Finding your game

Quick update -- Communicating Doors got approved. I leapt into pre-production mode, did Synopsis, Character Breakdown, Scene Breakdown, Budget, Rehearsal Schedule, Rental Space, and Roles. This week we kick off.

Sun & Tues - closed auditions
Thur - open auditions
Fri - cast announced
Sat - first read-through

This is, as Leonid Anisimov calls it, "Shining expediency." The speed is because we have a March slot reserved in the theatre.

There are two ways to ship. Either you say "This is what we're going to make," and go until you have achieved that. Or, you say, "We're shipping on this date" and whatever you have then, you ship. Most theatres do the latter. Some few -- like Akropolis and the Odin Teatret -- do the former. But even they eventually hit an end game: a date when they commit to a theatre, or a performance date.

A theatre project is like the shaft in an engine: it turns, and turns my life with it. I wash dishes, pay bills, answer emails, expect people to become clients, feel empowered, act decisively; everything seems easy.

On other fronts, my BCC Improv class cancelled, but Acting In Performance is almost full enough to go; that'd be great.

I'm reading a book one of my actors gave me -- and wrote -- called, What You Say Is What You Get. Nothing earth-shattering, except over and over he gives examples of the disempowered way to say something, and then the empowered way to say the same thing. He has 50 different ways to do this. At first I scoffed, but now it's seeping in. I feel the difference. I thought it was nebulous, whether I was on my game or not. Now I see -- I'm PUTTING myself on my game or not, by how I speak.

The word truly is made manifest. I know this in theatre, I forgot it in life -- that a word is a thing of fire, shearing.

My favorite thought today is from Kipley's blog (click the fish). He's talking about doing Improv:

""The game" of the scene is a little hard to put into words. It's like... the point of the scene. Or rather, what's funny or interesting about a scene. It's what the scene is about... for example, a kid desperately craves attention from his dad, who couldn't care less. Or two astronauts, one who's trying to come out to the other one but can't bring himself to do it.

Sometimes it clicks right away and everyone latches on to their character and the scene flies. Other times, it's really hard to figure out what the game is, and you end up making idle chit chat that's boring for both the audience and you. If you're bored with your own scene, you haven't found the game yet."

That is so true:

If you're bored with your own scene,
you haven't found the game yet.