Tuesday, February 10, 2009

R&G on the move

I returned to North Carolina to rejoin rehearsals for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and found that the cast, particularly the three leads, had been working hard. The complicated wordplay is making more sense now, and it's obvious these guys have been doing lots of homework. There are whole scenes in which they are off book, which motivated me to get on the stick and accomplish the same. I have very little dialogue in this piece, and it does not look quite right for me to be carrying around the script while others with dramatically more to learn, are not.

We've had a few days off, and I am now ready to attack the piece free-handed. Tonight, we move into the theatre, with about a week to go before the first audience shows up. (This is earlier than usual for this group). I know I'm glad to be out of the depressive surroundings of the rehearsal hall, located in a run-down industrial complex along the poluted river. The room had a stuffy quality which prohibited both creativity and breathing. But it's not unusual, even for theatre companies with far more resources than this, to put a lot of those resources toward their playing space and their administrative offices, and to ignore the one area with which they cannot do without: a place to rehearse.

But for now, who cares? On we go...