AYLI, rehearsal 25: 1.1–1.3
/While our assistant director is off making the world 1 safe for democracy2, our brave director handled all the things as we BEGAN RUNNING THE SHOW IN SEQUENCE!
The schedule said we’d be running 1.1 (OPENING) and 1.2 (WRESTLING), but because our director is brave 3, we threw in 1.3 (BANISHMENT) as well. We were able to run the block twice, so all is well.
1.1 (OPENING)
Photo credit: Amanda Love
The show opens tightly, with an angry Orlando and an even angrier Oliver doing their thing. Time will tell whether our brave director can actually play an 80-year-old, despite the fact that he’s old enough to be the father of all but two cast members (and the grandfather of at least one.)
Charles had some sound/energy/line issues, but those improved in the second runthrough and will continue to work themselves out.
(SIDENOTE: Our brave director is now bravely taking notes. If we are able to run each night’s scenes twice, he will give notes before the second run. Otherwise, he will email them individually.)
(ALSO SIDENOTE: Tonight we didn’t have to mess with the set, since the circle stays in place until we hit Act II. There is a poster that will go backstage on either side that has the positions of the arcs for each scene; that will become a thing as we move forward.
1.2 (WRESTLING)
Embree is still sick, so Julia stepped in to serve as our Celia for the evening — and a very fine job she did, too. Thank you, Julia!
Blocking is still fuzzy, but that’s not a major concern.
Touchstone’s standup mic shtick, against all common sense, just works. (Hat tip and thanks to Russ Moore for getting the wireless mic set up.)
Rosalind and Orlando’s meet-cute continues to develop. Remind me to ask everyone to be focused elsewhere at that first moment, at Orlando’s line “I attend them with all respect and… [sproing!] duty.”
The wrestling match was lowkey tonight, since Ronald had tried to perform an auto-appendectomy at work, but once his wound has healed it will be pretty exciting. Good crowd reax! (Let’s talk about the grappling, how to make it a touch more believable that Ronald can’t simply knock Robert to the ground.)
1.3 (BANISHMENT)
There are no problems with this scene. I asked Rosalind to butch it up when she declares herself “Ganymede,” and of course Mariel delivered on the second time around.
1 Well, Georgia, anyway.
2 Well, you know...
3 And because he didn't actually double-check the calendar.
