From the King (Blog #4)October 3rd 2007 |
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POGUE HAMLET BLOG #4
Tonight during rehearsal, Rick juggled a few scenes out of sequence to get some folks out early and asked if I’d mind staying late to work some Claudius/Laertes scenes with Mike Van Zant. Did I mind?! I told him I was Equity and he had me for eight hours if he wanted me. No, I didn’t mind! Not only because Mike is a smart, serious actor and fun to work with (I found this out in Tartuffe…in fact, because his role in my translation of the play had not been written at the time of his audition, I proceeded to write it with Mike specifically in mind), but I am a glutton for rehearsal! I always feel under-rehearsed (whether I am or not) and want as much as I can get.
Rehearsal may be my favourite time of the process…I like the exploring, the honing and refining, learning the strengths of your fellow actors and how to evolve a scene with them. I think it’s become more so for me over the years because it reflects the similar vibe of creative contemplation and discovery I get from writing (as well as the creative angst sometime). I have long known that my acting informed my writing; but now that I’ve returned to my thespianic (thespic?? Is there such a word) labours, I finding how much my writing also informs my acting. Similar muscles are used.
And though I’ve done, and still do, all the various permutations of line-learning…via the tape recorder; sliding a paper down the script, exposing cues but not lines; and just having someone bump them with me; the best way to solidify lines is through the simple, repetitive process of running and working a scene. And going through the verbal gyrations of Claudius’ arcane plot of unblunted blades, poisoned swords, and poisoned pearls in wine cups that he kanoodles out with Laertes is where I’m the weakest, line-wise. So any extra attention there will help me with that goal of getting off book by Thursday.
By Thursday! Oh my god! Back in my dinner theatre days, when we put a show up in seven or eight days, I often wondered what I’d do with all that extra time if I ever went back to the luxury of month-long rehearsals. (Of course, truth be told, it usually was another week in those dinner theatre runs before everything really settled in and you found stuff you wish you’d had opening night.) But then those seven rehearsal days were 8 hour-days, as opposed to the three or four hours a night we get during our month here…so I guess it evens out and it’s good that I learned to work at a rapid pace. Still for a play as complex as Hamlet, one wishes one had more than a month…
I'm sure Rick would relish the rehearsal schedule that he had for his recent production of Romeo and Juliet at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company (it did record box-office, by the by). I caught the last of one of his rehearsals one afternoon when I went up to catch a Reds game with him after his work day. In the twenty minutes I was there, he ran a Friar Laurence/Romeo scene four times, discussing adjustments for it between each running.
But even given our unique rehearsal time constraints at AGL, Rick steals and stretches time where he can, squeezing in afternoon sessions with Adam Luckey, who must carry the weight of this mighty show on his broad shoulders.
And since I’m a quasi-gentleman of leisure, Rick and I will work Claudius’ prayer soliloquy tomorrow afternoon as well as those Claudius/Laertes scenes with Mike. And if Rick wants me for the full eight hours Equity allows him to have me, he’s got me.
Like I said, I’m a glutton for rehearsal, I’ll take it when I can get it, any where I can get it, for as long as I can get it.
Mr. Pogue appears courtesy of Actor's Equity Association
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