Lordy, lord
From an email I just sent to my friend Ray:
"Gnarls Barkley was here last night but I was simply too damn tired to go. These 8 hour rehearsal days are something else, man. One of the problems with actually getting to do something you love for a living is that you don't get to slack off. Not only do you not get to, you don't really even want to, which is almost worse. I've spent most of my life in righteous slack, and to have that so brutally taken from me by the vagaries of good fortune... it is difficult. There is, as the poets tell us, no free lunch."
The show we're doing is 2 hours long. 5 short stories - two in the first act (The Tell Tale Heart, by Edgar Allan Poe, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving) and 3 in the second (The Monkeys Paw by W.W. Jacobs (yes, the one they base that Simpsons episode off of), The Necklace by Guy du Maupassant, and The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain). In the 2 days of rehearsal, we've blocked 3 of those (Sleepy Hollow, Jumping Frog, and The Necklace) and started on a fourth. It doesn't feel break-neck or stressful, but I come home at night and I definitely feel it. I'm playing a frog in the one that you would guess has a frog in it, and it is definitely one of the most physically demanding roles I've ever played, moreso than even the Mute in the Fantasticks. Lots of squatting and jumping. My legs are going to be tree trunks by the time I get done, and you'll be able to bounce a quarter off my ass. If that's your thing (quarter bouncing by appointment only. See our brouchure for rates).
The directors seem pretty focused but relaxed. They are definitely creating a product (as opposed to, say, a work of "art") - actually it's difficult to address this. It is possible to use the tools of art to make something of commercial value. It's also possible to use the tools of commerce to make art. It is possible to make a commerical product that incidentally has artistic value, or which has moments of artistic merit. It's all very complicated. I don't know what I'm trying to say (too tired, must sleep soon) but I know there's material in this for discussion at some point.
The cast still seem cool to me. I'm getting to know them. There's one guy who reminds me of my friend Christopher when he was about the age this fellow is now: brash, impulsive, full of good cheer, occasionally given to stormy moods, occasionally sensitive to the passing remarks of others, smart as hell but wanting to be more "educated" than he is. It's lovely. I wouldn't be that age again for anything in the world.
"Gnarls Barkley was here last night but I was simply too damn tired to go. These 8 hour rehearsal days are something else, man. One of the problems with actually getting to do something you love for a living is that you don't get to slack off. Not only do you not get to, you don't really even want to, which is almost worse. I've spent most of my life in righteous slack, and to have that so brutally taken from me by the vagaries of good fortune... it is difficult. There is, as the poets tell us, no free lunch."
The show we're doing is 2 hours long. 5 short stories - two in the first act (The Tell Tale Heart, by Edgar Allan Poe, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving) and 3 in the second (The Monkeys Paw by W.W. Jacobs (yes, the one they base that Simpsons episode off of), The Necklace by Guy du Maupassant, and The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain). In the 2 days of rehearsal, we've blocked 3 of those (Sleepy Hollow, Jumping Frog, and The Necklace) and started on a fourth. It doesn't feel break-neck or stressful, but I come home at night and I definitely feel it. I'm playing a frog in the one that you would guess has a frog in it, and it is definitely one of the most physically demanding roles I've ever played, moreso than even the Mute in the Fantasticks. Lots of squatting and jumping. My legs are going to be tree trunks by the time I get done, and you'll be able to bounce a quarter off my ass. If that's your thing (quarter bouncing by appointment only. See our brouchure for rates).
The directors seem pretty focused but relaxed. They are definitely creating a product (as opposed to, say, a work of "art") - actually it's difficult to address this. It is possible to use the tools of art to make something of commercial value. It's also possible to use the tools of commerce to make art. It is possible to make a commerical product that incidentally has artistic value, or which has moments of artistic merit. It's all very complicated. I don't know what I'm trying to say (too tired, must sleep soon) but I know there's material in this for discussion at some point.
The cast still seem cool to me. I'm getting to know them. There's one guy who reminds me of my friend Christopher when he was about the age this fellow is now: brash, impulsive, full of good cheer, occasionally given to stormy moods, occasionally sensitive to the passing remarks of others, smart as hell but wanting to be more "educated" than he is. It's lovely. I wouldn't be that age again for anything in the world.
posted by Scott | 7:57 PM
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