Mess, Mess, Mess.

Another messy rehearsal today. The main reason for this: one of my actors didn't turn up and two others were 45mins late. I didn't get to use one of the actors very much because the scenes he is in rely greatly on the actor who was not there. The actor's absence also meant that we had to work on the Sicilian scenes. I tried to contact the missing actor but her cell phone was off. I was not amused.

Getting Better All The Time

Hector has improved immensely! He has come out of his shell much more that I would have believed possible. We now have a much better understanding of each other and I think this was a great part of the problem to begin with; I think the drinking night we had helped improve the situation. Now, I just need to have a quiet word with him and he at least attempts what I ask of him rather than trying to fight me. I also think - because I can see he is trying - that I respect him much more; I don't expect actors to be brilliant but I do expect them to at least be present and aware during rehearsals. Now, I just have to get the rest of the actors to at least try!

Blogging

Here is a link to my library blog which talks about how blogging makes me a better director.

The Value of Warm-ups

I think I may have found a solution to the cast of Winter's Tale standing round doing nothing but saying their lines. The answer is warm-ups. Actually, more specifically I am thinking about the types of warm-ups we do. Previously, we had been focusing on vocal warm-ups - vowel scales, Hum Train, Pirate Song - but last night we did more physical warm-ups. I started with Biddy-Biddy-Bop but when the actors were, again, just standing round talking rather than playing I had to change my tack ever so slightly. The answer: Kitty Wants a Corner. After explaining the rules - as simple as they are - I think some of the actors were struggling with the point of the game; I don't think they realised that there was no point but the idea was just to run around like a mad thing. The resulting rehearsal was utterly awesome.

This is one of the skills I need to cultivate: the ability to see what the actors need and then give them an exercise that flexes that acting muscle so they can cope with the challenge they are facing at a particular time. I think I am getting much better at this - or at least I am actually becoming aware of when I do it now. My aim for improvement should be to fill my trick-bag with exercises I can actively use.

Exercise: Marionettes

For: Two Actors.
Aim: To help actors be comfortable keeping eye-contact and to work together for non-verbal communication.
How: The two actors stand comfortably apart facing each other. Keeping eye-contact, one actor moves the other by pulling invisible strings - hence the name of the exercise.
Variations:
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp -The actors can stand one behind the other - obviously a little difficult to keep eye-contact in this variation.
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp -The actors can stand on opposite sides of the stage and one can draw the other one across the stage to them using the strings.
Important Points:
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp -The actors should focus on making the strings 'real'. This means they should not be looking at the 'operator's' hands.

Thinking All the Time

I have been thinking about what an actor said to me at rehearsal last night. She said I needed to be stronger on the actors to make them work at understanding what they are saying more. This made me think about how I direct. I think that in Winter's Tale, I have been too much of a friend. It is too late to change this now but I need to be much firmer in future. I think I often feel that keeping the actors on-task and reminding them of what they have to do can come off as nagging; this is what I wish to avoid. Yet, if I avoid the nagging, the actors will find any excuse to avoid facing the challenge.

I have also realised the difference between telling the actors what to do and telling them how to do something. If you tell the actors what to do then you leave room for them to come up with how to do it. Yet, if you tell them the how, you leave no room for them to have any meaningful input. Of course, there is also freedom for the actors to com up with what to do and a director should be prepared to let them play to see if their ideas work. The bad situation is when the actors don't come up with anything so the director often feels they need to micromanage instead of giving the actors the broad brush-strokes - at least that is how I often feel.

Creeping up Slowly

We have just had another rehearsal for Winter's Tale, Hector has improved greatly, and it was the first rehearsal with Florizel and Perdita.

Instead of running lines, we focused more on exercises to get the cast freed-up. This didn't quite go as well as it could have since the actor playing Perdita was at rehearsal on-time and - naturally enough - got pissed off that the others were late; we started our 1400 rehearsal at 1430 once it became clear some actors weren't going to show up. However there was great energy between the two throughout the exercises. We started with mirroring and, since this worked so well, we went onto Two Men in an Empty Space. Nothing much happened but the two had a fantastic potential space between them and we even discovered that the actor playing Perdita was definitely the dominant partner.

We followed these two exercises with Line Swapping. I could sense that neither actors were particularly interested but - with a bit of gentle prodding - we started to get somewhere. Instead of simply going over the same thing constantly and not getting any form of variation, I varied my tactics and threw in some side-coaching to keep the actors on task. The actors at least eventually varied how the lines were spoken. However, they hesitated to use their bodies when saying lines and I was forced to changed my focus again. I tried statues but again the actors would not give me any "big" offers so I mobilised the good old extend/advance, which got them working much better. At one point, one actor didn't actually make an offer for the provocation "bastard" but I could see the potential in her pose. After a few extensions she fully embodied the "bastard" who is alone, out-cast, and carries the weight of social opprobrium; from a simple nothing of an offer we can make a stronger offer that actually means something.

We then went back to working with the script. Florizel and Perdita are so in love that they should revel in each other's company. However, the two actors simply walked onto the stage apart and stood "chatting." I asked them to link arms and skip on instead; what a change in energy! Instead of just walking and standing around, the rest of the scene was imbrued with such life and bubbliness that the actors wanted to interact together more. It really is amazing how a simple direction can make wonderful changes to the resulting scene.

So inspired by the results with these two, I tried the exercises on the rest of the cast. I feel we now need to shift our focus to getting more action into the lines since we are getting far too much standing around talking; I am worried that if the actors don't start acting now then they will get into the habit of simply reciting their lines. To this end, I got them to do Line Swap and Statues. Hector surprised me exceedingly. Although he did withdraw at one point - by sitting on the steps during the exercises - I simply carried on rather than taking him to task for his withdrawal. He did join in the Statues exercise well and actually seemed to enjoy it!

I then asked to see the scene Hector and his partners had been working on whilst I was rehearsing with Florizel and Perdita. There was such a change! He was off-book totally - only needing a couple of prompts - as was everyone else! This, I think, gave him such confidence that he was more free with himself and endowed his movement with much more intention. Now, we just have to work on understanding the script more fully so the meaning can come across better.

Risk

I have been quite astounded by the actors' willingness to explore homoeroticism in Winter's Tale. In previous productions, many of my actors have just not wanted to take the risk. Not only are my actors taking more risks but I think I have been too cautious in the past. Particularly when I directed ShaxxxQueer. I have found that if you ask the actors to do something they will probably do it – there is no need to pussy-foot around gay stagings.

However, I do have to be careful. If they don't feel comfortable doing “something gay” then I need to bide my time and chip away at their blocks, especially in the earlier rehearsals. There may be other reasons for the blocks – such as they don't know their scene partner very well – so, if I wait, they may become more willing as the rehearsals progress.