Reason Not the Need

Thursday night's rehearsal was a madhouse, as I tried to jam three nearly unrelated scenes into a single night. One was the battle scene, which we'd left half-completed last Sunday--and that alone could have kept me occupied for three hours. But I also needed to block 3.2 (with the freshly blinded Gloster) and I wanted to spend at least a few minutes revisiting 2.7 (Lear's "trial" scene). I managed to get through everything, although I think it resulted in a lot of "hurry up and wait" for actors.

Today went much better in that respect. We blocked 2.1, a big blast-up of a scene. Lots of bodies onstage, but most of the lines were either Lear's, Goneril's, or Regan's. We managed to block it, first in broad strokes, and then in more subtle ones, and once I got all the servants and knights sorted out, I let them go early to focus on the father-daughter stuff.

As always, it is wonderful to have so many "resources" onhand--I can send actors to Dave for line work, or to Liz to start blocking smaller scenes and units. Helen is diligently recording all my convoluted blocking as I go (which is no excuse for actors not to remember it themselves, mind you). It's feeling more like a well-oiled machine every day.