First of all, a quick apology. One of my previous blogs I incorrectly identified some people. Greg Wright designed our wonderful set. Set decoration was handled by Greg, Rebecca Davis, Jody McPherson, Mimi Alexander and Matthew Alexander. Set construction was magnificently done by Bob Richardson’s wonderful team of builders. Sorry for the misinformation but blogs are more like Wikipedia than the New York Times. Will try to do better in the future.
I had what I thought was a wonderful idea yesterday. At least it seemed like a wonderful idea at the time. There was a lull in my work and I felt I the need to get outside and clear my head so I called next door to see if Lavin (Abe) wanted to play 9 holes. With the colder weather, our lawns aren’t growing as fast right now.
It became obvious very early on in the round that we had spent way too much time with our characters in Knock Knock because we played like two men who hadn’t been outside in 20 years. We discarded the scorecard immediately because it was evident it would exceed our combined mathematical abilities.
Cut to last night’s rehearsal. It was going to be a long night anyway and we had to be there are 6pm to get in costume for the first time. (Nancy, as Joan of Arc, has having particular problems with the crotch in her chain mail which apparently was last used by a hip-hop artist. How often does that conversation come up?) Food, and there is a lot of it in this show, for the first time. This would also be the first time for our “special effects” which coordinate lights, sound and other stuff which I won’t disclose. All these have to be timed to work together. Also, a photographer from an area newspaper was supposed to come and take pictures for a feature on our production. Lots of new things.
By the time we were able to start the run-through, I was ready for a nap. It’s not to say we had a bad rehearsal. Most of it was very good, don’t get me wrong. I tend to be self-critical to the point of suicidal. I missed a line very early on that I had never missed before. That happens and I could live with it. What bothered me is that I couldn’t think of a way past it. I knew what came next but I couldn’t figure out what my character could say to get us there.
Live theater requires a huge measure of trust. Trust in yourself, in your fellow actors, technicians, stage crew, set crew, everybody. It is the ultimate team sport.
For the actor you need to be able to trust in yourself that whatever happens you have the presence of mind to think your way out of it and move the show forward. And if you’re lucky, the audience will never know. To do this you have to know the show thoroughly. You have to sort out in a nanosecond where you are, what’s important as part of the story, what’s next logical point to go to and how do we get there.
To accomplish this you need focus -- something which I failed to bring with me that night. It won’t happen again.
Again, 95% of the run-through was very, very good. Even some of the 5% ended up being funnier than what was written though Jules Feiffer might not agree. When you can make people laugh who have been watching you for a month, you have to feel you’ve accomplished something.
And as a Public Service Announcement: Please don’t golf and act.
PS. The photographer never showed.
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