I attended the first reading of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike on Monday and was pleased that the actors I had met all separately throughout the casting process actually looked and sounded great, and fit their parts. Doug Finlayson, the director, is pleased. In his second rehearsal on Tuesday, he started staging the play, or blocking, as some people call it. I call it staging because it is literally the process of putting the written play on the stage. It means putting down taped lines for walls in the rehearsal hall, adding furniture, and deciding how the characters move as they speak and act out the play. Doug works much the way I usually do. He plans the movements on a specific ground plan of the setting (in this case a room in a large home in Buck's County, PA) as a part of his preparation before rehearsals start. Then he works slowly through the play over several days of rehearsal communicating his ideas to the actors scene by scene. When that process is done, there will be a run-through, or what we more often call a "stumble-through" because usually no one is quite ready to run yet. For Vanya, that will happen today: one week after the first rehearsal. In the process of continuing to work on the play, all of the movements will be refined and often changed completely. It's like sewing pattern pieces together before fitting; so much still needs to be adjusted.
Circle Mirror Transformation takes place in a rehearsal hall with the characters going through the process of both learning to act and getting to know each other. There is nothing in the space but a big blue yoga ball and five people playing theatre games. I didn't think my usual process would work. So, we started by playing the games that the characters play in the script. This was really helpful. Playing these games teaches new actors about being in the present, focusing on each other, observing and listening closely to what is happening, establishing a safe space and learning how to express your emotions. They are also really fun and energizing, so it was a blast to spend time revisiting games each of the actors had played in the past with other groups. It is also a great way to build ensemble, something every show benefits from, but that we often skip for lack of time. For this play it's fundamental. So we played for a few hours, learned so much and developed trust and appreciation of each other as a bonus!
On to staging: the play takes place over six weeks, so it was logical to take each week as a section that we'd work over in one rehearsal. A week is also cut into more short sections, so we've been working each of those three or four times with me offering suggestions as I watch the actors play. By the end of a rehearsal we have staged that week (but loosely and with an improvisational feel). When we read it last Monday, we discovered that the play has so much movement that only parts of it actually are interesting to hear read while sitting at a table. Sometimes I will begin working on a play with several table readings. I'm not sure we really made it through one full read of this play. I also learned that one of the exciting things about staging is its relationship with the audience. (Don't worry, there is no audience participation!) But I'm finding it thrilling to be so close to what is happening. It's almost like I'm a member of the class, or maybe a curious observer watching through a curtain. We have two more days of staging before our first stumble-through Wednesday.
Have a great week!
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