Tripp and Trisha

At this rehearsal, I only called Rachel and Tyler so we could work on Tripp and Trisha’s long scene near the end of Act II. I gave the other four girls the night off. Lydia was especially happy about this because she had already requested off work, and had the night completely off to get caught up on homework. Working with Rachel and Tyler was utterly amazing. The same chemistry that I saw between them at the callbacks, showed up even more tonight. Even though I am still sick and feel like crap, watching them work made me feel so much better. They have almost the perfect balance of playfulness and awkwardness that two new lovers exploring boundaries should have. Rachel is still working on not breaking the fourth wall when she makes a mistake, but she is getting a lot better at it. I decided that I was going to add some things that were not in the original stage directions. After all, I am the director, and those stage directions are just from the first time that the show was staged and does not necessarily mean that you have to do exactly what it says. Therefore, I wanted to actively build tension. The scene between them is very much filled with tension and I wanted to bring that out in them. There is a part in the script where they start bickering. She says “guys like you” and later he turns it back onto her and says “women like you.” This prompts Trisha to say “Fuck you” and they get into it. They are standing on either side of the bed, using space and distance to create more tension. When he is practically yelling at her and she yells back “Well what do you want?” He grabs her and kisses her. I love using spatial awareness and vocal quality to make things more interesting. And they execute it flawlessly. The transition out of the kiss still needs some work, but we do have four weeks to help them fix it. Once they are fully off book and do not have to worry about what happens next, they will have even more chemistry and a more genuine connection. As of right now, they are excluding eye contact since they are still in their scripts. Every time we run it they get more and more comfortable. I just enjoy watching them work, and I cannot wait to let other people see the work that we have all put into this. Another thing that I had them do that I am waiting to see if it actually works, is I am having Tripp tease Trisha. At one point she is lounging on the bed, and he crawls onto her legs and leans down as if he is going to kiss her, kind of like Hitch’s “90/10” rule. As soon as she leans in for the last 10%, he pulls back. Having him do it twice, and then roll off of her when the commotion with the throwing of the bouquet happening, makes it so there is no resolution until he kisses her twice in front of the window. I am really excited that I the only thing left to block is the final three pages of the script which is where they are getting ready for the photo.