I'm Speechless

So, The House of the Spirits cast today performed for all the IB students at our school today. Let me just start by saying that it was amazing (considering what we have seen thus far from our cast). As soon as those lights went on, the stage was transformed. Our cast became suddenly believeable in the context of the book. The entire time, Kim and I were up in the booth handling the lights in sheer amazement of what was before our eyes. All the nervousness and anxiety that we had sensed from our actors during rehearsals was suddenly gone. Everything ran smoother than we could have hoped. I was particularly surprised by Anna. She completely transformed in front of the audience. Her voice and tone revealed that she was finally in control of her character. She made it very easy for the audience to believe that everything she was saying was sincere and real. At that moment, I felt especially proud of her and how she had conquered the stage. If you knew Anna personally you would know how much of a 180 this was on her part. The congratulations after the performance from fellow peers and teachers did not mean so much as the gratification of knowing that I had some part in helping our cast to come out of their shell. I can comfortably say that Anna's performance may have just changed my pespective on life.

Dress Rehearsal

Today afterschool we had our very own version of a dress rehearsal. I met up with all the actors just to brush up on everything we had discussed and rehearsed on Sunday. In those few hours I began to see a different side of my fellow peers. They were freer and looser with their characters, almost as if they were simply an alter ego. I felt that this marked the end of their journey as an actor in developing their character--finally being able to be completely comfortable in their character. They were no longer afraid to try new things in their character and were now more receptive to suggestions and critiques. The only particular person I was still having a diffcult time working with was Christine who was playing the character of Blanca in the novel. For some reason, she was unable to retain much of our direction, especially when it came to blocking. In our production, we had this large couch that was difficult to block around. Christine was often so involved in saying her lines correctly that she would completely lose sight of the audience. She would then proceed to perform her entire monologue from behind the couch. I think that was probably one of the hardest things for our actors to learn--keeping the audience in mind. As many of them were new performers it was understandable that they had never approached these types of problems before. But overall, I think The House of the Spirits has been a great learning experience for them.

Overtime

I have just returned home from an extra rehearsal that Kim and I found necessary in order to be fully prepared for the performance this Wednesday. I think this was just what we needed to fully convey to our actors the purpose of our performance. Getting them in this closed and controlled environment, we were finally able to get their full attention. It was no longer just me, as a director, telling the actor what I wanted him or her to do. There was an exchange of thoughts and ideas. What a revelation! Something clicked when we rehearsed today. It may have just been a culmination of our rehearsals with me and Kim constantly telling them that we need to see more, we need to feel more. We needed them to understand that the performance goes beyond "The director told me to walk here and say this line, so now I am doing it." Today was completely different from any rehearsal that we had ever had before. Everything clicked all of a sudden in those few hours.

Work in Progress

I am beginning to think that the classroom is simply not the setting for a conducive rehearsal. The time restraints, the school work, the impending tests--the stress of it all is taking our actors' attention way from the task at hand, the performance. As a result, we spend an inordinate amount of time rehearsing the same parts over and over because our actors have forgotten what we discussed just yesterday. Kim and I have implemented a new strategy for rehearsals. We have decided to split our two problem actors up so that we have more time to focus on each individual. I chose to work with our lead actress, Anna, who is portraying Alba from The House of Spirits. I have a special connection with this character because I wrote all of her monologues in the performance. I also sculpted the performance around this character's unborn child and her actions. As Alba, Anna holds up the entire performance. She is the one who leads the audience through the experience and idea of the powerful family line of women. At this point, Anna has definitely emerged from her typical reserved nature, but she has still yet to tap into the amazing amount of power and courage that is Alba. I cannot seem to figure out how I can connect with Anna in order to allow her to connect with Alba's character. It is definitely a work in progress.

Fall in Place

After our group performed for the class last week, Kim and I had a lot to think about in terms of where we were going to take the performance. It is now two weeks until the performance date but technical effects are still lacking. Costumes are beginning to come together, but it still feels as though we may never make it to the end. At this point there is just a lot to think about. As a director, I understand that I am involved in every aspect of a production, but how far does this go? This frustration is mostly directed at the actors who seem unable to move forwards without asking Kim or I for our approval. In beginning rehearsals, Kim and I always made it apparent that this was a very flexible and organic production in that we were always open to opinions, suggestions, and creativity on the actor's part. As I understood, this is how the real world supposedly works. I just want the actors to take more initiative in learning their lines--which they have still yet to accomplish--and portraying their characters. They have already begun the reading in the classroom which means that they have had ample time to discuss and explore their characters. I am hoping that once that acting begins to pull through, eveything else will just fall in place.

HO'S

Our cast performed for the rest of the class today. I am at a loss for words, because it was somewhat horrifying and disappointing to see all our hard work amount to nothing. Many times before, Kim and I had given direction to various actors on what to do with their characters or blocking, but they have yet to remember it the next day. In a way, I am at a loss as to how much I can do as a director. I cannot tell each and every actor how exactly to block or perform their monologue because the development of character must come from themselves. The monologues that I have written in the script seem to have lost their meaning and power. I understand that a serious performance is much more difficult than that of a comedic one, but it is frustrating to see that the actors have not done their homework. Each day they come in, it is almost as though the slate has been wiped clean, and so we must start all over again. Kim and I wanted this to be a collaborative experience for the entire cast. We wanted them to contribute and feel free to alter our words to convey the message. Right now I am not sure if we will ever be able to get our actors to that place where they will understand just how powerful this piece is meant to be because right now it sounds like they are reading a book to the audience.

Watching Them Watching You

The cast of The House of the Spirits sat as the audience for the other monologue project that the rest of the class has been working on. Consisting of monologues based upon iconic personas in movies and fairy tales, this performance will eventually be performed for the neighboring junior high. Throughout their entire performance I could not truly focus on the content of their monologues because I was so distracted by the lack of character and shifting that seemed to be plaguing the entire cast. It sounded as though people were just taking turns to stand up to read a speech to the class. There was no emotion behind their words, no motivation behind their movements, and no sense of pace to the performance in general. It dragged and suffered from students that acted as though they did not want to be there. Though the performance seemed hopeless when they first finished, I found that there was room for a lot of potential. Unlike the actors of our cast, their actors had the benefit of having a sense of who their character was before hand. If anyone should have a problem with portraying their character, it should be someone from our cast. I thought that their cast already had the upper hand as they could draw from the iconic stereotypes of the various characters.