A lab is a lab

After each rehearsal, I give myself a grade and write a lab report: Grade, Goal, Summary, Scene, What we did, What worked, What didn't, How long each thing took, For next time, Top problem to be solved next.

For years, when I began directing, I wrote lab reports after every rehearsal. Those were complete write-ups. These are much shorter -- notes for myself, to accelerate my rate of improvement.

I grade myself, because I find the actors can do anything. If I know how to make it easy & deep, they do genius work, effortlessly. If I only know how to do it hard and slow, they slog. "Affect the space first," said Leonid. That is the director's job --figure out how to create the space, in which actors can be easy geniuses.

Anyway, here's how I grade myself for the first 4 Doors rehearsals: C+, D, C+, B-. If we are slogging or stressed or behind, I give myself a C or lower. When it starts to get easy and deep, lots of stuff done sideways magically, AND we're meeting our goals for rehearsal AND I'm learning new meta-techniques -- then I'm up in the B range. The A range is reserved for when things are cracking -- me, the actors, the scene, the play. A is for breakthrough rehearsals.

I give the Noir rehearsals: A, A-.

I have four goals for Doors:

1. Get a good show done on time.
2. Figure out how to fit my style of rehearsal into a traditional structure & script, while building at the pace of a scene a day
3. Enter the play through, "What would it REALLY be like, to be in these circumstances?"
4. Crack it -- unearth a play that's ours. Hold myself to my own standards.

Oh hey -- tomorrow I have my phone meeting with Phillip Zarilli, the head of Exeter's PhD in Performance program, in England.

Quick question: What are 1 to 3 aspects of theatre that it is obvious to YOU that I am obsessed with, and could easily spend another 4 years studying? All input much appreciated. Extra credit if it comes in haiku form.

UPDATE
Wow! Three haikus, all helpful. And an observation that blew me away from Kipley -- "You're all about rehearsal." More on the phone interview later. It was perfect, one of those "bliss-doors opening" experiences. I wrote afterward:

turned earth, seed in dirt,
sun wind rain moon talking -- this
is how strong things grow

And:

even here, singing --
cherry blossoms only come
after the tree is grown