The Rehearsal Process
At the start of every rehearsal process, I lead the ensemble in the development of a community agreement in order to allow everyone in the room equal voice in the crafting of expectations for our time together. Staples in every contract I develop: Embrace Your Mistakes & Be Patient with the Process. I celebrate the rehearsal room's ability to be an extension of the classroom when collaborating with student actors; therefore, I encourage the actors I work with to remove the pressure of being perfect from the start in order to get as much as possible out of the rehearsal process.
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rehearsal techniques
Viewpoints is a philosophy translated into a technique for (1) training performers; (2) building ensemble: and (3) creating movement for the stage…Viewpoints is a set of names given to certain principles of movement through time and space; these names constitute a language for talking about what happens onstage…Viewpoints is points of awareness that a performer or creator makes use of while working. --The Viewpoints Book by Anne Bogart and Tina Landau
Early in my rehearsal processes, I take actors through a workshop introducing them to Bogart's and Landau's philosophy of utilizing Mary Overlie's Viewpoints to compose works of theatre. I do this in order to establish a unified vocabulary from which the ensemble can work, as well as encourage actors from an early point in rehearsals to engage in the work fully with their whole bodies.
As a physical theatre director and actor, I am constantly looking for ways to get actors out of their heads and find how they carry their objectives and actions in their bodies. In my own training, I have found Laban's Efforts to be extremely beneficial in doing just that.
When utilizing Laban's Efforts, I find it particularly useful in rehearsals for intimate scenes in order to fight an actor's impulse to make the acting in the small scene equally small. |
Once the whole show is staged, the ensemble and I step back and chart the shape of the action through the whole play together. Buy doing this, we can engage in scene work with a solid understanding of how each action pursued in the play affects the following events in the production.
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Staging Puppet Combat
Flora & Ulysses features three major combat sequences concerning our puppet hero. Through the use of the ensemble's understanding of physical storytelling, as developed by our Viewpoints work, and my experience directing physical violence for the stage, we crafted dynamic and highly stylized combat sequences, like the one featured in the video to the left. The video features Stetson Smith as Ulysses the Squirrel, Sebastian Newlin as Mr. Klaus the Cat, and Teondré Chappelle standing in for Phyllis Buckman. |