Last night, another rehearsal, with a revised script.

I can’t say enough what fun the rehearsals have been.  The cast is still laughing a lot between scenes.  But there’s a lot that’s getting done.  The show is blocked almost completely.  Now we get into the repetition and exploration.  Its good that its blocked though: We open in 3 weeks from yesterday!

Last night, before rehearsal, I stopped by the Cat’s Eye (which is where we’ll be performing) to remind myself what the place looks like.  I couldn’t get in, but I did take a picture or two.  Here’s the outside (in Panoramic view, of course).

I like the location, because its a nice place to hang out before a show, and secluded enough that there isn’t a lot of extraneous noise when the show inside is going on.

If you’re curious where this little oasis is located, here’s a map.

View Larger Map

Also, I keep meaning to shoot some rehearsal video.  I haven’t gotten around to it.  I will soon.

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Meet Nick and Dana. Two LARP gamers with a turbulent history. Together in the club where they first met, they stage a retelling of their past to learn the truth of their affair in-game and out-of-character. From the team that brought the hit Shadow Court to the 2005 Fringe, comes a romantic drama about the ins and outs of love.

Out of Character runs nightly from Wednesday-Sunday July 1st to July 12th (dark on Tuesday, July 7th) at 8 pm in The Cats Eye, 150 Charles Street West (basement of the Wymilwood building).

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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.

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Last night, in the Book City at Bloor and Christie, I saw the following:

That’s right: Fringe Programs.

That means that as of today its exactly two weeks until we open Out of Character.

Totally not freaking out.

Well, maybe a little.

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Tonight, a good rehearsal. Things are coming together nicely. All the actors are currently engaged in that ancient thespian’s struggle: The Battle to Get Off Book. Once we get there, things will really cook. But it is often a bit of a struggle (for me, anyway).

Of course that can be difficult when there are distractions. Distractions like Leeman’s tie, for example.

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Finalized script.  Play all blocked.  Costumes being….considered,  and in some cases have been actually purchased or even DECIDED UPON! What more could we want?

With less than 2 weeks till we open, I might answer: a little more time.  But since that’s not an option (unless you can affect the flow of time, in which case you could be my new best friend), I’ll answer: nothing.

I do enjoy these rehearsals.  Its a fun group of actors to work with, although at the moment there are a couple of plague-bringers within the group.  Fortunately, though, the rest of us seem healthy.  Cross your fingers that it stays that way.  I would really like to avoid a repeat of what happened when I played Puck in Midsummer: I got so sick that I have no memory of opening night – I know I performed, but I don’t remember it.  Anyway, as amusing as that might be, I’d prefer not to have that happen again.  (Yes, Mom. I’m drinking plenty of liquids).  But the point is that there are some really fun scenes in the play.  They will be made even better by not having to be looking at the script!

This Sunday, Stephen Near, the playwright is attending rehearsal.  Hopefully he likes where we’re going.

Here’s a shot from last night’s rehearsal.

I would like to point out that this is the only shot where the two of them weren’t giggling.

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You might not know this, but Out of Character (the Fringe play I’m working on right now) is the second in a trilogy.  You don’t need to have seen the first play to make sense of this one, but for those that are interested, we will be having a reading of the first play in the series (called Shadow Court) on Thursday, June 25th, at the Imperial Pub.

Here are the details:

Shadow Court
A dramatic reading, in support of In the Moment’s upcoming Toronto Fringe Production of Out of Character, by Stephen Near.
When: Thursday, June 25 2009, @ 8pm
Where: The Imperial Pub, backroom.
54 Dundas St. E
How much: Admission is by donation. Requested donation: $10

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A dramatic reading, in support of In the Moment’s upcoming Toronto Fringe Production of Out of Character, by Stephen Near.

When: Thursday, June 25 2009, @ 8pm
Where: The Imperial Pub, backroom.
54 Dundas St. E

Posted in Calendar, Fringe, Out of Character, Theatre | No Comments »

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Rehearsal tonight.  During rehearsal I shot a little bit of video for the old video blog, but I’m going to review the footage before posting it.

We have 4 rehearsals left before we open. Now there’s a motivator for getting the lines down for the scene I have been having difficulty with. Made a couple of discoveries tonight. One of which was about the difficult scene, and the other was that in a pivital scene I have a tendancy to say my own character’s name when I should be saying another and that changes everything about the scene. I’ll have to work on that.

Here is Leeman looking evil, for some reason.

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