Baby Steps- SOP

Tonight was the first real rehearsal for SOP. Last night was a read through but mostly some necessary house keeping . Also pictures. You know how I feel about pictures. I don't have high hopes for my shiny spot on the poster. But alas I digress.

Tonight started about as rough as last night started, only instead of getting into some light conflict with the artistic director, tonight I get a call at 7:45 from the AD wondering where I am. See I was suppose to be there at 7:30, which I thought yesterday when they didn't call my name for the Tuesday rehearsal and when I asked about it they joked I hadn't looked at my schedule. Good thing I didn't open that bottle of wine.


When I ran in the door breathless, the director looked at me and mouthed, "I am so sorry." My worse fear, that she wouldn't remember our conversation 24 hours prior and mark this against me, was unmet. Instead it was quite the opposite. No hard feelings on any of the sides.

As many rough starts as I'm having with this show, every time I interact with the material I love it just a little bit more. Technically it's kind of an awkward show. At least I am use to the space. I can tell the other actresses are unsure about the intimacy of it. But it's not a standard show. We have long monologues where we describe events. We talk to each other but also to the audience. One thing I have to figure out is who does the audience represent to each of my characters. When I tell you about my killjoy mother, who are you to me? B/c you are probably not the same people to me as a wealthy money manager as you are when I am a frustrated stay at home Mom. For the latter, Stephanie, you are probably just the only fucking person my age who will listen. It doesn't matter. And for Abby, the wealthy investor, you are probably my peer in both education and wealth.

But that may all change.

So that is technical aspect #1. Technical aspect #2 deals with where the light will be on the stage. We will probably have two pools of light and we can move between the two of them but not *too* much.

Then there are the acting aspects. We have a limited amount of time to inhabit each character. How does one do that with dimension? Tonight, working on Abby the investment banker, I realized that I was playing her flat. Pat (director) asked me about that. I tried it a different way and I know it gave the character more depth, but then I acted myself into another, different corner, and it ended before I realized where I was heading. So fixing one problem brought up a different problem. But assessing that problem already adds a layer of something. It begins to build the depth however slight to begin.

So. Progress.