Sweeping Brush Strokes

The culmination of our first full week of rehearsal-- a week packed with activities like doll-making, make-believe, read-thrus, discussion, movement exercises and rapid staging-- came to a head with our first "stumble-thru." It was a week of "new": New play, new wold, new cast, new relationships, new dialects, new clothes, new everything! With that newness comes an energy that has come up throughout this process-- we call it potential energy. It is my goal to sustain that potential energy through the last breath of the final performance.

I said to the cast after the run tonight that they just ran a marathon, in fact, I felt like I had just run one as well. Except, the truth of it is, I have trained and run a marathon (a proud moment of my life!) and that first day of training -- in my memory-- was memorably painful. Only after the 14 mile run could I imagine 18, and 21 miles seemed impossible until I ran the 18th and could keep going. The 26th mile was so painful and I was struggling, but there was no question that I would finish. We just finished about 5 miles. Tired, a long way to go, but definitely on our way.

Switching metaphors: We have laid the foundation, we know where we want to build this house, we can squint our eyes and imagine what it looks like, we can hear the life that will soon live in it, but it is not there there yet... it does not exist yet because we have only laid the foundation. However, the foundation is the most important part, without it, the house would crumble and all the work and ornamentation would be for naught.

What I saw today was a team, an ensemble, working together, focused on telling an enormous tale. There were moments of surprise and moments lost in the scuffle-- it was fast and furious an frantic-- there were at least two or three balls on the court at any given time (going with the basketball metaphor here-- can't play with more than one ball). I want to allow the breath to take over, find that single ball of tension and see it through.

I am so looking forward to slowing down and relishing in the moments in these next couple of weeks. Talking in detail about the characters, and immediately testing out the relationships will be so telling. I see in the play a need for a certain care and delicacy in the story-telling, The story is massive and exhausting, but that requires nurturing.

The actors will remain diligent in there technical work-- defining vocal and physical choices and taking care of their physical and mental health, every day bringing in richer and deeper choices. Everyday growing more equipped and comfortable with yesterday's work in order to get messy and uncomfortable all over again.

I must lookout for any moment of dishonesty or laziness or mush and wipe it away. The time has come to mature into the play. We are artists and we have many characters within us with many stories to tell, this first week only brought out the first few. I await the thousands more to come!

Dear Actors who are reading this, thank you.