We started rehearsal today with working on some text work. We went over operative words and discussed what might make a word imperative to the message of the piece/idea/sentence/speech. I really enjoyed going through a short monologue of mine in the script and implementing this structure. It helped me to understand what my character was actually trying to say. I don’t think that I had considered what it means to find the most crucial parts of the sentence and act on those words. It seems really simple but I think it just hasn’t hit me yet. I think this is going to be super helpful moving forward!
Today I thought about Margot’s relationship with alcohol. Marc and I were talking about the amount that she drinks, specifically in the scenes surrounding the murder. We also discussed how she specifically only drinks, more so than is healthy, when no one is around her. The facts are that her tolerance to alcohol is obviously built up. She often drinks when she is stressed or tired. So, Marc pointed out that she possesses several signs of alcoholism.
I felt a little silly though because Marc brought it up in a way that I wasn’t expecting. Marc asked, “is she an alcoholic, did it begin with the spaghetti dinner?” I found this so curious. I understand that she drinks but I didn’t necessarily put it into such an extreme of a category. Rather, I understood this to be a rather challenging moment in Margot’s life, in which she drinks more so than she usually does. I hadn’t perceived this as alcoholism, I perceived it as her processing the insane moments that are happening within the time of the play. But it is interesting to consider these questions that Marc posed. I have definitely been thinking about them since our conversation. Moving forward I can’t wait to see how this idea impacts her decision making process and how she carries herself when she is around others comparatively to when she is not. It’s definitely something that I need to do more research on. I do not have a concrete answer just yet!
Next, I worked with Jonah on “the fight scene.” Working with Jonah today was very helpful to me. It was our first time going through what I call the “deli meat” of the play. The beginning and middle of this play very nicely sandwich this section of the play in my mind. Today’s rehearsal focused solely on this middle section. And let me tell you I need to prepare myself for how much of a workout this section is going to be for both my mind and body!
It really hit me hard today which was lovely! I’ve kind of been waiting for that feeling of my heart and mind being full at the end of rehearsal, so I’m definitely going to take that as a positive thing! Working this section helped me practice using high and low pitches and exploring more of my vocal range. Working the moments before the fight scene also allowed me to understand a lot more of the staging and to work on mine and Jonah’s reasoning prior to our fight choreography tomorrow! I have been very nervous about the fight, but now I am excited for tomorrow and cannot wait to meet Casey, play with the stage combat elements, and create something that looks awesome!