I am very much enjoying the process, and I'm also relaxing into the company and the role. I was nervous going in because my acting felt stiff-- probably a self-perpetuating cycle there --and I was terrified that someone was thinking "Oh, she got the role because she's pretty, not because she can act." But I'm doing better and better, and I find I really like my castmates. They're all really good actors and, it turns out, very fun people to work with. I love a cast I can laugh and joke with between scenes.
Tonight was kind of amusing. In the script, I have two scenes where I each kiss one of two of my castmates. The first is Larabee posing as Godfrey Norton at our wedding, then Holmes near the end of the show. We hadn't rehearsed either for real yet. While I was ready to put it in whenever everyone else was, I am, however, accustomed to the director declaring "Tonight we'll be doing the kissing," or something like that. Tonight, our first night off-book with it, our Sherlock just kind of went for it. I confess I was a little thrown. Though it surprised me, I had no trouble going with it, and as I said to the gentleman playing Holmes, good for him for just going for it. I always admire people who don't bother with stupid little hangups and don't waste the time being awkward.
The timing was a little bit weird too, because we're supposed to hold it until the lights go out, and because the stage manager was a wee bit slow declaring the transition we had some people teasing us about just hanging out like that. I said I read in an acting textbook once that a stage kiss isn't supposed to last more than four seconds. One of my castmates thought that was oddly specific, so I said I thought the idea behind it was that when people kiss, after four seconds it no longer seems realistic for them to just press their lips together. After that point the kiss needs to "progress," shall we say, basically transitioning to a makeout if it is to stay believable. Of course, that meant that when we ran the scene for the second time, the SM started chanting, "One thousand one... one thousand two..." causing Holmes and I to break with laughter. I flipped him off, but he rightly said, "You asked for it!" and I had to concede, that yes, he got me there. :-)
What this also suggests is that if the lights are ever late, we've got four seconds until we have no choice but to escalate. ;-) Did the Victorians even have makeouts? Well, since the scene is obviously supposed to imply they go to bed together after the fade, I guess it wouldn't be totally inappropriate.
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