Final runthrough pre-tech

For me at least. I am leaving the fellas to attend to some business. I will be back late monday night, ready for tech.

Todays runthrough was grand. I felt that guiesseppe's failure monologue was brilliant. He has found it. The movement to be both disappointed collossally, pleading, incensed (spelling), loving, and devestated.

Hally too - clifton is putting less effort into his performance and i think with tremendous effect.

Run Through Friday

Today we had a runthru the HAIRSPRAY cast. It went exceedingly well, though I believe it was a step back in some ways from yesterday. Well, not a step back in terms of a set back. Just not as smooth is certain ways.

Kirche the costume designer was in attendance.

I believe the running time, what should be known in theater as "THE ONLY EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE", was about three minutes shorter. So we are down to 97 minutes from 104 minutes two runs ago.

I think the top of the show was sloppier - Clifton and Wendell reported out of body experiences. Wendell seemed to miss all of the good solid work we worked out yesterday. All the time at the top of the play washing the floors. It just seemed like random stage business as opposed to a method of cleaning. When its working right, he seems like he is part of the fabric of the play. When its off, I feel responsible: "who told him to mop the floor like that?" Oy. The "heartfelt groan" after the spitting is noticeably subdued.

We had a long long discussion about it yesterday. For me, his reaction was not only ruining the impact of the spit - but storywise, was missing the point. His groan was more like an attempt at preventing the event, rather than an acknowledgment that it was all over. the difference between trying to catch a baby thrown out of the window and missing catching it versus realizing afterwards what's happened. The difference between an expulsion of air, and a deep sigh. Reaching versus sinking.

It's better - just not quite there.

Guiesseppe is tapping into some great heavy heartfelt stuff. His "should i hit him Willie?" WHY NOT?""" was very scary - but taken too far and I think missed the point. I had no reason to believe that Sam wouldn't deck Hally. His speech about feeling like a failure - and the event of going into the bar with Hally and lifting up hally's father is really close. He needs to fight through the obstacle a little more.

We worked the spit and the mooning. It was brave. The power went out at some point during the run and well, it came back on when Guiesseppe mooned. Funny...but more to the point, fucking brave.

The spit needed work. I've asked Clifton to plant himself and not do a running spit - but a quick turn, plant, spit...We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

I felt the ending was a little forced. But hey, they needed to go that far with an audience if only to feel just that - that it went too far emotionally, and sort of robbed us of having emotions.

Clifton on the other hand needs to allow the obstacle at the end. I want him to be an open vessel post spit.

His work is getting much more grounded. I feel he needs to be reminded that Hally is a kid who lives in his mind. Clifton is much looser and freer in his body than I want Hally to be. I did something very hard today which was ask him to cut some of his laughs. His laughs take me out - and I've asked him to use the words themselves to laugh through. The effect is a deepening of Hally. Clifton needs to be reminded that he is 17 enough as is. I don't think he thinks he is playing at 17 - but certain choices he's made (his laugh, parts of his physicality) have the unintended consequence of keeping his voice too high. And it doesn't need to be. As I've said before, a 17 year old thinks he is an adult.

There was not a dry eye in the house.

Run Through Thursday

Well done, mates. Well done. In attendance were Wilson Chin (sets) and Kim Fuhr (sound). At the production meeting preceding the runthru we discussed the floor. We are going to use the ground cloth which has been treated in such a way that it won't make too much noise. A big concern.

Worked extensively with Wendell on finding ways to include him and I think there was a huge payoff. He seems integral to the proceedings. He is our witness - and he is us. Great.

The Man of Magnitude really felt like a game. The guys did great! What could be extremely tedious material really lifted and felt, well, fun.

Still not ready for the spit and the moon. But soon.

Thanks for the directions

Thanks for letting me know how you got here. Special thanks to Grote for the traffic my way. Right back atcha

How did you get here?

I have no idea how you found this site. I know how adam got here - I guess because I link to his site, he is able to track the visit. But how did you get here?

I am delighted that you are here. I would be delighted if you had suggestions of how I could improve my blog.

I guess my motto is: I will do my best to write something interesting, and I trust you'll tell me if it is interesting, or if it isn't.

I will consider that I have tipped when I got a reciprocal link from Mr. Voucher Ankles himself.

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

"The more precisely the POSITION is determined,the less precisely the MOMENTUM is known"

Or rather, the act of observing affects the outcome.

So yesterday, Steve Stettler, one of the three producing Artistic Directors here, watched a runthrough of MASTER HAROLD. Amazing how the observation of one new person, beyond the director, the stage manager, and the asm, can cause such panic...

I thought the gang did very well. They didn't seem overwhelmed. Sure, some notes were not applied and some ACTING was going on. But all in all, it seemed like they were keying in to new moments.

I am going crazy with all the mopping. I am gonna totally minimize it.

Guiesseppe and Clifton were hitting some nice emotional stuff. Too much? Unclear. Wendell is having a hard time with his "long and heartfelt groan" after Sam gets spit in the face. The noise he's making sounds like he wants to try to catch something that is falling outside of his reach. Instead, I want it to sound like he is getting hit in the gut - almost like the sound after that thing has hit the ground. He is now hyperfocused on it so that whenever he groans, or makes his sound of groaning, he is disappointed and shakes his head in frustration.

Guiesseppe and I were trying to make sense of a line. "So go ahead and groan, Willie. You do it better than me." Why does he say it? Context: Sam has asked willie if he should hit the boy. And Willie says "no, he is just a boy, little white boy. Maybe I just go in the back and cry." I didn't exactly know what it meant, but knew it was a transitional line. I knew that it had the effect of should-shrugging, but I struggled with Guiesseppe to figure it out. And then I did: it's about race. Everything that Sam says that follows has to do with his disappointment that he didn't do a better job raising Hally as a non-racist. And that he has a choice, hally does, to walk away from the bench that says "Whites Only". So - the line, Go ahead and groan willie. You do it better than me" seems to be about how Willie deals with race (wants to hit, advises against and goes in the back and cries" versus Sam (who has tried all his life to make a difference)

So there ya go.

Steve dug the proceedings. Gave me some good and effective notes.

Conflict

I am supposed to put in NO CHILD at Berkeley Rep in May of next year, but I was just offered a job, a newish play, at another theater. The newish play opens May 9 on the east coast. Berkeley's NO CHILD starts previewing the same night.

One solution is to get my assistant director, the more than fabulous Jojo, to put it in for me at Berkeley Rep, and I'll come in for previews.

Another is that I leave the newish play after previews, missing opening night of newish play, and arriving in time for the first preview of NO CHILD - this would still require Jojo there for tech.

Yet another idea is that I ask Berkeley Rep to postpone the first two previews so that I might put it in myself. This is obviously not desirable for BRT. No one wants to cancel scheduled performances.

I really want to do the Berkeley Rep gig, for a number of reasons: I assisted Tony Taccone there about 13 years back and I'd love to eventually direct there; I went to grad school at ACT across the bay; Rachel's from there; it's Berkeley Rep.

Now - I will ask Val to deal with it all. I wish it all were just so simple. And it never is.

But all in all, I should feel lucky and I do.

Driving Guiesseppe Crazy, One Spoon at a time

And yes, he does spell Guiesseppe like that.

A lot of yesterday's rehearsal, sadly, had a lot to do with place settings.