Memories, physical activity

November 7th. Last rehearsal in Bob’s studio in the Ivy Building.

Bob is feeling a little anxious, it seems. “I’m just sitting,” he tells me. He gestures with his arms waving up and down. “I want to be moving…I mean I love directing, but I’m just standing back watching them…I want play too.”

Dario is not here today. Bob thinks it wouldn’t be worth it to go through the whole show when he’s not here. Instead they should take advantage of his absence and focus on parts he is not really a part of, look at the beginning, the mother and daughter moments.

Barbra is unsure about a few things. A friend had recently watched her and given feedback, saying that the violent parts are very vivid, but almost hard to listen to. Barbra wonders whether she should be really invested emotionally in the stories she is telling, or whether it should be more journalistic, relaying the events matter-of-factly.

There is so much sun today, so much natural light flooding in through the huge studio windows.

Tomorrow, the cast will be rehearsing in the Bedlam shop space. John has a pile of bricks they will be able to practice building the wall and puppet theater with.

Barbra puts on her boots to begin a scene. While she ties them, she comments that if she’s going to have boots for the show, they’ve got to be already laced. It takes too much time for her to lace them onstage.

Bob believes the piece should begin with old things and finish with new things when Barbra is in the new place. Barbra says she feels like they are not wearing anything new right now, though. They think about different costume choices that will help the old and new themes to come out. Barbra also mentions she would like a small notebook or even a small piece of leather for the scene they are working on. She will be putting it in her pocket while she is rolling around on the bed and laying on people, so it should be flexible and soft. Stage managers make notes.

Barbra and Sheila practice the mother and daughter scene, when Barbra is leaving home at age seventeen. Bob says they need to somehow better distinguish who is the mother and who is the daughter and when they switch takes place. They talk about what kind of suitcase Barbra should have here. Bob doesn’t like the look of the suitcase they are currently using, and Barbra has one that is leather that they could paint, though it might be a little small.

They practice the scene again. I love the moment when Barbra is saying, “I will no longer be with you, ever..” as she caresses Sheila’s shoulder with her face. Then she backs away and says to the audience again, “I was seventeen,” and Sheila abruptly lets the suitcase she is holding fall open to reveal the inside of it to the audience. “What should I take,” Barbra gasps, and they both scramble around to find objects to put in the suitcase. The energy in this part of the scene has such a perfect rise and fall, it keeps my attention the whole way through.

It is a difficult concept to execute, switching the roles from Sheila as the mother to Barbra as the mother, all through Barbra’s memory. Bob tells Barbra she shouldn’t smell her hands because she was just touching Sheila, but rather smell her arms as herself now, showing that she is the mother now and is remembering the smell of her own mother. But Barbra says it is like she is taking the feeling of Sheila into her hands and onto her own face…

They run through the whole scene, and Bob says, “Good, that was good, two things: Take more time, and also look at the hat, make an adjustment as you put it on Sheila.” Barbra does it again, adjusting the hat on Sheila, and Bob wants her to make sure she stands to the side so the audience can see her make that adjustment. It shows a sort of affection that Barbra has for the memory of Sheila. Bob thinks Barbra should touch Sheila more, stop and physically adjust her clothing as she says, “I will no longer be with you…” Bob says, “It’s like…the last time you’re going to touch your child.”

I enjoy listening to the difference in tone and composition of Barbra’s voice as she repeats her lines in a fresh way each time. Maybe she likes the way it sounds one time and will keep that sound and try to find it again the next time.

Bob notices the difference in height between Sheila and Barbra as they play. “You were taller when you were younger,” he says jokingly to Barbra and they laugh.

They talk about the garden part where Dario is the memory of Barbra’s father. Barbra thinks this scene is sad. She tells everyone that the last time she did that part, she tried to smile but still have really sad eyes. But then she realized that her face is like this naturally anyway. She laughs to herself and everyone smiles.

Telsche is resting on a cushion, basking in the sun that pools in through the window. Bob wakes her up. Bob comments about how sleepy the sun can make you feel. “We should have a show here, with like 25-30 people and have a really slow show with this sun and the goal, without telling them, will be to put the audience to sleep,” he says. I can just imagine this, a piece of art in itself. An audience falling asleep to a slow show in the sun. James remembers a show he saw in London about Medea that started at 10pm and ended at 6am and the audience took a 15 minute nap in the middle while the actors sung lullabies.

The group takes a short break to refresh. When they resume, Telsche and Barbra are practicing the part where Telsche is the brother pushing Barbra down. The scene begins with Barbra’s line, “You could hear the riders laughing.” She thinks Telsche should continue by laughing as she comes in to push Barbra down. Bob mentions they might have a recording of laughter playing throughout. Telsche and Barbra play around for a while and figure out what kind of pushing and pulling and pretend wrestling tactics work best for them. Telsche pulls Barbra by the leg around in a circle, but keep moving further downstage to where we are sitting. Bob tells Telsche to just drag Barbra back if they get too far up and there is nowhere to go. Bob wants them to be spontaneous in their fight, but they talk about some ideas to make sure they are on the same page.

Next, they work on the boat stores. Telsche grabs a newspaper to carry in her pocket and read her story from. Bob wants the transition from Telsche’s story to Sheila’s letter to be abrupt. Sheila declares, “I have a letter,” immediately after Telsche finishes up with, “They thought they could fly to heaven!” and chuckles. Bob tells Sheila to sort of pull the rug out.

Telsche and Sheila leave, while Barbra works on how to find her boots in the forest. She thinks it is kind of nice to have someone huddled in the middle of the forest with no one else around. At five minutes left in the rehearsal time, Barbra says, “Well, I’m sufficiently beat up for the day. This was good, Bob, thank you.”