Tapping Teens- Day Two

That's the banner poster for Anything Goes at The Grand Theatre in London, Ontario.

Today was Day Two of rehearsals. We have 42 in the cast.

The Grand has a great tradition of mentoring, so twice a year they create productions with high school students from London and the surrounding area. In the spring it's a play, (this year I directed Macbeth, while I was here as Apprentice Artistic Director) and in the autumn it's musical on the Main Stage. This is it's the 1930's Cole Porter classic, Anything Goes.

There are students working on every area of the production, mentored by professionals at The Grand. This year we also have a student assistant director and assistant choreographer. The rehearsal process is about 3.5 weeks of rehearsal hours, spread out over 8 weeks. The students have a rigorous audition/interview process and then sign contracts to commit to the production.

I'm 'returning to my roots' on this one... I was, (believe it or not) a tapping teenager... Yes, that's right- I tapped. I was working professionally in musical theatre at tender age of 17. However, although I worked in musical theatre for a number of years, I have not directed a musical. When I started directing I focused on my passion for language and classical theatre.

So- back to the teens.

We started on Sunday with a meet and greet- then I dove into an acting workshop to introduce some vocabulary that we'll be using in rehearsal. That was followed by a session on vocal health and a vocal warm-up with Rick Kish, (our singing coach) and two hours of full company music rehearsals with our Musical Director, David Hall. The seven-hour day sped by!

This week rehearsal is mostly spent learning music, while I introduce text work on the scenes to the actors- we'll be doing basic 'table work', objectives/units/actions and I'm encouraging them to do this work at home, so that we then have a place to start the exploration in rehearsal. I'll have about 5 days to 'get the play on its feet'; it'll be speedy...

On Friday and Saturday I'm back in Toronto on The Sad and Cautionary Tale of Smackheaded Peter. I'm working on this in the evenings this week- producing, organizing, supporting. There's lots to do-

I'd still like to divide myself in half and it's still a lovely problem to have!

Here's the stage that the teens will be performing on- It's a beautiful theatre.

Week Three begins...

The weekend was mostly spent organizing things for the week ahead: taking our postcard design to the printer, working on the rehearsal schedule, trimming the script, talking to some of the actors about the trimming, working briefly with our Assistant Director, Andrew McNaughton, to get our wee video done, chat with Designer Brandon Kleiman, seeing a play, beginning to organize our company mail outs, blogging...starting to get ready for the next play (which starts soon!)-

And a bit of relaxation.

And now- ready to leap into action and looking forward to the next layer in the process!

Onwards and Upwards.

Fail not for sorrow, falter not for sin,
But onward, upward, till the goal ye win.
- Francis Anne Kemble (1809-1893)

Here we go...

and we'll keep on moving!

Booking a Tantie- End of Week Two

Time and Money...Time and money- we'll just have to make it work with the Time that we have...

This is what was going through my head a lot yesterday- while we were doing our first stagger-through of the play. The actors were doing really well in the scenes that we've rehearsed, it's just that we need more time together as a full company- especially for the Choral sections...and yesterday our stagger-through had the full company for about 20 mins of the piece.

We did have a very productive afternoon- including an excellent conversation about the Qualities Shared by Innovative thinkers. I shared a BBC new article on the subject with the company. Here's the link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-10653786

We also did as much on the ensemble sections of the play as we could- and we made good progress... And please, let me clear that there were lots of very good things going on in the stagger-through and I'm sure we'll have a wonderful production in the end... it's just that I'm a wee bit frustrated by this process.

There's part of me that would like to have a tantrum, throw my toys out of the pram (is the UK expression) and I knooooow (as a grown-up) that there's really no point and and I know that to "get the play done" that I need to stay solution-oriented and I knowwwwww that "it's only a play" and that I need to trust the rehearsal process and it will all come together... But oooohhhh, couldn't I just have oooooonne little tantrum, sometime, please?

There's a theatre expression in the UK called "Booking a Tantie". A Tantie is the cute form of tantrum. As some of us may know, frustration may sometimes appear during the rehearsal process and when it does arrive it can be for lots of different reasons. It may be that there's a difference between what the actor/director feels is needed for the scene, compared to how it's currently working in rehearsal. So, often, humor diffuses this tension. I've often heard/seen the humor come from other actors in the room... "oooo, she's going to need to book a Tantie!" or "Have you booked your Tantie this afternoon?"(both expressed with generosity, rather than dripping sarcastic mockery) Or someone may ask, "would you like to book your Tantie now?" It's a UK way of acknowledging, allowing and diffusing the frustration- and it can work- as long as there's generally been acknowledging, allowing, compassion and humor in the rehearsal process.

Yesterday I didn't have a Tantie... I did share my desire to have one, but only after rehearsals were done. I just wanted to get on with the work in the time that we had together- and we did have a very good afternoon- to which I say, "Hurrah!"

And this weekend, I'm going to think about how I can rehearse differently- and maintain my ensemble approach to the play.

And although at the moment our potential Full Company time feels like this-



and I'd like to do this...



I'm going to turn that wee perspective around- keep positive and keep going.

And I may just give myself a bit of Time off today...