Rehearsal last night
Jun. 24th, 2004 09:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceebeegeeI got there and Tom and I worked on our scene for awhile in the hallway at Shetler. He gave me some great stuff to play--I think he mentioned directing so it's nice to know he has that experience as well.
When we went into the rehearsal room and started running the scene with Nora (who plays Hecuba), I got through my monologue mostly intact, then Nora started her monologue. She's very strange. She really got in my face and then when I, acting according to what I as Helen would've done, tried to get away from her and re-engage with Menelaus, she actually grabbed me, which I find unacceptable. We stopped and had to have this long, boring discussion about the scene, and I think she's missing some basic facts about what is and is not dramatic. Watching one woman scream at another is not dramatic--that's just venting. Watching someone try to make something happen--she's trying to make Menelaus condemn me, I'm trying to woo him back--is interesting. Drama at its heart is events and change. What she needs to do is redirect most of that energy toward Menelaus and every so often be unable to stop herself from yelling at me--and then re-engage with Menelaus. Always re-engage with Menelaus because he's the one with the power to make things happen.
And I really, really hate being fucking grabbed by someone. Do not fucking try to direct me. If she ever touches me again like that, I'll break her fingers.
As you can tell, I don't care too much for Nora. She has this condescending, "I'm so much older and more experienced than you" attitude that grates--the whole time during this long, boring discussion she was sitting in the window with this...attitude. I don't know if I can quantify it except that when Suzanne (another older actor) passed her to get her stuff, she patted her on the shoulder with this "what you have to go through" facial expression. Uh, bite me? And weirdly enough, I think Nora identifies too much with her character--she's made one too many jokes digging at me (as Helen) by calling me a whore and a slut. Uh, Nora, I'm not really Helen. Can you stop with the name-calling, even in jest? Otherwise I'll start calling you a fat, washed-up hag. Oh, wait, you really are one. Ooops.
Anyway, after rehearsal ended, Tom and I went to get a drink. He took me to a secret bar. It's hidden--it's very "Hernando's Hideaway. There's no sign or anything outside, and you have to ring a buzzer and get buzzed in. And inside is this hip little teeny-tiny bar that very well-designed for being so small. And the bathroom! It's so cool. The faucet is this long steel tube with the top part cut away--it looks like a log flume--and it just spurts water into a big metal bowl. It's like something out of a Kohler ad. And there are lights built into the floor and...and...the whole thing is just too cool. Only in New York.
So Tom was just sort of shaking his head at Nora--he thinks she just doesn't get it. We talked about it for awhile. Damn, I wish Lettie could've done the show.
When we went into the rehearsal room and started running the scene with Nora (who plays Hecuba), I got through my monologue mostly intact, then Nora started her monologue. She's very strange. She really got in my face and then when I, acting according to what I as Helen would've done, tried to get away from her and re-engage with Menelaus, she actually grabbed me, which I find unacceptable. We stopped and had to have this long, boring discussion about the scene, and I think she's missing some basic facts about what is and is not dramatic. Watching one woman scream at another is not dramatic--that's just venting. Watching someone try to make something happen--she's trying to make Menelaus condemn me, I'm trying to woo him back--is interesting. Drama at its heart is events and change. What she needs to do is redirect most of that energy toward Menelaus and every so often be unable to stop herself from yelling at me--and then re-engage with Menelaus. Always re-engage with Menelaus because he's the one with the power to make things happen.
And I really, really hate being fucking grabbed by someone. Do not fucking try to direct me. If she ever touches me again like that, I'll break her fingers.
As you can tell, I don't care too much for Nora. She has this condescending, "I'm so much older and more experienced than you" attitude that grates--the whole time during this long, boring discussion she was sitting in the window with this...attitude. I don't know if I can quantify it except that when Suzanne (another older actor) passed her to get her stuff, she patted her on the shoulder with this "what you have to go through" facial expression. Uh, bite me? And weirdly enough, I think Nora identifies too much with her character--she's made one too many jokes digging at me (as Helen) by calling me a whore and a slut. Uh, Nora, I'm not really Helen. Can you stop with the name-calling, even in jest? Otherwise I'll start calling you a fat, washed-up hag. Oh, wait, you really are one. Ooops.
Anyway, after rehearsal ended, Tom and I went to get a drink. He took me to a secret bar. It's hidden--it's very "Hernando's Hideaway. There's no sign or anything outside, and you have to ring a buzzer and get buzzed in. And inside is this hip little teeny-tiny bar that very well-designed for being so small. And the bathroom! It's so cool. The faucet is this long steel tube with the top part cut away--it looks like a log flume--and it just spurts water into a big metal bowl. It's like something out of a Kohler ad. And there are lights built into the floor and...and...the whole thing is just too cool. Only in New York.
So Tom was just sort of shaking his head at Nora--he thinks she just doesn't get it. We talked about it for awhile. Damn, I wish Lettie could've done the show.
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Date: 2004-06-24 08:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-24 08:51 am (UTC)