The shadows of the cave

Rehearsal on Saturday, October 24th began with a bit of a show and tell. Telsche had brought photos of her grandmother, Agnes, who was an Irish orphan, auctioned off to a farm at a young age. Now Agnes is 95 years old, and has told Telsche some of the stories from her childhood as an orphan who was forced to leave her family. The cast sits around the big table in Bob's studio, admiring Telsche's photography and commenting on the similarities between Agnes' story and the story Barbra is telling about her grandfather's experience as an Lithuanian immigrant.

After catching up for a few minutes, they move to the rehearsal space and Bob helps the cast rehearse the line on page five of the script, a line in which they are playing with different stops and changes for each word of the line. They want to each say a few words of the line and have it connect together. They try standing in a line. The first person says the first phrase, then the second person says the last word of the first person's phrase with the first person, and continues on with a few more words. They continue down the line, each saying the last word with the person before them and finishing the phrase. Bob says it sounds a little "clunky." Barbra likes that the word "completed" provides a pause before "my aloneness." She seemed content with the flow of the words from person to person, though the sound quality might need practice. I personally think it is nice they are all involved in this line. It shows that the three characters are really a part of Barbra's imagination and are helping her tell her story.

They practice this fractured line while walking around the room and each carrying an object, while Barbra lays on the bed, wearing the wig she will use in the show, and goes over the next lines from page five to herself.

The cast then joins Barbra at the sides of the bed for the next part. Barbra will be waking up as the sun comes up to tell more of the story from the bed. Telsche shines a floodlight on Barbra as she is getting up. "This may be directorial," Barbra says, "But shouldn't the light come on before I wake up?" Bob hesitates, and says, "Shut up," jokingly. Everyone laughs.

They go through the lines, moving further in the script this time. They stop now and then for Bob to offer a suggestion or make a change. Each time Barbra revisits her lines, she delivers them in a different way, or with a different sound. Sometimes she adds or changes a word, but this offers a new interpretation of the script, a new vocabulary to play with, each time.

Bob and Dario fix the pieces of canvas hanging from the ceiling. They roll and clip them so the bed can slide underneath to be hidden for part of the piece. Barbra lays back on the bed, and everyone puts the crumpled papers all around her. There is talk about Barbra's wig, and costume adjustments before they move forward.

In the next part, Barbra practices the lines in the forest. She tells Bob that she changed something in the script, and he makes note of this. Barbra and Bob work for a while on Barbra's part only, while Sheila, Telsche, and Dario are lounging on the bed at the back of the room, underneath the canvas hangings.

A little later, Barbra goes back and sees the three of them are all laying together, whispering pleasantly on the bed. "Hey guys," she whispers.."What are you doing?" Dario and Telsche peak out from behind the canvas sheets, and the all have a good laugh.

I realize I have a long list of moments that I observed in this rehearsal. I will stop here, at this point of laughter among the cast, and resume very shortly.