Impressionable Parents...

We're moving into the basement soon hopefully! The stage is being built and we saw the pieces in progress.

I think the show is gonna actually come together. We always doubt it when we have 3 weeks to put together a play and we haven't even gotten half way through it. But a full Saturday rehearsal was exactly what we needed- hours only interrupted by the open house parents coming through and listening to Dad rant about "young people" and Ana lose her mind and jump out of the window. Perhaps it was a perfect representation of Friends Select. The future parents at least know what they're getting their kids into.

-C

Costumes and Cameras

It was an exiting day! We recorded the opening credits to the internal TV show – very fun.  I even got a little camera time, despite being the stage manager.  Some of the actors got their first tiny taste of costumes.  Of course, hand in hand with costumes come wardrobe malfunctions, and we had many. 

We ran pages 19-25 without scripts for the first time.  Following that, the kids learned all the blocking for pages 19-23.  Like most days, blocking includes some script modifications.  At one point, the director changed almost half a page of dialogue, but rightfully so – the English translation was not making much sense. 

-K 

Estamos En El Aire - Things Not Expected

Today we got through pages 1-19. It went pretty well, despite two of our actors being late due to a calculus test. Though everyone did well, it was a hard practice. The second run-through was the actors first time off book, meaning that if they forget their lines or cues, they have to either make it up or skip it. Remembering their lines (and sometimes the other kids lines as well) AND doing all their blocking at the same time? That proved difficult for some. At times, half a page was accidentally dropped. But all the blocking was perfect.

We had a few unexpected visitors today. College students Alex Hughes and Oscar Serpell, both former masters of FSS theater, dropped in for the last half of practice. Being completely unfamiliar with the play, they watched our second run-through and then gave us some insight as to what an audience member would think – very helpful.

We were glad to have them back, if only for a little while.

-K

Esta tierra es tu tierra, esta tierra es mi tierra...

Blocking... Blocking....Blocking....(Think "Bueller.... " from Ferris Bueller's day off). I think this part of the process takes more out of everyone than full run throughs of the play and we only get through like 3 pages at a time.

Also, teaching spanish pronunciation to someone who isn't familiar with the language is crazy. I can't imagine hearing the differences if I didn't speak it myself. I remember trying to teach a foreign exchange student how to say "feet" (she kept saying "fate"). But they got it a lot better than if they had tried to teach me how to pronounce words in Mandarin.

-C

Estamos En El Aire

Today we had practice in the basement (where the play will take place) and the actors got familiar with performing in the space down there.  This is hard for a lot of them because they have to learn not to walk offstage, even though the stage isn’t yet marked in the basement.  I have to give them credit, though.  They did pretty well avoiding the invisible walls and the edges of the invisible stage!  

We still had some actors missing today, which is always hard on everyone.  But all did fine, even when having a conversation with someone who isn’t there (today seemed to be all about responding to invisible things…I guess that is a good acting exercise, though). 

All in all, it was a fun day.  The actors got to use some props and (some of them) got to stomp and scream around.  A very therapeutic and exiting practice. 

– K   

Estamos en el Aire Todavia?

Yesterday we finally set about to blocking pages 10 through 20. I think thats something I always forget about- how long and grueling a process it is to block sences. Its one of those things that you forget about once the play starts running smoothly and it gets off the ground.
One thing I noticed as we were running lines on Friday was actors keeping in character. Our cast is probably half (or more) freshman- which at first was scary. When I was a freshman, I certainly wasn't ready for the amount of lines these kids have. So first day this year, I definitely had some trepidation (especially when we had such amazing actors years past, I don't know if those shoes can ever be filled). And something I didn't learn my freshman year was the concept of "staying in character when calling for a line". This translates to: when you ask the assistant director what your line is, if you are angry, you remain angry as you call out "line!". If you are happy, you remain happy even as you knowingly butcher the script. I don't remember having a part big enough my freshman year to mess up my half a dozen lines but I remember that "staying in character" wasn't a part of my vocabulary back then.

But yesterday, after only a day of Paul asking them to remain in character, Actors were calling for line sounding anxious and angry and even 65 years old. I was impressed. The play has lost a large number of actors this year due graduation, college applications and outside school productions, so it was hard for me to think that practice could ever feel the same or have the same level of talent. Yet the freshman are quickly proving themselves to me. We'll see what comes (its only been a week) but if they're only freshmen, who knows how the productions will be their senior year?

-C