Last Time in Rehearsal Space

Today was our last rehearsal in the Directing Studio, as well as the last rehearsal before Thanksgiving break. I knew that some of the cast had to travel long distances home, so I wanted to give them Friday off. It had been a TBA rehearsal to begin with, and since we are in a really good place and just need to start working in our space, I figured we did not need it. Roxanne also came and sat in on the rehearsal. Once again, my cast was a little nervous having someone else take notes, so I kept telling them that she was there to give me pointers on how to make them better, she is not there to critique them. They were a little more comfortable with Act II today since we ran it yesterday. Francesca is feeling a lot better with her monologue about Tommy Valentine. We have been working on that monologue and getting her to actually see it happening. I am hoping that this process helps her grow as an actor as she handles such difficult subject material as sexual assault. Our run time for the show is sitting at about 2 hours including our 15 minute intermission. The run actually went really well; I only had one page of notes for the entire show and Ryan only had 6 line notes total. The only real note that Roxanne had was that they need to work on keeping their accents consistent. Since the show is set in Knoxville, Tennessee, the girls need a slight southern accent. Amanda, Lydia, and Rachel have pretty good ones, but still are having a little bit of trouble with keeping it throughout. Amanda is actually having some trouble saying some words in an Australian accent. Some of the words she is having trouble with include, “No,” “Totally,” and “Humiliating.” One of the ways we could help with that is that Amanda started saying, “Completely misguided attempt to have fun together,” Instead of “Totally misguided attempt to have fun together.” Tyler is not really using an accent, since people who live in the city of Atlanta, Georgia do not really have the distinct accent, and the fact that Tyler is actually from Tennessee, I did not feel the need for him to have an accent. The fact that Roxanne did not have any actual acting notes for them, or for me even, besides the accents (and that is something that they already kind of knew in the back of their minds), they seemed a lot more confident and happy with themselves after rehearsal. I feel that we are at a really good place right now. But the cast needs a break, and then we will come back from break and hit the ground running and make this show even better than it is right now. They have a little ways to go, but I believe in them. Once we get into the space and have a set, I think they will settle into things a little bit better. Rachel has already started getting more comfortable with her part since she started wearing the dress from when she was actually a bridesmaid in her friend’s wedding. It was also pretty funny since the dress is the same color as the ones we will actually be using.