December I
We start proper rehearsals in our rehearsal space at the harbor. On our very first day we don’t have a set or anything so we start scene-and-character-related games in a bare room still filled with left-over debris from the last production. A little downer. Raphael and Katharina are trying out various things, from leading the other one through the room blindfolded to standing on my very spiky yoga mat – I don’t do yoga! – trying to gently push the other one off balance while doing the first dialog. Marc is looking for appropriate sounds and does some harmonic and melodic sketches on his guitar to enhance the general atmosphere.
We find out a couple of things about the beginning: Eddie and May have opposing intentions when the scene starts and that will create a high tension right at the start of the play. Also, there’s a feeling they’ve been in this room for a while now and haven’t yet found a way out of their stalemate situation. And we want to keep the lid on the pot and not let the heat out right away. Let it smolder, let it steam up! So they need to control their anger and exhaustion and use it as a power source for the long run rather than firing away at each other right from the beginning.
It feels good to be in a large room and move around, having enough space to physically explore certain emotional processes, which we will then distill later on in order to make them feasible for our small stage. Later in the week, we get a 4 x 7m raised rostrum and the first rops to have something similar to our original space. We do lots of warm-up exercises and start working on the choreography for Eddie and May’s little fight scenes. We can only work late shifts, as Raphael is still doing the Christmas show in the morning. Some nights he seems tired. Has anyone out there ever experienced ‘ideal rehearsal conditions’? Details, please. We go to a hotel in town and shoot the footage of the Old Man and a short version of the first lines between May and Eddie. I want to use that for the end, another idea that might go stale and vanish the moment I see it on stage. Like the animation. Anja and I sit in the canteen and discuss this again. Now that we’ve seen some action we both feel a comic-strip animation would look silly. We should stick to Shepard’s original invention and have sound and light effects for the countess.
During the day Anja and I discuss our work to find out where we’re headed. We discuss the parts I want to rehearse in the evening so that I have some artistic ‘backup’ when questions arise. And they do arise! We wade and fumble our way through the bog and fog of heatricalism and theatricality and their various interpretations. Are we doing a postmodern version? A post-feminist version? A post-postmodern or postpostism version? Are we doing a play-in-a-play? Is it a post-American look at archetypal American Myths? A post-gender exploration of gender roles? Aren’t we all doing post-capitalist art now, anyway, with places like Dubai and California going bankrupt? And what’s the Old Man doing inside a TV? Isn’t a TV on stage totally 90′s (Anja, I know but…)? By the way, is the Musician supposed to interact with the characters on stage? If so, is he only allowed to use his music or may he verbally interfere, too? And while we’re at it: Is he already Martin when he’s playing the guitar? You got the Old Man heckling at Martin: Who’s this guy, anyway? There you go. Shepard thought of that question already!
December I
We start proper rehearsals in our rehearsal space at the harbor. On our very first day we
don’t have a set or anything so we start scene-and-character-related games in a bare room
still filled with left-over debris from the last production. A little downer. Raphael and
Katharina are trying out various things, from leading the other one through the room
blindfolded to standing on my very spiky yoga mat – I don’t do yoga! – trying to gently push
the other one off balance while doing the first dialog. Marc is looking for appropriate sounds
and does some harmonic and melodic sketches on his guitar to enhance the general
atmosphere.
We find out a couple of things about the beginning: Eddie and May have opposing intentions
when the scene starts and that will create a high tension right at the start of the play. Also,
there’s a feeling they’ve been in this room for a while now and haven’t yet found a way out
of their stalemate situation. And we want to keep the lid on the pot and not let the heat out
right away. Let it smolder, let it steam up! So they need to control their anger and
exhaustion and use it as a power source for the long run rather than firing away at each
other right from the beginning.
It feels good to be in a large room and move around, having enough space to physically
explore certain emotional processes, which we will then distill later on in order to make
them feasible for our small stage.
Later in the week, we get a 4 x 7m raised rostrum and the first props to have something
similar to our original space. We do lots of warm-up exercises and start working on the
choreography for Eddie and May’s little fight scenes. We can only work late shifts, as Raphael
is still doing the Christmas show in the morning. Some nights he seems tired. Has anyone out
there ever experienced ‘ideal rehearsal conditions’? Details, please.
We go to a hotel in town and shoot the footage of the Old Man and a short version of the
first lines between May and Eddie. I want to use that for the end, another idea that might go
stale and vanish the moment I see it on stage.
Like the animation. Anja and I sit in the canteen and discuss this again. Now that we’ve seen
some action we both feel a comic-strip animation would look silly. We should stick to
Shepard’s original invention and have sound and light effects for the countess.
During the day Anja and I discuss our work to find out where we’re headed. We discuss the
parts I want to rehearse in the evening so that I have some artistic ‘backup’ when questions
arise. And they do arise!
We wade and fumble our way through the bog and fog of theatricalism and theatricality and
their various interpretations. Are we doing a postmodern version? A post-feminist version? A
post-postmodern or postpostism version? Are we doing a play-in-a-play? Is it a post-American
look at archetypal American Myths? A post-gender exploration of gender roles? Aren’t we all
doing post-capitalist art now, anyway, with places like Dubai and California going bankrupt?
And what’s the Old Man doing inside a TV? Isn’t a TV on stage totally 90′s (Anja, I know
but…)? By the way, is the Musician supposed to interact with the characters on stage? If so,
is he only allowed to use his music or may he verbally interfere, too? And while we’re at it: Is
he already Martin when he’s playing the guitar? You got the Old Man heckling at Martin:
Who’s this guy, anyway? There you go. Shepard thought of that question already!
