MARIA: Rob looks like a porn star version of Russell Crowe.

DANA: Something has to happen there. Can you guys fill it with friendship stuff?

DANA: Sex on Wednesday.

DANA: Grab his thing.

MARIA: (laughing too hard to concentraute) Someone say something sad.
JOCELYN: Drowning puppies.

I wish I was joking. It really ran an hour and sixteen minutes. Of course, we started and stopped. I suppose my biggest concern about the show running long is that I'll have to cut something. I don't actually think this is going to happen, just because I think things will pick up speed, but it's a bit of a nightmare of mine. Okay, not nightmare. Just a stupid thought that gets stuck in my head. I have cut a whole hour from a show before, so it's not that I'm not able to take the clippers to my writing and come out with a nifty buzzcut, it's just that this show has me charmed and I don't want to change a thing. Yes, back in love with my show. It happens.

Dana read everyone the riot act about not knowing their lines. I think Wednesday will be better. I mean, we've reached the quota for not great rehearsals and we're...eleven days (I had to count on my fingers) from opening night. It'll happen. Somehow. I have faith in this. It has meat, now. It just needs to gain a few pounds.

Oh, and the soundtrack. Eek. No vocals and blackouts don't last long either. Oooop. I don't know how this is going to go, but I'm nervous. I want to make it good. Of course, Maria, Jeremy and Jocelyn are on board, but it's still a weird thing to do. I haven't made a soundtrack in four or five years. I can't wrap my head around what the end product will look like (I'm actually intentionally trying to surprise myself--I know, it's stupid), so the music part should be interesting. Besides, my music taste is...strange? I don't know. It's not like I'm super into indie-rock or local bands (oooh, that could be cool), so I don't mean strange like that. I mean more like...I don't know if my associations are good.

Basically, I'm nervous about everything. That's the easiest way to put it. But then, I'm always nervous about something. I'm keeping the faith, though. I know opening night will go down like it should.

The photos tonight I really liked, but the settings aren't great. They're a little grainy, but I kind of like the raw quality they have. I was sitting on the other side of the room tonight, so I got different angles.

Click here for photos from rehearsal on January 29, 2007 (Click here for slideshow)

That's what Rob said at rehearsal last night and it made me feel both excited and anxious.

We had one of those rehearsals last night, where things just didn't go that well. We had a white noise generator (some sort of sound screen) going in the room, since the space is a speech therapy place and the therapist had a late appointment. It made Jeremy completely...um...crazy. Then lines were just not coming out of people's mouths. Maria has been fasting for spiritual reasons (I joked that she was on a hunter-gatherer diet, since she's only eating fruits and nuts, only drinking fruit juice and water), so she was a little light-headed.

It happens. I was actually waiting for the not-great rehearsal, especially since we're due. I'd much rather get it out of the way, honestly. There's always one or two.

Dana closed rehearsal early and I don't blame him. There's not much you can do if the actors aren't happy.

Next week we have two rehearsals, then two more the week after, then load-in, then opening night. We'll be running the show for the remainder of rehearsal. I have no idea how long the show is, but hopefully it'll still clock in under forty-five minutes. I couldn't possibly cut anything at this point. The script is stripped down as it is. I mean, when you have a three hour show, there's stuff that can be cut (unless you're Peter Jackson or George Lucas). But a 29-page script is barely getting everything out there as it is.

Scene 8 got a couple edits last night. Jeremy (developing a headache from the white noise thingie) exclaimed, "These lines don't make sense!" I suppose I could have gotten offended, but I was thinking the same thing. They didn't make sense. Not to mention I have an issue when a word is overused in a short section of text. Meaning the word "afford" cropped up twice in Kevin's consecutive lines. It literally grates on my ears, like fingernails on a chalkboard.

I was all set to take some major video last night. My friend Evelyn loaned me her 1 gigabyte memory card and I had my 256 megabyte card, too. But my batteries were dead. Seriously. I thought I had the charged ones with me, but I didn't. And Maria looked so cute in her undershirt-type tanktop. Very Ayla. Shrug. Next time.

I'm seriously worried about myself after this thing. Work is promising to be crazy soon, but I can't get too motivated about that. I mean, it's work. I want to be in rehearsal, I want to be working, writing, involved in the theater in any way humanly possible. You'd think I'd have had my fill after this, but that's the thing. When you're doing something you love, having a little of it doesn't satisfy you, doesn't fill you up, but just makes you hunger for it more. That's how you know you love it, because you can never get enough, can't think of any place that'll make you happier than being someplace you can do that.

I've got it bad.

This is from rehearsal on January 20, 2007.

Whew.

We focused on scenes 1, 3 and 5 today. We had the whole cast there, including Susan, who is playing Valeri/Danielle. It was her first rehearsal and she did really well. I like her for the parts.

Scenes 1 and 3 are okay to watch, but scene 5 is difficult. I don't want to give too much away, but it's a hard scene to watch, to hear, to remember.

After rehearsal, I asked Maria to come along to Rudy's. She's never been there and I reference it in the show. It was really awesome. No one was really there when we got there, but one drink turned into four over the course of three and a half hours, and Randolph, Andi, Marty, Page, Barry and Kirsten all came in. Of course I introduced Maria to everyone, as my lead actress. Andi said that she's perfect for the part after talking to her. Kirsten heard her, also, and exclaimed: "She was born to play you!" It was funny, to be drinking at the bar with myself, in a way. It's not that Maria is exactly like me, but she captures me well. Or the part of myself in the show.

It was awesome.

Click for photos from rehearsal on January 17, 2007 (Click here for slideshow)

Rehearsal Photos
Photos are now viewable at Picasa Web Albums.
Click for photos from rehearsal on December 20, 2006 (Click here for slideshow)
Click for photos from rehearsal on January 17, 2007 (Click here for slideshow)

Rehearsal 1.17.07
It was warm. Small, but warm, which is a step up from the Shelton Avenue Studio. We focused on scenes 2, 4 and 6. We've finally gotten to the meat of rehearsing. My revisions are done. Blocking was laid down at the 12/20/06 rehearsal. Maria (Ayla) and Jeremy (Kevin) were pretty much off book. We got into the why and the how and motivations and what is being expressed. It was great. And it's funny, because a lot of Dana's (director) comments discussing what Ayla is feeling are so dead on. I mean, uncannily. Like he's inside my head. Dana was really pushing chemistry between Ayla and her boys, which is really interesting to see how he does that. I was pleased. I'm starting to get really excited that this story is going to show what I want it to. Rehearsal again on Saturday!

Oh, and we've replaced Lindsay with someone named Susan. I guess we'll meet her on Saturday. I'm just relieved that we have someone. Opening night is only 23 days away!

Well. We've lost an actor. Lindsay, who was playing Valeri and Danielle, put in her resignation. This totally sucks and means that Dana has to find a new actress. Apparently the commute and the smallness of the part (and probably the shitty rehearsal space I found for us) made it just not her thing.

Not to mention my search for another spot has not gone well. This is driving me crazy. I wish I could find something perfect for us that doesn't involve breaking into a Yale space. Why is this so difficult?

Oh, I'll be posting photos from the rehearsal soon. Honestly.