Well, dear readers, I finished blocking Inside Out yesterday and that’s a good thing. It will be rough for a while, while everyone gets everything into their heads, but I think when it’s all learned and sharp it will look quite nice. I’m sure some productions of the show have the six actors get up and move around all the time, but that’s not really being true to the nature of the piece, which is a series of group therapy meetings. So, unless their doing a roleplay thing, then I have them in their chairs at all times, save for the musical numbers, which is where ninety percent of the blocking is. I had two numbers to stage yesterday. I came in with just the bones of the first – just the main thing I wanted to do. That’s basically a number about Sandy’s character, a do-wop number and I just thought it would be really fun to keep her in her chair for the whole of it, and have everyone else pushing her around and with the aid of Leslie Stevens, we got it done in about ninety minutes. It’s really cute. Then I did the finale. I tried it one way, the way it’s kind of written in terms of stage directions, but I didn’t like that, so I switched it up and it’s better now. Not sure I like the final bit, which I may change when we’re actually in the theater and I see what the lighting is going to be like. Then the cast had two hours of music brush-up. I stayed for about forty minutes of that, then left.
I went and had a cup of soup and some chicken tenders, then came home. I’m really trying to not get sick – we’ve had several sick people in the cast and on the team and I’ve tried not to get to close to them. So, I’m just making with the Airborne and the Coldeez and the Claritin-D and before bed NyQuil. Please send major excellent vibes and xylophones for no sickness because we’ve got the Kritzerland show on Monday and I have to be in good shape for that. I proofed about thirty-five pages, and irritatingly found that I’m mis-numbered the chapters – off by one. So, I’m going to break one of the longer chapters in two and that will solve that problem. Then I answered e-mails, did some work on the computer, then finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a Korean movie from Korea entitled Blood and Ties. No it’s not a movie about bleeders and what kind of ties they wear, it’s about a father and daughter who are very close. She goes to see a movie about the kidnapping and killing of a young child from years before. The statute of limitations is about to run out on the case. In the movie, they play the real-life audiotape of the kidnapper talking to the father of the kidnapped child. And it sounds suspiciously like the father of the daughter. Suspicions arise – he denies it emphatically, she tries to find out what’s what. He’s proven innocent with a voice test, but she’s still distrustful. It’s a cross between a thriller and melodrama, and while it certainly isn’t high art, it moves along quickly and held my interest, and the actors, especially the lead gal, are very good.
After that, I did some more work on the computer, and that was that.
Today, rehearsal begins at eleven and will go till about two o’clock. I’ll start at the top of the show and I think we’ll drill musical numbers, and beginnings and ends of scenes, just so everyone gets used to where they are for which scene (one thing I have them do is always be in different chairs for each new sequence in group – keeps it visually interesting and the character dynamics are also interesting with everyone seated differently). Then at two they’ll do some costume stuff while I hurry home for our two-thirty Kritzerland rehearsal, which will last till about six, I think. Then I’ll finally go eat something and then relax and go to bed early again.
Tomorrow, I’m sleeping in as late as I can. I’m really not sure I want to go to the book fair, but we’ll see. Then in the evening I’m seeing Company. Tomorrow, I suppose I could go to the book fair if I’m feeling okay, but we have our stumble-through at three, so just not sure I want to. Monday we’re in our real theater and rehearsing from ten to two. Then I’ll probably go home quickly, change, and be at The Federal for sound check at four and then we have our show. I will, of course, have a full report.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, rehearse, rehearse, eat and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray player? I’ll start. CD, a new master for an upcoming incredible project. Blu and Ray, I think Flaming Star will be next. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have finished blocking the show.