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
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