the staging of this first big group scene went fairly quick. We were able to block through the whole scene, work the end with Johnny (Romeo), Hollinger (Benvolio), Montague (Zach), and Lady Montague (Wagoner). The guys in the brawl at the beginning got a break while we worked through the end of the scene a few times. Once that was nailed down, we went back through the whole scene a couple times before focusing in on the opening brawl. We worked the fight several times today. Once the small details were sorted, the brawl came back together easily. And, by the end of rehearsal, the guys were able to speed it up just a little. There were some timing issues at first, but they sorted out with a second run. All in all, fairly easy going.
5.3
This is the final scene of the show and it is a beast. It took me almost an hour and a half to get all the blocking mess sorted out. I had to rearrange some of the blocking right from the off because of how I want the bier to come onstage. Also, it took longer because folks had a lot of specific questions about character motivation and how long it takes to get from one place onstage to another. Once we finally got all the traffic patterns sorted, the scene ran fairly smooth as far as blocking goes. Though, it was a long haul to get there. After we blocked out the scene, we went back to work the fight between Paris (Bobby) and Romeo (Johnny) at the top of the scene. It came back together quickly and we moved onto Romeo and Juliet's deaths. We started with AJ (Juliet) just lying on the ground, until I realized that this wasn't going to help the actual staging at all. Once we had AJ lay on a table, the blocking for their deaths came together beautifully. Unfortunately, now that I know what their deaths look like, I need to flip flop the positions of all the people onstage at the end of the play. But, if the price is having Romeo and Juliet's deaths look just right, then I'm ok with rearranging positions after their deaths.
"King's Highway" by Tom Petty
The guys on this song did most of the work on this song today while we were working were working on Romeo and Juliet's deaths. I heard their last run thru of the song and it's certainly coming along. Though, to be fair, it is a three chord song that sings and plays through fairly simply. All in all, sounding good.
"Medicine Man" by The Hush Sound
We don't have all the pieces to really put this song together yet. AJ and Wagoner sang through the song with just Hollinger playing the base line. Sounds good until such time as we get the specialized and weird instruments that Hollinger's cooking up.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
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').
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').
Monday, January 10, 2011
Romeo and Juliet - Rehearsal 1
Today we covered music and a dance. We worked on three of the nine songs that the guys will be performing during the pre-show (the half hour before the show starts) and the dance for the party scene in Act 1, Scene 4.
AJ, Bobby, Zach, and I worked on the dance. AJ (Juliet) and Bobby (Paris) are the only two dancing, with the scene happening around them. Zach will be playing guitar and Mike (henceforth known as Hollinger) will be oo-ing the melody to "Something" by George Harrison. The dance AJ and Bobby will be doing is a Pavan, a basic step in four. It's a little like walking to music. The boys picked up the steps very quickly and Zach was able to play the music enough for them to dance to within fifteen minutes. I had blocked out an hour for them to get this dance down, but they had it down after thirty minutes.
This meant that we were able to devote that extra half an hour to start sorting out our first round of costumes. I am so pleased with the way the costumes are coming together. Everyone is starting to look great... especially the gentlemen who are playing ladies. And I must say, Jeff (Lady Capulet) looks like his dress was made for him. He looks so at home in the dress I can hardly believe it! Carmel (my costume designer) is a clothing genius.
The last couple of hours of rehearsal were spent on three songs: "Nobody Right, Nobody Wrong" by Michael Franti, "Stars" by Switchfoot, and "Fight Your Kids" by The Chalets. The first song we rehearsed is the only full company number. I like to think of "Nobody Right, Nobody Wrong" as our theme song, which is why I wanted the full company involved. For a first rehearsal, everyone did surprisingly well. They were comfy enough to sing the song on their own without the recording playing with them. For a first rehearsal, the song is coming together very well. Now that folks have an idea of where they come in and how the song goes, I'm looking forward to the next go round with this song.
We spent about half the time on "Stars" that I had budgeted. After one run thru with the cd, they (AJ and Johnny) were ready to sing it on their own. With Zach playing guitar and these two guys singing, the song is sounding great. Zach is finally feeling comfortable with the dropped D tuning and using it to add some real flair. I was worried about the song being overly challenging, but AJ and Johnny are sailing through this song like they were meant to sing it.
Lastly, we took our first stab at "Fight Your Kids." This is, by far, the most challenging song the guys are performing. Zach is on guitar with AJ and Michael (henceforth Wagoner) on vocals. After tonight's rehearsal, we're also going to be adding in Bobby to do rhythm. This song is complicated because of its weird rhythms. The guys came up with a great idea to do the crazy counter rhythm as a patty cake type hand slappy thing. If they can pull that off and sing, this song is going to be brilliant. And, by the time we wrapped up this evening, they were already starting to master it. It was a lovely surprise that came out of AJ suggesting that the rhythm should be snaps and claps rather than just claps. That suggestion morphed into one of the coolest ideas we've had so far. It sounds great and looks even better.
I have to say that even though this was just the first day of rehearsal, everyone is doing brilliantly and I couldn't be more pleased with how things are going. I caught myself smiling when I looked at my stage manager once this evening and she just said, "It's ok. You're allowed to be happy." It feels so good to hear these guys actually singing the songs that have been in my head for over a year. I couldn't be happier. Let's hope I feel this good tomorrow.
AJ, Bobby, Zach, and I worked on the dance. AJ (Juliet) and Bobby (Paris) are the only two dancing, with the scene happening around them. Zach will be playing guitar and Mike (henceforth known as Hollinger) will be oo-ing the melody to "Something" by George Harrison. The dance AJ and Bobby will be doing is a Pavan, a basic step in four. It's a little like walking to music. The boys picked up the steps very quickly and Zach was able to play the music enough for them to dance to within fifteen minutes. I had blocked out an hour for them to get this dance down, but they had it down after thirty minutes.
This meant that we were able to devote that extra half an hour to start sorting out our first round of costumes. I am so pleased with the way the costumes are coming together. Everyone is starting to look great... especially the gentlemen who are playing ladies. And I must say, Jeff (Lady Capulet) looks like his dress was made for him. He looks so at home in the dress I can hardly believe it! Carmel (my costume designer) is a clothing genius.
The last couple of hours of rehearsal were spent on three songs: "Nobody Right, Nobody Wrong" by Michael Franti, "Stars" by Switchfoot, and "Fight Your Kids" by The Chalets. The first song we rehearsed is the only full company number. I like to think of "Nobody Right, Nobody Wrong" as our theme song, which is why I wanted the full company involved. For a first rehearsal, everyone did surprisingly well. They were comfy enough to sing the song on their own without the recording playing with them. For a first rehearsal, the song is coming together very well. Now that folks have an idea of where they come in and how the song goes, I'm looking forward to the next go round with this song.
We spent about half the time on "Stars" that I had budgeted. After one run thru with the cd, they (AJ and Johnny) were ready to sing it on their own. With Zach playing guitar and these two guys singing, the song is sounding great. Zach is finally feeling comfortable with the dropped D tuning and using it to add some real flair. I was worried about the song being overly challenging, but AJ and Johnny are sailing through this song like they were meant to sing it.
Lastly, we took our first stab at "Fight Your Kids." This is, by far, the most challenging song the guys are performing. Zach is on guitar with AJ and Michael (henceforth Wagoner) on vocals. After tonight's rehearsal, we're also going to be adding in Bobby to do rhythm. This song is complicated because of its weird rhythms. The guys came up with a great idea to do the crazy counter rhythm as a patty cake type hand slappy thing. If they can pull that off and sing, this song is going to be brilliant. And, by the time we wrapped up this evening, they were already starting to master it. It was a lovely surprise that came out of AJ suggesting that the rhythm should be snaps and claps rather than just claps. That suggestion morphed into one of the coolest ideas we've had so far. It sounds great and looks even better.
I have to say that even though this was just the first day of rehearsal, everyone is doing brilliantly and I couldn't be more pleased with how things are going. I caught myself smiling when I looked at my stage manager once this evening and she just said, "It's ok. You're allowed to be happy." It feels so good to hear these guys actually singing the songs that have been in my head for over a year. I couldn't be happier. Let's hope I feel this good tomorrow.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Romeo and Juliet - First week of fight rehearsals summary
"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!
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!
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.
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