OK, we finished our first week of rehearsal, “blocking” Act I. It went well all things considered. This is my first time going through this process. My last play, The Sunshine Boys, I did not come on board until after all this was done.
I think I have figured out what the director (Lane Teilhaber) wants out of his cast. I have been trying to make things as real and natural as possible. But what the director wants is for each action to be obviously clear the intentions of each statement, a little “over the top”.
JOEL, the brother of SARAH, becomes suspicious of “DAVID” (BOB) and asks a few directed questions about DAVID’s medical practice. Here the director wants to questions to be “grilled” at DAVID. No holds on what my intentions are in my questions.
In real life this would be rude and maybe even offensive. But this is not real life, it’s a play and the intentions of the characters have to be made absolutely clear.
In another scene (Act I, Scene I, page 23):
JOEL: I notice you’re not wearing a pager.
BOB: No. No. I left it at home. I didn’t want to be disturbed.
JOEL: You left it at home?
BOB: Yeah, well… It’s my day off.
JOEL: What if there’s an emergency?
Here too, I need to be a little over the top. JOEL is a doctor of Psychology with a practice. Even he knows that a medical doctor would never ever be without a pager in case of emergencies. Hippocratic Oath.
On the “all things considered” front: I hope I am doing OK. It’s hard to tell. The other members of the cast have a lot more experience than I do. Most of them have worked with Lane before and knows what he wants. I feel really awkward at times.