Adding another character

Friday was spent adding a new character to the production — the set. We moved into the theater and got to work thru the entire show. It was a good, productive day. I was lucky as not really anything need to be restaged from what we did in the rehearsal room. I did restage two scenes as well as a musical number to fit more into the world of the show. I remarked to the cast that I never worked on a show where the actors had such a hard time memorizing the material. It's tough, because its poetry and a lot of actors memorize words to movement to help them remember lines, but since we continually change and evolve the show, they can't quite get a footing on it yet. Flo was having a tough day with her one scene — it just wasn't connecting and after three tries we took a break. When we came back to it she hit it dead on. I can only imagine how frustrating it was for her as she and Dan met for two hours before rehearsal began to go over lines. It's all part of where we are in putting the show together. All the actors wore their costume shoes during rehearsal, which was great in getting used to the raked stage. Saturday we continued working the show on the set and doing a run before beginning tech this week. Costume fittings have been going very well and it’s nice to hear actors come back into rehearsal after a fitting saying, “I just love my costume!” I had another idea about the show at 3:00a.m. on Friday night. That usually happens around this time in the rehearsal process — in the middle of the night new ideas and images pop into being. Friday’s vision was adding a meat hook and black roses to the props. Who knows what the next restless night will bring?

— ES