Theatre is great.
I show up in a city I haven't been in for two years, I walk into a rehearsal room, I get hugs from a bunch of people I haven't seen in two years, I meet a few new people, and then we all sit down together and do a really good reading of an amazing play. When you do a show with someone... you really do become part of some strange family-like thing. And even if you haven't seen someone for a couple of years, if you've done a show with them, the friendship and the connection is, more often than not, instantly established the moment you reunite.
And it's great. And what is really exciting is seeing that everyone has put work into this already. And we hear that work coming out already. And it's just awesome.
So for the first rehearsal, it is common to do a read-through. This is where everyone sits around a big table...all together for the first time... and reads the play. Then, afterwards there is often some beginning discussion on the play.
Perhaps the biggest mistake an actor can make during the read-through is trying to prove to everyone else that they deserved to be cast. I remember, when I first started getting professional gigs, how surprised I was at how understated read-throughs were. It taught me a valuable lesson... don't force things at a read-through. So tonight was great. Sometimes there were moments where two or more actors really started to build something. Other times the actors just kept it mellow. One fight scene was fairly energized. The other was kind of mellow. It's just where the actors went. That's cool.
At the end of the rehearsal, all of the actors who were equity stuck around to elect a deputy. Every show has an equity deputy who kind of serves as the liaison between the cast and Actors' Equity Association. No one ever really wants to do it. hahaha So it tends to go to the person who has never done it before or the newest person to equity. I am NOT the equity deputy. haha
Othello is a pretty interesting play. It's starts big and we are talking about impending war in the Mediterranean Sea and by the end of the play all of the action is taking place in a bedroom. It goes from huge to small.
It is also fascinating how the first half is really Iago's play and the second half becomes Othello's play. The first half and second half are so very different. The first half is rather comical at times but wow... by the second half... it gets heavy.
It's also pretty amazing to me how modern parts of this play read. There is a whole scene about one guy trying to get another guy drunk. Then when he is drunk, he does typical things to try and prove that he isn't drunk. There's another scene where Emilia is telling Desdemona that if husbands cheat on their wives, then wives should cheat on their husbands.
Othello was one of the first plays that I latched onto when I started getting into Shakespeare but I haven't lived with it like I will be this month and I am really looking forward to that.
Speaking of living... my hotel room is nice. The hotel is nice. It's great when you can go for a run and then come back and immediately jump into a pool to cool off. The only downside right now is, I think there are a number of (perhaps) professional athletes here. I don't know if some of the Colts rookies are staying here or what... anyway... I have someone large staying directly above me because they do not walk softly. hahaha
I always experience this feeling when I first move into my temporary housing... something along the lines of "why am I doing this? Am I REALLY going to live here for that long??? Why the hell do I do a job where I have to leave home?" In Italy last summer, that feeling lasted a few days because my living arrangement was pretty rough. Plus it's just harder to get situated in a new country. Here, it wore off pretty quickly, and the final reverberations of that sensation went away as soon as I walked into rehearsal.
So, I'll probably do updates after each rehearsal now. Tomorrow I'm called from 7-10pm. We're doing all of Act I. We move fast here so I am glad to have done the prep-work that I have done so far.
Shout-out of the day goes to my in-laws who hooked me up with a sweet Brandon Phillips bobble-head doll to decorate my hotel room. I always like to have something to decorate my temporary housing to make it feel like it is "my" space. Usually I'll buy some stupid poster from wal-mart or something but the bobblehead is definitely a more fun option.
Four weeks from now the show is over and it is nothing more than a credit on the resume. Here we go!
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