AYLI, rehearsal 31: 3.2–5.4 — Lichtenbergianism

A long night, but longer are ahead…

3.2 (THE BIG SCENE)

We picked up where we left off last night, with the girls circling around the revelation that Orlando (Orlando!) is in the woods writing love poetry to Rosalind.

The rest of the scene continued as usual; it’s all Rosalind and Celia and Orlando, and Mariel/Embree/Robert have this under control. All the notes I took for this scene are minor adjustments in blocking and delivery.

3.3 (MARRYING AUDREY)

Some focus issues here, but the Touchstone/Audrey thing is turning into a delightful relationship. What looks at first glance to be an exploitative relationship (city boy seduces country girl) becomes one of a mutual regard that just might work, no matter what the smart folks predict.

3.4 (ORLANDO IS GROSS)

No problems here, other than a few line slippages.

3.5 (PHOEBE)

If you ever want to be in As You Like It and steal the show without having to memorize as many lines as Hamlet, go for Phoebe and Silvius. Julia and Chas have seized the chance and are running with it. Huzzah!

Again, what is meant to be a mostly satirical look at courtly love has turned into an interesting dynamic. Anyone who does not grieve and rejoice for Silvius has a heart of stone.

4.1 (ORLANDO WOOS)

Again, the scene is all our central characters, so minor adjustments only. I think Orlando can sink his teeth into the Ganymede Game sooner and with more gusto.

4.2 (DEAD DEER)

YAY!!! Since the songs have so far been… unimpressive… I sent the troubadour gang back to the dressing room to work on them. The results were stellar: the Dead Deer Song is a rousing, carousing number with a bunch of drunken goodtime boys, and it’s finally fun to watch!

Not only did they nail the music — which was my main goal in sending them back there — they completely staged the scene. Good work, guys!

4.3 (GOOD OLIVER)

The thing about not being anywhere near the epicenters of Current Shakespearean Practice is that you never know what has been done with particular scenes and texts. For example, I don’t think Bill ever intended Oliver’s “By and by” to be a laugh line, but by golly Chuck manages it.

Again, what is meant to be a pro forma “falling in love” becomes a preposterous meet-cute and another human couple comes into existence right before our eyes.

Ganymede’s faint still needs some work on timing and believable physicality, but hey, we’ve got six rehearsals left.

5.1 (WILLIAM)

This scene still has comic timing issues, but nothing that continued practice won’t resolve. In other news, I still have to get all the sound cues lined up.

5.2 (THE SET-UP)

No real problems with this scene; again, repetition is key.

5.3 (LOVER & HIS LASS)

Another YAY! After I fixed some picturization issues (don’t hide behind the scenery), this scene — otherwise just a time-filler to separate two days — turned into another delight.

Sidenote: The set is beautiful and fun to stage scenes on, but heavens the arcs are hard to move into position. At the moment I have cast members assigned to move them around; I’m wishing we had lined up an actual set crew. I almost cut this scene change, but the impulse is just too great to show the arcs in the furthest they can be from the full circle arrangement in the final scene.

5.4 (THE END)

Some of the blocking in this scene is still clustered; I’ll pay more attention in our next few rehearsals to untangle it. Coincidentally, I got a text from my burner friend (hi, Will!) who’s putting together the special effects for this scene. And before rehearsal started Mary Caroline (NTC managing director) told me she’d ordered a new fog machine for us! So maybe that vision will actually come to fruition.

And now it begins: long, long nights of trying to get the show a) together; and b) under a 4-hour running time. (Just kidding.) (Or am I?)