we're evolving! from porifera to platyhelmenthis (sp?)

First of all, I wanted to document something that pleases me quite a bit--two girls, Brianna Delfs and Juliana Chapman e-mailed me recently. They are students at Bergen County Academies and saw The Not-So-Lovely Tale of Strawberry Fructose performed at the Playwrights Festival last year and loved my play and now they would like a copy of the script and rights to possibly perform it next year! It's such a great compliment and I'm so flattered! I will most def. let them have a copy but I have to kind of copyright my work first and figure out what I have to do. I e-mailed Jim DeVivo from Playwrights Theatre and asked him for advice and he was very nice about it and said he'll help me out. =)

There was a Ford Focus commercial that was kind of funny

Man: Phone! Call my wife!

Sometimes I feel like that as a director. =O Sometimes it's fun being bossy, sometimes I feel like a jerk. Oh, some definitions:

Director: Someone who tells you how to do a single thing 16 times, each time a different way, before thinking you might be able to understand what to do.

Actor: Someone who will probably have to try 17 times to get something perfect.

We've been having rehearsals every day after school until about 5:30 (although many people leave earlier) and we haven't even gotten through the whole play once yet. Ahh! Oh no! I made a schedule of due dates so we can get everything done at least once by Memorial Day and after that we're going to perfect everything and do more staging, blocking, transitions, technical stuff, etc.

We have been getting much much better, though. Here are my thoughts on some of the scenes so far:

Scene 1.1
This scene was just recently completed even though it was one of the first we started working on. Wait, that sentence sort of doesn't make sense. Basically, it took a ridiculously long time to even get our actors running it straight through. The first half has an Orlando monologue by Aaron and a fight between him and his brother Oliver, played by Nicholson. This half has gotten so much better since the beginning. At first, Aaron's diction wasn't good enough and his passion wasn't convincing but after diction lessons at Dr. Solberg's one Saturday and my uhm, passion exercise (basically making him run up and down the stairs two or three times) he was so so much better! Mr. O'Shaughnessy told me later after he saw the scene that Aaron was quite good and had obviously been working. This scene is gettingmuch better dialogue wise, but Aaron needs to find the intensity in his body, Nicholson needs to nail his lines and say them convincingly, Jan needs to look more solid both in body and knowledge of lines, and everyone needs to understand what they're really saying, not just the dictionary definition of each word, too.

Scene 2.1
This scene took forever too. It's about how Jacques feels killing deer in their own territory would be like usurping a throne--making Duke Senior feel rather hypocritical and awkward. This featured Alexis and Elysse dancing as Jacques and Deer. The words were good, the dance was good, but it took us forever to figure out how to merge them. But this scene is wonderful and we need to make sure it is absolutely perfect and solid, blah blah, but it is one of my favorites. Mostly because the dance is just so cute. Haha.

Scene 3.2
Because of scheduling, we still have not done this completely. This scene is when Orlando puts love notes in the trees, Corin and Touchstone have a match of wits (court vs. country), and Rosalind finds the rhymes and realizes Orlando is writing them. The Touchstone x Corin part is most def done. We've done it so many times and I think because Corin and Touchstone are being contrasted so much in this scene, it's really helped me figure out how to be Corin and acting like him is getting a lot easier. I'm aiming for the gentle sort of older man who can see the folly of the youths around him and comments, but simply rolls his eyes when they don't listen. I am so sick of this scene. Oh well.

Scene 3.5
I think this scene is going to be excellent. It is Phebe and Silvius's first scene together with the Phebe monologue and it's when they meet Rosalind. Gina and David are extremely hard workers and have practiced their scene over and over. After directing David's arms to actually move, I find they play their roles very well. David isn't exactly graceful and smooth when he goes nuts over her (like when he yells O Phebe, Phebe, Phebe in his scene with me) but I think sometimes the awkwardness of his movements adds to the sillyness of his lovesick swain act. Gina is so funny when she's pretending to flirt with Hira and the way Hira scorns Gina and Gina ignores Silvius is hilarious and sometimes delicious. This scene is actually pretty tight. We do have to work on the latter half with Hira more, though.

Scene 4.1
The mock wedding. I love this scene because it is probably the greatest opportunity to have a hot Orlando x Rosalind moment in the play besides, perhaps, the meeting scene (which will take even more passion on Aaron's part--I hope we don't have to use the stairs again). Mingo and Hira are friends so I know it's weird for them, but the way they speak and the closeness of the direction is enough, I think. Also, they've built up chemistry from their work in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Wed. Elysse is so adorable in this scene (well, okay, she's cute in every scene). I just love this scene =) We have to run through it once more with Alexis's part at the beginning included, though.

Scene 4.3
I love this scene too! So far, especially considering since it's the half we've rehearsed most (this has rarely happened to me, haha), I much prefer the last half of the play. Both Hira and Elysse have their own brand of spunk and Hira has the idealistic-ish, heroine spirit necessary for Rosalind and Elysse makes Celia so endearing. I'm impressed with Elysse in general. She's thrown herself into this whole production and leaped (literally) into the role of the deer and is doing very well as Celia. And of course, Hira is amazing too. (I only hope she gets the last half of her lines down pat. =O) Anyway, I love this scene because Alberto and Elysse's love at first sight part as Celia and Oliver is just so cute, funny, and charming. Also, there is a hilarious fighting scene starring Mingo and Alberto as Orlando and Oliver, respectively, versus the Lion, played by Nicholson. It is so good. I'm not even joking. We just need to straighten out the first part of the scene with Silvius and Rosalind too.


And those are some of the scenes and my comments. =) Actually, considering how much time has passed, we're doing really well. But considering how much time we have left--we're so far behind. Oh no. Hopefully a Memorial Day practice will fix this. If anything, the PS #4 performance for parents and friends will end up being our first real dress rehearsal and best motivation for improvement.

Pray for us.


P.S. You know, I really like George Michael. I didn't realize that until now. =P