Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2

The Othello Diaries: Behind the Scenes

If it seems like this production of Othello has all but consumed me on many levels that's only because it has. We've been going non-stop since we started. The work has been thrilling, but exhausting as we try to cram about 5 weeks of rehearsals into 3.

I've been focused mostly on the rehearsals as I've been chronicling our journey, but the folks behind the scenes in our shops have been working just as hard. Our trio of designers and our composer have been really knuckling down to come up with some great stuff. The final push is on as we load in the set and lighting beginning Sunday, and costumes arrive onstage later in the week. We're either going to all be bonded forever or hate each other tremendously when all is said and done. The design and tech teams put in as much if not more work than we do in rehearsal and their efforts really intensify this week.

I can't wait to see it all come together next week. Each night of rehearsal will bring new elements, new excitement, and new headaches that will be solved the next day. But we have to get through the weekend first and head to our first run-thru on Sunday night.

Onward we go.

The Othello Diaries: Time

Time and the hour run through the roughest day.

-William Shakespeare.

One of Shakespeare's most prevalent themes throughout his work is that of Time. The word appears capitalized more than any other. Time is the enemy of any rehearsal process because there never seems to be enough, no matter how luxurious the rehearsal period, and we certainly don't have a luxurious one here. We've bascially got 102 hours for this entire process and the strains of that are being to show, which is completely expected at this point.

As actors struggle with lines and words, the frustration can become intense, and my job is to keep everyone relaxed as we continue to make amazing progress. Every day we make leaps, and every day, the work ahead seems to grow. But I feel like we are on target for our move into the theatre next week, which I'm getting very itchy for.

We have a full cast rehearsal for larger scenes today that we blocked last Sunday. We'll see how well things stuck, but so far, so good. We get smaller principal work again tonight and in most cases, I'm ready to let the principals run with what they have for a few days as I turn my focus to the connective tissue and transitions. This Sunday we put it all together for the first time. That will be an interesting Time, no doubt.

Well Said and On Target

Jeff Jarvis on the latest media obssesion.

The Othello Diaries: Week 2 Begins

We've staged the play. We know where we are going in a general sense. Now work begins working the play moment to moment. Line by line. Tedious work that combines directorial intervention with repetitions for the actors as they slowly become more comfortable with the scenes and their lines. Lines. Whooo boy, even with cuts there are lots of words, words, words.

I'm also really looking forward to the end of the week when we add music to rehearsal. It will be another large element, but one that I think will help drive both the energy of the story and the emotion. 

I've said it before. We're either on the verge of brillance or the exact opposite. So, once more into the breech we go.

The Othello Diaries: Exhilaration Alternating With Exhaustion

We completed our first week of rehearsals last night. I think we are all a bit exhausted but also running with a sense of exhilaration due to the amazing work we accomplished in the rehearsal. The show is now completely staged. The entire company was in rehearsal yesterday for the entire day as we blocked Act 2 and the larger scenes in Acts IV and V. Act 2 rocks. Act IV is in great shape. Act V, I've still got lots of work to do to pull all of that together. While it is staged for the rehearsal room, it is not going to feel right until we get on the set a week and a day from now. I don't think we will that work until then, so our focus needs to be on the scenes we can pull together in the rehearsal room as we go forward.

This is a great cast with hearts as large as their talents and let me tell you, I need all of both as we continue to climb Mount Othello. When I declared the day over, I was ready to collapse and I think more than a few of the cast was as well. At least now our work shifts to taking the scenes apart piece by piece instead of the grueling work of staging.

Some ofthe cast got a sense of the live drumming we are adding to the show and that was a kick of energy. I can't wait to add that into the show later in the week. If yesterday is any indidcation I feel like we are going to have a sweeping, imaginative, and relentless telling of the tale to open two weeks from now.

Bloggers And The Arts: A Gaping Void?

One of my favorite cartoonists is Hugh MacLeod, who pens The Gaping Void (there is a widget in the left column of this blog that runs his cartoons.) Hugh wonders in a blog conversation with Seth Godin, is "quite surprised that very few of the prominent bloggers out there are in the 'Arts'. Most of the focus of the discussion and a continuation of it by TDavid, who picked up on this, focuses on novelists. 

Interesting. I don't have an answer to Hugh's question per se. But my thinking is that most of those in the arts, (I consider myself in those ranks) aren't on the "prominent" radar because most of the folks who drive the prominence factor (I'll avoid the navel gazing self reverential euphemism) are focused on issues other than the arts.

Also, I think, like Hugh, bloggers in the arts are out there creating, but unlike Hugh, don't focus some of their creations around the Internet. Those who blog, share their thoughts, (sometimes about their art, sometimes not) and to my reading, that sharing is split between very personal observances, and also blogging as another medium of creation. Even when they do focus a bit on the carnival that is the Internet, (here are a couple of examples of plays about blogging and the Internet that I've linked to) the radar seems to pass them quietly by, and I think that, unfortunately, no different than how current society views the arts as a disposable and transitory resource. (When we value film by the box office more than the film itself, it is no wonder Hollywood is reeling.) Sure, those with pre-blog prominence, like Scott Adams, and those who gain prominence, like Hugh, grab attention. So, here's a a hypothesis. If Monet, Manet, Degas, and Picasso, created in a world with blogging and created the same art, who would have gotten the most hits? Would it have mattered?  I doubt it. Most artists, toil happily and scrape by in their own little creative worlds, not really concerned about the "prominence" factor within the blogosphere. Why should they? Tough enough being an artist in this day and age as it is.

BLaugh Smacks Sploggers and SEOs

From BLaugh. Too funny. Too true. Too sad.

Sunday Morning Reading: Goats and Monkeys

Some Sunday morning reading to share, influenced by working on Othello.

My good friend and collaborator Steve Pryzyblski points to a little bit of subliminal advertising (or is it an easter egg?) in the trailer for Mel Gibson's Apocalypto. Explains a lot. Check it out here. Goats and Monkeys.

Pluto demoted. Damn.

Here are a couple of stories that open the eyes to just how much of a mixed bag of nuts we have in our crazy quilt of a country:

From the Shreveport Times comes word that a school bus driver directed nine African-American students to the back of the bus, reserving the front seats for white students.

Via The J-Walk Blog, comes word that a minister in Watertown, NY, has dismissed a female Sunday School teacher based on this piece of scripture from the first epistle to Timothy: "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent." And we thought the Taliban was extreme. Goats and Monkeys.

No goats, but baby albino monkeys. Cute. Wonder what seat they would get on the bus?

And speaking of the Taliban. Apparently, the world's favorite cave dweller (and presumed goat herder), Osama Bin Laden, had such an obsession with Whitney Houston that he was plotting to kill her husband Bobby Brown, and break his rule on color to marry her. This according to one of his other wives. Explains so much. Cue a remake of The Bodyguard.

Goats and Monkeys: Othello. Act IV Scene 1. In case you're curious.

The Othello Diaries: The Unkindest Cut Of All

One of the things that drives me crazy about doing Shakespeare, or any of the great classics for that matter, is that modern audiences are extremely reluctant to sit through a play for more than 2 hours these days. The communal attention span is too short, and no matter the Bard's direction of "two hours traffic on our stage" it is difficult to perform any of his plays under three hours.

In our production of Othello, we are aiming for 2:30/2:40. Which means lots of cutting of the script. Prior to rehearsal beginning I had made cuts and edits before giving the cast their scripts with the caveat that more would come as we worked.

I'm finding that "more" to be exceedingly difficult to make. Yesterday we made some significant cuts in Act IV that will streamline a lot of the action. They are good cuts, but painful ones.

From a Tablet PC perspective, the earlier cuts (before scripts were handed out, were made using a "strike through" the lines that were cut. The cast received a copy of the script with the lines cut so they could view the context.

Now that we are in rehearsal, I make the cuts in OneNote 2007 Beta. I have the script printed into OneNote and use the highlighter to highlight the potential cut. Different highlighter colors allow me to differentiate whether this is a cut I will make, or one I'm thinking about. I also use Ink to make any edits in the margins. We then work with the cuts in rehearsal to decide if they work or not.

Today and tomorrow we make more cuts in our attempts to streamline the action and keep the audience with us.

(Note: This is also posted on GottaBeMobile.com)

The Othello Diaries: Quarterstaffs

Today we started blocking Act 3 Scene 2 of Othello. Long scene that encompasses so much of Iago's plotting to get inside Othello's brain. We also introduced Ray (Iago) and Elliot(Othello) to their quarterstaffs which they will use at the beginning of their duet, as if the two military men are sparring with each other.

The idea and concept works well and I'm looking forward to the next steps with the scene once the guys get comfortable with their new appendages. Tomorrow the rest of Act 3.