director's notes 8

Sorry for my absence since Thursday last, it was Captain Crunch time at the factory.

If you follow this blog you likely know theatre and the absurd process we follow to get a play opened..I suspect if one had 3 months to stage a piece one would still feel unprepared for opening--but I say, give me the three months and we'll see.

Starting with the Thursday 10/12 hour call it truly felt like a race..and like the man pushing the rock up the hill, I felt like a bull trying to herd us all across some imaginary finish line. I also had two projects I am serving as dramaturge/director on getting ready for the Passe Muraille BUZZ week..so Saturday and Sunday morning before Missing rehs found me rehearsing those, and yesterday I started rehearsals for The Last Days of Judas Iscariot.

The actors and designers and stage management and production crew spent last week madly scrambling to get the play to where it needs to be for an audience. In the process it really is true that you end up making lightning decisions..cuts, shifts, re-blocking. On Weds we looked at the major set image and it seemed it would never be what we wanted (a large wire sculpture) but by Sunday it was there. I had a wild desire to end the play with falling leaves..nice image but it didn't work well and more importantly was meaningless in the end. I had thought that a radio broadcast the character does to plead for his wife to come home would impart the right sense of isolation if it seemed that we observed it from the rear of a broadcast booth only
hearing him via a series of portable radios behind the audience..but it was strangely static..out with the mic and the idea.

Saturday I re-blocked the whole of the second half of the play so the pace and flow of the play would be better serviced..it helped but we had a dress that night so it was pretty scary for the actors.

Sunday's first preview was relatively smooth and we got to a time we liked, but I sat there seeing only what wasn't working for me..a dangerous time for a director..you can be so hard on yourself it can be counter-productive.

Yesterday I suggested a further re-ordering of scenes and some cuts to Florence and spent the evening after Judas rehearsals working them out and communicating with the designers and actors and stage management how they would work and how we would rehearse them today for tonight's preview. Off to morning rehearsal of Judas and then into the theatre for a couple of Missing hours, then watching again tonight with our second audience.

Next up..observations about my second recent experience directing a non linear piece by a feminist author (36 Views was the other one)--what I have learned.