WEEK TWO, Day 5 & 6

TH 9/24 and FRI 9/25:

We completed roughing in Act I!  That means we have actually staged 3/4 of the show.  Each evening was 4 hours of pure character/scenework joy.  We were fitting together the section of the show which is the journey of our iconic characters' fall from personal happiness.  It is the most chaotic portion of the play and, subsequently, the most technical in the sense of changing characters and worlds in an instant!  Four hours screamed by at an unusually rapid rate!!

I am happy to say that at the end of Saturday, we DID block through the end of Act I.  Leave It Behind was a particularly satisfying and fitting way to finish the week.  To watch the actor invest in the given circumstances of that moment when I said "GO" made me emotional and eager to watch the impact it should have when the throughline of action has been played out.

Monday and Tuesday will be crawling through and running Act I.  We will have to devote much of the rehearsal time to specificity of delineation of character and press machine choreography.  The schedule for the week is built to allow Staging Act II AND allowing some time day to day for Act I tuning. Act II's character is very song related and we have learned the music in Wk 1.  Yes!  So our work involves creating the world that is still with just the ladies helping each other and regaining agency of their world.  I am excited to create what that means to the set and for our icons.

WEEK TWO, Day 4

9/23:  Music Rehearsal - Every rehearsal yields large improvements in the ladies' retention of the music and concepts that we all have been building into the music.  It is very inspirational to hear Dr. Page coach the ladies again.  Staging:  Picked up where we left off in right after "How Do You Do It Sequence.  In the space, I need to relook at Lady Lindy reprise in relation to staging in the space.  Sight lines might prohibit  using it in vertical line.  This is something to strongly consider restaging.  As the staging progressed, we roughed through p 95.

WEEK TWO, Day 3

9/22:  What a day!

11:00 am  Q&A with Rob Handel's MFA Dramatic Writing Class!  1:00 pm Lunch Meeting with Dr. Page  2:30 pm Director/Writers meeting/discussion of smaller character arcs 4:30 pm  Production Mtg: Sound Designer info still not forthcoming

Now to being in the room together - 6:30 Rehearsal - How Do You Do It Sequence created.  This is the first night where I threw the time constraints of my planned, packed schedule and allowed this sequence to take as much time as necessary to generate.  It was an exciting time of feeling like one was in a flow state with the actors and crew coordinators.  This is the sequence for which the Press Machine was created.  It is a press, crowd frenzy surrounding Amelia's rise to fame!  The sequence of small beats was illustrated in my head pictorially.  The work of the night surrounded figuring out how to create those picture together and then how to connect the dots with movement and crew.  It felt like we were in the flow state together---creating something we all made together.  If any of the actors was different, the sequence would have been different!  There are still moments to monkey with, but I am happy with what we came to last evenings.  I am pondering whether or not I need Amelia's Advertisements represented on stage or not.  Will it be visually distracting?  Will it be cleaner without them?

The press machine will become very alive in this sequence!  New questions - do I need PM so early in the show-in the beginning?  Should I save it?  Perhaps allow their presence, but keep it choreographically simple instead of the big dance number it is not.  Revisit that sequence.

Now I need to strategize today's rehearsal and see if I can alter my schedule juggling with Janet Feindel to accommodate the missed pages or if I skip that section and pick it back up tomorrow.

WEEK TWO, Day 2

Tuesday, Sept. 21:
Aimee gets the spirit!  Our staging work tonight surrounded Aimee's story.  The scene of Minnie and Aimee in the church with Semple, getting to the heart of the Minnie/Aimee relationship.  Then, the staging of The Heat, using the inspiration of the circular healing conversations that Rob, Liv and I have had during our work together.  After The Heat, Minnie's return and Aimee's convincing mother to stay.  Tess and Lee's commitment to the complicated relationship was compelling.  I am excited to see where it grows from here.

We began the "How Do You Do It" sequence.  The female, "cool cat", reporters gave a beautiful juxtoposition and foil to the uncomfortable boyish nature of Amelia.  We will continue the press spinning chaos of Amelia's media frenzy tomorrow.  I am enjoying playing with how many different ways and crew members can be in the crowd, keeping the press machine alive.

In the middle of staging p44-62 we held a Music Rehearsal for about an hour and 20 minutes to give the ladies reinforcement on some of the group numbers.  The placement in the middle of rehearsal seems to be effective to give the women a chance to exercise their brains in a different way for a while.

Yun joined us to show fitting pictures of Amelia!  How exciting.  Of course Kaliegh looks just like Amelia.  Wow.  Patrick joined to see the joining of story and environment.

Great night of work - quite excited that we have stayed on track with the staging schedule.  What an accomplishment.

WEEK TWO, Day 1

Monday, 9/20:  The week started with a bang!  Rob Hartmann and Liv Cummins joined the team in the room.  We have the gift of them in our process for M-W - vanishing back to their lives on TH early.

 I truly am a believer in "time to marinate".  It was amazing to come back after a whole day off and see all of the discussions/explorations of Week 1 take shape.  The ladies are on their way with the music AND with the gestural language of the icons.  I must remember to continue to reinforce the nono-second that must exist for the audience to absorb each character as they enter the story in an ongoing basis.

It was a packed 4 hours.  We staged 14-43 in three hours (p14-directly following the Opening to p43-after The Plot), divided by an hour or a  music rehearsal in the middle.  Particular attention was made today to talking through exact transitions.  My goal is to give specific, rich details in the first pass to allow the ladies to assimilate this info into their beings and grow from here.  Those details include what costume and prop pieces will be used in each scene so that the actor can get the sequence in the body memory.

 Something to ponder and address:  We glossed over the Press Machine version of Lady Lindy.  I will have to revisit it and ask Judy Conte to come in and play with us.  Kristi provided a new version of the mock up that gives a little more space for the actor to work.  Finding a verbal language to articulate what I need to happen to bring the press machine to life is bringing me to a grinding halt at times.  Inspiration will come.  I need to get in a room with the Press Machine by myself and become one with it so that I can show my actors.  Perhaps a picture's worth a thousand words in this case!  I love the Press Machine.  I want to use it in its full capacity for maximum impact!  We need to go back and make a few changes to Adventure, Spectacle, Mystery.  It was not in the plan for tonight, but we had a few minutes at the end and began that fine tuning.

Rob Hartmann and Liv Cummins and I spent time basking in the afterglow of rehearsal which was a pleasure.  I cannot WAIT to be in the room with everyone again.  The positive energy is palpable.

WEEK ONE: A Note from Christian Fleming, AD

Week One:
In concert with Marya's reflections on this past week of rehearsals, it is
so wonderful to watch Vanishing Point come to life. From an assistant's
point of view, our beginning process has been quite refreshing. Hearing the
design and dramaturgy presentations was great. Even better was seeing the
delight our work so far has brought those joining us now in the process.
From a rehearsal standpoint, having the opportunity to observe the level of
detail that is being paid to the learning and investigation of this show's
score, is incredible. Stemming from a strict classical approach to music,
Dr. Paige along with Marya have proven the effectiveness of starting by
learning the score as written, then using the understanding and knowledge
gained to shape and interpret. Because of this approach, I am confident that
the music has been absorbed by the three actresses faster and more
accurately than other methods. Having Dr. Paige in the room to assist with
music will definitely benefit this production. He brings a great breadth of
knowledge and experience, radiating his enthusiasm for both this piece, but
importantly the genre of musical theatre. I cannot help but admire the
passion to which Dr. Paige brings to the rehearsal room. It is truly
infectious; inspiring others to be equally as passionate about the small
nuances that are discreetly hidden within this score. Unlike many
productions, this production has the pleasure of working in tandem with the
creators. I look forward to our next week of rehearsals with both the
lyricist and the composer present in the room.

-- 
Christian R. Fleming
Directing, School of Drama
Carnegie Mellon University

Day 6: Last day of week 1!

Saturday, 9/18:

Dr. Page was with us this morning.  It was a staggered call to give Kaleigh (10-11) and Lee (11-12) one-on-one time for their solo work.  Strong diction and rhythmic work was accomplished.  Dr. Page deals from a place of passion and excitement for the truth in the music that Rob Hartmann has written, pointing out to us all small things that are written in the music that lead for huge artistic storytelling.

During the 12-2 spot, Teddy Sosna (our lighting designer) joined us to record the show for the purposes of building his musical clues being sensitive to the musical changes in the piece.  To this end, our goal was to read and sing to let the story unfold.  Due to time constraints, we read/sang through half of Act I and then I had to make the executive decision to just sing the music so we would give Teddy everything he needed as accurately as possible.  The ladies' blend is coming along.  Someone out in the hallway during the sing-through praised the sound to me when they saw me later in the day.  Although I would love for the show to be an amazing surprise, I was beaming.  One cannot keep a light hidden.  It must shine.

WEEK ONE WRAP UP:  The excitement has been built.  The acting/style concepts have been laid.  The music has begun to take shape and is coming along.  The press machine is evolving.

GOALS FOR WEEK 2:  Stage Act I.  Onward and Upward. (Rob Hartmann and Liv Cummins will be with us all week...what a gift!)