It sucks to be broke and unemployed and turning 33...it sucks to be me!

So, I meant to do this sooner, but the toils of summer rep are now getting to me. I'm lucky if I have enough time for a good 7 hour sleep. But I digress...

Blocking rehearsals for "Cabin Fever" are going extremely well. We just did a complete run of the show last night, only having 3 true days of blocking. That's intense! It was a little messy at some points, but overall it went pretty smoothly. She has the blocking rehearsals set up in what is now dubbed "The Dr. Gelber Method". This entails rehearsing scenes out of order, but grouping them together by the characters involved. It's helpful because it helps save time for the actors, but it sometimes causes problems when doing a run-through. You have to string together random scenes and blocking, so last night I had to focus more on what came next than the acting, which bugs me a little. But I guess these first few rehearsals are ok doing this. Another aspect of the blocking rehearsal that I'm not really used to is the directing style. Our director is very organic, and it's strange because I've never dealt with an organic director before. It's nice because I can pretty much do what I feel the character would do and not get completely shot down; however, it is a little bit frustrating when we have so many characters onstage trying to move around with their character, especially in the Lab theatre. I think it would have been nice to have more direction in the bigger group scenes to cause less chaos.

I'm excited though because I get to actually be involved in some fight choreography. I mean, sure, I've slapped people, I've been smothered, and I've thrown people to the ground...but I would call that basic fight choreography. In this show I get to do the big boy fighting. I get choked and everyone gets involved, so it's really fun.

I've noticed with this show that I've been doing a lot of "working outside-in" which is really kind of backwards for me. Usually I like to develop a character internally, get the back story and motivations and such, and then form the physicality of the character from there. In this play I've been doing the opposite, I noticed. I have a basic understanding of the character, but I haven't discovered all of Pidge's eccentricities yet. But I have been sitting like her, kind of in a boyish manner. I've also been playing around with my walk and gestures. I really like this character in the sense that I can get away with more manic gestures because she's waaaaaay out there. I always have problems with gestures: either too much or not enough.

Well, I've got to head off to shop hours (woooo?). I didn't have enough time to talk about "Lonestar" rehearsals, but it officially started yesterday. More on that later...