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In tech week now on Millwood Outpost, a new play at Playwrights Local. We started rehearsals in February and are rapidly approaching the finished product!

The rehearsal process has been fun, but things really got interesting for me when one of the actors had to drop out and I jumped in to replace him. Memorizing a part in your own script is an eye-opening experience, providing a level of insight of which I was completely unaware. It’s been a very long time since I acted, so there’s an element of fear and exhilaration involved in getting on stage again, but I’ve been supported by a great cast, a great director, a great stage manager, and a great artistic director who was completely behind the decision.

As I wrote above, we’re now in tech so it’s great to see the final touches on the set come together alongside the lights and sound, which really deepen and complement the words of the play and enhance its meaning. A big element of the play is sound. I was very intrigued by numbers stations, which I’m not entirely sure how I stumbled on in the first place. Numbers stations, for those who don’t know, appear to be radio stations that broadcast repeatedly with minor variation. Many suspect that they are messaging systems for spies in the field. They have an eerie, loneliness to them, a sense of isolation in space and time. In this particular instance, the Lincolnshire Poacher. Using the wonderful voice of Juliette Regnier, I modified the Lincolnshire Poacher broadcast for the messaging of my play. I had a great deal of fun creating the soundscapes for the various radio interludes. I had a great deal of fun gathering many of the set pieces as well. I wanted a set design that was bare, to emphasize the drama and, of course, to make the play easy to stage.

I’m looking forward to the run and hoping to see many friendly faces in the audience!

Jarod was out, so the wonderful reports and their “normal” formatting is missing. There were many actors who were out due to prior commitments so three actors showed and did scene work. Initially, Keppler showed before all others and ran monologues with Zoldessy.

This is one of the critical times as Keppler is just at the point where she is getting off-book, which is theater parlance for “she’s memorized it and is not using the script anymore.” This moment is when actors really start to take ownership of the character and the words, more expressive possibilities emerge, and both the actor and the director start finding nuances in the words/script that can be used. There are also shifts within the text between ideas (“beats” in theater and playwright parlance) that require changes in momentum, shifts in energy levels, allow for different directions in blocking and movement, and so on. So, the long and short of it is that Zoldessy and Keppler worked for a good hour on the opening monologue.

I listened and watched, and then puttered around playing with the video mixer which I thought would have the capacity to send two different channels to two different outputs (tvs). It did not. The Edirol V-4 that we’re using only sends one signal to all outputs; you can select different signals, but then that is the only signal being pushed out. This has implications for whether or not we can show two different images on the tvs at the same time. We can do that, but it now is going to be more involved.

After discovering that, I began clearing the cameras and tripods and wires and tvs out of the space, as Parson’s Fire Dance is going to be rehearsing in the same space we’ve been using. This adds time to our setup and prep and tear down, but must be done.

The rest of the time I sat and enjoyed watching Regnier and Metrisin and Keppler having it out as Father, Mother, and Daughter. Regnier’s outbursts are quite convincing and intimidating. Michael is quite a fine actor, and I’ve seen him in numerous concon productions including as Dodge in Buried Child and the Oculist in Jenkin’s Dark Ride.