Asides – Page 60 – Greenroom

16 March, 20085 May, 2014

First Run: spot the holes and string the beads!

Water Court installation Queensland Art Gallery

Despite the dreads a week or so back, the first run was actually a bit of a thrill. During the blocking and working phase of rehearsals so far, most of our scenes have been worked in isolation from the others. So today, it was terrific to see them all and especially the dance chorus numbers beside our own. It was like stringing a whole lot of beads; the little pieces all make sense when they’re of a piece.

First runs are for spotting the ‘holes’ from both sides of the rehearsal room table: scenes that are working or not working as planned, moments that need rethinking, songs and routines that require further work. For the creative team of directors this translates into re-blocking, fixing and rescheduling of planned rehearsal sessions. For the actors, singers, and dancers (and that’s all of the acting company) it’s getting a chance to see how much of the arc of the story has bedded down through our action, lines … and gosh, darn it … just remembering to get everything in the right order. Working off premises in a local school kept us on our toes … the familiarity of the stage or the rehearsal studio was replaced by a new, not altogether congenial space with a shocking acoustic. Still, one does what one must!

Did I have the book down? No, not for all of it … I clung onto it for some scenes, but in others not bad I reckon. I know where I have to mend the holes. I’m working with a fine scene partner who’s a ‘giver’ and that means a great deal to any actor. The support that comes from a steady, calm gaze (not looking at the book, remember?) makes the job a lot easier. You get all you need from your scene partners during performance. Watch, listen, and respond.

That first rum had to be done. It’s over, the dread’s put to bed, and with a work through tomorrow night of all of the Schultz-Schneider scenes, songs and dance routines, I should be feeling a lot more comfortable as we head down the track into Week 6. Now it’s into refining, tweaking and polishing as well as creating the character’s ‘journey’ across the whole play, and not just within the confines of individual scenes. That string of beads again …

Tomorrow we are exactly one month out from opening night … and it’s St Patrick’s Day!

14 March, 20085 May, 2014

That Triple-Threat Thing

Empire Theatre — Image by Dramagirl via Flickr

Sing, dance, and act … if you can do these equally well, you’re a triple threat according to show biz jargon. Well I’ve long known I’m an actor first and foremost. I love music and singing and always have. We’ll pass over the dance part. So here I am in a singing role in Cabaret (Fraulein Schneider) with a modicum of dancing.

Last night I spent an hour with the choreographer and my scene partner working on a dance sequence, which is testing the triple part of the job: dancing, singing and acting at one and the same time. It’s an exercise in discipline … motivate, move, breathe and all in strict tempo and on pitch. I was reminded of some of the training work I did years ago in beijing opera (jingju) where the freedom often afforded and treasured by modern western acting style is conditioned and honed by a strict adherence to the performance traditions of the Chinese form. Demanding is not the word when it comes to prepping for jingju or for that matter a lot of traditional theatre forms. Shaping up to the insistence of tradition is good for the modern performer’s soul and feet! And it’s also good for me, a trainer of actors to get back into the saddle and to try to ride as well as I ask them to.

PS: I had the first tingles in the fingers a couple of nights back. This is my signal that the performance is just round the corner … as is that first run on Sunday.

12 March, 200828 March, 2011

Week 5: How can that be!

There’s a definite sense of autumn in the air which means we are getting mighty close to production time! Last 4-day weekend’s rehearsal period saw our doughty director and the creative team work their way through the mind-numbing exercise known as directing a crowd scene. Perhaps not so much mind numbing as shredding. There were 27 or so bodies on stage working through the pretty involved party scene which ends with the show-stopper Tomorrow Belongs to Me.

There’s a tonal ebb and flow as well as the more obvious choreographed dance sequences and stage pictures and it all has to look just … so. Once again I’m reminded of that aesthetic principle of effortless beauty which characterises the best work, be it golf swing or a dance routine.

And so on we go into Week 5.

PS: Research factoid. Nazi Germany produced the postcode.

4 March, 20085 May, 2014

Whoa! The first run-through? Already?

photo credit: Jeremy Brooks
Now time goes fast when you are enjoying yourself. We all know this. But to get a schedule standby for a first run-through makes you realise how fast time is really running. In the world of the theatre this call tends to bring on gentle hyper-ventilation and semi-moist palms. Yes, our efficient stage manager, sadistic smiling choreographer and on-the-mark director are prepping themselves for the thrill, the spills, the it-has-to-be-done-sometime folks, and this is it … the first runthrough of Act 1 Cabaret … soon. So what’s the big deal?

Up until now, the script, that talismanic object I spoke about some time ago has served as source, blueprint, and comfort-blanket on the rehearsal room floor. You can hang on to it … remember Linus and his comfort blanket? It’s just like that. However … a run-through almost always carries with it the gentle (or not so gentle) insistence the books be down; this is theatre jargon for no script in hand. In other words (and metaphorically speaking) you get to strip naked and deliver the goods. Theatre folk tend to call this the ‘stumble-through’ or ‘stagger,’ resisting the notion of ‘running’ with all its connotations of speed and achievement. It’s a time of vulnerability and naturally, of terror.

But hang on; it gets worst. This show is a musical. Not only do you lose you best friend (the script), but you get to sing and dance too … . Are you getting some idea of what the first run-through must be like now? Of course, until it happens, there is no sense really of how the show as a whole is doing, nor of how all your efforts up till now are gelling. Up until this point, it’s all been shuffling around, playing, exploring … as one should. Now the real thing … the demands of performance … begin to stare one in the face.

Theatre is no place for sissies!

2 March, 20085 May, 2014

Week 4: Slow and Steady

Another weekend of rehearsals, but sporadic for me. It feels a little like shooting a movie; short bursts and a bit out of sequence, as well as disconnected from previous work. It’s a function of how we’re working on the show. The current schedule is Thursdays through Mondays for the creative team heads. However, as we work through the play the acting company works on a call system, which means perhaps 2 out of the 4 days for most, or even a fraction of a day out of 4. I’m used to daily intensives in the course of a week, so what I’m feeling is a loss of momentum; the gains of one day have dissipated by the following weekend. Now this is probably only transitory. Of course, the Clayton’s Rehearsals continue; I couldn’t get a particular song out of my head last night. Once we get to runs, the momentum will be back and progress accelerated. At least, that’s the theory. Continue reading “Week 4: Slow and Steady”