December 10th, 1996
New Scenes
Well all of the new scenes held up during the weekend. Friday night was a little
scary but they pulled through o.k. I really like wicked. If it's this fun now, I can't
wait to see it on opening night. It's an odd thing for a director to watch a scene knowing
it will not appear that way on opening. You have to take a certain amount of hits from
people around you. Human beings are funny, some assume that anything they see is obviously in it's finished state. Those people are always surprised when it changes. That's why you
NEVER send a shitty video tape of one of your shows to L.A....no matter what they tell you.
Huh? Never mind. The set on Saturday was a bit frightening. It started out well enough
but then went to hell quick. There's a scene we've been working on called Disney that
I'm putting my money on. It takes place on the ride "It's a small world" at Disneyworld.
The ride itself is a little tour of Disney animatrons that you observe while riding in
a boat. In the background, the music "It's a Small World" plays over and over and over and over. I spent hours editing the Disney version so that it would loop during the scene and
drop out at the right times, etc. Now I won't give the scene away, but it's a scene that
has worked about 5 times, and not worked about 3. Saturday night it didn't work real
well. Dead Silence. Crickets. The fun part is, I can't tell what we're doing differently
between the versions that work and the ones that don't. I like scenes like that. It's a
challenge. Today in rehearsal I'm going to watch both versions on tape and see if we
can nail it. I like the scene and the energy it provides the show......I hope to hell we
can figure it out.
Context
What does the audience need to know? An audience needs a context to follow in every
scene. If the audience doesn't know the roadmap, they won't understand, they can't enjoy
the game. Dorothy must stay in Oz, and have the single desire to go back to Kansas. Lots
of shit can go down in Oz, but she must stay there and try everything to get home. The
second she gets back to Kansas, that scene is over. If while in Oz, she decides she likes
it there and wants to stay, she violates the integrity of the context she declared. I believe
one must always look at the quality of context in a scene. If we think it's funny but the
audience doesn't, what contextual decision can we make to invite the audience in. Sometimes
it's the least little thing....a line, a word, a sound, a physical move. The scene can be as
absurd as you'd like, but have your context shit intact or you will alienate your audience......
which is a context in and of itself.
Oops, time got away again, gotta go to S.C.
later
Later that day.....
Hello, I'm back from rehearsal. It was a good one. It was a cut day. That means that
I compiled the over 50 scenes we have been working on in a list and read them off. After
each one the cast would say yes or no simultaneously. Yes means keep working on it,
no means bye bye scene. Life's tuff, fuck it. I like purging scenes.......it clears your head
(and your note book). We ended up cutting about 10 scenes. Then we discussed what the show
content lacked thus far with the remaining scenes in mind. We decided we needed more
upbeat scenes (our show has a lot of sad stuff right now), music, wierd/absurd shit, physical,
and social/political. Then I sent everyone away to come up with an idea based on one of those categories. 6 for 6. All good, solid, potential scene ideas.
When someone presents a scene idea, I like to put it up right away....immediately. I've
wasted too much time in my life in endless conversations about ideas. I hate getting
sucked into those measured, lazy, talking for the sake of talking I have a better idea or
we could this or we could do that look, it appears we are being productive but
we're not bullshit discussions. 90% of the work will happen on stage, so why not just
get up there and do it right now.
I'm looking forward to seeing these ideas we worked on in the set tonight.
Schedule
The schedule for a second city mainstage actor is this:
Shows and sets on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday.....two shows on Fridays,
and two shows and a set on Saturday. 8 shows a week, 6 improv sets. The irony about
making it to mainstage is that you actually isolate yourself from the improv community.
You just don't have time for anything else. Monday is dark....that's all. During the holidays,
from before Christmas through New Years, every night will be a double show night without
sets. We hope to bombard the current show with new scenes so that hopefully we have
most of the content by the 1st/2nd week of January. That will give us ample time to screw
around with structure and form. The best laid plans...........(whatever that saying is). I actually
do believe this is a tangible possibility though. I think I'll listen to Evita and take a nap.
(The Madonna Movie one.....it's not bad, you should buy it).
later again.....
Go to.....
