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January 6, 2006:

RANT

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, it is Friday, and so begins the craziness known as tech weekend for my play. I’m looking forward to it and dreading it at the same time, because our lighting designer just hung the show yesterday (via his assistants, and it doesn’t look like they finished it), and the designer doesn’t even get to the theater until noon (he’s been out of town) to focus and finish before our paper tech at four. He still has to install the video projector, which has to be hooked up to the DVD player. And I still haven’t found anyone who will transfer the footage we’ve shot into iMovie so we can burn it to DVD. I’ve got the camera and the tapes here, so if we can just find someone to come and do it, it shouldn’t take all that long, as there are only two little edits that have to be made in one of the tapes. Our rehearsal last night had some good things happen, but too many of the previous night’s notes went unaddressed – hopefully, that will change tonight. We used the complex set thing last night, and it’s not working in the way we need it to (it works, and if it never worked better I can still make it work by changing a little blocking – but these guys have known exactly the deal on this thing since day one, and they just waited until the last possible minute to try to figure everything out. Well, we have an audience on Monday night, and I find out the set designer is leaving town and won’t be back until Sunday. He’s left his assistant to do fixes until then, but I don’t think she’s equipped to work with this particular thing. We’re still missing pesky little items like two table lamps – it would be really nice for the actors to work with them before having to work with them in front of an audience. And on it goes.

Act two actually went pretty well, and the final third of act one had some very good things. But, all my actors are struggling with the first twenty minutes of the play – we had it down pretty well, and it seems to have all flown out the window since we moved into the theater. So, I spend most of my note sessions trying to get it back to where it was, so that we can build from there. I’ve blocked out a two hour period today to just work on that sequence, and a couple of others. We did get the third video segment shot, but it was painful and took almost three hours. The actor involved simply never got the lines perfectly – I just gave up finally. It’s a page-and-a-half monologue and it’s not brain surgery. He kept inverting words, or jumbling sentences and it just drove me crazy. I actually think I have the whole thing correct in the seven takes we did, so, despite the fact that it’s cheating, I’m probably going to edit it to get it right. The actor in question was better in the play, but still seems like he’s fighting to remember lines. He informed me last night that this is because he doesn’t feel emotionally connected to them yet. That is the biggest load of horse pucky I’ve ever heard. I informed him that I didn’t see how he could act at all if he didn’t know the lines – and, frankly, I don’t give a flying Wallenda anymore, because what it looks like is that he can’t remember. And this character does not fumfer words – he’s methodical and knows what he’s saying. It’s written in a very specific way. Luckily, it really is only twelve pages, so I’m sure by next week he’ll do one of those “I pulled it out of my rectal cavity” turnarounds that actors so love to do. I have been so patient with this guy, and I have given him as good direction as I’ve ever given anyone – in every possible way. And last night, while shooting the video he actually said to me that he thought I liked acting that was filled with “indicating”. I calmly said, “No, I don’t. I hate acting that is filled with indicating. I like acting that is effortless and focused, and I like to see the attitude of the character.” I was not-so-happy, needless to say. Am I ranting? I’m afraid I am.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below so I can continue ranting in the next section, because this rant is not over yet, baby.

I’ve written five ranting e-mails in the last ten minutes, so I didn’t want you to think I was idle, rant-wise. My goodness, these notes are late in going up, aren’t they? It’s one-thirty in the morning and I should be having my beauty sleep, damn it all. Now I shan’t be beautiful today.

Today, we have to take a photograph in my yard – one of Tammy in a bikini, and one of our actors (not Matt) in Bermuda shorts, sitting next to her. Then I must go to the theater directly after that, to make sure the lighting is getting done. Hopefully, we’ll have found someone who is handling the video stuff – I may bring my laptop with me, just in case. Then we paper tech from four to seven, and whilst that is going on, I will be working with the actors on certain things in both acts. Then at seven we begin tech, and I’m hoping we can get through the whole show. If we do, then on Saturday, beginning at noon, we will do three consecutive run-throughs, which I feel will be very helpful for the actors. At the very least, we’ll do two, but I’ll push for three and if we can start right at noon, we should have plenty of time, even including generous breaks between each run-through. Same thing for Sunday.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, rant, because I am in a ranting mode, I am the ranter, I am the egg man, I am the walrus, koo koo koo joob, or whatever the HELL it is. Today’s topic of discussion: What is currently in your CD player, and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, John Barry’s Alice in Wonderland and Petulia, double-billed on a new CD, and then Bronislau Kaper’s The Glass Slipper. DVD, Our Man In Havana. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I continue to rant in my sleep.

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