What a beautiful sky tonight as I walked down from my hotel!! I went home, ate sushi in the bath while skyping James. It’s such a trip!!! (In both the literal and hippie senses!)
Last night after the Armando the players did a little Q and A. Here are some gems:
– this was a 14 person cast (people have an open invitation to play), so multi-person scenes were the norm – Jason said he preferred 3 person scenes where it’s 2:1, but who the 1 is switches – or a 3 person scene where it’s 3 with equal focus (but harder to do). The option of fewer people rarely happens with such a large cast, and Jason explained to us that because this is an open invitation, people are used to being “alpha dogs” in their own troupes, so it’s not normal for them to hold back
– monologues as a guideline should take around 3 minutes
– Del Close said our job is to enchant and horrify
– all male troupes happen “organically”, all-women troupes happen on purpose (ie it’s easy to make an all-man troupe by accident)
I have just seen two shows: two of the Frank Hayes Four did half an hour on “childhood dreams”. Started with two 13 year old boys in a tree house, and explored the relationship with a stepfather, a therapist, a cello teacher and responses to a U2 concert. It was Seth who ran our object workshop a few weeks ago (his cello work was of great beauty), and a guy whose name I don’t know, but I saw him in Shakespeare and in Baby wants Candy. Great work.
Then it was two of the Cook County Social Club (usually 4 guys). Their suggestion was “break up” and they showed us 3 relationships in different stages of break up and mending, including a beautiful teenage relationship with some great emotional work. The nice thing was it was 2 guys, and when they kissed on stage it was not the gag or the end if the scene. It was a part of the scene, it was paced like real life not slapstick, and the scene continued after the kiss. I’m not sure I’ll ever see that on a Sydney stage!
The Reckoning is next at 1030. They promised us a Bat, which is apparently done in the dark. Will no doubt be interesting!
