"How high do you set the bar when you enter a rehearsal hall? What necessity walks in the door with you? And then, what are you doing? Is a rehearsal about finding and practicing the blocking? Or is it about discovering the necessary energy required to embody the character and illuminate the play? In performance, an audience senses an actor's reason and necessity for being on stage. The depth of and degree of that necessity are palpable, and this drives their expression. Energy and necessity generate presence."
~Anne Bogart, And Then You Act page 111
I'm discovering with this rehearsal process that the act of searching for the energy the action that will help me/us to embody the characters and illuminate the play is exactly the process that is most interesting, exciting, and conclusive in it's results in terms of dramatic moments.
It's a short one today.
Why do we rehearse? Technically, if the blocking is all known, we could learn it all and only have a couple rehearsals. Or we could simply receive direction, do it, and move on when it's right. --But that's boring and frustrating for directors who can't communicated with actors or who are lousy at blocking that tells a story.
The question of why do we rehearse is huge. The question of why do we rehearse without an audience is also interesting. Why rehearse without and audience? How will you know what works if only 1 person is giving it an ok? I have been kicked out of rehearsals (as an observer) because of the necessity for "cast bonding" or to keep the rehearsal environment from being corrupt/polluted. This now seems strange to me--how can an audience member screw up a rehearsal--seems like it would only help to be able to see how what you're doing affects watchers--that's the goal after all.
Anne Bogart also notes the the content of theatre is other people. It is by it's very nature about people. It cannot be other than that because it is people who perform these stories about people for an audience of people.
So what do we use rehearsal for?
I think that the search for meaningful and right action in the telling of the story is absolutely the search we should be doing in rehearsal. That might mean that productions are more fluid and rehearsals may take more time, but ultimately this is the kind of process that results in beautiful shared experiences with audience and performers.
What do you think the purpose of rehearsal is?
~Anne Bogart, And Then You Act page 111
I'm discovering with this rehearsal process that the act of searching for the energy the action that will help me/us to embody the characters and illuminate the play is exactly the process that is most interesting, exciting, and conclusive in it's results in terms of dramatic moments.
It's a short one today.
Why do we rehearse? Technically, if the blocking is all known, we could learn it all and only have a couple rehearsals. Or we could simply receive direction, do it, and move on when it's right. --But that's boring and frustrating for directors who can't communicated with actors or who are lousy at blocking that tells a story.
The question of why do we rehearse is huge. The question of why do we rehearse without an audience is also interesting. Why rehearse without and audience? How will you know what works if only 1 person is giving it an ok? I have been kicked out of rehearsals (as an observer) because of the necessity for "cast bonding" or to keep the rehearsal environment from being corrupt/polluted. This now seems strange to me--how can an audience member screw up a rehearsal--seems like it would only help to be able to see how what you're doing affects watchers--that's the goal after all.
Anne Bogart also notes the the content of theatre is other people. It is by it's very nature about people. It cannot be other than that because it is people who perform these stories about people for an audience of people.
So what do we use rehearsal for?
I think that the search for meaningful and right action in the telling of the story is absolutely the search we should be doing in rehearsal. That might mean that productions are more fluid and rehearsals may take more time, but ultimately this is the kind of process that results in beautiful shared experiences with audience and performers.
What do you think the purpose of rehearsal is?
No comments:
Post a Comment