First Merely Players rehearsal



We had our first rehearsal for Merely Players on Sunday, and I was really pleased. The actors for the most part picked up the sort of feeling we're going for very quickly, allowing us to jump into the blocking. We're going for a very delicate kind of meta here, where everything is meant to be commentary on and parody of working in a theater troupe with all other aspects of the story being secondary. That means that whenever anyone does anything onstage, it's not so much for service to the plot or the expression of the character they're playing, but rather intended to make a point on the subject matter in a humorous way. It's a weird way for an actor used to building a performance based on creating a character who wants a thing to conceptualize what they're supposed to be doing up there, but pretty much everybody seems to be getting it. I'll have to do a good job explaining to make sure everybody's following.

Best of all, I think it's going to be genuinely funny. Humor can be a very elusive thing, requiring timing and judicious setup, and is not easy to really nail. But I'm proud of what we've done so far. Contrary to my usual control-freak ways, I am working very hard to encourage collaboration, so as to enrich the material with as many funny things as we can come up with. I am fortunate to have a game and gutsy cast who is willing to take risks to make it really funny. This is niobien*'s first time acting onstage, and she has been wonderful, enthusiastic, energetic, and very, very fun to work with. I think the audience is going to love her. I'm working really hard to have a lot going on onstage, to give it visual texture and keep a lot of the comedy physical. The more theater I do, the more fixated I become on the notion that good theater is visually engaging and dynamic, never leaving just a flat and static stage.

One thing I have resolved is that I am not going to stress over this show at all. If something doesn't go exactly right in the process, if things don't work out the way I plan, I am just going to roll with it. This is not supposed to be a magnum opus we're all going to hold up as high art we made for years to come; this is supposed to be a fun show where we experiment, learn some stuff, have some fun, and hopefully make our audience laugh. And one way or another, it will get done.