We actors often tend toward thinking of ourselves first – especially as time ticks away and we get closer to opening a play. We worry about how the audience will receive our work. The basest insecurities creep into our minds… Will they like me? Will I forget a line or a prop? And it’s this self-consciousness that pushes us further away from the foundation that gives us the security to excel as performers. During our first weekend of previews, Blake and Joanie spoke to the cast encouraging us to listen to our partners and not to focus so much on our individual characters. This is the key to freedom on stage. If we are focused on our partner and work to support them in their performance, then we will find a connection that frees us to be in the moment. If we think more about them than we think about ourselves, our mind will work for us instead of against us. We will have much more dynamic and engaging performances if we simply take care of the other actors on stage.

I know I may be stating the obvious here — but sometimes it’s very difficult to access this deeper listening. At times when there are so many nerves in us and costume pieces on us and light and music cues around us – it’s just plain difficult to connect with our partners. But that’s the only thing that will bring us to an exciting performance level. We must be as selfless as we can be. We are what we are because of each other. When we are out there on the boards we need only think of how to help tell the story. We are a single part of a whole. Saturday when we open and for every day of our run – let’s work and listen so that our fellow actors have their best performance ever.

When I first read The Ring Cycle I was so excited to have the opportunity to work with such dense text, conveying such huge emotions. And then in the first month of rehearsal, I felt so empty – totally unable to fill any of the text my mouth uttered. Natural enough for the first weeks, right? All of the cast and crew were just getting to know each other and we were all just getting to know the text. And most importantly we were getting to know our own bodies – standing upright and moving around an empty space. (…why does that always seem so foreign when beginning a play process?? I always feel capable during a table reading, but then the first few rehearsals of getting scenes “on their feet” I feel like I’m acting for the first time in my life.) We’ve gone through our first full week of all actors off-book and now I feel the momentum of the action on stage. Now that we don’t have paper mucking up our spatial relationships and gestures we can really work. Now I feel the possibility of drama on the stage.
So now that we are all here – at this place of ultimate potential as actors – how can we be sure we’ll excel in telling a clear and exciting story? How can we be powerful enough actors for this text? How can we make this text beat in our pulse and roll off of our tongues so that it moves an audience to really experience the story with us? I believe we can accomplish this by grounding ourselves in our physical relationships to other actors and architecture on stage. When I manage to find myself in a strong spatial relationship I feel the music of the scene and I do my best to stay there as long as I can. I get a little nervous before every rehearsal – filled with anticipation of finding new and engaging moments. And I know if we all keep our eyes, bodies, and hearts open to the space and each other we will make a powerful performance.
And in doing this we must never forget what a huge story we’re telling. Our gestures, our movements – everything that is done on the stage must happen for a purpose.

Over the past few months, we’ve traversed Wagner’s complicated landscape and have slowly pieced scenes together.  Today, we stumbled through (much of) Rhinegold.

The first opera in the Ring Cycle, Rhinegold, opens with one of the most enchanting scenes in any opera.  The three Rhinemaidens tease Alberich, who then renounces love and steals their precious gold.  The watery spirits in this scene have inspired directors in countless ways.  Joanie and Blake have decided to put our Rhinemaidens on aerial silks (which it turns out, are really made out of polyester) – a fantastic choice!

Our three wonderful Rhinemaidens worked on the silks yesterday while some company members were at the Plagiarists’ salon.  Today, we began to piece the scene together with Alberich. Naturally, everyone was enchanted to watch these three lovely ladies in the air!

The actors playing the Rhinemaidens, Lucy Carpatean, Sarah Scanlon, Lindsey Dorcus, have a vocabulary of movement (and technical terms) all their own.  This scene will take time to take shape, though is already quite thrilling to watch for those of us who are impaired by Newton’s laws and our own clumsiness. Rarely do directors get to block scenes in vertical space!

Even when they’re not in the air, the Rhinemaidens make fantastic shapes with the fabric to create a wonderfully watery world. Down on the ground, we worked through other difficult scenes in Rhinegold, including large sections which contain most of the cast.

A few weeks back, I mentioned that I was going to start puting more effort into figuring out the actual mechanics of how I make theater pieces.  This, then, is my first report back.

I’m working with a group of 3 creative performers to build a short piece for this month’s Lab challenge.  As the Lab Director, I also create the challenge.  This certainly doesn’t mean the creation process is any easier for me.  I don’t have an idea of what I want to make when I design the challenge.  Instead, I think I’ve developed a split perspective.  As I create the challenge, I think: “I can’t wait to see what creators come up with!”  Then, when I get ready to create, I re-read the challenge, and think: “What the hell do I do with this?”

This leads me to what I have discovered to be my best creation tactic: I gather smart, curious, and creative artists to create WITH me.

So, for Lab 4, my first step was to have the 3 performers over for dinner, and to have a discussion about dreams.  We just talked for a few hours about dreams we’ve had, the logic of dreams, what the brain might be doing in dream state, etc.  Fortunately for me, my actors, James, Pamela and Ruth, all had great vivid memories of their past dreams (whereas I have an incredibly difficult time remembering any my dreams.)  We also looked at our source material for this challenge (a quote about a ‘nervous magic lantern,’ a video of dance instructions, and a hand saw.)

I guided the discussion a bit, but mostly, I just listened, fascinated, and scribbled down notes as quick as I could.  They look a bit like this:

From this point, I’m planning on selecting ideas and situations we discussed that night, and then arranging them into some sort of dynamic, stuctured whole.  Really, I feel a bit more like a designer.  The dinner discussion we had was like research.  Now I’m sorting through all the material to find the pieces that seen to fit well together.

I’ll come up with a rough ’script,’ which will be our starting point when we all meet to actually devise our piece.  I imagine, rather, eagerly anticipate drastic changes to occur while the four of us develop our piece together. Together, we’ll come up with a creation so much more nuanced and curious than what any of us would individually design.

I can’t wait to see what we come up with.