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.
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