Rehearsal Day Five:

Exercise:

Nate and Ryan don’t get each other. I had them sit across from one another and list physical traits for a good ten minutes, then face away from each other and try to remember them. They need to make a connection. They can’t keep acting in a bubble. They feel safe there

Ryan:

Work on Ryan as a super-villain has started. What is it that makes a super-villain so lame? They lack depth in performance or character. Well that’s not what Ryan and I talked about for his character over the summer. He wanted this whole dulling personality thing. He both cares for Carter, but has an obligation to put him through hell. That’s pretty interesting.

So I gave him eight cards for the telephone scene with Nate. Each time that he felt Charlie was not being a friend he would take a card. if all of them were gone by the end of the scene they had to start over, but if there were more than three they would have to do it again. There needed to be a variety. It worked for the most part, Ryan became more aware of his decisions. I’m hoping this will pay off the next time we do this scene, that maybe Ryan needs to marinate on the concept. Still, he’s less of a super-villain now. Both Ryan and Nate are too good at projecting the meaning of the line. The audience needs to play along as well, you can’t just give them all the answers. They’ll feel cheated.

Abe:

I worked with Abe for the first time as the Jabberwocky. He went for violence. Obvious choice. But the Jabberwocky is not a creature of violence, not at heart. Abe knows this, we talked about it. I told him that the anger is buried deep inside, that it’s not on the surface. Much better. Scene needs little work before performance. Now we can do the Torture scene in Part II since he has the character.

Hank:

Went back and fixed the first appearance of the White Rabbit. Much better. Hank is still playing himself to some degree. I don’t know how avoidable that is. But if I wanted Hank not to be Hank I shouldn’t have cast him in that part. I want him to grow, but I don’t think I am the director to do it. He was trying though, feeling for new ground, not relying on old tricks, but the new tricks are still Hank tricks.

Nate:

Nate’s body normally moves like a drunk earth worm. Since his injury he moves like a drunk earth worm whose head was stepped on. Teaching Nate to move more like Carter, a strangely more decisive creature that Nate, has been very difficult. One thing that’s helped was simply turning Nate’s wrist. Normally it hangs parallel to his body, flat and awkward, like a wing. I turned it thirty degrees so that it was as though he was carrying a bag or a loosened fist. It forced one to push their chest out rather than Nate’s hunchback stance.

Show Date:

A lot of today was spent searching for a show date. This morning I got the word that Tiffany was cool with the proposed date of the weekend of the 26 or September. Immediately we realized, upon speaking with Brian, that having the show during the week was not going to happen. We finally talked out a date that I’m hoping will work out. Besides that we’re screwed. I will have to recast (and probably rewrite and refill) the show and that’s just can’t happen at this point. At least I’m blind to the possibility of other options. Damn weddings. That’ Three now that have gotten in the way. My personal feelings towards that matter don’t help any.

Also, Talked to Brian about being my Adviser. Barb had actually already talked to him to give him a heads up. That’s cool because normally I would have forgotten to a week or two later. He said yes so that’s one less thing to worry about. And I have so much taken down for documentation any way.

Masks:

I think Scott has finally convinced me that if we do get the awesome chance to go to festival that I will present my mask designs. I’ve keep documentation of them as well so it’s completely possible. I would be really cool to compete, especially if the show itself wouldn’t get to, God forbid.

Rehearsal Day Four:

Worked on the Mad Tea party. A lot of fun. Cameron made me crap myself. He’s funny because his voice is so lucid that it does whatever he wants. Cameron himself will do anything you ask. I was initially worried because I’d never even met him before casting him. I saw him in Hayley’s show, but he was really shy in that and he had been shy around me. The mixture of Hayley, Cameron, and Hank was hard to watch due to laughing so much. It was a dream to direct. There was so much clay to work with. Nate feed off them a little, but I think he’s still in a lot of pain.

We worked the bedroom scene to death. The first one. It’s incredibly important that this scene work. If the audience isn’t in love with Alice by the end of this scene they will hate the rest of the show. Alice is very easy to hate. Susan is teasing me with the character. She has these brief moment of touching the essences of the character, but as soon as she does she retreats back to her safe place. Nate’s inability to understand Carter does not help.

None the less we got it looking much better than before. It don’t feel so much like a soap opera and I am starting to like Alice a bit.

After working on the scene for quite some time I told them that I was leaving. I was in no way giving up on them, but having worked them so hard and given them so much direction I needed to let go and let them explore. I needed to release the pressure of my presence. So Scott, Kate, Hayley, and I went back out to Yellow Creek to film.

Much better. Sunset worked for us. Less mosquitoes. Better framing. It’s a short scene, but it’ll help that audience connect the dots so I don’t mind the three hours of work we put into it. (Three hours before editing.)

Started on Jabberwocky mask. This is going to take some time.

Rehearsal Day Three:

I had to give them the day off. Nate looked like shit when he got back. The need to bump the show date back further is looking more and more necessary. Also, Ryan and Abe had to move in. It’s not like I couldn’t use the day to rest and get work done myself, it just makes me very nervous. Scott and I need to sit down and look at a calendar.

We did record with Corey. He’s the caterpillar. Minutes before I had to be at Waller I finished his mask. Things ugly as hell. I banked on the fact that Corey looks unique enough that it wouldn’t matter. Thank God I was right. The filming itself went really well and was a lot of fun. It’s going to look great. The blooper reel alone will have been worth the time we put into that scene.

Corey was pretty direct able, though he seemed a little nervous. It’s understandable. Scott and I don’t always explain what we want from people. I like to see what they’ll bring to the performance and since the Caterpillar is a mixture of emotions I didn’t want to ground Corey to one or another.

We also shot some footage out at Yellow creek. I doubt that it’ll look very good but Scott says he can work with it and see. I’ll know tomorrow if we have to reshoot. I freakin’ hope not. The mosquitoes out there wanted blood and they got plenty of mine.

Rehearsal Day Two:

Worked the only scene that doesn’t have Nate or Tiffany in it. I have a feeling that this scene will be worked a lot by show time.

It went well, but it wasn’t anything special. Susan and Ryan don’t really play off of each other at all. Actually no one plays off of Ryan well. I need to find a way to get this guy out of his head.

For the most part everything else went well. Nate’s getting his hand put in a cast so there isn’t much we can do.

Scott came in to do some recording. We can’t continue to waste this time or we’ll have to bump the show back. Unfortunately the recording didn’t go well at all. We wanted to form a soundtrack around a homemade Gregorian chant. Scott had thought it possible after playing a vocal jam in Jason’s class. I’ve never played it. I didn’t work at all. Mostly I got confused looks. This will need reevaluated.

Thankfully the video we shot was really good. The video we did was the one for the beginning of the show that brings the audience into the show. It’s probably my favorite video and really makes the play work in my mind. It’s not necessary for the audience to get the show but it’ll certainly help. It also foreshadows a lot. It sets Wonderland up, our version that is. It also gives the Cheshire cat so extra motivation. It’s a little behind the scenes of how Wonderland works kinda stuff.

Then when I got home I got a call from Nate saying that the had good news and bad news. The good was that his hand would not be in the cast much longer. The bad was that he would have to get it off on show night. That means we have to reschedule the show. Which means I need to start asking people about days that will work and days that will not. This could work in our favor. We’re already behind schedule and since Nate probably won’t be back tomorrow till late, we’ll be even further behind schedule. We’ll probably need the time.