Preparing for rehearsal...

I'm directing a 6-hour rehearsal in, well, 4 hours.

At this point, we've blocked roughly half the show - and will have everything blocked by Monday night. We've done a lot of work in a short period of time, and it's starting to pay off. Interestingly, since we're rehearsing in our venue, we're actually a top-heavy rehearsal process. By that, I mean we won't have to acclimate ourselves to our final venue - which will cut down lots of time before we open. Tech is always a bitch, and I'm happy to solve that problem as we go...

Surprisingly, tech has been pretty easy. We're using found light to design the show, and it's pretty amazing how this apartment lends itself to theatricalization. Hell, we even have a special. Sort of. My hope is that this show is a testament to what the human mind can accomplish - with ingenuity instead of commerce. WE HAVEN'T SPENT ONE DOLLAR ON ANYTHING! And I think audiences will be impressed with both the quality of the production overall, and the creative solutions we've constructed to avoid economic transactions.

At this point, I'm trying to decide whether to end the show with "Fringe Show" or "Schmoozers". Both are hilarious - for different reasons - but I think I'll know more after we block "Schmoozers" in its entirety today. Each play is about 25 minutes long, so although psychologically it FEELS like lots of work left to do for the actors, time-wise it's not so bad. Jonathan Shatzky, in particular, is really zipping along. He is the only actor in each and every playlet (with significant parts in all of them!), and I generally consider him my 'lead actor'. He's had to learn lots of lines in a cumbersome rehearsal process, and his hard work is definitely paying off.

I feel sorta bad singling out any individual actors in this fine cast though. It is a uniformly strong cast, and when you see the show, you'll see for yourselves. This is the first time I've written/directed a show with a non-Equity cast in many years, so I was scared I wouldn't find enough talent. But I definitely did. While this cast is not as experienced as some casts I've worked with in the past, there is NO drop-off in TALENT. That bodes well for the future of this industry, and for this show in particular.

Anyway, I thought I'd pop in here a bit before rehearsal. I'll be at rehearsal every day this long weekend, so I thank my girlfriend Alessya for being so patient. We're going to Indian buffet tonight in Brampton, so that'll be one of the only non-work things I'll be doing this Labour Day weekend. I'm a big fan of Tandoori chicken, but that's probably irrelevant to this blog entry. ;)

Bobman