Soooooooooo, I have the attention span of a peanut. If something is shiny and even remotely interesting, I will abandon all thoughts of productivity. But despite that, I've managed to get a few things done over the past ten days or so.
My five days off were mostly uneventful other than I made an effort to make a dent in my research project. One of the few papers we have to write, my focus is on Michael Chekhov's Atmosphere and using it in different theatrical contexts. ...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
I've still managed to go to the gym and will be upping that even a little more due to the next project we are working on. Casting for our New Works piece has been solidified finally and I was cast in the role of the Mermaid. Yes. Like for real. Though costumes have not been hashed out yet, I can assume I won't be wearing a Miu Miu or burka so I have been given another challenge of keeping this whole exercise nonsense up. Sigh. I know, I know. It's good for me. Fine.
Tuesday and Wednesday this week we had our writer Rona Munro back in with us for our first rehearsals. We read through the scripts, combed through the hidden meanings and subtext and put it roughly up on its feet. Once again I have the pleasure of working with PB as a director. He works at a pace that I can appreciate and I know he won't let me feel like a beached whale.
The challenge with the mermaid, in the way that it is written, is that she doesn't respond off of the words and reactions of the other characters. Rather, she feeds off of what they feel. ...ok. So it will be yet another interesting non traditional acting approach for me. I figure by the time i get to do a project that is straight forward, I'll either not know what to do with myself or it'll be a walk in the park. One could only hope. It's a good challenge though. I mean, really, how DOES one become a mythical creature? (And no, it is not going to be like The Little Mermaid with orangy hair and shell bra). The rehearsals went well and involved me being semi tied up on a kitchen table for a few hours. Ah, life. Just another day at the office.
Friday was my one day at Glasgow University where we rehearsed a new play for four hours, ran through the program in the afternoon, and then showcased in the evening. I was not a fan of the writing but surprisingly, it went quite well. And I can't complain when MAR is my scene partner. I trust him as an actor, he makes me pee myself laughing, and I know he will always get the job done. Which I am grateful for since I woke up that morning in a terrible mood. Had he not been there, I probably would have thrown something breakable.
During the rehearsal we did an exercise that had us reading our lines on the tops of our voices. There were about fifteen chairs spread out around the stage. The point was that everytime you come to a punctuation mark, you had to run to another chair. And everytime you came to an exclamation mark you had to stand on the chair and exclaim. ...the writer of the piece used more punctuation than actual words. By the end of the twenty pages we had sweat dripping down our faces and were out of breath. No. Muy. Bueno.
This weekend I once again dedicated what little attention I had to writing my research paper. I finished my first draft and will send it off to be checked today. As a bit of a treat, last night a few of us went to a pub called Avant Garde where I went to my first Scottish Ceilidh dance. Basically it's like a southern US hoe-down. Hysterical. And lots of fun. And the gin and lemonades weren't too shabby either. It was the first time in a while that a night out felt easy and normal. Huzzah.
Other bibs and bobs of activity included teaching a ballet class to some of my cohort girls, drinks with LY, and watching some of my cohort in As You Like It at the Botanical Gardens. Just trying to shove as much positivity into my last two and a half months as possible.
I wish I could make this more entertaining but like I said, my attention just can't handle it. I suppose I could talk about...ooooo! [Stacy exits stage right, following something shiny].
Thinking of you x
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