DAY FORTY THREE - Monday May 7
A tricky day. Why are all of our full company rehearsals so tricky? We were supposed to RUN both prologue and epilogue with the full company. But every time we got to a section where the chorus is supposed to do some basic movement - most of them forgot what they were supposed to do. So we taught it... to them... again! And I looked around the room and nobody was writing anything down. Not the stage manager, not the assistant director - not even the actors. So who is keeping track of all this stuff? Nobody really seemed to care.
And there were those few grumpy actors - who seem to be the ones who have the least clue about how to play into a scene and make the most basic of creative choices - who were giving us attitude. I lost my temper again because those who did not remember (to say nothing of writing anything down) their blocking were wasting the time of those who did remember. And because of all the re-teaching, we would not get to run the Epilogue - so all those actors who showed up for that scene had their time wasted as well.
One particular sour puss had such a face on her that I asked why she was sitting there with such attitude. She didn't like the fact that I raised my voice. I told her I didn't like the fact that they weren't writing anything down and couldn't remember their blocking. Further, I didn't like that I raised my voice either but people like her not paying attention to a scene caused me to do so.
Also, one of our two older character guys gave me such a grumpy face when I explained that he was supposed to start the scene in the orchestra pit and THEN go upstairs and backstage to enter onto the stage. I think his grumpy face was because he didn't think he had enough time to get from one place to another. He actually makes a grumpy face no matter what I'm asking him to do - but I explained that he had a verse to listen to Prince Sandor, a verse to get upstairs and a third verse during which to enter. He gave me such an exasperated expression that I ripped the trumpet prop out of his hand and gave it to the other actor playing the same role who is always HAPPY to do the staging as I ask and is so delightful in the role. Mr. Grumpy Pants grabbed his bag and left the rehearsal. And never returned. Good riddance.
Then I replaced sour puss girl with one of the second team chorus members who is ALWAYS playing into the scene and very imaginative. I asked that positive-girl be moved to the first "staff".
After rehearsal was equally painful - a difficult conversation with the dramaturg. She was going on about how it didn't appear to her that the actors knew what they were doing. She was basing this on a run of a scene - well, it was hardly a run - during which the one actor who is less secure and experienced was fairly lost because he did not remember his blocking and the other actor, who is more experienced, couldn't remember his lines. She made some comment about how I had told the actors that I didn't want to help them discover their goals (intention, purpose, objective, etc.) and that I said I was the director and I'd do my job and they are the actors and had to do their job. Does that sound like something I'd say? I LOVE working with actors - and encouraging dialogue with them. And helping them find intention, purpose, objective, etc. But someone misconstrued (mis-translated?) my very early conversation about giving them freedom at first to discover their roles.
Further, if any of those actors feel that way, I would be very surprised - and upset - because I think we've had a very open dialogue. There were a few sticky moments way back during the first week when I was looking for what they brought to the scene when I had to learn that they bring absolutely nothing until the director tells them what to bring! That, in fact, most of them don't know much about the play they are rehearsing beyond their roles because they don't get full scripts to read. They just get their parts. The fact that we did four read-throughs didn't seem to inform them at all either. Which is curious.
So, yes, there were conversations where they'd say what do I want in the scene and I would say, "based on the scene, what do you think you want." Not because I didn't know what to tell them, but because I wanted to know what decisions they had made. None. So I had to adjust my methods. I would start the rehearsal by literally saying, "Ok, in this scene, you want to save your childhood home from being sold to the invading Americans," or, "In this scene you don't want to let him know that you like him because you need to find out if he likes you first," or stuff like that.
So what Lena (dramaturg) was telling me today was really upsetting to me. She seemed to have a bit of a chip on her shoulder from day one.
Because of the large show in the evening, there was nothing to rehearse. So I went with Gregg, Gugu and Paulina (interpreters) to see it: "Katherine The Great." A large scale show - gorgeous costumes - I thought rather clunky stagecraft and settings. Not my favorite show. It was a contemporary pop-ish musical about the famed Empress and one might call the score eclectic. But with it's oddly placed jazz moments, a gospel number and a hip hop number, I'd call it a hodge podge. The audience (which was full) loved it - so what do I know?
A tricky day. Why are all of our full company rehearsals so tricky? We were supposed to RUN both prologue and epilogue with the full company. But every time we got to a section where the chorus is supposed to do some basic movement - most of them forgot what they were supposed to do. So we taught it... to them... again! And I looked around the room and nobody was writing anything down. Not the stage manager, not the assistant director - not even the actors. So who is keeping track of all this stuff? Nobody really seemed to care.
And there were those few grumpy actors - who seem to be the ones who have the least clue about how to play into a scene and make the most basic of creative choices - who were giving us attitude. I lost my temper again because those who did not remember (to say nothing of writing anything down) their blocking were wasting the time of those who did remember. And because of all the re-teaching, we would not get to run the Epilogue - so all those actors who showed up for that scene had their time wasted as well.
One particular sour puss had such a face on her that I asked why she was sitting there with such attitude. She didn't like the fact that I raised my voice. I told her I didn't like the fact that they weren't writing anything down and couldn't remember their blocking. Further, I didn't like that I raised my voice either but people like her not paying attention to a scene caused me to do so.
Also, one of our two older character guys gave me such a grumpy face when I explained that he was supposed to start the scene in the orchestra pit and THEN go upstairs and backstage to enter onto the stage. I think his grumpy face was because he didn't think he had enough time to get from one place to another. He actually makes a grumpy face no matter what I'm asking him to do - but I explained that he had a verse to listen to Prince Sandor, a verse to get upstairs and a third verse during which to enter. He gave me such an exasperated expression that I ripped the trumpet prop out of his hand and gave it to the other actor playing the same role who is always HAPPY to do the staging as I ask and is so delightful in the role. Mr. Grumpy Pants grabbed his bag and left the rehearsal. And never returned. Good riddance.
Then I replaced sour puss girl with one of the second team chorus members who is ALWAYS playing into the scene and very imaginative. I asked that positive-girl be moved to the first "staff".
After rehearsal was equally painful - a difficult conversation with the dramaturg. She was going on about how it didn't appear to her that the actors knew what they were doing. She was basing this on a run of a scene - well, it was hardly a run - during which the one actor who is less secure and experienced was fairly lost because he did not remember his blocking and the other actor, who is more experienced, couldn't remember his lines. She made some comment about how I had told the actors that I didn't want to help them discover their goals (intention, purpose, objective, etc.) and that I said I was the director and I'd do my job and they are the actors and had to do their job. Does that sound like something I'd say? I LOVE working with actors - and encouraging dialogue with them. And helping them find intention, purpose, objective, etc. But someone misconstrued (mis-translated?) my very early conversation about giving them freedom at first to discover their roles.
Further, if any of those actors feel that way, I would be very surprised - and upset - because I think we've had a very open dialogue. There were a few sticky moments way back during the first week when I was looking for what they brought to the scene when I had to learn that they bring absolutely nothing until the director tells them what to bring! That, in fact, most of them don't know much about the play they are rehearsing beyond their roles because they don't get full scripts to read. They just get their parts. The fact that we did four read-throughs didn't seem to inform them at all either. Which is curious.
So, yes, there were conversations where they'd say what do I want in the scene and I would say, "based on the scene, what do you think you want." Not because I didn't know what to tell them, but because I wanted to know what decisions they had made. None. So I had to adjust my methods. I would start the rehearsal by literally saying, "Ok, in this scene, you want to save your childhood home from being sold to the invading Americans," or, "In this scene you don't want to let him know that you like him because you need to find out if he likes you first," or stuff like that.
So what Lena (dramaturg) was telling me today was really upsetting to me. She seemed to have a bit of a chip on her shoulder from day one.
Because of the large show in the evening, there was nothing to rehearse. So I went with Gregg, Gugu and Paulina (interpreters) to see it: "Katherine The Great." A large scale show - gorgeous costumes - I thought rather clunky stagecraft and settings. Not my favorite show. It was a contemporary pop-ish musical about the famed Empress and one might call the score eclectic. But with it's oddly placed jazz moments, a gospel number and a hip hop number, I'd call it a hodge podge. The audience (which was full) loved it - so what do I know?
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