19 June, 2008

day 5 runthrough sc.1-3

Ok, so now we've blocked scenes one through three in act one (that's everything that I sing in besides the finale).
The system here is pretty much a speed-blocking, then make it your own kind of deal--with mess-ups allowed for of course since there is so little time to really get it into your body the first time the stage direction is given to you.
I do pretty well with this because if anything, it's a memory game that you have to play. In the 10 minute breaks I thumb through the pages of the score and see whether I can imagine where I'm supposed to be on stage at the time and what I'm supposed to be doing or responding to.
If I can do it, that means I learned my staging from the hour before. If I can't, I actually have to sit down and write it into the scene so that I don't forget.
Things like-
"XLofD", "impertinent here", XUStoChair, and sometimes, to get me in the 'emotional' mood of what I'm supposed to be thinking or saying I add in some English slang words or something that will trigger a certain stance or attitude. "What?" "Oh REALLY", "Whatever".

So today I could do everything. The hardest stage cue I have is (of course) in someone ELSE's aria (which you never want to mess up--you pretty much become part of the furniture when another person gets to take center stage and sing one of the most famous arias from the opera), a little cross. But I want to make it just right so SHE feels good about reacting to me.

Tomorrow- finale staging.
And review.

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