Ringplay Productions

Monday night, October 17th, we began our second week of rehearsal and continued to push forward. It was one of our better rehearsals, thus far, as we focused on Jury numbers that tended to involve more chanting than singing. Even though I have been involved with music for most of my life I will not take on the task of trying to teach it to anyone. Cleophas, Pauline and Dwayne have my greatest respect for the Choral work they did on the various productions of this play. The evening actually started with Ian coming by and looking at the fight sections that he was going to be working on. So, we ran from where ‘Lover One’ takes ‘Son’ to school up to the end of “Then the Siren”. Ian then took all the people concerned, with the fight, and went to work with them in one of the dance studios as we continued working in our rehearsal space (room 1506). With about an hour of rehearsal left, Ian returned with the cast members he had been working with and everyone then got a chance to see what had been done. I must say that it was quite brutal and very impressive. He worked them very hard and it became quite evident, the next day, how out of shape both ‘Mother’ and ‘Lover One’ were as they limped into rehearsal.

On Tuesday night we continued where we left off the night before, working on as many of the chant and dialogue Jury numbers that we could. There are a few singing numbers that they have not yet learned but the plan is to learn them during Saturday’s rehearsal. I wanted to go through as much as I could because on Thursday night Al, the set and lighting designer, is coming by to look at a run (it would be our first) so that he can see exactly how the play has been blocked and what set adjustments he might have to make. The run will also give him an idea of how the play moves so that he can start thinking about his lighting design.

Because of the limited amount of time to get this production off the ground, I have scheduled rehearsals for people who are free during the day so that I can work with them on an individual basis. I’m mostly free during the day so I’ve made myself available for anyone who wants to work but I’ve also asked various people to try and make themselves available. Today, Wednesday, I had the opportunity to work with ‘Lawyer’ and ‘Son’ for an hour and a half. This rehearsal was productive as we were finally able to not only discuss their characters but to actually do specific work on their scenes. ‘Witness’ came by, when they were done, and I was also able to work on her scenes with ‘Lawyer’. There was no full rehearsal on Wednesday night.

Thursday afternoon I had two more of my smaller rehearsals. I started with ‘Mother’ and ‘Other’ and we went over their letter scene and then spent a lot of time talking about dialect. Some people will get closer to the Bahamian dialect than others. It’s proving quite difficult for some. ‘Other’ is Latin so there is that struggle to not fall into her second dialect, which she hears at home, on a daily basis. ‘Mother’ is quite southern with some mid-western added in and with the amount of lines that she has we are going to have to settle on something we can both live with. ‘Neighbour’ joined our rehearsal after a while and we spent the rest of the time working on ‘Mother’/‘Neighbour’ and ‘Other’/‘Neighbour’ scenes. I also thought that this rehearsal was productive.

Thursday night. Oh my. All I can say is that the night of f***ery, in Edinburgh, ran through my head but this was, thank God, only a rehearsal. And what an awful rehearsal it was! Right down to the ‘Magistrate’ saying, “I bind you over to keep the peace” in the same wrong place it was said during that performance in Scotland. Now that was just too coincidental. Okay, yes, it was the very first time that this cast had attempted to do a run through of the entire play but from “As Charged”, at the beginning, through many of their numbers, the Jury just fell apart. Of course, one of the things that’s now become apparent is that it is not as easy for this cast to find their notes once a number has been raised. When they are in rehearsal, things go pretty well because the notes are in their heads and they can get into the numbers, but the task is now going to be for them to be able to pick those note out of the air and sing these numbers. Well, that’s what rehearsal is for, so since we have gone through the play it’s now a mater of running it over and over again until it’s known. What was also interesting, or I should say depressing, was the fact that, having seen the fight the night before, they decided that they would stop and watch it during the run and of course that meant that “Bottles Breaking” went right of the window. I expect that the fight will become old hat to them pretty soon, as will all other onstage distractions, and they will again focus on the Jury numbers at hand. At the end of the evening it was probably a good thing that all of this had happened so that if any of them were getting cocky about what they think they knew, this evening put everything in perspective. The run-through lasted about 90 minutes and when it was done, I promptly told them that it sucked and to go and have a break while I talked with Al and that when they got back we would discuss what had transpired. After their break we started to go through the script and we listed the numbers that needed to be worked on in our four-hour Choral rehearsal coming up on Saturday. I also had to take some time to work out how, and when, people moved from place to place and during which Jury number. This work will continue on Friday night and Ian is expected to return to work on the fight with ‘Mother’ and ‘Wife’ (“Christians Fighting Over Man”) and the little exchange between ‘Mother’ and ‘Lover Three’ (The Birth Control Pills).

Friday is the day we have set aside for our weekly production meetings. The meeting is usually held at one o’clock but today there was a guest storyteller performing on campus by the name of Odds Bodkin. Karen Libman, who is Associate Professor of Theatre, Interim Chair of the Classics Department and the person principally responsible for my being here, had been trying to book this artist for about five years and today, at one o’clock, he gave his performance. He was quite brilliant and if you ever hear of him performing anywhere, he is a must see. So, our meeting today had been re-scheduled for two o’clock and the performance ended at around 2:25 so I dashed over to the meeting as Karen remained with Odds to take questions from the packed house. The meeting was small but we did what had to be done, with the few people who were there.

Friday night, when I arrived at rehearsal, I met the floor taped with the proper dimensions of the stage, which gave us a little more space than we had been working with. We started with more fight work. This time it was ‘Mother’ and ‘Wife’. Ian took them out to work as we continued to finalize entrances, exits and crosses and to work some more on Jury chants and dialogue. After a break, Ian came back to show us the fight. He also helped with the murder and that little scuffle at the end with ‘Son’ and ‘Old Fool’ which turns into a hug and then concludes with “Can A Mother’s Tender Care”. I let most of the cast leave early and I kept ‘Mother’, ‘Old Fool’, ‘Sis One’ & ‘Sis Two’, ‘Neighbour’, ‘Son’ and ‘Lawyer’ to work on smaller scenes.

Saturday morning was the time to work on music and that’s what we spent those four hours doing. The rehearsal was productive but I had forgotten how difficult “Run Away Boys” was. The Jury has now gone through everything in the play except “We Was Minding We Own Business” and the very last number, “Is The Man In The House”. So, with the exception of those two numbers everything has been blocked and rehearsed and now it’s time to start running. There will be a lot of fixing, relearning and section rehearsals but everybody now knows what they have to do and where they have to be. Monday night should be very interesting as it’s going to be the first attempt at a run-through OFF BOOK. On Saturday evening I had dinner with Jim Bell and his family. Jim is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Theatre Program and the person I’ve been dealing with on production matters like the poster, front of house etc. Sunday is scheduled to be a day of rest and Monday will begin week three of rehearsals.

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