AYLI, rehearsal 16: OPENING (1.1), ORLANDO WOOS (4.1)

/

More astonishing work tonight. Why anyone doesn’t want to jump at the chance to join this cast to play Adam is beyond me.

Welcome to Aamora Bennett, who joins us as Jaques de Boys and random lords.

OPENING (1.1)

This scene is going to be fine: Orlando’s disgruntlement, Oliver’s nastiness, Charles’s duplicity. If you’ve only seen Chuck’s resting happy face, do yourself a favor and sit in the front row one night for his final speech. He is scary. (Of course, when I told him that, he jumped and whooped all over the stage like a ninth-grader.)

ORLANDO WOOS (4.1)

So much going on in this scene. “Creepy Jaques” made a brief appearance, but that was due to a misfire with the script in hand.

We still need worklights on the apron.

We still need worklights on the apron.

Otherwise, all the hard work is Mariel’s: the three levels of Rosalind (Rosalind, Ganymede, Rosalind*) are so interwoven into the text that your head spins thinking about it. Consider this one line:

“Well, in her person, I say I will not have you.”

  • GANYMEDE says, “Well, in her person, I say,” then switches to

  • ROSALIND* for “I will not have you,” and then

  • GANYMEDE flicks ORLANDO’S chin before turning away, perhaps with

  • ROSALIND checking in with Celia or the audience.

And that’s just one short line.

So kudos to Mariel for doing all this work and doing it so effectively! We’re going to dig into these three levels in an exaggerated way, much like our Lessac or Vocal Sequence explorations: not trying to make sense or prep a presentation for an audience, just highlight and emphasize the shifts. (It occurs to me — doh — that Robert needs to be included.)

Now that I have this giant skeleton of a set littering the floor, my brain has begun (finally) to think about actual blocking. At this point all we can do is make a note of my visions, but once the arcs are fully functional (insert Grand Moff Tarkin img here), this scene will include a lot of romping about the scenery by Rosalind and Orlando and maybe one pratfall for Rosalind.

Embree continues to steal scenes with Celia’s commentary on her cousin’s shenanigans. Her use of the line, otherwise meaningless to a modern audience, of Rosalind’s love being “bottomless; that as fast as you pour affection in, it runs out” to refer to Orlando’s just having left the stage, is a fabulous choice.