3.12.12 - Rehearsal 8

Tonight felt like a productive rehearsal.  Things were happening; elements were coming together.  People were working together and in the specific roles.  It also helped that I was finally not sick.  Stephanie, Jenney, and Kathy joined us.  The cast showed some moments and Andy and I had some moments we wanted to see.  The general rhythm of the night: someone prepped their moment, we did it, then people responded to it, and we would make a few variations changing an element to see how that influenced the greater moment.  Esmé brought in a moment where she did a song a dance about high stakes testing.  She then taught it to the rest of the ensemble.  We then did a six person song and dance moment.  The crazy idea of doing a musical number about standardized testing originated a few rehearsals ago as just that, a crazy idea.  It has stayed in our minds and has evolved.  This is how an idea is birthed from Moment Work and kept alive and bettered through Moment Work.  The idea comes from theatrical elements put together to make a moment.  Many times the idea is a small image or gesture or “Oh, that makes me think of this other thing” within a moment.  Many times the idea comes from a moment we thought was a “bad” moment.  Well, there is no such thing as a “bad” moment because it is all theatrical information.  After the idea originates it may pop back up in other moments and get morphed by the new elements with which it comes into contact.  We don’t know what this musical moment will look like in the play, but I bet you there will be one.

I wanted to say a few words about all the work that happens between the rehearsal work.  Besides the cast generating moments to show in rehearsal, there is a lot that happens between rehearsals in a creative model such as the one we are using to create Going Public.  When moments use text, numerous copies are made and are organized into three binders, one for the script wrangler, one for Andy, and one for me.  Andy and I are also writing new moments we want to hear and see in rehearsal and organizing the interview text.  The task is simple, but tough: choose the best text and say what you want to say with it.  When making text moments I find it hard to remember that text is just one of many theatrical elements.  That is why Andy calls text a “tyrant,” because it dominates our creative thinking.  In a moment you can say something, many times more powerfully, with light than with text.  Andy said today that we want to throw text at existing forms that we have created in rehearsal and throw text at new forms.  This process is basically trial and error and that is one of the reasons it is so time consuming and can be somewhat chaotic.