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Act 2.  Oy!

Posted by DCA Theater on May 27, 2009 in January-June 2009 Season, INCUBATOR Series: Rubicon Theatre Project

by James Whittington, Director of Becoming Ingrid

It was supposed to be a pretty easy rehearsal last night. The basic thought from the beginning of this entire process was that we’d block out the first act and sit and read the second.  This made complete sense a month and a half ago.  There’s something really mesmerizing about the shape and movement of the first act.  That’s what I wanted to concentrate our efforts on: shape and tempo.  The first act also required a lot of forethought concerning exits and entrances.  There are 26 French Scenes that happen in the first act and they race by at an amazing pace which required a certain amount of choreography for it all to work.  The second act is a piece of cake in comparison.  There are not as many scenes and not as many actors changing from one character to another.  We’d just sit and read through the second act and listen to the language, play with the tempo, and understand the wants…or so I thought.

Oy!

Last night, as a complete cast, we broke open the second act, everyone sitting in a semi-circle (a “traditional” staged reading pose) and started getting into the text.  Then, little by little, the blocking started to show through. Little notes like, “If you stand up out of your seat on this line, it’ll accentuate this moment”, to, “Once you’re standing there’s a bit of a cat and mouse game going on, circle round each other”.

It finally came to a head when I said, “Ok, we have to figure out how to get everyone off the stage except for the two main characters for this moment to work”. 

Not what I planned on doing.  Ever.

But I would be lying if I didn’t say I didn’t love it.  I like to think there is even a degree of metaphor now with everyone on stage slowing finding themselves reading, to acting out entire scenes, then exiting—leaving the two main characters to deal with themselves and their struggles.