Achievement unlocked. (Well almost.)
Last night we completed blocking Act 2. So the show is “in the books.” I could get hit by a bus and someone could step in and take the show home at this point. Blocking is painting with a broad brush and it reveals the picture slowly coming into focus. The staging of some scenes won’t change a wit from this point. Others will morph and grow and end up looking totally different as the characters grow and we flesh out the details. The moments begin to breathe and the story fills out.
It’s a good marker of our progress and I’m feeling comfortable with how we’re telling the story picture by picture.
It’s also the point where I start questioning the choices I’ve planned. You know when the story works or you’re working against the story. Or when new discoveries yield new paths.
Ok. Some of that above is a lie. I had one of those “Oh Shit” moments last night that leads me to a hunch that we’re on to something new and unplanned to get into the last scene. The play talked back to me as we neared the last scene. I was about to stage the transition into the final scene and I felt that tingle. That tingle that opens a new door and tells me that I had arrived at a different path to the conclusion. I didn’t and don’t want to articulate the new thoughts just yet. But they feel right. They feel dangerous. When we come back around to the moment in work sessions I’ll know because I won’t be able to do anything but follow that tingle in my gut and step through the door.
Unusual circumstances took us there. One of our actors was out due to local flooding from some heavy rains in the area and her understudy was standing in for her. (Doing a great job by the way.) The understudy has her own minor ensemble role in the finale of the show and as the clock was ticking down to the end of the rehearsal I had forgotten to take care of her assigned role in setting up the transition. When I realized my mistake I was about to go back and correct it, but then saw this new door open and I stopped. Cold.
We’d previously staged the last scene so all that was left to do was stage the transition itself. I cheated. Talked through the transition as planned and then ended rehearsal for the night vibrating with the energy of this new discovery. I’m both excited for this new approach and terrfiied of it. That tension won’t leave until I stage the moment.
Waking up ths morning the new door is still open and I’m having difficulty writing this post and talking about it. Guess it’s time to step through the door.
Oh shit.
Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3 