Should We Put Action in Gradually?

The play is becoming a bit stale. Some of the actors are simply doing the same thing over and over without experimenting and trying something new. I just gave them some advice this evening – also because they have tomorrow night off and I don't want then to lose the show totally and so come to performance on Tuesday and have difficulty getting back into it.

Hector's hand- gestures are also getting a bit out of control. I think it may be a useful thing in future to start with no action at all – i.e. say scenes statically – and then bring the action into it. Thereby we can start with nothing and make sure the actions we introduce are necessary ones. I think we run the risk with The Winter's Tale off getting empty actions proliferating the stage instead of useful actions that are endowed with the emotion of the scene.

Inhabit My Space

I have been reading Anne Bogart's And Then, You Act ostensibly as preparation for my MA but also because it is actually rather good. However, tonight I came across the following passage:

"If you supply a complete world with all the details, then the audience has nothing to do but accept the illusion and become passive" (76).

This comes from the chapter entitled “Magnetism” which examines how fantastic theatre contains empathy, entertainment, ritual, participation, spectacle, education, and alchemy.

This quote resonated with me whilst giving me some approval. I have realised that I usually provide very few of the details. My sets are usually sparse – particularly those for The Maids and The Winter's Tale – which allows the audience to exercise their imaginations to put their own localities onto the sets which they see.

This view of theatre also hints at a way to create productions using queer theory. Since the queer is often a space in the text – the space which is inhabited by those things which it is not polite or too dangerous to talk about – we can use this space on the stage. By dropping some hints that allow the audience to read queer in a production, we can stage things which some members of the audience may not normally be willing to confront. In this way we can subtly work against homophobia in the world rather than challenging it openly and thereby inciting resistance in the audience.

Help the Techies

My techs are finding it difficult to follow the changes in lighting states during the play. I have relatively new techs who don't really understand why the lights are changing. I was thinking today that anyone with theatre experience would understand the philosophy behind technical work. For those that are new I feel it takes a little more time to explain why we change the lights when we do. Particularly during my productions – where the lighting states are very much impressionistic - I need to spend some time explaining to my crew the reasons behind my choices so that they can then understand why they are doing what they are doing and this will, hopefully, make it easier for them to understand how they are to change the lights when they need to.

Understanding the why also helps them feel the times when they need to modify the states ever so sightly if they make a mistake. Perhaps this is something with which I shall have to experiement with some first years next year.

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!

It's My Party and I'll Cry if I Want To

Tonight at rehearsal I was such a btich! We have a dance number in the play that a few of the actors are not committing to. One of the problems is that it has a slow melody but a fast beat and they are trying to dance to the beat rather than the melody. So, whilst we were waiting for some of the actors to show up - lateness is still a problem - I played the musce on repeat. Myself and two of my actors - the two that are committing the most to the production - started danicing to the music - a very natural response for me. After dancing for a bit, I taught one of the actors some diaphragm stretches and the other actor came over to join us. Afterwards, she told me she did so tacitly entice the others to join in; I intentionally did not tell them that they should get up and move since I was waiting to see hot long it took them to get bored of sitting around doing nothing. Eventually, I stopped the music to have a wee hissy-fit at them for wasting time. I also told them they shouldn't have to be told what to do since they are adults and they are all experienced enough to know that they need to warm up. Throughout the rest of rehearsal I thought I was being a bitch - which I was.

Oddly, however, I don't like being a bitchy director. Although I think I become too much of a friend to the cast. I need to find the middle-ground and be authoritative without being too bitchy. In this situation, I was so exasperted at the cst for constantly coming to rehearsals late and then - when they finally arrived - not working independently but needing to constantly have my eye on them. I realise that rehearsals do not go the way I plan them, but I am often caught on the fly because I have to suddenly changed my plans to make the best use of those actors that actually show up. I am aslo concious that I call a full-cast rehearsal and don't use dome actors because we get stuck into a scene that we didn't plan to do because someone was late or - even worse - didn't show up at all that we don't get to do the parts which need doing.

I also made the cast be off-book tonight. I had previously told them we wouldn't be doing this until Sunday but have since realised that this would be leaving it far too late. Most of them took to the idea but some were more resistant - we did have a prompt available. In this, again, I was flexible. One actor came upt to me when I said we would be rehearsing her scene and - very passive-agressively - asked me if we could not as she didn't know the lines at all. I gave her the option of reading the lines before we rehearsed the scene; she gratefully accepted this offer. I am just a bit frustrated that the actors aren't being flexible enough and are putting up too much resistance. Having said this, they did work a lot better after my little hissy-fit.

Blogging

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

Just Wait

This weekend, we had an intensive rehearsal for Winter's Tale. This was enlightening for two particular reasons.

First: I had been wanting one of my actors to make his scene partner the focus of a humping movement to accompany the line "she's a hobby-horse." In previous rehearsals - and more than one - I asked him to hump his scene partner. However, he just was not ready to. Then, on Saturday night he astounded us all by actually committing and making it look wonderful! We all thought it was very hot. The lesson from this incident: just wait until people are ready to come to you and don't force them to do anything for which they are not ready. It is surprisingly easy to get people to do sexual things but it just takes a bit of time to work up to them and for people to get comfortable with each other.

We then tried to do a drunken rehearsal but it became obvious that the rehearsing was not going to work. By the time we got around to actually rehearsing the actors were not able to read their scripts. However, the exercise was good as a bonding one to get those cast members who stayed more open with each other. However, the next day was quite hard for me - since my friend and I stayed over at the theatre and I was a tad hung over.

I also used a technique that I had never used before. I was having problems with the general look of scenes - particularly in finding things for the people who weren't directly involved in the action to do. We did a stop-start rehearsal with me focusing on one particular actor/group of actors each run. This worked remarkably well and had the added benefit of getting those people with lines even more familiar with them!

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.

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.

Reflective Journals

During the last rehearsal [two nights ago] I, finally, figured out how to do a reflective practice journal. I was confronted with a challenge in rehearsal for Winter's Tale. One of my actors, let's call him Hector since this post will make very little sense if I don't name him and I don't want to use his real name (for reasons that will become, I hope, apparent), has only been in one play before and he is having trouble with personal inter-relationships. Hector is finding it difficult to be close with his scene partner, both physically and emotionally.

When I realised this problem existed we broke out of rehearsing the scene and tried some exercises. First, I asked him and his partner to do Blind Exploring. In this exercise, I ask the actors to sit in two chairs that are place almost parallel with each other - the aim is to allow the actors to be within comfortable reach of each other. They are then blindfolded and asked to take turns exploring the other's body with their hands. Hector was too timid and was very reluctant to actually touch his scene partner. Indeed, he seemed to be doing the exercise to please me rather than for his own benefit. Hector's partner - a current Theatre Studies student - took the opportunity to explore his partner physically.

The next exercise we tried was a simple mirroring one. Again, Hector hat trouble keeping eye-contact. IT is often hard for me to remember that some people have personal-space. I am also very comfortable keeping eye-contact with people for extended periods.

The third exercise we shall call Marionettes. I set Hector the task of physically manipulating his scene partner to make him walk from one side of the stage to the other. During this exercise, I had to side-coach Hector to move his partner gently as he was being rather violent - and not in a good, Anne-Bogart kind of way. Indeed, throughout rehearsal, he was either too gentle or too rough but had difficulty in walking the middle-ground. During this exercise, Hector informed me - rather bluntly - that these things weren't helping and he was getting irritated; his suggestion was that he was becoming irritated with the waste of time.

During a break later in rehearsal, I had a chat with Hector. He told me he was not used to the intense closeness required for theatre. This is understandable and, yet, I feel my skills are not good enough to help teach him what he needs to learn. That, and the fact production-week looms. This situation, however, is a good one in that it forces me to think of alternative ways of reaching an actor. I did tell him that on-stage is not the real-world - a concept so clearly taught to me by Hilary Halba in THEA252. As such, we have a greater freedom on the stage; the audience pays for us to do what they cannot because social convention dictates that they do not. I feel this is a point that needs to be re-iterated.

Hector caught me quite off-guard. During, all the plays I have directed, I have not had to help actors who had built so many walls around themselves. Even if people aren't good actors - or didn't have "talent" - if they have been involved in theatre - and this also goes for back-stage work - they are usually very open. With Hector, I am finding that there is a lot of basic work we need to to just to get him to open up. I also have to say, I didn't handle the situation at all well. I think I took Hector's challenge to be lack of respect. I don't demand that my cast worship me - as some, more "traditional" directors like to think they rule the theatre - but I do ask that they listen to me and be willing to collaborate. Of course, there are times when collaboration just doesn't work for whatever reason and we have to be mature and accept this. However, during last night's rehearsal, I found that I could not get back into the flow of rehearsal and this situation was between us all evening.

I think taking a step back will also help in this situation. Instead of focusing on the relationships directly, I think I will try to focus on other theatrical skills. Here, I have in mind Richard Huber's exercise, from THEA451, of Whole-Body Listening. Simply, an actor says something - usually a short piece of their lines. Their scene partner listens with their whole body and says: " I think you are X" - where X is an adjective. The actor then takes that prompt and acts on it, emphasising the way that his partner has told him he was acting. The pair then continue in this fashion for a while and then switch roles. This exercise is an amazingly good one because, surprisingly, the adjective changes and the end mode of acting is completely different from the beginning but there is a logical progression from one step to the next. It not only helps the partners work together - thereby building relationships in a non-threatening way - but also takes the onus of the actor since the does not have to come up with a way to play the line. It also provides myriad ways of playing the line, some of which could be brought into the production. Hopefully, this will help Hector open up.

This challenge is good for me. In the past my techniques have worked so I have not had to think about other ways of directing. Sure, I have brought in things from other directors that I liked/thought would work but my technique has remained pretty much constant. Now, I have to be creative in mobilising - or constructing - exercises to help this actor overcome his blocks.

Not only do I have to be creative but I also have to be careful. As a non-experienced actor, Hector could end up erecting more blocks if he feels I am personally attacking his skills or - even worse - his self. This is farthest from my objective! I do not want to take him down; he has done great work thus far and just needs to open up to improve further.

I think there is also a problem with motivation. Here I am using the word not in the sense "Hector is not motivated" but I don't think he understands why he agreed to undertake this role. Perhaps I should set him a homework task to write down why he is in the play and what he wants to get out of the experience. [Note to self: this would be good for me to do also!] I think those of us in the know why we do a project - fun, compulsion, desire, to grow/learn, need etc - but we often forget our reasons because they become second-nature. For someone starting out, however, these reasons may not be clear so there is less desire to strive. Personally, I would like to see Hector grow - both as an actor and as a person - since I think he has great potential. My job not is to find a way to let this happen.

There are two further complicating factors. The firs is that Hector doesn't know his lines. This, I believe, daunts him. He is too worried about trying to impress me, or rather not disappoint me, that he gets too mentally-oriented. I also think he is using not knowing the script as a way to avoid facing the challenges the part entails. The second factor, which I totally forgot about during rehearsal, is that this is the first time these two have rehearsed together; I even neglected to introduce the actors at the beginning of the rehearsal! That is something over which I had complete control and, I have to say it, something in which I failed.

Now, to return to my first statement. I have had to keep a journal for three of my theatre papers: THEA421, THEA451, and THEA453, yet each of these were a challenge. Particularly my 453 - the aim of which was "how to ethically stage gay relationships using the text of Shakespeare as a vehicle - an aim very similar to that of my production of Winter's Tale. There, however, I was using theatre students who were relatively experienced. Consequently, I found my reflective journal difficult as there were not so glaringly obvious challenges upon which I could comment. Now, however, I have met a real challenge which can guide me in effectively using a reflective journal for recording - and rehearsing - the challenges I face as a director and my solutions to them. I can also record my success and failures in solving those challenges. Hopefully, now I have been presented with a glaringly obvious challenge, I can see how to mobilise a journal to record the less obvious ones.

As a little aside, it was great to get back to using exercises to solve problems. During the rest of rehearsals I had kind of forgotten this way of working - although it has worked very well for me in the past - and fallen back into the old habit of more blocking the action. This is just bad directing; repeat after me: "I will not treat the actors as meat-puppets!"