Long Day; Many Bodies

I'm writing this on a quick break in the middle of my long Sunday. This morning we had a production meeting; then I had lunch with Lear (Dale); then we rehearsed from 1-5pm; and soon I'm off to a Walterdale board meeting. I'd like to be able to say I'm not going to have a lot of days like this, but I suspect the opposite is more likely to be true.

The production meeting was mostly just to confirm that various departments are on schedule and on budget. The Lear lunch was to address some of the character-related questions that have been floating about the air for the past week. We talked in particular about the tension between Lear's two primary roles--King and Father--and about the different "identities" which he ends up trying on when those two roles both implode: Lear the Judge, Lear the Philosopher, Lear the Flower Arranger... and finally Lear the Foolish, Fond Old Man.

Rehearsal was focused on Act 1, Scene 1: the grand entrances and exits, and finding and conveying status within them. It was by turns hectic and stultifying; at times, I had 15 bodies scrambling around the stage, trying not to crash into each other; at other times, while we were scrutinizing lines, many of the Knights and Servants (and Husbands and Wives) found themselves standing around with nothing to do for ages. I think it was useful in some respects (establishing status and public space), but in the future I want to work to avoid making so many actors so bored and so stiff.

The rehearsal highlight was, I think, when Dale took a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie (brought in courtesy of Igor) and split it three ways, to share with his "daughters."