Week Two Down

Actually, we've just begun Week Three, which means we're almost halfway through rehearsal and I think we're in pretty good shape right now, knock wood.  We're already doing run-throughs, which I think is pretty amazing - I've been in shows where the first real run-through was dress rehearsal and maybe one where the first real run-through was the first preview.  It's good for us because this play has so many scenes and locations; this way, we can see how it all hangs together.

It's interesting from a writing standpoint too, because the staging and the evolution of the play requires line changes and cuts that come from pure necessity or whatever the opposite of that is; in other words, sometimes lines are needed for transitions or to cover exits; and in this case, there were a number of brief interstitial lines that I wrote to cover what I thought would be blackout transitions, but Alberto has figured out a way to get from scene to scene with no blackouts, so most of those transitional lines are now gone.  It's brilliant on Alberto's part because it makes the entire play flow better and we have a lot more space than I originally imagined, so we'll be able to do a lot of transitions through light shifts alone.

We have a great cast - something we already knew - but it's always interesting to see how everyone works, and in this case, everyone is incredibly conscientious.  Last week, we were doing some sound recordings, and people were going in one at a time while the rest of the cast waited their turn.  Darlene, our stage manager, said that it felt like study hall - the room was almost dead silent, as everyone was studying their scripts.  A room full of eight or nine actors and no one was talking?  Hard to believe, but that went on for half an hour before rehearsal proper began.

So far, so good - we're using almost every single minute of rehearsal from start to finish, every night, but the time is just FLYING by, which I guess time does when you're having fun.  I love these guys.