Month: April 2008

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Week 10: Production Week Begins

Lighting Rig in Empire Theatre

This is a post taken from my personal blog Groundling. I kept an acting casebook during a production of Cabaret for the Empire Theatre in 2008.

Gird the loins for production week. Here we go. Day 1 for the acting company in the rehearsal studio, and it’s another run. This is what I want and need right now. I’ve written before here about losing momentum in an extended rehearsal period, and we’ve arrived at the time to get the arc of the story right and to polish. Continue reading “Week 10: Production Week Begins”

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Three Sisters

I got to thinking during the drive home last night that there’s an awful lot of drama about three women, often sisters … not sure why three rather than two or four. Now these couplings are inevitably memorable. A few that spring to mind include the (in)famous sisters Lear (Regan, Goneril and the goody-goody Cordelia), and Chekhov’s Masha, Olga, and Irina. Australian drama has produced Hannie Rayson’s Falling From Grace, Stephen Sewell‘s The Garden of Granddaughters, and Hotel Sorrento by Hannie Rayson. The American theatre has given usThe Sisters Rosensweig from Wendy Wasserstein (one of my favourite writers), Three Tall Women by Edward Albee and another from the modern American theatre, Neil Simon’s wonderful triple treat from The Prisoner of Second Avenue: Pearl, Jessie, and Pauline.

Continue reading “Three Sisters”

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When the creative juices dry up …


photo credit: gl0ri

And they do! This morning a few little tips to unblock the dries came in an e-letter that I subscribe to. It was addressing photography specifically, but hey … creativity is creativity. Tip # 5 resonated for me. It’s one of my own tactics when prepping for a show. Music especially seems to help.

Surround yourself with creativity – pump up the volume on your stereo or iPod, rent that old Alfred Hitchcock flick or play a little music to get into that creative space.

I’d add look at pictures, read some poetry.