Doldrums

Doldrums, pl. n.
1. A period of stagnation or slump.
2. A period of depression or unhappy listlessness.
3. A region of the ocean near the equator, characterized by calms, light winds, or squalls.

We have reached the doldrums of rehearsal. It is almost unfair to call it that. We are certainly making progress. Now is the stage of rehearsal in which all of the actors are caught in between knowing their lines, intentions, context and actions. It is a terrible time really. It feels like being on a ship that isn’t moving as fast as you want it to.
Like being caught in the doldrums.

When I was a touring artist, the first question from student audiences was always “How did you memorize all those lines?”
Well kids, this is how it happens. Hard work.
Repetition, repetition, repetition.
Making connections so that it all makes sense.
(Why did I come over here? Ah ha, seduction. Let me try that again.)

Actors in the hallway helping each other. Scene partners running their lines over and over again. Actors coming in early to rehearse the fights.
We have had our squalls. Every new prop or piece of choreography is met with excitement and frustration at having to incorporate yet another new thing. (Is this really the knife? I’ve never seen this before! Will you have earrings? I LOVE these shoes!)
Every day we get more and more specific.
Tomorrow we will run through and see what we have.
The actors will be frustrated by all of the things that they forget.
I will be impressed by all of the things that they remember.
I have been across this ocean before.
I’m not afraid of the doldrums.

FIGHTING

I have never liked scary movies.

Some people make a distinction between “suspenseful” , “scary” and “gory”.

All of them are tough for me to take. I will watch a movie through my fingers if I have to.

I guess of all three, the gory ones are the worst.

Even though I know they're fake and no one is actually hurt, they still bother me.

This was always true and when my brother died it got worse.

I guess I don't have much tolerance for violence.

Tonight we worked on our second night of fight choreography.

Last night Harris, our fight choreographer, staged a swordfight in the street and a drunken brawl.

Really fun and crazy.

But tonight, we worked on the bedroom fights.

It’s no secret that Othello kills Desdemona at the end. That is why Othello and O.J. end up linked in so many conversations.

(That drives me crazy, by the way. I think the analogy is strained at best. We can talk about that another time.)

Anyhow, tonight, we staged the series of fights that begins with Desdemona’s death.

Our normally disciplined cast started to fray at the edges tonight. They fell into multiple side conversations. Lots of joking around. General silliness. More than ever before.

They are never like this.

I can’t help thinking that, as hard as violence is to watch, it is even harder to do.

Even in this highly theatrical sort of way.

We have developed a community. We have been able to get to know each other. The last thing anyone wants to do is hurt each other.

So everyone went through the motions. Carefully. Always checking to be sure that the everyone was ok.

At a certain point you have to move past the meticulous process of learning the movements and start acting.

And that can be scary. Of course we are all pretending. We know that no one is actually their character in the play.

But most actors train to conjure up emotions in order to make the situation as real-seeming as possible.

And these are not comfortable feelings to conjure up.

It’s not easy to get to those deep, dark places that erupt in violence.

We have two weeks to get there. And we will.

For now we joke about the slaps and kicks and saber fights.

But when we get to performance I hope to be watching through my fingers.

Running

Last Saturday we had our first run through of the entire play.

It is now officially on its feet.

With no real catastrophes, the actors were able to make their way through the abstract labyrinth of our rehearsal stage.

Multicolored tape cris-crosses the floor representing the structures, levels and dimensions of our performance space in the Grandel Theatre.

The rehearsal room is smaller than the eventual stage, so the actors and I are constantly making mental adjustments to approximate physical distance.

But running through is also about something else.

Moving through the play from top to bottom also helps us gauge the emotional distance that we have to cover in this play. It gives all of us a sense of what we know and what we need to find out; where are we already strong and where we have room to grow; which relationships are clear and which need more attention.

The first run-through is our chance to set the outline, like pictures in a coloring book.

Now we have to fill the pictures in with colors.

Like all great artists we will not always stay within the lines.

But at least now we know where they are.

Surprises in bed

Some surprises are nicer than others.

Today when I walked in, the stage manager and production manager were deep in conversation.

I didn't want to bother them because they looked so intent.

Instead, I asked the assistant stage manager to show me the rehearsal bed.

We went in the other room and there was a pretty good approximation of the bed that we will have on the final set.

I walk back into the rehearsal room and the two managers turn to me.

"Well, will it be alright if we only have one bench tonight?"

"Why?" I asked.

"The prop master just got the message today."

"What about the rehearsal bed in the other room?"

"What rehearsal bed?"

When they got back, they had big smiles on their faces.

It's not that anyone is surprised that the job got done; it's just nice, when your list is already long, to have someone tend to the details.

It's nice to know that a helpful person has eased the stress of your day.

Thanks Erin.

The Geometry of Emotion

When I was in high school, I was pretty good at geometry.

At least, that's what I remember.

Algebra was so completely abstract that I just got through it and trusted that it was good for me.

Like spinach.

But geometry was an entirely different thing.

Once I figured out that we were dealing with real things, things I could draw, things I could actually touch, it finally made sense.

Then trig. Same thing. Suddenly the x and y axis became points in space.

There are calculations for everything in math: triangles, circles, squares.

Calculations in multiple dimensions.

Calculations in real life.

OK, sort of. The real life ones usually come in the guise of word problems that only the most diligent among us can decipher...

”If the height of object a is 6” and the height of object b is 24”, what is the distance required to create a 90 degree angle between the base...”

(What?!?)

Height, length, width...

To be honest, I never fully understood it, but between Sr. Franklin and Mrs. Osmundson, I did alright.

And now it's time to block the play.

Blocking is the process of deciding where everyone and everything will move on the stage.

Simple, you are thinking, no?

No.

The angles are the same ones I learned in high school.

Especially triangles, as we are working on a thrust stage and there will be audience on 3 sides.

The word problems are more concrete now. “If Othello is 6'2” and Desdemona is 5'2”, what is the distance required...”

As the director, it is my job to make sure that the actors are open (visible) to the entire audience as much as possible.

But there are questions that Sr. Franklin couldn't help me solve.

What are the angles of vulnerability onstage?

What is the relationship between objects in space when object a desperately wants to change the mind of object b?

What is the minimum distance required to gain someone's trust.

What is the maximum distance from which you can ruin a reputation?

How do you calculate emotion as it moves through space?

In the theatre we work on four dimensions: height, length, depth, time.

You can do all of the mathematical calculations that you want but only one thing will morph those calculations into magic.

The actors.

They have to achieve such openness in this play. Emotional, physical. They have to be open to each other while staying open to an audience.

Othello, Desdemona, Emilia, Roderigo, Brabantio, Bianca...everyone has to lay themselves on the line to make this work.

It is the work that they do .

The work that actors live to do, love to do and loathe to do all at once.

And they have my utmost respect.

I am here to serve this alchemy; prevent these calculations from appearing on the stage.

Help everyone and everything move so seamlessly that we don't even think about it.

If we all do our jobs right, no one will ever notice the angles.

They will see the openness.

Race. Color. Class

We had a great conversation today. Actually, it is a conversation that has stretched across the last two days.

Well, maybe stretched across the last week.

Race. Color. Class.

How they fit together. How they stand apart.

I am always impressed by the amount of energy that people have about the very idea of race.

I am even more impressed by the level of energy that black people have when talking about race.

We at this table have had so many disparate experiences of being black.

They are influenced by our geographic origins, age, generation, immigration patterns, education.

Some of us have felt first hand the sting of racist comments and far worse.

For some of us these have come from white people. For some of us they have come from other people of color.

And then there are the things that we get from other black people.

We have lots of energy about it.

The feelings run deep. Middle school betrayals.

Being the token black person.

Asked to speak on behalf of all black people. "Why are your lips so big? Do you wash your hair?"

Working in a group where the one other black person won't speak to us.

Standing up for all the black people in your acting school.

Being the ONLY black person in your acting class.

Yes. The negotiation of who we are in relation to each other.

The awkward ways that people try to bridge the gap.

Is that worse than saying nothing?

Ahhh...the first day...

It was pretty fantastic.

The cast is very eager and energetic.

They run the gamut of experience from people who have studied and performed Shakespeare extensively to actors who have only been in one or two plays.

As a group they are very appreciative to be in the room.

I get the sense (and my stage manager assures me) that it is a welcome treat to be involved in a professional Shakespeare production at a black theatre company.

I try not to overwhelm them with my skabillion thoughts. That's tough.

We did some traditional WPY/SFLA community-building work.

We started with a sparkling cider toast.

The reading of the play was exactly 2 hours. Exactly.

Once we add songs and fights, we should be in good shape.

After reading through the play we "covered the space", asked the "3 who's" questions and talked a bit about bringing a spirit of trust and collaboration into the rehearsal process.

I would have done that first but I lost my Cassio to his tech rehearsal for another show and had to make that adjustment.

The reading sounds good and the casting looks great.

Our Iago is a silver-tongued devil, alright.

Othello is actually younger than Iago, Cassio and Montano. There are other soldiers who seem to be about the same age- mid to late 20s.

It gives the show an interesting sort of mentoring relationship between Othello and Iago.

Obviously Othello is a remarkable soldier to command these older and equally obviously, he has spent all of his time fighting and knows nothing about love relationships.

It helps us understand why Othello would trust Iago so quickly and completely.

The actor also has a very sweet quality in those moments. Very young and trusting that makes his demise all the more heartbreaking.

It's interesting.

Desdemona is equally young and sweet. And I think that she has a quiet fire that will elevate her beyond the stereotypical ingenue and allow us to see the warrior in her that is Othello's match.

There is also an interesting mentoring relationship between Desdemona and Emilia that should be very telling.

The set looks fantastic. We got an incredible 3D model to look at. It will be cool to work with.

The costumes are getting more specific.

I have people in the cast ready to come up with a fantastic drinking song.

That might be more fun than rehearsal can hold, I'm not sure.

Now I have to turn my attention to weaponry...