Now the work begins, originally uploaded by Grinningskull.
Ice on the rink at Ryerson.
This is what greets me as I head into the first day of the Keystone
Theatre intensive workshop. One week to create something we can
present next Sunday to an invited audience.
A daunting task, but I think we’re up to it.
New space, originally uploaded by Grinningskull.
Into new space for the beginning of our marathon week of workshopping
"The Belle of Winnipeg".
Tonight, rehearsal started with working to revise the fight. We had a scene that we had shown at the fundraiser last month, and though there was a lot to that scene, putting it in front of an audience highlighted some flaws in the presentation. So, now we have to make some changes in order to improve the scene.
The lesson we learned from presenting a scene at the fundraiser really illustrates the kind of thing we hope to learn through our workshop in less than a week. By putting the work in front of an audience, we’ll learn what’s working and what’s not. Of course, it would also be nice to find some financial backers, but that’s less important than the feedback we’ll get.
This week is going to be really difficult. Working 9 to 5, and then heading right out to rehearsal. This will get me home around midnight each night. When it’s all over, I’ll be ready for the Christmas break.
I’m almost home now, so I’ll post this and collapse into sleep.
Workin’ the bits, originally uploaded by Grinningskull.
Richard Beaune concentrates on a scene.
Tonight working through some scenes bit by bit, getting a feel for the
structure of the scenes. After tonight we’ll be finessing scenes and
working to give them some finish.
By the time we get to Saturday, we want to be running the scenes for
the presentation.
Coming together slowly but surely.
A sheep, originally uploaded by Grinningskull.
It was there. On the coffee maker.
Into to Lower Ossington Theatre tonight. Here till tomorrow, then off
on friday.
Tonight, we’re working a the last couple of scenes. Once that’s done,
we can spend our time tomorrow and Saturday just running through the
scenes in order.
I think it’s coming together.
Siobhan knits, originally uploaded by Grinningskull.
One has to do something when you aren’t on stage. Siobhan Richardson knits.
Very productive night, as we continue the "enchainment", which is the
process of putting all the scenes together for the first time. This
is where you find the traffic problems. We found a few tonight, but
they aren’t insurmountabe.
No rehearsal tomorrow. Instead, the office holiday party.
And then the weekend.
Today, we presented the Workshop presentation of the Belle of Winnipeg.
It went pretty well. Audience reaction was relatively good, and the feedback we got afterwards in our question and answer session will go a long way to helping us put the show together in its final form.
And now, we’re finished for a while. We’ll come back to it later in the new year, but for the time being, we’re taking a break. And a well deserved one too, I think. I’m looking forward to having some evenings to myself, and to moving on to some new projects. I’m also, however, looking forward to eventually coming back to work on Belle.
But for the moment, I’m going to sleep.
Last night, I sat down and watched the video from the Keystone Theatre workshop presentation from last November. I hadn’t watched it before, and it was certainly an interesting experience. Watching the video, its easy to see the things that did work and the things that didn’t. Not surprisingly, the scenes that we had worked on the most were the ones that were the best (ie: got the most laughs, looked best, etc). It was also apparent when things were not working well. There was more positive than negative about watching the video, and I’m feeling very positive for when we return to work on this show again in the fall.
On the Fringe front, its suddenly hit me that we open in two weeks. Well to be exact, two weeks tomorrow. I need to buckle down on lines, and though I’m happy to have an evening to spend at home, I’ll be happy to get back to rehearsal tomorrow.
The last few rehearsals, Leeman Kessler, who plays the role of Nick in Out of Character, has been arriving looking pretty suave: like a 1040s jazz singer, or a little like Gene Kelly. Except for the shoes, that is, which I reveal for you below: sandals.
This week I finished the first (quite rough) draft of the one-man play I’ve been writing. The next step for me is to put it aside, complete the first draft of the other play I’m working on (The Commandment), and then I can come back to this one and start the revision process. Though I want to start sending the play out to people and soliciting feedback right away, I think that I need to resist this urge. I would rather get some distance from it, then come back to it and try to read it freshly, and see what my opinion is of it. Sending it out right away seems more like an exercise in attempting to get positive “good for you, Phil” vibes from people rather than an exercise in getting actual feedback. I know the play isn’t ready yet for someone else to see it. So, those of you who have expressed an interest in seeing it will have to wait a little bit longer.
In other news, this period of not rehearsing anything has been very good for me. Prior to this I’ve gone from one project to another and between acting and work, the constant “go-go-go” has been taking its toll. The last couple of weeks have given me time to write, and do a little video gaming (moderately, though that is because I don’t have any new ones. The “moderate” gaming will likely end in a couple of weeks, as some new games will be coming out), and just generally relax. This is my “recharge” period since once we get to the fall, work starts with Keystone Theatre as we begin working on our Production of the Belle of Winnipeg, a production based on the silent film genre. This project has been in the works for about 3 years, and it will be good to finally be able to present it to an audience, so I’m really looking forward to it.
Because I mentioned Keystone Theatre earlier, I thought I’d jump in with some photographic entertainment. From last fall’s Keystone photo shoot by Christian Potenza, here’s me and Adam Bradley (who also appeared in Dragonquest with me), on the train tracks.
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Actor, writer, geek, gamer, nerd, web guy and blogger. |
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