7-25-12 Goodbye Cassio

A lot of people are willing to teach you how to get into a character.  Few people ever take the time to teach how to get out of a character.  For some reason it's assumed that it is easy.  It's easy to spend hundreds of hours working to pretend you are someone else, and the just let it go, just like that?  Wrong.

There were some days after rehearsal where I could really feel the energy of the rehearsal sticking.  Spend an hour pretending you are trying to beat people up, you may walk away with some negative energy that lingers.  Spend a couple of hours working on a big death scene or a scene where your leg gets sliced open and you may walk out of rehearsal with some negative energy.

But that is the day-to-day energy.  What about the end of it all?  After your performance is nothing more than an credit on your resume and a memory for hundreds or thousands of people...what then?
Well, sometimes I play a role and when it is done, I am good to go.  Maybe it wasn't a favorite role... maybe I didn't like my own work or the overall experience... maybe I've been playing the role for weeks or months and am just ready to end it...  whatever the case... I take my final bow and I'm happy things are done and I'm ready to move on.

Sometimes though, it's not that easy.  I've had a few roles that, for whatever reason, really were hard to let go of.  Sometimes you sit in the dressing room, looking at yourself in the mirror... perhaps washing away the make up, taking off the wig, removing the costume one last time, and you just feel sad... like you're leaving something, or someone. 

When I was in grad school for Acting, one of our first projects was this crazy intense 8 week process of work on Shakespeare's The Tempest which resulted in us doing a very bare-bones production of the work.  Nearly all of our classes revolved around the work and then we'd rehearse at night and on the weekend.  It was humbling work and this process is what really taught me what kind of effort it takes to do Shakespeare well.  I remember, with about two days to go before the show, we were all sitting around, and I just started crying and said that Shakespeare's work was so big and so good that I just didn't think I was enough...  that I didn't have enough to offer the story.  It was that kind of process... we invested into this story everything we knew how to invest as first semester grad students.

I believe that it was after our final show when our teacher talked about letting go of the work and of the roles we played.  He said wait a couple of days and then take some substantial time... 15 minutes or more... to say goodbye to our characters.  And he added that we had to say the goodbye outloud.  I tried it... and I liked it.  So now, whenever I play a role, I say goodbye to the character.  Sometimes it's a quick goodbye but the more I enjoyed the character, the more time I take. 

I said goodbye to Cassio today.  He has instantly vaulted into my top three Shakespeare characters that I have ever played...  he might just be number one.  My wife said she had never seen me play so many different things in one show.  He's an outstanding soldier, he's a bad-ass, he's a drunk, he's a flirt, he's despondent, he's forgiving, he's holding onto his life... from one scene to the next he was something different.... sometimes from one moment to the next.  So yeah... it was going to be a goodbye on the longer side.

Sometimes I say goodbye while enjoying a beer or glass of wine... obviously that wasn't appropriate with Cassio.  I started my goodbye with a run.  Many of my thoughts about Cassio and Cassio's lines were crafted and honed during runs, so it seemed appropriate.  I ran, and thought about the role, thought about the successes, thought about the moments that I would love another shot at because I didn't really think I found it yet... I do kind of hope that someday, this role comes my way again... although I wouldn't mind a shot at Iago in a few years either.

After the run, I got in my car and put in some Jimi Hendrix and cranked it up real loud and just drove around a bit.  Jimi was the music that somehow matched my vibe for Cassio.  Watchtower and Foxy Lady just seemed like the perfect songs to listen to before rehearsals and shows.  So Cassio and I went for one last spin before I finally said goodbye.

Theatre is a weird thing.  You invest so much into a role and then, just like that, it seems like it is gone.  But what is cool is that there are over a thousand people that, when they think of this amazing role, my performance pops in their mind.  Every person that ever has and ever will play this role shapes what the role is in the minds of humanity.  Cassio is constantly morphing as different actors give their takes of the character via the sensibilities of the time, the locale, and the actor.  It's pretty awesome to be a part of that.

So this blog is officially over.  Thanks for following along.  I may use it as a teaching tool for students in some of my classes for them to refer to but I don't suspect I will add anything new at this point.  If you are curious, the blog had around 1800 hits over the eight weeks.  The most hits ever in one day was 70 which came on closing night.

So thanks to you all for following along.  I appreciate it.  It was a lot of fun working on this knowing that people were actually reading. 

So long blog...

Goodbye Cassio.

7-24-12 Reviews

Ever been to a movie that was just horrible... absolutely horrible... and you walk out of the theatre... and the person you went with LOVED it?  Or vice versa?  Welcome to the world of reviews.

Having been in the theatre for a while, and having dealt with theatre as both an actor and a scholar, it seems to me that reviews serve two basic purposes.

1)  Reviews help potential audience members decide whether or not a particular piece of entertainment is something that they'd enjoy, be it a concert, opera, art exhibit, movie, piece of theatre, etc.

2)  Reviews help to chronicle that a given piece of art happened.  This is incredibly important to many of the performing arts because there is no other record of the performance.  Perhaps there are a few photos.  On occasion there is a video of a performance (usually of bad quality.)  We really look to reviews to get a sense of what happened.  I have used perhaps a hundred reviews (maybe more) from the late 19th and early 20th centuries in my dissertation. 

One hopes that a reviewer is appropriately educated in the medium he/she is reviewing.  This isn't always the case.  If you ever want to look at horrible reviews, look at university newspapers.  You get some student who has seen a play or two, writing an article for the entire campus to read about a campus production.  Usually they spend 2/3rds of the article simply giving a play synopsis... potentially ruining the show for anyone who hadn't seen it before, and then they give very simplistic reasons for why they liked or didn't like something.

The opinions of this person are very valid.... but that doesn't mean they should be publicly reviewing things.  Hell, I like dance concerts... and my opinion of a dance concert is as valid as anyone else's opinion of that concert.... but I am not an appropriate person to be doing reviews of dance concerts.

Thankfully, when you do work in a big city, you get good people reviewing the shows.  I've found two reviews of the show so far, both from respected reviewers.  The reviews are VERY different.  Two people who saw the same show on the same night communicating very different experiences of the show. 

This is why, as an actor, you can't judge your performance by a review.  It's hard not to...  for some reason we think the opinion of a reviewer is higher up than someone else.  It just isn't the case though.  Maybe we think this because the reviewer typically doesn't know us, so perhaps they are commenting on our work in a rather unbiased fashion.  But what about the stranger that searcher you out after the show to tell you that they liked your work?  Isn't that of equal value? 

I once had a guy say to me...  "Reviews...  If you are going to believe the good ones, you have to believe the bad ones."  He's right... because they are both valid.  Truth is, someone in this world hated the best performance I have ever given and someone in this world loved the worst performance I have ever given. 

So here are two reviews...  one was mixed and one was glowing.

We'll start with the mixed one.  This one comes from a respected writer for the Indianapolis Star which is the major newspaper in INDY.  It's always nice when you can get a review from the major paper.  If you look at this review, the focus is almost entirely on the acting of four characters... particularly Iago along with Othello, Desdemona and Cassio.  You can tell this reviewer is educated in the play and he backs up many of his points with very specific observations of the performance.  You can also tell that this reviewer has an idea of how parts of the play SHOULD play out... at least according to him.  I'm not saying this is good or bad... I'm just pointing it out.  Even if the review is mixed, I very much appreciate that it is educated and intelligent. If you are looking for comments about my work, they are at the bottom of the article. 

http://blogs.indystar.com/upstage/2012/07/23/harts-othello-at-white-river-state-park/

The second review is from another known and respected reviewer in the area.  He writes his review in a completely different manner.  He writes more about the overall experience of being in the park watching the show.  Whereas the first reviewer focused on very specific points for a few actors, this review is much more general... another perfectly valid way to write the review.  Also, note the differences in reviews for the character Iago.  The first reviewer wasn't a fan of Iago's choices... the second reviewer LOVED them.  Iago is that kind of character... he's like a Hamlet... very polarizing in terms of evaluating performaces of the character.

http://www.examiner.com/review/heartland-actors-production-of-othello-grips-and-engages

So who do you trust? Who do you choose to listen to?  Is one more valid than the other?  Nope.  And yes, I came out of it pretty well, and I can use those as I work to get tenure, and I thank both of these gentlemen for taking the time to see and write about our work.  But what I REALLY like is hearing all the stories from people that had never seen the play before and actually understood it and liked it.  For some of them, it was the first time they had ever seen a play... and that is awesome.   

In the end, I think what most people really want out of a Shakespeare play is that they just want to understand the story...  PLEASE BE THE PEOPLE WHO FINALLY SHOW ME WHY THIS PLAY AND THIS PLAYWRIGHT ARE CONSIDERED GREAT!!!!!   We've all been told Shakespeare is great.  Yet, reading Shakespeare is a pain in the butt and a bad production of Shakespeare is EXTRA BAD because the language is hard to follow.  I think that most people just hope that this group of actors in front of them will be the group that can finally showcase the beauty of Shakespeare... that's what they want.  Well... that and some good costumes.

Final note...  the first reviewer actually had a running commentary going about the show via his twitter account.  He wrote 21 tweets during the performance... some are pretty funny. You can see the running twitter feed here... look for the posts from July 20th.

https://twitter.com/jayharveyarts

Tomorrow I'll talk about letting go of a character.  I've really enjoyed intertwining myself with Michael Cassio for the last couple of months but I think tomorrow I'll officially say good-bye.

7-23-12 As promised... the sword story...

Alright...

Cassio's sword has had a presence in this blog for a few weeks.  It first made its photo appearance on July 14.  Later there were some problems with the sheath so we had to scrap that.  I had to make adjustments to my belt to hold it without the sheath... and so on... and so on... one little annoying problem after another.  It wasn't a stage combat sword, but I loved it so.  I thought it fit Cassio so well and I was willing to do what it took to get it through the show.  It was fairly sturdy.  It seemed to be holding up.  It was developing a little wiggle but we looked at it and it seemed like it could make it.

Well... here is what remains of Cassio's sword...

THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD ONLY USE REAL STAGE COMBAT WORTHY WEAPONRY.

The story about the break is even crazier.  It happened during the show.  It happened during the drunken fight.  It happened while I had two swords and was fighting two guys at once.  I swipe at one guy's head and he ducks.  With this particular sword in my right hand, I swipe high and across my body from right to left.  As the bottom of my right hand hits my left shoulder, finishing the move, the momentum somehow makes the blade snap at the handle (CHEAP SWORD) and the blade goes flying through the air about 40 feet. Now all I am holding is the handle.

Literally, in about one second, while still moving through the fight, I analyze the following things... (I'm not even kidding... this all went through my mind in about one second...)

1)  No one has been killed or seriously injured... I can keep fighting.

2)  I am now holding the handle and nothing else.  Is this handle helpful or not at this point?  I decide it is not and drop it. 

3)  Meanwhile, I am still moving into the next move without a pause or anything... however... I ONLY HAVE ONE SWORD NOW.  So I have to, on the fly, alter my move while my fellow actor is doing a strike towards my head. 

The cool thing about theatre though... if you are working with good individuals... you are a team... you are an ensemble... you have each other's back. 

So... check out this chain of events...

1)  The guy swinging at my head still goes for it but, I can tell when our swords hit that he pulled back on his speed just a touch.  Not so much that the audience could tell, but enough to make sure that my one sword parry (which usually was a two sword parry) would be ok.

2)  Another guy who then knocks into my back changes his positioning ever so slightly. Why?  Because I am about to drive him into the ground, but it is rather close to where the dropped handle is.  So we pull the drive to the ground downstage just a touch.

3)  Another guy has a sense that the blade may come in handy later... or at least need to be cleared from the stage, so, in the commotion of the fight, he positions himself close to the blade.

4)  Normally, once I drive this guy to the ground, I start pounding him in the face which Othello comes and stops.  Well, I tried to communicate with a slight hesitation on my first punch of this guy  that this fight needed to end. Othello sensed that and broke it up two hits early.

NOW COMES THE BEST PART

Later in the scene, (in the REHEARSED version of the play where SWORDS WEREN'T BREAKING,) Othello would eventually command me to get up off of the ground and he would take my sword and thrust the blade into the ground at my feet and tell me that I was demoted.  So Cassio was left standing there crushed, defeated, demoted, shamed and broken with the sword sticking in the ground in front of him.  It was a cool image.

Well... Othello motioned to the guy standing by the broken sword blade to bring it over to him.  He then picked up the pieces of the handle.  And at the moment where he demotes me, he tossed the broken pieces of sword onto the ground.  Broken Cassio with his broken sword.  It was the this beautiful symbolic moment.  The best part was, I didn't see any of this happening... so when he dropped the broken sword at my feet, it was total surprise... and shock... just to see it laying there in pieces in front of me. 

Then it was up to Iago and me to figure out how to go from there and I ended up using the broken pieces in one of my lines.  This particular line had always been one of the hardest lines for me to really connect with.  BUT... that day... with the broken sword... the words just came... and I eventually walked off stage, with these pieces of broken sword, and I felt like I FINALLY found that one particular line.  And I don't know if I will ever say those words, with that kind of connection ever again.

Awesome...



AND BAD.... BAD BAD BAD

Why bad?  Because that damn sword should never have been on the stage in the first place.  I know better than that.  Hell, I think we all knew better than that.  And we got away with one.  No one got hurt.  And, I have to tell you, I will never do that again.  Even if it means that I just have to supply my own weapons.  Heck... I would never let my students use that weapon on stage so why did I use it?  We THOUGHT it would hold up but we didn't KNOW it would.  You can't play games like that with stage combat. A moment of thanks for the gods of theatre.

On a better note...  a couple of reviewers have written about the show and they both mention the quality of the fights.  I take a lot of pride in that because I was a large part of the crafting of the fight choreography.

Speaking of reviews... we'll see if any more get posted tomorrow (Tuesday) and then I will write a post about reviews... how I deal with them... etc.  I'll also provide links to the reviews so you can read them yourself.

7-22-12 A few pictures...

Well there is obviously a lot to talk about and I'll get to some things when I get home.  Stay tuned for a great story on why you should only use appropriate stage combat weapons when doing stage combat... holy cow...  

In the meantime, here are a few great pics of today's matinee which was in 95 degree heat.  Whew!  Yes, I am in these particular pics.  hahaha

Cassio arrives in Cyprus.

End of the play... Cassio stares down Iago.

Cassio forgives Othello.

Cassio's gettin' drunk.

7-22-12 Twas a beautiful evening for Shakespeare

7-21-12 Outdoor Theatre

For the last 400+ years, theatre practicioners have been doing everything they can to control distractions during a show... theatre moved from being a mostly outdoor event to a mostly indoor event, the light on the audience was darkened, soundproof materials were used.

So when you go back to an outdoor space... in the middle of a city... that is holding a major expo... on a Friday night...  it is always interesting.

I've done a lot of outdoor theatre.  When you do it around July 4th, you deal with fireworks.  One time, out at Utah, there were wildfires 15-20 miles away from the theatre.  When the wind shifted, we started to get "snowed" on during the final scene... it was ash blowing in from the fire.  Last night... it was helicoptors.  Goodness... helicoptor after helicoptor.  The best one of the bunch was the police helicoptor that decided to shine it's spotlight across the stage and audience.

Love it.

The thing is though... we, the theatre practicioners, know what the show COULD be.  It could be this and it could be that and if we had the perfect environment (perhaps the IRT stage) then it would be this and that and blah blah blah.  But.. that isn't what the show IS.  And part of the show IS the experiences and the beauty and the challenges of being outside.  Part of the show is that you can bring your dog and that you can watch the sunset during the first hour of the show and you can drink a bottle of wine while you watch and get up and smoke a cigarette or go to the bathroom.  Part of the show is that that little kids can get inspired by the show and have their parents tie "capes" around their necks so they can be the characters on stage and sword fight during the show.  (That actually happened.)

Part of the show is that people who have never seen shakespeare or have never seen a play can do so for free... in an environment that is familiar... and feel like they belong... and hopefully get excited to see more theatre.

So yes... there were helicoptors.  Yes, because we didn't have a "Tech Rehearsal" on Thursday, we had a few little mic problems.  But to hear a family say, "we've never been to a play before... that was really great..."   well....  to me that's it man.  That's it.  That's why we do it. 

Was last night perfect?  Nope... hell... theatre probably is never perfect.  Was last night perfect enough?  I don't know about everyone, but for one family it was.  And that is awesome.

Tonight we'll be even perfecter.

7-20-12 Opening Night

Weather looks like it is going to be real nice.  Around 80 degrees at the start of the show.  Around 72 by the finish. 

If you are in the Indy area... bring some food/wine and a blanket (and maybe a little bug spray) and come join us! 

7-19-12 BONUS! Here's a sample of Iago!

Just saw this.  Ryan (Iago) was on TV Tuesday and, as part of the segment, they had him do a little of one of his monologues. 

If you are interested...


http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/indy_style/in_indy_now/shakespeare-on-the-canal

7-19-12 The crazy last night of rehearsal

Crazy.

Started at the outdoor rehearsal space... things were nice and sunny.  We did a mic check.  I like the mics... I think they'll be good.  Nothing more dreadful than bad mics.  It just makes me feel helpless when my mic is bad.

Then we moved to Indiana Repertory Theatre's mainstage space.  No mics... no costumes... no outdoor lighting...  just the cast and crew with a bare stage in a 400ish seat theatre with four people sitting in the audience.  And the rain came.  And we ran the show.  And it was kind of nice.  Actually it was really nice.  Really fun to tell this great story at a good theatre with a good group.  Really fun that, although we'd never rehearsed there before, everyone figured out what they needed to do to make it work.  It was kind of magical. 

Now we just need to do that tomorrow outside. 

After the run of the show we went back to the outdoor space.  There was no more rain.  We saw what the lighting will be like, so at least that won't be a surprise tomorrow.  Then we briefly worked on curtain call and well... that's it.  That's the rehearsal process.

Tomorrow most of us will be at the space by 7:00pm.  Whenever there is stage combat in a show, we always do the fight once or twice before the show, so all the fighters will be there at 7:00.  I think the pre-show entertainment actually starts around 6:30.  That is always fun.  It's always fun to walk to the space and see a crowd already there.  And you kind of walk through the crowd knowing that you are about to tell them a great story and, at that moment, they have no idea who you are... yet.  That is fun.  Earlier this summer I was walking outside of a theatre in NYC and walked past a lady and thought to myself "that lady looks like she is walking through this crowd as if she knows she is about to tell them a great story."  Sure enough, she was the lead actress.

Tomorrow I won't do anything crazy.  A little lifting... a little cardio... perhaps some laundry... go over lines... that's about it.  It's not about getting amped up... it's about relaxing.  Maybe I'll spend some quality hot tub time... hahaha.

No rain... no rain... no rain...

7-19-12 Yikes

So... if we could pick what days there would be no rain, it would be the show days.  We look to be pretty good in that regard.

If we could pick an extra day where there would be no rain, it would be tonight... our final dress... our first night with mics... our only night with lights (because the lights got rained out last night)...

No such luck.  It is supposed to pour in a few hours.

So... the rehearsal that should be spent locking down all of the tech stuff, isn't going to happen.  Instead, we are going to try and do a quick mic check in the space.  Then, we are going to head over to the Indiana Repertory Theatre (IRT) and do a final run on their mainstage.  It sure was generous of IRT to help us out with this at the last second so thanks to all of them.

But... what this all means is that tomorrow night, in front of a big audience, we will be trying to mix this show together on the fly.  YIKES!!!

So tonight... in an indoor space... since I can't work on timing my long entrances... or how to use the big open outdoor space... or get adjusted to the lights...  I'm just going to focus on the acting 100%.  Tonight is all about locking in.  After all, that is the most important part anyway.  But tomorrow, it may be hard at certain moments to lock in with all the new stimuli and the on-the-fly problem solving that will have to take place. 

So tonight I'm just going to act, baby.  In a space we've never done the show before.  I'm just going to be selfish and enjoy the experience.  Tomorrow is all about delivering this great story for the audience.  Tonight... it's time to just relax... and amidst all this commotion, tell this story with this great group of people one more time for ourselves.  Awesome.

Meanwhile... look below...  Yikes!  hahaha

6 PM

77^°

T-Storms                               

PRECIP:

80%

WIND:

SW at 7 mph

7 PM

76^°

T-Storms                               

PRECIP:

100%

WIND:

W at 8 mph 

8 PM

76^°

T-Storms                               

PRECIP:

85%

WIND:

WNW at 5 mph

9 PM

76^°

T-Storms                               

PRECIP:

75%

WIND:

NW at 7 mph

7-18-12 Costumes... and a crowd....

2nd day in the space.  First day with costumes. 

And as soon as people see a bunch of actors in costumes doing something in a park, they often stop by and watch. 

Today became a dangerous day.  We get mics tomorrow so today was the last day that our voices were unamplified.  We're in this huge space, we hadn't done a run where we were going all-out since Sunday and now people were stopping by to watch.

We're actors... so of course we wanted to act.  We wanted to crank up our voices to fill this huge space and we wanted to just play with our fellow actors going all out.  But when your fellow actor is 60 feet across the stage... and there is a waterfall nearby... and planes are flying... and boats are on the river... and it's windy... and you are unamplified... you have to talk really loud.  And c'mon... people started watching... and, as actors, we want to tell this great story in a great way whether 1200 people are watching or 20. 

So you heard a lot of actors, backstage, reminding themselves not to blow out their voices tonight... as tempting as it was to do so.  I thought Othello was, at one point, telling me to pull back, but he was actually talking to himself.  It was great to see an actor of that caliber reminding himself of the same exact that I was trying to remind myself. Every once in a while it's nice to know that more experienced actors still deal with similar struggles that I have with my own process.

Costumes went well tonight.  I don't have anything too elaborate in terms of a big cape or some crazy shaped dress or whatever.  I have boots, pants, a custom-tailored doublet which fits wonderfully, and a small cape that I only use in the 2nd half.  Since I've had the boots for nearly two weeks, I was feeling comfy almost instantly and I was able to use this as more of an acting rehearsal than a rehearsal to negotiate my costume.  Much of what I was exploring was how to use this vast space during my scenes.  I suspect that will continue to be the case throughout the run.  The audience can sit all over this park and so things might just get tweaked on the fly based on where people are sitting.  If we do have one of these nights where 1200 people come to the show... it will be interesting to see how much they creep into our stage space as they lay out their picnics/blankets... etc. 

I had an alright night tonight.  Not great.  Not bad.  It's hard to lock into your fellow actors when you are trying to negotiate other little problems.  So, I felt like I was a little in and out...  Sometimes I really locked in... other times I felt like I was pushing it.  That's ok.  It's all about how I use my time before we get an audience.  I solved some problems and explored some choices today, which will allow me to not think about them tomorrow, which will (hopefully) allow me to lock in more.

However... I did have one kind of low point of the rehearsal process tonight.  I got a note last night about my positioning in one scene.  I got the same note tonight.  I never want to have that happen.  I want to get a note and then make sure I do what I need to do to fix it.  Truth is, I thought I had, and I did make an adjustment, but it wasn't enough.  It's a note about positioning so it's an easy fix but yeah, I hate getting the same note twice. 

Finally, the drunken fight...     The drunken fight now starts with about a 35 yard sprint into the scene, which immediately goes into the fight.  (Yes, the space is easily big enough to have 35 yard sprints as entrances.)  I'm still trying to negotiate the energy of the fight and post-fight.  I can't let myself get too amped up from that run that all of the sudden I am out of control with blades in my hand!  Then, I have to continue to find the link from the fight to my final part of the scene between myself and Iago.  Such a tricky challenge but so much fun.

We're getting solid press for the show.  Iago was on TV today as the director and I were on radio.  Some papers are pushing the show.  If the weather holds, this could be really fun. 


Here's a link to one of the articles about the show.  It also has a slideshow which has a few rehearsal pictures as well as pictures of past performances where you can see the audience.

http://www.examiner.com/article/white-river-state-park-hosts-hart-s-othello

7-17-12 In The Space

One of the strangest things about theatre is that the final few days of rehearsal become less and less about the actor.  The director has to start to focus on everything BUT the acting.  I know, as an actor, it can often feel like I am being abandoned but that is not the case at all.  The director is dealing with lights, costumes, sound, spacing, etc. 

During the last week, the actor's challenge is to maintain a high level of performance while negotiating all of these new stimuli.  Costumes change the performance and the actor needs to figure out how to deal with that.  The same goes with the lights... the sound... and eventually, the audience.

Today we moved into the space.  I love the space but there are a lot of challenges to it.  It isn't a traditional space and it isn't clearly defined.  As an actor, we aren't "framed" by much of a set or by any sort of building.  There is a general playing area and when we are on, we need to make sure we are filling that area.  In a traditional theatre you know exactly when you walk on stage.  Here, you don't always know exactly when the audience is starting to pick you up.  So you have to grab their attention when it is your turn and if you are making a long entrance, you better stay in character the entire time because, odds are, out of the 1000+ people we could have for each performance, at least one person is watching you.

The actor also needs to become his or her own problem solver during the final week.  Example...  today the scabbard to my sword essentially became unusable.  Now is not the time for Cassio's scabbard to be holding up the rehearsal process.  So when I had a stint of time where I was off-stage, I figured out a possible solution, presented it to the director during a break, he said yes, problem solved.  I suspect actors will solve a hundred problems this week.  Many that no one will ever know about.  It could deal with an entrance, or a costume challenge, or a prop issue, or whatever... 

The director's focus becomes the big picture... bringing the technical elements into the production.  The actors, and some of the crew, start to solve the little things.  At this point... the scabbard is a little thing.  Done and done.  Heck, I suspect I dealt with 3 or 4 things like that today.  I assume others were too.  That's how it goes.

So today the new stimuli was the space.

Tomorrow... lights and costumes.

Thursday... sound.

Friday... audience. 

Long runs of shows are nice because you really do relax and settle into a show.  The constant barrage of new stimuli ceases and you can just kind of relax into the part.  That doesn't happen here.  We have a short run and we'll have to be on the top of our game from here on out.

I'm posting a few pics below of the space.  The third picture kind of shows how pretty the sunset is when it is beaming on the river.  I took that at about 9:30pm tonight.  So that will be the lighting as we close Part One of the show.   Finally, I'm posting a picture of my friend's dog.  My friend was a very funny Sir Toby in a production of Twelfth Night and when he got a doge he named the dog Sir Toby... so there is a little bit of a Shakespeare tie there.  haha  I just think the dog was striking a funny pose. 

Finally, the director and I will be on the radio in Indy tomorrow.  We'll be on WICR from around 9:35/9:40 or so until 10:00 with some music and commercials mixed in there.  So if you want to hear that, I suspect you can find a link online.

7-16-12 Coaster's movin' faster...

Thursday we did a run of the show.  Not sure what the exact time was but the "coaster" was not clipping along. 

Friday was off

Saturday was some specific scene work

Sunday we did a run... and the show just started cooking.  You could see it man.  The limited cuts that people made really made difference... the intensity that actors were finding really added an additional drive... it was exciting. 

It wasn't that 70 mile an hour coaster... but we jumped from 50 to 60.  The entire show, with intermission, ran about 3 hours and 8 minutes.  Granted... with a thousand people in the audience, intermission will probably last a little longer... but I bet we still chop 5-10 minutes off this thing and get it going 70. 

Awesome.

Today was the first day that my voice felt a little tired.  It's from the fighting.  Sounds in fight choreography are very important and I make sounds throughout... grunts... yells... whatever.  The problem is, I don't always do a good job supporting my voice when I am fighting.  Sometimes I forget about proper breath technique when I have a 6'6 guys doing a two-handed hammer chop on my right lat! hahaha  It's been this way for years... it's a bad habit.  So, I'm not surprised that it is a little tired from all of the fighting yesterday and then the all-out rehearsal today.  I can baby my voice tomorrow, which means very little taking on the phone and no singing in the car... hahaha... and I'll drink a lot of liquids etc.  I know my voice very well and have been in a jam or two before when I was a younger actor.  I've learned a lot about how to take care of it when things are bad and how to recognize the warning signs so as to make sure things don't get bad.  This is not bad.  Nothing to worry about here.... but at the same time, I know not to ignore it too.  So don't call me on Monday... I probably won't pick up.  hahaha

Meanwhile...   I was stiff today.  Fights are all in the core and quads and my core, in particular, was feeling it!  Partially because I get beat on at moments... hahaha...  But it's all fun.  And it goes back to what I was saying about conditioning weeks ago.  The fight would be a lot harder had I not amped up my conditioning over the last two months.

So tomorrow is our final day off.  During the first three weeks our day off was on Friday.  This final week, our day off is Monday (there's a show on Friday!).  So I will take it really easy tomorrow... physically, vocally...  etc.    I may go to the mall tomorrow and get one of those 20 minute back massages in the middle of the freaking mall for 20 bucks. hahaha  Very excited about the coming week.  Now I just hope the weather holds out for us.  Nothing hurts outdoor Shakespeare like rain.

They have started to put cast pictures and bios up on the HART website.  If you want to see and learn more about some of the people I have been playing with...

http://heartlandactors.com/othello/

Shout out of the day goes to my sister.  I don't even know if she is reading this thing but if you are, Happy Birthday!

7-15-12 FRIEND-ZONED

HAHAHA  I just learned the term friend-zoned today.

Cassio is totally in Desdemona's friend zone.

7-14-12 The final stretch

Imagine you are about to ride a roller coaster.  It's a good coaster... mile long track... some cool loops and turns and all that.  As you get on the coaster the operator of the ride says...

"Do you want to ride this at 50 miles an hour or 70 miles an hour?  Both options are perfectly safe. Or, do you want to experience it at 90 miles and hour but you might wreck"

If you ride it at 50, the ride will last a little longer... you can experience the turns and loops a little more perhaps...

If you ride it at 70, you will still do the same thing but faster... and the ride will be shorter.

If you go at 90... well... it might be too fast and it end in a big mess.


I think most of us would pick the 70 mile an hour option.  It's the same exact track... let me experience it as fast as is responsibly possible.

I think theatre is the same way.  I like my theatre fast... not so fast that the story gets lost... but I'd rather see a show in two hours than the same exact show in two hours and fifteen minutes.  I think the speed is exciting. 

Right now our show is the 50 mile an hour version of the roller coster.  It's a long show AND it's moving a little slow.  There are some great moment in this show.  Some moments where the whole cast just has to stop and watch... but our performance starts at 8:00 and right now it might end after 11:00.  So, we need to tighten it up.

We're looking to do that two ways... 

1)  Eliminate the pauses...   This is the best way.  For every 10 pauses an actors wants to take, they only really need one.  I know I have all sorts of pauses that I need to eliminate so I've been working on that.

2)  We've gotten to the point where the director is accepting considerations for voluntary line cuts.  Some actors will never cut a line on their own... they want to speak it all!  I think our cast kind of sees the situation we are in and I suspect we'll see a touch more streamlined show in the coming days.  This play is just huge.  I never really realized how huge it is.  And to attempt this big a show with such little rehearsal time has been very challenging... fun... but challenging.

Othello - 3560 lines
Hamlet is the biggest with 4024 lines.    It's not all that far off from Hamlet. 

Midsummer - 2165 lines
Macbeth - 2477 lines
Shrew - 2641
Tempest - 2275
Comedy of Errors - 1786...... 1786.... Othello is like doing Comedy of Errors TWICE in terms of lines.

Add up Othello and Iago's lines and those two alone have more lines than the entire play of Comedy of Errors.  Wow... how's that for a stat?

So tonight I'll happily look to trim some things... find some cuts to my lines... etc. 

As I was discussion with a friend last night, Shakespeare tends to repeat himself a lot.  Part of the reason for this is because people were going in and out of the theatre during a show.  I can definitely chop a minute or two off of the show with some cuts and probably another 30 seconds by tightening up some pauses.  If the big five or six characters all do this... which I am pretty sure we all will... hell... that roller coaster just got a whole lot faster.

Today we did scene work.  It's the final day for that.  Now it is all runs.  We had 30 minutes to work on the drunk fight which was real nice.  It's up to speed now and is freaking fast.  I'm in every move so I am honestly pretty out of breath by the end of it which is cool because that is where Cassio should be at that moment.  The other fighters are all doing great work.  They are consistently hitting their marks which makes my job so easy.  There are a couple of nearly blind moves.  What this means is that there isn't quite as much eye contact as we'd ideally like.  But, the guys are really locked in to where their swords need to be so as I do this two sword 360 degree spin with various blade to blade contacts during the spin, the guys are right there every time.  I'm going to have to slip them all a fiver or something because their good work makes Cassio look like a bad-ass fighter.

Speaking of which.  I had to bring my sword to the hotel today.  I had to take it to my costume fitting and then I wasn't going to keep it in my car.  Anyway, I made sure to check in with the hotel lobby that I was staying on the 2nd floor and had a sword.  The last thing I need is some poor hotel person to think some crazy guy is running around the hotel with a sword and call the cops etc.  I've had two instances with police officers because of stage combat so now, I call ahead or check in with people.  Even on campus, if I am walking from my office to the car with a sword, I call campus security first to tell them.

We open in 6 days... craziness.

A few pics of Cassio's baby...

7-11-12 Odds and Ends and Free Tacos!!!

Good day today!  Remember that taco truck that was in the parking lot a few weeks ago?  The hotel hired them to serve up a little dinner in the lobby today.  Sweeeeeeet.  Free cantina style tacos!!! They were great and it added a nice little change to the daily routine. 

I must say that, if you are ever staying in the Indianapolis area, the Candlewood Suites in the northwestern part of Indy is very nice.  Great staff... clean rooms... pool... free laundry... it's not a bad place to live for month.

Anyway... hahaha

Tonight we worked on Part Two.  As I have said before, my load is a little lighter in Part Two so I was observing a little more.

A few odds and ends.

Terrible Murder

The murder of Desdemona by Othello may be the most horrific death of any Shakespeare murder that actually happens on stage.  It's just horrible.  First there is the size difference between the two.  Then there is the fact that he kills her by strangling her... and we watch the whole thing happen.  In most Shakespeare deaths, the moment of violence happens fast.  The character who was injured may say a few lines before they die (for example Mercutio) but the actual violence is quick.  A thrust of a rapier... a slash of a broadsword... a stab with a dagger... a sip from a poisoned cup...

Not here... it just goes on and on and Desdemona is grabbing at the sheets and trying to push Othello away...

I've done a lot of Shakespeare... including Macbeth six times which has a lot of murder in it.  This is the most painful, uncomfortable death I have ever seen in a Shakespeare play.

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Boots and Swords

I get to rehearsal, I put on my sword and boots.  Why?  Because I have to learn how to live in them.  Shoes are probably the most important part of a costume for an actor and that is why actors love to get their shoes as soon as possible.  The costume designer asked if I wanted to hold onto my shoes and I said YES PLEASE!!!!  When you are hopping around the stage and fighting and running etc., you have to learn how your shoes will react to the movement.  If I can't get shoes early, I wear something that might match the feel a bit.  I rarely ever wear sneakers in rehearsal because the odds are I'm not going to often wear sneakers in a production.  I actually think that, in the last 10 years, I've worn sneakers once for a show... so why rehearse in them? 

Same with this sword.  Walking around life with a sword attached to your side is not as easy as it may seem.  You've got a 3 foot piece of metal hanging off the side of your body.  It hits things... it hits people... it gets weird if you go down on one knee... it makes you have to think about the logistics of sitting down...     This is another thing... as soon as the swords were there, I started wearing it.  Cassio has spent thousands of hours with a sword by his side.  I'll have much less than 100 hours with this sword.  But I have to appear as if it is second nature to be wearing this thing.  If I bang it against a bench or a person it will probably result in an unwanted laugh.  So boots and swords...

Women have it even worse when they have to wear corsets.  Corsets change your breathing...  In those situations, corsets trump shoes as being the most important thing to get a hold of from your costumer.  I've never really had to deal with that though... hahaha

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Easy Energy

Last night I was talking about energy and how sometimes too much unspecific energy can hurt a scene.  Today I had an interesting moment.  Today I had just run a portion of a scene with Iago and the director comes up to me and says...

"Yeah??? Is that working for you??? Am I asking you to do too much???"

I replied...

"No.  Hell, it just feels like I'm up here screwing around with Ryan (the actor playing Iago.)"

He says...

"That's exactly how it should feel!"

I say...

"Yeah man... I'm up here thinking... is he really going to let us get away with this?"

And he says...

"Yeah man... it reads great!"


It's funny how often the best acting doesn't always need to feel like you are working so hard at it.  If you just relax, bounce these great lines off your scene partner, and honestly listen and react in a character appropriate way to what they are saying... that is really often all that is needed (provided it's grounded in character appropriate choices).  No screaming... no huge showy movements...  just relax... lock in... and have some freaking fun. 

We received a similar note last night about a section of the drunk scene.  There are six of us up there just being ridiculous and having fun and the director dug the energy. 

Every once in a while I have that "is he really going to let me get away with this" feeling.  And I am finding it's a good feeling because it means that the choices I am making and that way that I am playing on stage (all based on the work I've done beforehand) are clicking. 

It's as if you have to work hard before the rehearsal so you can just play in rehearsal.  And when you are honestly playing... the acting seems so effortless. 

The trick is... how to keep that sense of play when 1000 people are watching.  hahaha 
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Game Plan

Tomorrow is a run through of the show again. 

If I look through my scenes I can kind of check in with myself as to what I should focus on tomorrow.  If I just put "consistency" that means I feel pretty good about the scene and now it's all about being able to lock in and execute my part of the scene well each and every night.

PART ONE
Act I scene ii - Consistency
Act I scene iii - Consistency
Act II scene i - Almost there... still needs some crafting especially at the top
Act II scene iii - The drunk scene...  remember to monitor the flow of energy after the fight
Act III scene i - Almost there...
Act III scene iii - Almost there...

PART TWO
Act III scene iv - After tonight's rehearsal I think this is surprisingly at the "consistency" stage.
Act IV scene i - same as above... just have fun...
Act V scene i - needs work...  this is a chaotic scene and we don't have the chaos down yet
Act V scene ii - Consistency.

That's a good little way for me to see where I might want to focus my attention tomorrow during the day.  I'll lock in on Act II and Act III and spend some time with V scene i.


I don't suspect that final part was interesting to anyone other than me.  hahaha

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7-10-12 Relax...

I was once watching this interview of a mixed martial arts fighter.  The interviewer asked the guy how he gets himself amped up before a big match and the fighter's response might surprise some.  He said that he doesn't try to get amped up... instead he simply tries to relax.  He fights best when he is relaxed in the ring. 

I feel the same way about acting.  Young actors often think that if you  give a lot of energy on stage, you must be giving a good performance.  Energy is great but crazy, amped up energy can sometimes lead to a performance that is really loud and really energetic and really unspecific.  As I have gotten older, I have learned to control energy a little better... partially because as I get older, my well of energy isn't quite as abundant as it once was.  haha  But there are still times where I walk off stage and say "that was a little too much energy and a little out of control."

Today we were working through Part One of the play.  We were really starting to craft some of the details of the first half.  Things started off well for me. I really enjoy what I do in Act I.  I don't have all that many lines but I like living in the scenes... I get to flash a little sword which is fun... and I get to establish Cassio as a soldier and friend to Othello.

Eventually we made our way to the drunk scene which is just this wonderful challenge of a scene for me.  There are probably a half a dozen different energies in that scene for my own journey as I work on different objectives throughout the scene and so it's a challenge to figure out how to let them flow.  Tonight we cranked the tempo of the fight up and I found that the fight energy lingered a little too long in the rest of the scene.  So, when it got to a point where I was supposed to bring it down, I did it unsuccessfully and just was... well... vomiting energy all over the place... hahaha.  But, it's great to know that danger is there and I can craft things now to accommodate for this... build in spots where I cool myself off a bit... where I remind myself to relax.

It IS time to crank things up though.  Just as Othello mentioned last night.  You can see some actors doing it.  Hopefully tomorrow it keeps going up.

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Another picture from the last production I did with this group. This group never really has a lot of scenery. There are pros and cons to this but with the river there and the pedestrian bridge and the evening sky, we end up with some really great backdrops. I love the sky in this picture. Also, the other guy in the picture is in an outdoor production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in Buffalo this summer. If you're looking for some free theatre in Western New York, check it out.

7-9-12 First run-through...

Actually, I don't really know how much this will be about the first run-through.  We did do it tonight.  It went fairly well.  People are starting to crank it up a notch.  Othello freaking cranked it up a few notches in places.  I have said before how wonderful it has been to watch him attack this play as if he had never been in it before...  looking for new discoveries etc.  Well tonight I think we saw him fill in some of the blanks with things he had discovered from all the time he has spent on his role in other productions.  All of the sudden it was like... "OH SNAP... DAVID'S GOT IN GOING TONIGHT."

I mentioned that to him at one point and he said... "I'm just trying to get this where it needs to be."  Uh yeah... yeah you were... and it's the place where we all need to be.  And it's a place you get can't get to if you are thinking about lines or cues or blocking or anything but what you are trying to get out of the other people on stage.  It takes a confidence that only comes from having everything else DOWN PAT. 

A major goal for this week for me is to keep getting more and more of the show at that place.  It's one of the reasons why I asked the director if he'd be willing to give me my notes tonight.  Tomorrow we are starting rehearsal with notes but I wanted them now.  Why?  Because I want to have them to work on them tomorrow before rehearsal so I am not thinking about them when I am rehearsing.  I want to be connecting with my fellow actors not scanning my own brain trying to remember to play notes.  I also want to start driving my part of the play more.  Pushing the tempo more.  It's great to start of lingering in each moment so you can discover it... but now it's time to pull out a lot of those pauses.

Meanwhile, I came home feeling a bit down.  Acting is tough, man.  And the emotional aspect of it is tough and irregular... at least it is for me.  I never know how I'll feel after a show or a rehearsal.  I've been in shows that received standing ovations and I left the theatre feeling depressed.  Not even because I messed up that night.  I just felt bad.  And it may seem sadistic that anyone would want to do something where that could happen but, when the opposite happens, and you feel great...  hahaha wow... that is worth all of the bad.

So just feeling bummed tonight.  It's the kind of night where I'd love to grab a beer but, for this role, I completely stopped drinking.  Haven't had a drink in over two months so that wasn't an option.  It's no wonder though that so many actors are addicts of some sort, be it alcohol, or drugs, or whatever.  When your job is to live at the extremes of human experience... it's obviously going to take a toll on you at times.  And the better you are at it, it seems that the bigger a toll it could take on you...   see Heath Ledger as the Joker.

Many people will teach you how to get in to character.  Few people will teach you how to get out of character.

So yeah... not sure if it was the journey of the role tonight... or discontent with my work tonight... or just the fact that we were outside and it is still hot and I'm just exhausted... or maybe I didn't eat enough...  but it's one of those nights that you just have to power through in the journey in order to have the opposite experience when the show opens.

Finally to end on a positive... the drunk scene got some good reviews from the director tonight.  That's exciting.  It's a challenge to effectively play drunk and I am glad what I am exploring is working.  Tomorrow, I'm going to try to go through what I did tonight and work to lock it in so I can get consistent with it.

Tomorrow's gonna rock.  ;)  

7-8-12 Two weeks down...

There was a different vibe in rehearsal tonight as we ran Part Two for the first time.  The focus was a little stronger, the scripts were on stage much less but that wasn't it.  There were two things that made tonight a little different.

1)  Actors started to chastise themselves more and swear at themselves more when they messed up a line or forgot blocking.  It was quite interesting to watch.  The run of Part Two was actually, I thought, a nice first run of that chunk.  But you can see that people want more.  That's exciting.  You can tell that "obsessing" is spreading throughout the cast.

2)  There were some moments of work tonight where you just had to stop whatever you were doing and watch the scene.  Moments where there were some real connections between actors and some strong choices being executed. That's also exciting... because that is contagious too.

I've got a feeling week three is going to be a pretty intense week of rehearsal.  It's finally cooled off enough that we are going to move our rehearsals back outside to a space that more closely resembles the size of our actual playing space.  It was great to be inside for a week because it really allowed us to focus on connections... but now we need to bring the show up to the size it needs to be for a huge outdoor space.  While we are working on that, it will also start to be about consistency.  How can we start to get these scenes to a place where they will be solid time after time.

We've reached the stage where you hear actors saying things like... "damn I have to get these lines down."  We're at the place where scripts in hand starts to hurt the work.   I was off book for the run tonight but there are a few places where I just don't know my cues as well as I want to and I jumped my cue a few times.  That will come... but it's something to work on. 

Because my cues weren't always great, I found that I wasn't listening well.  I wasn't always listening to what was being said to me... instead I was listening for my cue.  BAD BAD BAD.  Another thing to focus on this week.

We've also reached the stage where we're starting to get notes about actions and tactics.  That was fun to hear.  The framework is set.  Now it's all about adding depth... and a big part of that come from actions and tactics and objectives and motivations.  I tried out a few things tonight and I'll keep playing this week.

On a side note... it's been fun playing the crush that Cassio has on Desdemona.  In this production, Cassio definitely has a crush on Desdemona.  He'd  never do anything about it, but ya'know... if something (God forbid) ever happened to Othello, and Desdemona wanted to marry again... I think Cassio would hope to be the guy.  I tried to keep that in mind as we were working the final scene tonight and Cassio enters the room where Desdemona has been murdered on her bed.  It's quite a rush of emotion.  My heart is broken...  My role-model, Othello, asks for forgiveness for plotting to murder me... AND Iago, the guy that just slashed my leg open and who totally duped me, is in the room as well.  It's this weird rush of rage, betrayal, loss, etc.   It's a good thing that Shakespeare had Cassio get injured so badly because my impulses are to kill Iago, rush to Desdemona's side... I don't even know what with Othello... but I can't really do any of this, because I can't walk on my own.

 Really fun but hard night of rehearsal.  Tomorrow is our first run-through of the entire show.  It's got to be more than just about trying to remember everything even though it has been a week since we worked on Part One.  I'll spend an hour or so going over things at the hotel and then I'll try to arrive at the space an hour or so early and walk through all of my work in the new space.  Then, hopefully, that prep work will allow me to lock into my fellow actors a little more consistently tomorrow.

7-7-12 Fight Pics

A couple of pictures from our fight work on Thursday.

Plant left foot on the bench... jump through air at appropriate distance... wield sword around head counter-clockwise... land on right foot and left knee...  aim for his left knee... make scary noise... don't swing too hard etc...

Cassio wields two swords at once... favorite fight ever!

7-7-12 No Time to Step Backwards

In the last four days at rehearsal, I have been in the scene we are working on for less than 90 minutes.  Today we spent four hours working on the final scene.  Final scenes in Shakespeare are often very tough and this final scene is certainly living up to that trend.  Lots of deaths... a few small fight moves...  numerous entrances and exits... it's a beast. 

Cassio doesn't enter until the last little bit of the scene.  He has five lines in the scene.  Two of them were cut today.  hahaha  I got to rehearsal at 2pm today and got on stage about 4:30ish. 

And that happens... it's part of being in theatre.  No big deal.  Of more importance is how I spend that "waiting" time. 

Before rehearsals began I kept talking about not wanting to craft a performance on my own independent of the other actors.  That is bad.

Now though, I do need to take what is done in rehearsal and improve my part on my own.  If the majority of the time I spend on my character is during rehearsals... I'm not going to give a good performance.  Less than 90 minutes of on stage time in the last four days?  That is not my cue to take it easy.  That means a lot of time outside of rehearsal to work on my own.

In fact, looking at the remainder of our rehearsal schedule, it is very possible that a number of scenes will never get the time to do moment-to-moment detail work again.  For the entire remainder of rehearsal, there are only 6 hours allotted for detailed scene work.  Some of that will, no doubt, be stage combat.  Most of our rehearsals at this point will be devoted to run-throughs.  The majority of new nuances that I am to develop will have to be done outside of rehearsal and then honed in rehearsal.  I need to take the scenes that we have crafted together, work on my aspect of those scenes outside of rehearsal, and then put them back into the mix and see what happens. 

The next five days of rehearsal is intense...

Sunday - Work through 2nd half.  (for the first time)
Monday - Run the show.  (for the first time)
Tuesday - Work through 1st half.
Wednesday - Work through 2nd half.
Thursday - Work through show.

Tomorrow we'll work through Act IV scene i.  We haven't looked at that for 10 days but there's no time to step backwards.  So what was I doing with my two hours today as I waited for my entrance?  I was going over the show... moment by moment...  entrances and exits... glances... handshakes... turns...   actions... objectives...  motivations...

Only 40 hours of rehearsal remain.  It's time to kick it up to the next level.

Off to spend some time with my script.  :)

7-6-2012 - 1000 and counting...

The blog had its 1000th hit today. Thanks for following along!

A moment from HART's 2009 production of Much Ado About Nothing.

I struck the same pose in the hotel room when I saw we hit 1000.

(That huge pedestrian bridge behind us goes over the White River. 

Both bridge and river serve as part of the epic backdrop for our stage.)

7-5-12 Movement

Awesome day today.

Car is better.  Fridge is stocked.  Wednesday plans to see friends magically morphed into Friday plans to see friends... and rehearsal was a blast.

Today we did select scene work.  Our two actors that are in the other show, had the other show tonight.  This is their closing week.  We only have the final scene left to block, but we need Emilia in that final scene so we put that off and did work on a few spots including the drunken fight.  That was all I was called for today.

I often tell my students that comedy is like math.  There are these comic equations where if you do A + B you'll usually get C...  C often being a laugh.  Fights are similar except C isn't usually a laugh.  C is the illusion of actual violence.  The stakes of the "math" are also a little higher when working on a fight as opposed to working on comedy.  An error in comedy might lead to no laughter.  An error in stage combat might lead to a real injury.  The hardest punch I ever took to the face was in a "fake" fight on stage. 

Before, we had a rough idea of what moves we wanted to do for this fight... we sketched it out.  Today was about figuring out the math of each move.  A simple punch to the gut may have five or six little checkpoints along the way.  The stance... the prep... eye contact... the move... the reaction... the retraction of the move by the assailant.

I could go on and on about this but... I think for the sake of the blog, it's enough to just say we were working on the math.  It's a pretty wicked fight.  They took some pictures today and if I can get a hold of a few of them, I'll post them.  I've got a great move where I jump off a bench, wield the sword around my head, land on one knee and go for the guys knees.  It's flash and trash fighting... but it's fun and, if executed well, is fun for the audience. 

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I keep talking about working on movement.  Here's how I have been breaking it down.

The first thing I like to do is look at 7 oppositional pairs and see which half of the pair better describes my character.

The 7 pairs I use are:

Quick/Slow
Strong/Light
Advancing/Retreating
Widening/Narrowing
Bound/Free
Direct/Indirect
Rising/Falling

I use the text and my own ideas on the character (the more it comes from the text the better) to start to pick which word of the pairing best describes the character.

Cassio is definitely an advancing character.  He advances on women.  He advances in fights.  He is advancing through the ranks of the military.  This character advances and so my Cassio has an advancing quality about his movement.  He pursues. He is not on his heels.  He is on the balls of his feet.

Cassio is widening.  He does not hide.  He likes to be seen and he likes his presence known.  He's a bit of a male peacock in that regard.  Cassio's a bit cocky.  He is respectful and knows his place... but he fills "his place" up quite a bit.  hahaha  He'd drive a sweet sports car... probably red.

Cassio is direct.  He goes from point A to point B in a straight line.  He is not curvy in his movements... he does not beat around the bush. 

Cassio has a strong energy.  He has a presence... a force.  It is not a strong as Othello's but on the spectrum... Cassio is more strong than light.  His connection to the earth is solid.

So I do this with each of the seven pairs.  However, it is quite likely that I will also play the opposite of the pair at some point in the play.  If I craft this effectively, it can make for a good moment, simply through movement. 

For instance...  Cassio, when things are good and he is all prim and proper and official, has a rising energy.  Chest up and out.  Chin up a little.  Energy is going up and out.  I keep a rising energy throughout the first few scenes until the drunk scene.  All of the sudden the alcohol gives him more of a falling energy.  The falling energy really starts to hit even harder when he gets stripped of his position.  Chest sinks a bit... chin drops a bit... steps may be a little heavier.

Actually the drunk scene is a great example of the benefits of using these pairs.  How do I "play drunk?"  I am exploring it by playing some of the opposites of what Cassio usually is. 

Cassio is advancing so when he is drunk, does he leak a few steps backwards (retreating)?

Cassio is direct so when he is drunk do I move from one place to another or use my arms in more curvy lines (indirect)?

Another place I can use this is with status.  The highest class character that I really deal with in the play on regular basis is Othello.  The lowest is Bianca.  I try to show a difference in movement in how I deal with those two. 

Cassio with Othello is more of a bound energy.  With Bianca it is more free.
Cassio with Othello is more of a strong energy.  With Bianca it is more light.

These oppositional pairs give me a vocabulary to discuss and shape my movement choices rather than just leaving it all up to instincts.

Another thing I am looking at are Cassio's stances.  There can sometimes be a lot of standing in Shakespeare plays.  haha  So, how can I use those times to communicate something?  What is Cassio's official, business stance?  (Stole that one from one of the William pictures.  By the way... after further exploration... Cassio is definitely not William... hahaha.)  What is Cassio's casual stance?  Etc...    My "official" stance is what I mentioned Iago is already making fun of in one of his monologues (in a great way!) 

Finally, I like to look at gestures.  I mentioned Cassio's hands a few weeks ago and have started to build into this character a few moves that he likes to use with women.  Iago has a monologue where he talks of Cassio kissing three fingers on his hand over and over as he talks to Desdemona... (and kissing Desdemona's hand too.  Cassio kisses hands.)  I've crafted something that I use a lot in scenes with Desdemona and even Emilia and Bianca, that, I think, will track through the show and become a recognizable gesture of Cassio's.

So... oppositional pairs... stances...  gestures...  informed first by the script... then I fill in the blanks.  Then I practice my "dances" to make sure I am locking the choices in.

Have a great Friday!

7-4-12 Lemons to Lemonade

 

July 3rd was one of THOSE days which culminated in me getting in my car about an hour and half before rehearsal only to find it wasn't working.

So... another reason to always plan on getting to rehearsal early...  you don't know what crazy transportation problems may occur. 

I got to rehearsal about 20 minutes early (Taxi) and did tried my best to "leave it at the door."  Leave the crappy day at the door.  I did a poor job of it at first.  All I could focus on were the car issues and how I was going to get home etc. 

But one of the cool things about acting...  you lock in and it will take over.  All of the sudden 20 minutes would pass and I'd realize I hadn't thought about it.  30 minutes... nothing...  It was nice.  Sometimes it is nice to live in a make-believe world of problems instead of a real world of problems.  And even though Cassio was getting his leg slashed open over and over and over, at least he didn't have to worry about cars. hahaha

This is not my car.  Nor is that my hotel in the background.  But this is what my car looks like.  And I bet the one in the picture works.

Anyway... by the time I got home... and tried once again to fix my car (which is always a bit dangerous hahaha) I really didn't feel like typing much of a blog entry so I just posted those show posters/images.  I'm guessing that the "green-eyd monster" one might be the back cover of the program.

So... July 4th.  Kind of stranded.  No auto shops were open.  Can't really bounce around without a car.  Wasn't really in the mood to trek down the street in 100 degree heat to see if the Steak and Shake was open.  I was a bit bummed. 

Then I realized that I am REALLY going to be down if I suck as Cassio.  So I got over the car and the woe-is-me garbage and started to work.  Went for a run... lifted... lines... "danced"... looked over some objectives/actions...  and a little dip in the pool which has nothing to do with Cassio but is nice.  haha  Watched some hot dog eating contest action... a little bit of chatting with people.  Ready for action tomorrow.

Last night we worked the "fight" that takes place in part two.  It is really only about 4 moves but I do get to do a little cape and sword action which is fun.  If you are going up against a sword or a knife, a cape or jacket is a very effective type of shield.  Hopefully you never get mugged but if someone pulls a knife on you, your jacket is a good defense tool.  That's what happens to Cassio...  Roderigo attacks him and Cassio's jacket in some way is used to minimize the attack.  Cassio kills Roderigo but Iago sneaks up behind Cassio during the action and freaking hamstrings him.  This was a common move in swordfights.  You slice the back of the opponents leg as hard as you can hopefully cutting through the tendons and major arteries.  The leg is immobilized and you might bleed to death.  In the bible they actually mention doing this to horses of opposing armies...  that is just mean. 

We only have 9 more rehearsals until we move into the performance space.  And once we move to the performance space, rehearsals really won't be about acting anymore.  They will be about lighting and sound and spacing and timing entrances etc.  So, there's no time to get stupid about a car... 

Shout out of the day goes to our production assistant who thankfully lives about 5 minutes from the hotel and is giving me rides to/from rehearsal until the Charger is fixed.

7-4-12 - Posters/Banners

7-2-12 Meet the Actors... at least a few...

Rehearsal was good today.  We had time to run the scene after we worked it and got some notes.  It went pretty well for the first day working it.  But, instead of talking about tonight's rehearsal, I thought I'd talk about a few of the other actors.  It's really a great group and there are just a few things that I have wanted to mention about some of them that I haven't yet.  I was thinking tonight about how I wish you all could just meet them but obviously that can't happen, so I thought I'd just say a few things about some of them.

I am going to use character names as I describe them.

Our Othello has played this role before yet one of the things I have found just fascinating about this process is that he is attacking this role as if he has never done it before.  I mean that in a good way.  He starts each scene from square one.  I mentioned this today and he told me that every production is completely different and he's working with different actors, so, of course, he has to attack it with a newness each time.  It would not be unheard of to have some powerhouse actor who has played the role before to come in and say something like "I HAVE PLAYED THIS ROLE BEFORE AND I KNOW HOW IT WORKS."  Our Othello isn't like that at all.  He's warm, inviting, humble... and just a pleasure to work with.  Actually the actor is going to in a show at GEVA in Rochester next spring and we are going to try and work together to get him to come into one of our Shakespeare Acting classes.  I think that would be a great day of class.

I think when most people think of a professional actor, they think of someone that only acts and does nothing else.  The truth is, even with professional actors, that just isn't always the case.  For every actor that has the type of gig where they only have one gig and they can completely focus on that week in and week out year after year, there are many more actors holding down a gig and a job or multiple gigs. The truth is, I may have the easiest schedule of anyone in the cast because I am in Indy solely to work on this show.  One actress said today "I WISH I could live in a hotel for 5 weeks!!!"  

Our Iago has a particularly strong challenge.  He's playing this giant role for the first time AND he's teaching a really great summer youth theatre program at Indiana Repertory Theatre.  As if playing a role like Iago isn't hard enough... he has to balance it with his current day job.  This is the life of a professional actor.  Our Iago is a great guy.  One of the most creative actors I've seen.  He just comes up with these quirky bold choices but they are rooted in truth so they work.  He's creating an Iago that almost seems a bit mentally unstable and it works really well.  My first experience with Iago was in the movie version with Kenneth Branaugh as Iago.  Branaugh was very soldier-like and composed and it worked.  Our Iago is taking it in a different direction... he's almost snake-like or weasel-like and it also works.  Very cool.

The actors playing Emilia and Roderigo are actually doing another show on top of this!  There is a great theatre in town that does all new plays.  These two actors are in a show (the show I saw on Friday) that was written in 2009 and was off-broadway and then on broadway and then the rights to the play were released to regional theatres and this theatre picked it up.  Half of the play takes place in a waiting room of a hospital where one character has been in a horrible car accident.  Much of the play deals with how religion and homosexuality work together or don't work together.  Anyway... we're not talking about a light comedy here.  So, on Saturdays for instance, we have rehearsal from 1-5 and then they have a show at 8pm.  On Sundays, they have a matinee and then we have rehearsal from 6-10.  They are doing two heavy plays... one is Shakespeare one is contemporary... they are bouncing from performances to rehearsals and vice-versa.  This is the life of a professional actor.

Our Desdemona just moved back here from NYC.  She's working at a Starbucks in addition to her professional theatre work.  You'd be surprised how many theatre people work at Starbucks.  They have flexible hours and they provide insurance.  Equity actors are eligible for insurance only if they work 20 weeks in a given year.  You'll often hear actors talk about getting their weeks.  It has nothing to do with pay... it is all about health insurance.  Many a good actor will do a low paying gig if it means they can get closer to that 20 week threshold.  It is also a reason why actors love getting gigs like Christmas Carol at the end of the year.  Holiday shows are often the show that pushes many actors over that 20 week mark.  If a typical theatre gig last 6-8 weeks, that means you have to book three equity gigs that offer health insurance, each year.  That doesn't seem like a big deal?  Consider this... using the stats from two years ago, the average equity actor gets less than 7 weeks of work a year.  More than half of all equity actors get NO work in a given year.  Those are equity actors... the best of the best stage actors.

There are around 37000 equity actors.  More than half of them don't get work each year.  That's how hard it is to get an equity gig.  So getting three a year at theatres that are big enough to offer health insurance weeks?  It's a big deal. 

Anyway... back to Desdemona... it's been very fun to watch her relationship with Othello.  It's as if they have done many shows together before... and I don't know, maybe they have.  They had a very comfortable chemistry from the start and they really play off each other well.

I think it's worth mentioning one of our younger actors because many of the people reading this are students.  The actress playing Bianca is an undergrad at Butler.  She'll be going into her senior year.  The thing is, in a professional production no one cares if you are in school or where you went to school or where you've worked or blah blah blah... no matter who you are, you are expected to bring it.  Lord knows the audience doesn't care!  This girl brings it.  She makes bold choices... she's done a ton of preparation... and she is throwing down some good work.  Sometimes younger actors are timid when around more experiences actors.  While that is understandable, it is not good.  You are cast for a reason... and that reason is because you fit the role well.  There is no need to apologize because you have less experience than someone else. 

There are plenty of other actors in the group who are all really fun and have great stories and I wish I could just write about them for a while. 

Actually... I should mention our director.  He and I met in a production of Macbeth at Indiana Rep.  He was Banquo and I was Macduff.  We kind of have a similar style.  We're both a little blunt, we'd rather cut to the chase than tip-toe around a rehearsal... and we both really like Shakespeare.  He's a really fun actor and I've worked with him on two shows as an actor... Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing.  He directed me in a production of Two Gentlemen of Verona and now this.  The fun thing about doing Shakespeare with him is that he really doesn't like to cut anything from the script.  He'd rather the actor figure out the challenge of the harder lines of text than cut them at the start of rehearsals.  Our actor playing Othello has done this show a few times and he said that he is saying lines that he has never said before because usually those lines are cut to make the play shorter or more audience-friendly or whatever.  It's really fun having a director that expects the actor to make every line that Shakespeare wrote read well for the audience.  As I may have said before... Shakespeare is soduku for the actor... and instead of cutting the most challenging "puzzles," he expects us to struggle with them.   

We're working the fight in Part Two tomorrow.  I get my hamstring slashed.  Should be fun!