Runthrough 02

The run through last night was REALLY REALLY great. Here are some of the better points:

• Lori Lee is right on and very focused in her character. She takes direction well and is a delight to watch, even at this stage of rehearsing. Her choreography is already integral to her character, and she takes some nice risks in presenting her character. She's exploring possibilities in the text and movement, and it's fun to watch.
• Todd has ingested his character whole and is working diligently to wrap his own body and brain around it. He has more than three times the number of lines of everyone else COMBINED, and he has tackled it head-on. I am in awe of his hard work and dedication in bringing this difficult character to life. The lines aren't easy. The music isn't easy. The choreography isn't easy. But he's honing it down to make it look like they are. Nice.
• Kamahni is exactly the type of young actor I enjoy directing: no preconceptions, no boundaries, no hesitation. I have to be careful to make sure I give him the direction he needs, not because he's a poor performer, but rather that he's such a great performer that you have to give him the appropriate framework in which to build his role. As a director, you want someone who DOESN'T self-direct, but rather explores the possibilities to the fullest.
• Noah is just damned funny, and he doesn't give himself enough credit to that end. The reason I know this is that he is truly surprised when people laugh at him on stage. It's a sort of modest embarrassment that then melts away to him giving himself permission to laugh at himself along with everyone else. Where I need to continue to press him is in keeping him from being lazy on stage. For someone with so big a personality, he is often quick to try to fade back into the scenery. Then, when he DOES do some little antic, it SEEMS funnier. I'd rather continue to work with him to develop his natural comic timing and make him be ON all the time. It's hard work, but it should be worth it.
• Amberlee zones out and loses focus a lot of the time, but when she's ON, she's TOTALLY ON. Her Socrates oratorio during Towel of Babel and Oh Bless the Lord are GREAT when she's focused on them, but they totally blow when she loses focus. And when she plays the debt-ridden servant, scrambling for coins and morphing into Gollum, hissing "...my precssssssssiosssssss..." it's hilarious. My task here is to give her enough sense memory and familiarity with the progression of the show to make it second nature.
  
• Sara is fun to watch, has a great voice, and is a pleasure to work with, but she's not been here this week, and it's frustrating because she IS so good. I give her a lot of crap, but only because I think she can handle it, and I enjoy working with her. She's SASSY, and I can't wait to have her back.
• Erin has a GREAT voice, works well with Arryck's choreography, and brings a different dimension to the character from Sara. It's a sort of manic, self-conscious, neurotic take on the role that I've not seen before, but I love. We will have her with us again on Thursday night, so we will (for only the fourth time in a month of rehearsals) have a full cast onstage.
• Rudy should be given credit as the dance captain for the show. His experience and indelible memory for dance steps has benefited the whole cast, in that he serves as the surrogate Arryck. Everyone looks to him when there is a question of execution of the choreography. His Garry Summers talk show host is REALLY great, but he needs to slow down the lines themselves and speed up the cues between.
• Lorraine is one of the funniest ladies I've worked with, hands down. Someone (I don't even remember who, exactly) had suggested during the audition process that I should be careful, as she was a diva, but nothing could be further from the truth. She is the hardest working person in the cast, and she carries not an ounce of pretention on her. I love her dearly and look forward every day to working with her.
• Jessica is wonderfully goofy and uninhibited. Her dance experience combined with her warm demeanor make her the PERFECT castmember for Godspell, and I can't imagine having anyone else in that role (Peggy/Yellow).
• Spanky is the most inspired casting of the show. I had heard early on from Arryck and Shawn (and Sarah and Kelly and Liz...) that he was THE person to cast in the role of Lamar/Green, as his voice is perfectly tailored to All Good Gifts. But what I've gotten as a bonus is an actor with unmatched warmth and depth that brings a simple sweetness to the cast. And Spanky is NOT a simple person. He is one of the most complex and intelligent people I've met in the past several years.

So that's my cast, and I love working with them. They're taking on more than any other cast I've worked with has, and they indulge my idiosyncrasies. My constant goal is to give them a steady stream of interesting stuff to layer upon their characters, until they raise their hands and tell me "Enough!" The choreography is one aspect that they've chewed up and are digesting nicely. The percussion will be next. And they've already consumed and personalized the music.

More on Thursday.


- Sean