August Workshop = We did it!

This afternoon, we stumbled through this epic show in about 1 hour 50 minutes  (the show needs to be 90 minutes but we will get there) – kudos and thanks to our phenomenal cast and design staff for tackling this piece so gamely in such a condensed period – we are so grateful for your talent and enthusiasm –

Jenny and I had a great dinner talking about what we found and what we were still missing- i foresee edits and changes to the different storylines

I can’t wait to get back into rehearsal on this in December!  Thanks all!

 

Leda and Walters

After lunch, we tackled the three emotionally challenging and sexually charged scenes between Leda and her husband, Walters  (played by Scott). They both did a lot of brave, funny, risky work.

Tal began to develop some amazing ideas about how to organically go from a realistic lighthouse to emotionally evocative rich visuals — we are beginning to really get it.

We also got to try some new soundscape ideas that Kamala and Matt have been hatching. I really think they are going to work on us in subtle emotionally resonant ways – accumulating gradual weight.

 

day 4: group scenes

Today we started to work out  how the group scenes work. We have several times in this show when all six characters are on stage trying to get their needs met. Fun!  Hard!  (especially when working so fast….. we are trying to sketch in the whole play this week so we can get a sense of the rhythm of the whole piece by Monday for the open rehearsal.)

Lots, lots of little line changes . (Jenny!)

We made a dent today on how sound might work in the show. Talk with Kamala and Matt on when the big sound bed shifts occur – and what Leda (Okwui) does to cause those shifts. Matt implementing lots of fun, little q’s throughout the day. Kamala off composing some of the new ideas……

Trying to figure out with Tal and Jenny about if its ok for Josh (Stephen) to be a video artist or if its better if he’s a photographer — what are the repercussions of him shooting video of Leda and projecting that for the audience to see—— what do we gain, what do we lose? thinking overnight and will reconvene in the am …

 

day 2

A fun, fun  day.

Lots of table work with Okwui, Scott and Rudy and some exciting stumbling around and  discovering stuff on our feet and on the analytical couch.

Talk with Okwui about Leda’s physicality/gestural work  in the songs – we’re thinking it is a journey from a kind of stylized ornate choreography to a simpler, more directly emotional approach.

Long talk with Matt and Kamala about how the sound design works – how much underscoring throughout, how realistic, how much affect/impact Leda has on the sound

Also, how does the last song / the end of the show work – what is the punctuation that ends this? is it video, gestural, sound, all of them  —–