Screamy

I went to tonight's rehearsal feeling pessimistic--and more than a little sick. But by the end of the evening, both my spirits and my health had improved. We started with a brief primer on stage makeup, courtesy of Anna-Maria, and then plowed into a stop/start run of Acts 3 and 4. A bit surprisingly, it turned out to run much more smoothly than the first half did. There were one or two momentary scares (such as the pike that tried to decaptitate Igor--man, I knew those pointed sticks were a bad idea!), but people found their entrances and made their journeys clear.

Even 4.5 ran pretty darn well, all things considered. The dead body portage might just work after all. Once the run was through, Dale, Keiran, A.M. and I worked on 4.3, the reconciliation scene. Dale had made the discovery that Lear's awakening was not at all a gentle thing, but rather something confusing and frightening. We tried it with Lear recoiling from Cordelia's face in horror, pressing himself against Kent's legs, trying to escape what he thinks must be a hallucination, or a spirit come to torment him. I told him to scream as he pushed himself away. It's turning out to be a very screamy couple of acts--but if every scream, like every movement, means something to the audience, then it won't seem gratuitous.