A Muse of Fire, Part Four: The Rest Is Silence

rehearsals are done. the show has become a dark, roiling thing that none of us could have ever conceived of...and it is wonderful
thank you, all
see you at the rogue!!!

A Muse of Fire, Part Three: Thank You

after much reflection, all i can really say after tonight's rehearsal is thank you. thank you to the amazing group of people who joined us (both in body and in spirit) at theatre taber for a wonderful, astounding, inspirational, and humbling evening of totally attitude driven bullshit...and some of the finest acting i have ever been privileged to see.

thank you and thank you and thank you.

and a special shout out to marcel and renee for your support...it's good to know who your friends are. and to mister albritton: thanks for chronicalling the event. we look forward to working together again.

as to the rest....the proof is in the work.
etonne-moi
g

A Muse of Fire, Part Two: Character Counts!

tonight's rehearsal was devoted entirely to character work. one solid hour of complete and total, full-body physicalization of a character's emotion core, spine, effort action, image, and attitude line. the intensity was such that i found myself, as director/coach, having to do a step-out to detach from what was happening.

we began with a game of red light, green light to get warmed up and to get the nature full-body involvement squarely seated. from there it was straight into emotion core: the single, central, driving emotional force within a character. lisa's terrifyingly helpless regret almost brought me to tears and stephen's rage shimmered like blacktop on a hot summer's day. spine work opened up some new vistas for a number of people. finding the character's essential need (beyond the limits of the scene or the play) brought a delicious vulnerability to suzanne that was simply compelling. when we began the effort work, the physical transformations were astounding. from light to heavy, indirect to direct, sustained to sudden, and free to bound the actors ran the gamut of what the body can become. i've never seen devon freer, and i thought dave was going to collapse in on himself. then they combined the elements into full effort actions and gave birth to brand new people. with imagery new physicalizations blossomed. i have no idea what the images were that they were using, but i couldn't take my eyes off jim's hands except for those moments when i was being drawn into arthur's subtle, but undeniable, presence. we ended our focus work with attitude line and, once again, the transformations were striking.

the evening finished with a couple of monologue runs. i can't say much about that for fear of spoiling the surprise...but i can say that ron brought it all to bear and owned the room.

tomorrow is our last official rehearsal: a little warm up, a little play, and then some well deserved and highly anticipated sharing of the work for group response...and then a little wine and a lot of good talk with even better people. and it just struck me that, whatever this show becomes, and we won't know that until next friday, we'll have done it all on about four hours of rehearsal.

well whaddya know about that...?

A Muse of Fire, Part One

we had our first group rehearsal for muse of fire last night... i am still stunned almost 12 hours later. we've worked individually on visualization, fluency, language, relationship, emotion, action and character, and we continued in that vein as a cast yesterday. the dedication to the craft, the commitment to artistic excellence, and the willingness to rush blindly into new territory were palpable. everyone brought their own work to the process and then enagaged this new process of ours as fully as they were capable...and who could ask for more?

tonight we move into specific character work and i'm so looking forward to what emerges.

thank you all (lisa, tom, jim, dave, ron, suzanne, devon, stephen, arthur) for being who you are and for doing what you do.

etonne-moi

g

Bravo!

Congratulations, mes amies! The cast of "The Flattering Glass" looks superb (just so sorry i was unavailable. please ask again.) Can I use this blog to promote my own show? Okay, I will: please mark your calendars for "Handler" at Fresno City College. (lisa and greg, will you add a link to their Theatre Dept.?) Runs March 9-11, 13-17. I'm one of the guest community performers. Come see me handle snakes and speak in tongues! And, then go catch a Rogue show! Bottom line: we've gotta support all of the productions in town. It's a rich and beautiful time for we lovers of theatre in Fresno...

We Have a Cast!!!!!

"This Flattering Glass" is a go! We've found the perfecct actor for each part and, after a few missteps, the vision and the reality are the same.

I find my thoughts going back to summer, when the idea of staging Richard II was nothing more than wishful thinking. In the earliest stages of preproduction we made some unofficial casting choices; as time went on, circumstances necessitated changes. Naturally, there were actors who were not pleased with the new direction we took. Interestingly, though, the most vocal dissenters were people who aren't even members of the company whose primary objective (in my never to be humble opinion) was to make us look bad. We were able to put our the most pressing fires but realized that rumor control is a full-time job neither of us wants. So, the rumor mill continues to turn.....

Enough negativity! It's time to wake up the Muse! Soon we start rehearsing for Rogue, and we've added some new actors to the mix (thank you Ms. Snow!), then jump into "TFG." I can't wait!

The best part of this experience so far has been the great people who have come into our lives. To all of you: you continually give me insight and inspiration. Let me cook you dinner!

To the casts of both shows: you are a tremendous group of artists and I am so proud you are joining us. Together we will make magic!

:*

lisa