This is a blog about the journey from first read to opening night.  From time to time, various contributors will post their process–the joys, challenges, and insights into how it gets done.

Me first.

I’ve been cast in a local AEA production of Seven Stories by Morris Panych.  The first read is today.  I had a couple of callbacks to land the role, and interestingly, I didn’t find out until yesterday exactly which role I was to play!  The script has a cast of five, with four actors playing multiple roles, and one playing “Man” from beginning to end.  This altered my usual process of digging deep into the text before the first rehearsal.  I typically like to break it down, start jotting down ideas about tasks and actions, fooling around with physical choices (alignment, center, lead, and Laban elements such as states and drive orientations, body level work, etc.)  So much for that.  And in this case, it’s probably a good thing.

I’m playing three characters who come and go over the course of the play.  I want to differentiate them clearly and there are some obvious choices I could make.  But the situation in some ways forces me to find it as I go–and really include my fellow actors in the creation of the parts.  Naturally, what other actors do always affects what one does, but I’m going to BASE my choices on the interactions with my partners.  So, hopefully, the characters will be thoroughly integrated with one another–a kind of intentional symbiosis.  What I’ll try to do is document what I’m given by the other actors as concretely as possible and articulate how and why I’ll make the choices I make.

By the way, the show opens the second week of March.  We rehearse two times/week for the first few weeks.  Meanwhile, I’m preparing to direct the musical at the university where I work full-time.  Should be fun! (PK)