One of my favorite professors took a trip overseas this past fall semester. While there, he met with a famous director there. My professor asked, "If there's one piece of advice I could take back to my students from you, what would it be?" This director teared up and said, "We do not live to talk. Our talking comes out of our living!" My professor shared this with me and it was like a bright light beamed on! Truth!
Here's where this statement gets funny and very complicated. When we start work on a show, all we have is the script, what the characters say, their words, their talk. The lives that we create through the rehearsal process is based solely on their words. We have to construct their lives, make them real, believable, likable, etc.
And then there must come a shift. We must have constructed these character's lives so well that the words that were originally used to construct their lives then come out of their lives we've constructed. These characters must embody what that director said - their words must come out of their living!
Right now, with Standing Still Standing we are doing the character work. We have the words that Mel wrote and now we are working to construct the lives of these characters. We're asking a lot of questions, the most frequent of which is, "why?" And we're searching to find answers. We're laying a foundation so that these characters can live.
It's exciting work! I might even venture to say that it's my favorite part of the whole rehearsal process. I love the epiphanies that we all have as we discover who these people are, learn to love them for who they are, and learn to step into their lives. Let me tell you, I have gotten chills watching the sparks of life happen in rehearsal.
It's awesome watching this show spring to life. :)
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