tough slogging

Whew! We did our first run-through last week, and it was exhausting. I was convinced at the intermission break that we'd been working for at least 2 or 3 hours and was shocked to learn that only an hour had passed.

We're into the difficult part now. We put it together once, and now we're taking it all apart again. And getting off book. It's time for growing pains, difficult questions, and commitment. To be honest, this part is hard to write about.

A few things I've been working out and grappling with over the past week:

1. man hands - distilling the essence of what makes a male hand gesture male - watching men's hands on BART as they hold phones, turn pages of the paper, etc. The basic thing seems to be keeping fingers together.

2. the intersection of status, confidence, and maleness. I know that I have a tendency as an actor to make choices which lower my status. I know there is a connection between status and confidence. I believe there is a further connection between status, confidence and maleness. Yet here am I, a female, playing a male character who has status, but at times lacks confidence. How to illustrate status and confidence and therefore maleness without veering into caricature. How all of this is made more difficult by the obstacle of being a female playing the character.

A tactic I'm using to examine #2 is watching films with male characters who are what I'm calling 'warriors'. I don't tend to watch a lot of this type of film, but the examination is interesting - Platoon, Braveheart, Gladiator, Apocalypse Now, Patton.

Another tactic I'm using to examine this is what happens if I don't apologize, especially for the amount of space I take up. This was an interesting one on a walk through a crowded grocery store. Other shoppers apologized to me for letting their carts get too close, etc.

Looking forward, we're just over 2 weeks from opening, and will be moving from the rehearsal space to the Oakland performance space next weekend!

This is so freakin' cool!

So many amazing things are happening at rehearsal.

I am jealous of every 'witches-only' rehearsal - Joan, Treacy, Leontyne, and Julia are working out this amazing movement stuff w/shadows and lights and fabric, and then I come in at the end of these rehearsals to integrate my text/movement w/the witch scenes. And they give me the shivers.

Carla has given us basic staging for all of the fight sequences - I count 5 onstage deaths. Things are brutal, scary in places, and dangerous looking. Last night's rehearsal was full of people saying 'ohmigod that's gross' 'cool!' 'that looks so real' etc.

Two more freakin' cool people that you need to know about - Claire, our AD (assistant director) - she and Joan are constantly bouncing ideas off each other, and Alicia, our stage manager, in charge of scheduling, communications, generally keeping track of everybody, and on top of all that, she shuttles a few of us back and forth from BART before and after rehearsal. The things these ladies do don't seem outwardly as exciting as broadswords and shadow projection, but are ultimately what keep us all moving forward on this adventure - the coolest part of all.

The 3 usual questions #1: Are those real swords?

The title of this post comes from my days of touring children's theater - which were many, included 11 states, and sent me everywhere from a monster truck arena in Cheyenne, WY, to an extremely poor school in the border town of Nogales, AZ, where the audience spoke mostly Spanish. But I digress...

After performances, we did a Q&A session for the student audiences, and there were three questions we almost always got. I thought I'd answer those three questions in relationship to Macbeth.

So, #1 - are those real swords? Yes, and no. In general, stage swords are not tipped, i.e. not sharp, so no, they aren't 'real' in that sense. However, they're really made of metal, and they really weigh what real metal weighs, so if used correctly(incorrectly?), you can definitely bruise a person, or injure small body parts like noses, eyes, and fingers.

The other thing to know here is that stage fighting is not improvised - it is choreographed as closely as any dance, and rehearsed prior to every performance at a 'fight call' to ensure everyone's safety. Fight choreographers use angle and body position to create the illusion of actual physical contact, or when a move is performed with contact, we target areas of the body which are able to take it (typically large muscle groups), and pull punches a bit, then sell it w/a big reaction.

All this being said, I'm really excited about the fights in this show - I've got two broadsword fights and what we've done so far looks terrific. There are moments of real bad-assery for both Julia (Macduff) and myself, as well as some horrible horrible injuries.

Questions #2 and #3 in later posts. Stay tuned!

Witches Only!

That's who's called for tomorrow's rehearsal, so I thought I'd take a minute to talk about them.

Our witches - Julia, Leontyne, and Treacy - have an amazing task ahead of them. I play Macbeth, Desiray plays Malcolm, and these 3 are playing ALL the other roles. It's all part of the adaptation that Woman's Will Artistic Director Erin Meritt has put together - and a way to create a world where the Fates are in charge of what happens for these two men - Macbeth and his successor Malcolm.

It also presents terrific challenges for all involved. These three actors, of course, but also the design staff. Joan, our director, has shown us some amazing Butoh movement imagery as well as images of cancerous cells dividing and spreading through the body. My understanding is that this is something they'll be exploring through movement at their rehearsal tomorrow. Our lighting designer is talking about LEDs, and projections, and the set designer has shown us a model that includes canvas areas for shadow work and projections.

It's going to be a different Macbeth, that's for sure. One that only Woman's Will can do.

You're Being Watched

if you're male that is. Thought I'd let you know.

This weekend the cast of Macbeth, some Woman's Will company members, and a few other folks participated in two workshops.

In the first, Finding Your Inner Man, led by Rami Margron (mult. roles at Woman's Will including the title role in The Rover and Orlando in As You Like It), we worked on creating male gesture, body language, and appearance. The nearly unanimous conclusion was that we all need to study men more. How do they do what they do? So I thought I'd warn you that as you go about your daily activities - riding transit, walking down the street, eating in restaurants or drinking in bars - we're studying you.

The second workshop was an introduction to the broadsword, let by our amazingly talented fight choreographer Carla Pantoja. I know Carla primarily from other contexts, because she's also an actor and teacher, and was blown away by her expertise here. We are in very good hands, and these fights are going to be really terrific.

The energy in both workshops was palpable. We've got a cast of confident, grounded women. I can feel Joan, our director, is ready to rip into this text with the group. Tonight, we begin a few days of table work, so you'll hear more from me soon.

Here are a few photos from Sunday. In the first you can see Carla (white shirt) leading cast member Julia and company member Marilet through a head parry. In the second, I'm standing 'engarde' with cast member Leontyne in the background. In the third, Carla is demonstrating a shoulder parry.

Taking up the Torch, or perhaps, the Dagger

I'm Valerie. I'm playing Macbeth. We'll be starting rehearsals on Saturday, September 6th. Tune in here for notes on the process, fly on the wall rehearsal tidbits, and how the sausage gets made. Which will hopefully make you more interested in sampling ;)

First - the pre-rehearsal work. I've known I would be playing this role for about 6 weeks now, which has given me plenty of time for reading, viewing, thinking, and pushups. Different actors approach things differently, but for me, prior to the start of rehearsal is a great time to see how other folks have done it - to know what is possible.

Some of the indispensable books for me on any Shakespeare role include: a Folio edition for spelling and punctuation clues, the Oxford edition for notes, and the Players of Shakespeare series from the RSC - a 6 volume set in which actors write essays about the roles they've played. I usually grab a book of criticism too if I can - and end up skimming it, not finding too much that's useful and then throwing it back.

Also on this role - the pushups. A way to connect with upper body strength and get ready for the sword fighting. I'm following the regimen at hundredpushups.com

So, a salute to the ladies who've written before me on previous Woman's Will productions, and thanks for letting me take over.