More from Sean's Journal

Monday, September 21st
Second Act notes and run

Tonight we are going to work through notes from Act 2 and then do a runthrough of that act. The set construction is almost done. We have a fireplace for the Dowd residence and a beautiful office door for the hospital lobby. One wall of the residence folds in half to create an opening to see into the hall outside the hospital lobby. And the residence bookshelf rotates to form the back wall of the lobby. Cool!

General note from Susanna: "Think about expectation vs. reality. What do you expect to happen in the scene, or in response to your line? What really happens? How does that inform what you say/do next?"

8:30 – Some of the most difficult scenes to do are ones in which multiple actors have short or overlapping lines, paired with fast, specific motions. They have to be treated almost like dances, or fights, and choreographed specifically. We had a couple of scenes tonight to treat this way. First is when Veta Louise (Stephanie) arrives home from her ordeal at the hospital. Judge Gaffney (Tom) and Myrtle Mae (Megan) help her tell her story (sort of). It's funny, but it requires precise timing. When you are involved in a scene like that you can tell right away when you get the timing perfectly; the trick is to keep it there every time you do the scene. And by the time you add in the audience, the props, and the rest of the show...the timing will have changed!

I worked on the scene where Dowd is telling Wilson (Ben E.), Sanderson (Ben M.) and Kelly (Heather) about Harvey. Parts of the scene we re-choreographed, other parts we made more specific. Layered onto all of this I got the note to add a hint of being “spiffed” (drunk) to Dowd's manner. Yikes, I have a lot to do!

8:35 – Susanna to Heather: "I want you to actually kiss Dowd on the lips."
Sean to Susanna: "I guess that twenty I slipped you worked."
Heather to Sean: "You mean I was only worth twenty?"

And on we go into the run.

10:05 – Once again we stop just short of the end. I saw results from all the notes we worked on today, but we still need to put the whole thing together. I notice that while I'm busy congratulating myself over the wonderful way I handled a note, I forget my next line. Note to self – no more congratulations.

Full run tomorrow!