Umbrella heads!

October 31st, the morning of Halloween.

When I arrive at this rehearsal, Dario, Sheila, and Telsche are sitting on the wood floor of the studio amidst three huge black umbrellas, propped open like big boulders around them. Barbra is rehearsing the text leading up to the point where she reaches the ocean. Sheila sits on a stool against the vast, blank white wall, writing in her notebook.

They are moving towards the scene where Barbra and the cast will travel to a new world aboard the bed, which will be transformed into a ship full of horses and people. They now talk about the context of Barbra in the story. Barbra says, “When I wrote this, I wrote it as a person inside the story, telling the story, and then she comes out of the story,” as she gestures into the audience. Bob stresses that they haven’t really stepped out of the story yet, but that they will once they get to the sea port, and people are speaking in other languages or gibberish. Barbra likes the idea of the cast speaking in gibberish when Barbra arrives at the sea, because then the audience is equally confused and can feel how lost Barbra is.

They will be transitioning from a scene where the bed is offstage to the scene where the bed is the boat. Bob suggests they could cheat a little and have Deb push the bed on from back stage, while the cast sits on the bed, covered by their big black umbrellas.

They play with the umbrella scene, all walking around with umbrellas over their shoulders like parasols, whistling, chirping, talking nonsense, as Barbra desperately tries to fit in and figure out where she is supposed to go.

James has an electric keyboard today and is looking over some sheet music to play during the scene. Bob wants to create the sound of the ocean and try to find the “impulse of the wave.”

The cast of three is still practicing walking around with the umbrellas, making whoosing wind sounds as Barbra starts to read the text. Bob teaches them how to pull the umbrellas down over their heads so their heads are not even seen. They now play with this, grumbling to each other, trading things, ignoring Barbra or answering her in gibberish. It looks like their heads are umbrellas. It’s quite hilarious.

Barbra asks what others think about the ship being named the “ARGO.” This is the name of an actual ship, but maybe they don’t need a name for it. But Barbra argues that she will be presenting a ticket for a specific boat and asking the other people where to find it. James mentions that ARGO is the name of the store equivalent to Ikea in London. Laughs.

Barbra had originally written her character to just find the ship and get right on, but it seems unrealistic that a stowaway would be get on the ship, so they work with how she will inquire about her ticket and eventually find the ARGO.

James begins to improvise on the keyboard as they discuss.

The fan on the wall at the back of the room suddenly starts blowing very loudly. Bob and the cast are so deep in conversation, they don’t notice this. But it becomes hard for them to hear one another, so they gradually move closer together, without realizing it. Now, I can’t hear them for a while because they are talking in a little huddle in the middle of the room.

After a bit, they break up a little and are moving on to the fumigation scene. Sheila asks what fumigation is, and Barbra explains that the immigrants were stripped down and checked for lice and other things before they were allowed to board the ship. They then talk about how the names of immigrants were changed when they came overseas because the officers of immigration control misunderstood them. Barbra laughs at the ridiculousness. Some of them were just “saying where they were from, and now that’s their name!” she exclaims.

Dario says, “Why don’t we do gibberish and then start becoming horselike?” He makes noises, snarling, and laughs. The idea is that the cast of three will first play the umbrella people, and then will play the horses that share the boat with Barbra. Dario organizes them to all be together under the umbrellas and then separate and walk around, speaking gibberish. They work with how to hold the umbrellas and how to see out of them. They play with how they are going to respond to Barbra, a lost foreigner looking for her ship. Telsche wonders if they could size her up even with their umbrella heads. Dario tries moving his umbrella head and upper body up and down, as if examining Barbra. Sheila says, “It’s got to be bigger.”

Next they work on becoming horses. There is a plank on the platform under the bed that they will pull out and walk up to get onto the bed (ship). Bob coaches them on their posture, and tells them not to be too stiff. They all start clopping their feet down like horses would stomp their hooves on the ground. Bob joins in too, playing, trying to figure out how a human can embody a horse. James offers that they release their ankles a little and gets up to try it himself. Everyone except Barbra is tapping around, making horse sounds and nuzzling each other, while the stage managers and I are having a good laugh. How often do we get to play and pretend to be animals anymore?

The horses wait for Barbra to finish the text and then walk up the plank to join her on the ship. Bob says it’s okay to jostle her a little but try not to manipulate her too much. Barbra tries to imitate what the horses are doing, physically, and Bob helps them maneuver themselves to all sleep together on the bed. They talk about the fact that horses usually sleep upright, but eventually decide on laying down because it will work best with the next part.

After a short break, Sheila, Dario, and Telsche work on the next scene, which involves them each telling a story as a sailor or passenger on the boat. Dario tells the others about his wife who died. Telsche is excited and baffled about a newspaper article detailing a group of Christians who thought they could jump to Heaven together. Sheila reads a letter from her son, and seems hopeful to see him soon. As each tells their story, the others listen. Barbra is asleep on the bed during these stories. Each story carries a very different emotion, and Bob wants them to annunciate more and take their time with certain moments in the stories.

At the end of rehearsal, Sonya, the costume designer, fits things on some of the cast before they leave for the day.