I am writing this in the morning of day three- in retrospect. I have been attempting to reconcile my creative process (hand drawn scrawls in a journal, or diagrams on a half used napkin) with what seems to me as a utilitarian task of typing it out on a keyboard for all to see-------exposed. I came to realize that my process is not unlike Agatha's, in a way slightly haphazard and more than a little mysterious even to myself. Interestingly, this feeling of frightening transparency is integral to our frame. Therefore, my first blog experience, although much resisted, is surprisingly providing me with a deep psycho-physical connection to this incarnation of Vanishing Point.
9/13 - Rehearsal #1:
Impressions: an army of creative people that I have been working with individually finally got to reap the benefits of each other's work. Rob Hartmann also present. Emotionally overwhelming. Psychologically stimulating. Excitement palpable. Adding the actors to the soup provided the sherry and fresh herbs. Now we just need to simmer......salting to taste.
What happened:
Entering the room and introductions...Devorah's set up impeccable/ordered/comforting.
Design Presentations .....Patrick, Yun and Teddy showed work with clarity and excitement. It was gratifying for me to see the actors and Rob Hartmann enjoying their work.
Reading.....Placed actors in center of square table set up with stands facing each other. The goal of the reading was to read for sense so I wanted the ladies to be insulated as much as possible from all of the eyes in the room. This was effective. Of course, one can never remove the impetus to perform for an audience, but it was successful in giving the actor the experience of "availability of partner" first, panel second. Wonderful treat to hear the story the first time with the colors of the actor's voices.
Music Rehearsal.......Michael Van Camp, Stephanie Mao, Rob Hartmann and I navigated our way through our relationship in the room figuring out our specific roles during rehearsals. What a pleasure to have Michael's ear and sense of rhythm combining with my sense of dramatic action within the music to combine for a wholistic music/acting through song learning experience. Kaleigh, Lee and Tess have a magnificent sound together that was thrilling to experience the first time. Music taught - Opening: Adventure, Spectacle, Mystery, Finale, and roughed out All Mothers Do. We will have to review the harmonies in All Mothers Do as we moved through this very quickly. Rehearsal order worked well - I wanted the ladies to feel accomplished and excited. The opening and closing tell our story. All Mothers Do harmonies are beautiful and accessible. I was pleased that I had planned for about the right amount of musical material to be learned in an hour and a half. (It was an intuitive guess, but I will reflect on why I knew and what the criteria I used to come to that conclusion.)
When it was over, Rob and I spent some time together in the afterglow of the excitement of the first rehearsal.
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