Week 1 and 2 of rehearsal

Rehearsals have gone well up till this point. as previously stated it has been difficult to get into a space and because of this and due to sharing Ashley with Abe (Who has been fantaastic at getting her out of his rehearsal and into mine in a timely fashion) and because Ashely is in ROTC and house manager for Anything Goes....well it's been hard finding time to rehearse. The blocking went really well. I had Scott, the set designer, on hand for that week so that we could adjust the elements, furniture, whatever to better fit the scenes. It also helped him come up with some ideas. I would like to have more warm-ups at the beginning. I used to have very long ones. This is because we at Waller become very stressed and need to have them in order to remove the tension from earlier in the day so we can focus on the show at hand.

In this show there are three different kinds of actors. The first is the generally good natured, hard working actor that will eventually work themselves to the point that they pass out and die. I like these ones the most. Then there are the ones that work hard, but can't focus on the production they're in or become impatient thus setting the porduction back. Then....then there are the actors that really liked acting in high school. because it was fun and they enjoyed chatting with their friends back stage before the show, after the show, fuck why not during too? I hate these actors and wait for them to waste all of their money on college only to turn into some yuppy office worker. Jesus, have you worked on a real show before.

Yet, I feel that the thing that I have grow much better at is keeping my patience. This is something I was not known to have a great deal for early on. I hope to keep the same amount of quality and collabration on a show, as well as keep my dignity, without having to chew people out. I have accomplished this with a more inward approach to correction of actors who don't actually want to be there. Most know this as the disappointed father look. It sometimes azames me how little the actors actually want to act. I've been in situations, as an actor, where I don't want to act, but it's because the director was incompatent or I had to wear a cock sock or the play was horrible. But in this case the actors seem tired, hell, sickly. After the first hour they really get into it. But that's after an hour.

A way that I've dealt with this is by doing really absurd warm-ups. I've had them dance while Nate plays the piano. I've wrestled with Will. He likes that and it really works to chill him out. I don't know why. Ash normally has to be talked through it, but if she doesn't want to be there, if she's hungry, or just really tired....you're screwed. I took Kelsey's shoe to Nate's head at one point (gently) to keep him from thinking too much. He's very heady. Something I have a problem with as well. He, out of the rest, appreciated the da da like experience that I have to offer. Susan has to be constantly reasured that she's not screwing up. I explained to her that acting is like having an asshole and me, as director, well... all i want you to do is poop. If you are uncomfortable, tired, angry, stressed out, or unconfident...you're not going to have a good poop. I want an actor to relax, have a good poop, let all of the emotion out and ignore the feeling to shrink back into yourself. This seemed to help Susan. Then there are the two dancers/agents. They really just like to hang out and talk. Death threats have worked the best with them as talking in out and asking nicely does shit. I believe that there parts just don't mean as much to them as they are small parts. I have talked out there characters with them and how they fit into the story. I give them as much direction as everyone else and treat them as importantly as the rest of the cast. It's not really a problem as it is an annoyance.

Overall i am fairly pleased with the show thus far. I'm just trying to get it to performance level as quickly as possible without losing anything. Time is my biggest problem.

Now I'll leave you with a portion of the last directing assignment we had. It applies to my feelings about the show and should be read in order to fully understand how I feel personally about my show.

"..... several directors and the talked about the personality of the director coming out in the shows that they do. One said that they noticed that the acting style that they enjoyed acting in was also the style of acting they want out of their actors. I believe this is true in my case at least. This actually made me feel better about my show. In all honestly I don’t think that this is my kind of show. I intentionally picked a show that I liked, but didn’t love. I like shows like , Jungles Hold No Tomorrow or Twelve Dreams. That’s why I did them. Because (As the one fella said) You are just an audience member that knows what they’re talking about and gets to tell the actors so. I’m just an audience member that is talking to the actors. I want to see dark shows with a bit of humor and a science fiction like plot twist. This show doesn’t really apply, but I wanted to do something different so I could hopefully grow. Watching rehearsal I can see that the show is going well at this point. Put I know that I’m not going to get my rocks off like jungles of twelve dreams. This, I now realize, is because its not the style that I act in as an actor so it doesn’t compute on some level. So, um, thanks directing guys."