7-1-12 One week down...

Last Sunday from 6pm-10pm we were all meeting each other and reading the play together for the first time.

This Sunday from 6pm-10pm we worked through the entire Part One of our show.  Part One is made up of all of Shakespeare's Act I, Act II, and the first three scenes of Act III.  That's how fast the process is.

Act I was in nice shape because we spent so much time on it yesterday.  It was essentially our third time visiting the scenes from Act I and it showed.  Some people were really starting to play with their choices.  I know that I felt a freedom and a comfort with those scenes that I haven't felt much in other scenes yet.

Once we got to Act II and the scenes in Act III things got a little rougher.  It's tough.  It's tough working a scene on Tuesday and then coming back to it on Sunday and really bumping it to the next level.  But that is what we have to do.  I know that there were moments where I succeeded and moments where I definitely failed.  One scene I apparantly forgot to write down any sort of notes for when we first rehearsed it.  I told another actor, who is a professor at Butler, "my students would be all over me if they knew I forgot to write down my blocking!"  Now you know.  I blew it on that one and it showed. 

The drunk scene is coming along fairly well and the fight got good reviews from people who hadn't seen it yet.  So that was a plus.

I need to start building into my routine a daily "walk through" of all of my scenes.  This is where I kind of try and do the scene by myself just going over my blocking and my lines... but actually doing it up on my feet.  I may have to go outside the hotel to do this or maybe I can use one of the conference rooms.  But, every scene is kind of like a dance with sound and movement and timing...  different speeds and rhythms...  and it's hard to really learn the dance if I don't get up and actually start to dance it and imagine it.  In Act I, I was really starting to get the dance down.  I need to find that dance more with the rest of my work. 

And... I'm going to have to do it on my own for a while... at least with Part One.  We aren't scheduled to visit Part One of the show again for EIGHT DAYS.  That's crazy.  But that's the process.  It's on to Part Two of the show. 

Part Two is a little lighter for me than Part One.  Of the two main characters, Iago kind of drives Part One and Othello drives more of Part Two.  In terms of the secondary characters, Cassio is featured more in the first half of the show.  Desdemona and Emilia more in the second half.  Those 5 characters make up 82.5% of all the lines spoken in the play.

Because I have a bit of a lighter rehearsal load this week, it means I can crank up my work on the other scenes.  My goal will be in that in 8 days, I am "dancing" pretty well for Part One of the show when we run it. 

One of these days I need to talk about movement... maybe I'll try and do that tomorrow.

Shout out of the day goes to China who checked in for the first time.  I know the government blocks some of the internet options over there.  Glad to see my blog is getting through the filters.  hahaha