AYLI, rehearsal 12: THE BIG SCENE (3.2)
/To any random readers out there: THIS SHOW IS GOING TO BE SO GOOD!
That being said, we still need:
Adam, older man, brief role
Amiens, man or woman, should be able to sing, brief role, onstage more than he speaks
additional “lords”; mostly one-liners here and there; would be great if one played the guitar/lute/uke
This was our second time working the scene, and we’re continuing to find specifics in the humor and characters.
We threw in some “ooh, that was a good phrase, let me add it to my Poetry Waste Book” moments for Orlando, making him more of a goober than you might first suspect. Sure, he’s noble and kind and generous, but Rosalind is entirely right to cure him of his obsession. As our friend Georg Christoph Lichtenberg says:
It is good when young people are in certain years attacked by the poetic infection, only one must, for Heaven's sake, not neglect to inoculate them against it.
In fact, the proliferation of pieces of paper onstage in this scene has turned into a running gag: everyone seems to have at least one of Orlando’s poems on their person. Let’s see how far we can push it before it breaks. [Pro tip: it’s comedy. You can’t push it too far.]
The Corin/Touchstone scene continues to come into focus. We explored the Vocal Sequence step of Expand and Contract to work with Touchstone’s first polemic about country life, to point up Shakespeare’s this&&&that structure. There’s still a lot of ambling, but we just can’t be bothered with that until we have the monstrous set pieces to play with — they will provide paths, seating, hiding places, etc. (Unlike Peter & the Starcatcher, I have not worked out positioning for each scene.)
Rosalind/Celia’s poetry reading scene is already solid and a delight. Mariel and Embree are finding the give and take of Celia’s having the upper hand, even though Rosalind of course knows who has written the poetry.
Garrick managed to give us the evening’s Inadvertently Sexualized Line Reading with Jaques’s “Will you sit down with me, and we two will rail against our mistress the world and all our misery?“ — his slow, measured delivery, along with his hand on Orlando’s shoulder, gave off a hysterical creeper/predator vibe.
Otherwise, that scene works as well.
Then it was on to everyone’s favorite part, the Ganymede/Orlando scene. You think that cute animal video was charming? This is charming. Mariel and Robert have seized the scene and filled it to overflowing with charm.
One really nice moment that I was able to contribute — I am the director, after all — is the moment when Orlando, having just said he didn’t want to be cured of love, turns right around and accepts Ganymede’s bizarre offer. I suggested that he take the time to absorb the ridiculousness of Ganymede’s proposal and then give us a “oh-what-the-hell-why-not” moment before accepting. Robert nailed it. Charm level +1.
After working each French scene, we went back and ran the entire scene. We’re moving into the phase where I’m not so much coaching on my feet as observing and taking notes. Yay, actors!
In other news, after luring Mike into trying his hand at composing “Blow, Blow” (2.7), I sat down yesterday and ripped it out. Mike’s still in the running, but now I have a backup.
