Take a Breath

We had a pretty short rehearsal today. Since we realized that Act II was not as solid as Act I, and we were still having some trouble with some of the movement between beats and lines, we only worked on Act II. I also wanted to get this Act banged into their brains before they left for break. We still have a lot of work to do on the scene between Tripp and Trisha. One of the things I wanted to work on was keeping the tension, and the breaks between the beats. I have been working with Rachel on how to naturally switch between beats in a scene. It is as simple as taking breath and thinking a new thought to yourself. Every once in a while she will not take the time to do that, and the transition will feel awkward, rushed, and unnatural. She is doing so much better on the transition in the first Act when Meredith and Frances leave and she starts talking to Georgeanne about Tommy Valentine. I had her move to close the door, breathe, then turn around and say her line, “Please tell me this is not about Tommy Valentine.” It feels so much better to both her, and to us as audience members. The part that I working on now is Tyler’s transition after Mindy and Georgeanne leave, having him breathe and look at Trisha before saying, “Hi.” The other problem spot when it comes to transitions is after they kiss for the first time when Trisha yells, “You don’t want a lot of things, Tripp. Why don’t you tell me what you do want?” I do want that transition to seem a little awkward, but to them, not really the audience. The desired effect that I am looking for is the internal monologue of, “I didn’t think we would get this far, what do we do next.” Then Trisha decides to get on the bed and pull Tripp along with her. Right now, neither one of them is taking the time to have that beat change after the kiss. They are getting better at keeping the tension within the fight itself, but after something like that, you have to let the tension dissolve before you can move on, or the shift will jerk the audience. I am trying to get them to breathe, slow down, and just look at each other after the kiss. To make it to where it will work, I am having Tripp take his moment to look at Trisha, with his hand still on her face. After that, then Trisha takes her moment to process what just happened. When she is done looking at him and realized what just happened, she makes the decision to move to the bed, and coaxes him with her eyes to follow her to the bed. Once on the bed, I want them to take another moment to just drink each other in before Tripp says his line, “I want you to promise me something.” It will definitely still take some work and some practice. But at least at this point, they know the progression that I am looking forward and they know what they need to work on.