Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd

Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd blog

2009-03-29T22:05:00.001-07:00

This is the blog of the creative process of Arena Theatre Company and Malthouse Theatre's co-production of 'Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd.'

The show closed on March 28th '09, and there won't be any more entries published. However, the comments sections after each entry will be open for a time in case you want to make comments or ask questions. You can also contact Arena Theatre Company (there is a link to our home page on the right).

This blog followed the creative process throughout the rehearsal process and the premiere season. You will find an archive on the right hand side, and there is an extensive labeling set up to allow you to easily navigate to places that are of most interest to you. We hope it is of interest to theatre goers and theatre makers alike!

Arena Theatre Company.

Vaudeville closes at The Malthouse

2009-03-29T21:59:00.000-07:00

Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd had its final performance of its premiere season last Saturday night. The final show was a really good one. It’s always good to finish a season with a show that everybody feels good about. In companies of artists that work together often the end of one show is not usually a point of exceptional significance. More often than not the next rehearsal or workshop is scheduled into the not too distant future.

When a group is assembled for a specific project, the final performance naturally holds more significance for everybody. The professional theatre in Australia mostly works in the latter model. It is predominately independent theatre companies that work in the former.

The last question I was going to look at in the process of building a work of theatre is how the play developed and evolved throughout the season. I attended the play in each of the weeks that it played to try to get some kind of a sense for this. The thing that perhaps struck me most is just what a complicated question this really is.

For plays in which the artists are highly skilled and experienced, the performances night to night vary incredibly subtly. It seems an obvious thing to say, but at an experiential level it is the audience reaction that seems to vary considerably night on night, while the performance doesn’t change much at all.

Also, it seems to me that perhaps a person needs to go along nightly to fully understand whether subtle changes they see are part of a trend in the development of the performance, or just a subtle shift in a single show.

For me, the most obvious development in the show was the performers’ continued ability to work in finer and finer detail. The responses and offers to each other within the world of the play were getting more and more sophisticated as they were able to live inside it every night. This is particularly clear in the moments when the performers aren’t the centre of focus in a scene; these moments would begin to fill with all kinds of thoughts and moments related to the character and moment that enriched the world of the play.

I spoke to Chris to get his thoughts on how the play developed through the run. Firstly, Chris attended the show through all the previews and first two nights. After that he attended 2 shows a week for the rest of the run. For the shows he didn’t attend he relied on the detailed show reports given by the Stage Manager for how the show was progressing.

His feeling is that the show got better and better through the season. Having said that, Lally reported that two of the early shows she had attended but Chris hadn’t conveyed a heightened feeling of ‘magic.’ They were in agreement that a later show they attended together did not quite create as magical a feeling. So, he thinks it was not necessarily a linear progression.

Chris personally really enjoyed the final performance. Partly this is because of the improvement in the show, but also because he felt that he was in a similar position to any other audience member. With no more shows to do, his responsibility to give notes or work to keep improving the show had ended and he could just watch like everybody else.

One thing that became apparent to Chris through the season was that the second act had a particular running time that worked best for the play. The best shows consistently had a second act running time of 70 minutes.

There were occasions that the second act would get down to 67 minutes. This was too fast. It indicated to Chris that the important change in rhythm that was supposed to happen toward the end of the second act wasn’t happening as it should have been. At this level of practice, 2 minutes worth of time is quite significant. A consistent note from Chris was to make sure that the cast took their time in the second act and didn’t rush through some of the more poignant moments and sequences.

It is a feature of work in this country that very few plays get more than a single season. This is particularly the case for works that premiere at the big theatre companies because of the resources required to remount. Somewhat ironically, it is easier to remount shows that were begun on no budget because having worked on the show for nothing to begin with, people are often happy to continue on that basis if they have faith in the project.

Should Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd get another season Chris has identified a few key things he would like to work on. Firstly, there are a number of scenes from previous drafts, or scenes that were cut during the rehearsal period, that he now knows have a place in the piece. He’d like the opportunity to work on the play again to replace some of these scenes.

Secondly, Chris talked about working on the piece’s “organising structure.” This is a really interesting concept that Chris uses in his understanding of what makes it theatrically logical for one scene to follow another. What is the larger theatrical structure that gives meaning to how scenes and moments follow one another? Chris says that the organising structure of the first act is clear and powerful; that the performers are doing their show in an empty theatre for an imaginary audience. The organising structure for the second act, however, is more complicated than that. He thinks that he would develop his understanding of the organising structure of the second act further if there was to be another mounting of the show.

The concept of “organising structure” is one that could be very useful to young theatre makers trying to build new work.

Vaudeville - Time to Talk. Part 2.

2009-03-17T23:31:00.000-07:00

This post is a continuation from yesterday's about the Time To Talk on Tuesday night. So, if you've not read yesterday's post yet, it appears directly below this one.

Peter Clarke began the discussion by getting all of the creatives to speak about their contributions. Then he opened the forum to the audience to ask whatever questions they were interested in getting answers to.

This is an approximation of how the discussion unfolded after this point. This is mostly paraphrased; even things that are in quotations are not direct quotes.

“What from the research informed the script the most?”
Chris and Lally fielded this one; they mentioned three things. The stories told to them by Frank Van Stratten; writer, broadcaster and theatre historian. The figure of Hugh D. Mackintosh, entertainment entrepreneur of the era. A video that Chris and Lally watched in which old vaudeville entertainers talked about why vaudeville died. All the old performers had different thoughts for why it had 'died', but ultimately the sense that the pair got from watching the film was that all of these performers found it impossible to move on.

Chris then went on to talk about nostalgia, and that the deeper he researched the vaudeville world, the more he realised that many of the acts just wouldn't be well received today. He came to the understanding that it is far better that piano players in black face, comedians doing racist jokes and the like, are better off left behind. Nostalgia can give these acts a sheen of romantic allure, but this is likely at the expense of seeing these acts for what they really were, and at the expense of allowing artists to move on.

“You've set the play in 1914. Would you have a ventriloquist as raunchy as that in 1914?”
Good question. The answer to this question came from a few different people. It's an interesting and complex question. The first answer was that perhaps you wouldn't find an act as raunchy as this in 1914. However, in the context of the piece, this show is not a typical 1914 vaudeville show. In fact, it is a dismal failure. Their acts are actually turning people away. Secondly, we don't really know how raunchy the acts of that time may have been. We do know that some of these acts were very bawdy, and quite flagrant in providing their audiences with titillation. Certainly there's no shortage of racy puns and inuendo in Shakepeare, which was three centuries prior. It might be a misunderstanding to presume that standards in today's theatres are more liberal than in the past. Having said that, Chris concedes there may be some anachronism in some of the phrases the characters use. The balance is in what serves the work as a piece of theatre for today's audiences, and what is historically correct. After all, it is an artwork first, not an historical document.

The follow up question to this one is; “Are the actors playing to an imagined audience in 1914 or the Beckett Theatre?”
Another interesting question. The cast field this question between them. The actors seemed to have differing views on this. Some discuss that they imagine that they play to a 1914 audience, others that they don't think about the audience because there is not supposed to be one in the first act, still others say that it is impossible to play to anybody BUT the audience that is in the theatre at the time; anything else might sound clever, but it is actually not possible to play.

“How much input did the actors have into the construction of the show?”
Lally says that on this piece she and Chris were determined they would have a 'finished' script that wouldn't change much over the rehearsal period. However, as regular readers of the blog will know, the script was still being worked on right through the rehearsal period and cuts were being made through the preview period. Chris says that while the cast had no specific role in developing the script, their instincts for what was working and what was not was invaluable to the process.

Finally, Peter asked Chris and Lally for any final comments or reflections they had. Lally reflected that she's really happy for the show to be in the hands of the actors now. She was so frantic in the lead-up, that it's real relief that the cast now owns the show. Chris said that he has just begun to watch the show as a spectator rather than a director, but it will not be until next week that he could really enjoy the show.

The forum was well attended, and was a relatively long one; a reflection of how interesting the show is, and also a reflection of the fascination that comes with experiencing how Chris has managed to successfully weave so many extraordinary elements and layers into the piece.

Once again, our thanks to Peter Clarke. If YOU have any questions for any of the team don't hesitate to send them in and I'll see if I can get an answer for you!

Vaudeville - Time To Talk. Part 1.

2009-03-17T20:00:00.000-07:00

The show returns to the stage after having a night off. Everybody has been telling me that the show has been getting better and better, so I'm excited to see it again after missing a couple of nights.

The first Tuesday in a season at the Malthouse is “Time To Talk” night. Peter Clarke hosts the session, which is a forum where audiences have the opportunity to speak to the creatives and performers about the show. Thanks must go to Peter for facilitating the discussion; he is so informed about theatre and is such an accomplished communicator that I couldn't imagine anybody doing a better job.

I made some notes on the forum. Some of what came up we have covered already in the blog, but there was plenty of new stuff too. Of course, it's also interesting to hear what questions people have about the show. Because of the sheer volume I’ve decided to break it up into 2 separate posts.

Peter opened up the forum by asking Chris and Lally about the relationship between research and theatre, and what the genesis of the piece was.

As we know, nearly 4 years ago Chris discovered a book called “Act as Known” by Valentyne Napier in a Brunswick Street book shop. Napier’s parents spent their lives in vaudeville and were famous for their Spider and Butterfly act. Their lives, and the lives of the other performers and the theatres they worked in are the subject of Napier’s book. This book sparked Chris’s interest in working on a show inspired by Australian vaudeville.

Chris and Lally then successfully applied for a residency at the State Library of Victoria to research Australian vaudeville acts. The pair were especially interested in the forgotten people of history; the ones who are not celebrated by history. Rather, the ones that fell through the cracks, and can only be found in small newspaper articles or pieces of ephemera.

Lally's research was more hap-hazard. She would get stuck musing on a particular article, or find herself reading unrelated advertisements. Chris was more methodical and would drive Lally towards articles and information of note.

One particular theme that came up a lot in their research was how often drownings in the Yarra River would be reported on. The river gained a monstrous persona that would rise up to absorb people into itself; drowning them and burying them in mud.

They also mentioned the influence on the work of entertainment entrepreneur Harry Rickards. (There's a link to his bio on the right.)

One of the audience members asked how the actors dealt with the form and style of the piece, given the different styles of the two acts, and the quite specific requirements of vaudeville?

Matt responded by saying that for him it was quite a natural extension from the direct style of presentation that is used in circus.

Christen said that her greatest concern was in the ventriloquism. It's a highly skilled art form in its own right, and although she was continually told that her character was not a good ventriloquist, performing something badly is not necessarily any easier than performing it well. She went on to say that the two acts provide two distinct challenges. The first act requires immersion in the world of vaudeville. The second act requires what Christen called 'capital M Magic'- big emotion, big moments, bold commitment. Addressing these two different approaches in a single show was a big challenge.

Julia talked about understanding the world of the piece, and how it only crystalised for her once she was playing on the set and working in the costumes. These things were crucial in her development of the character.

Alex responded that he saw it quite simply; he tries to do what the director tells him to do.

Jim said he had a couple of ways in. One of which was the voice of John Meillon's character in The Picture Show Man.

The discussion moved on to design. Jonathon was roundly applauded for his work on the costume and set. As was Richard, for his lighting.

Richard revealed the way he had approached the contrast between the two acts in respect of the lighting design. He said that the first act was defined to a large degree by the footlights, a traditional feature of the old theatres. Footlights tend to flatten a space, and this became the primary feature of the design. But, in the second act he was working to make the performers and the space more three dimensional. He also wanted to give the performers the impression of being ghosts, that would at times feel as though they were floating in the space.

More from the Time To Talk tomorrow! I've moved the Countdown clock to when the show ends, so if you've not seen it yet get down to the Malthouse. It will close faster than you think!

Vaudeville - The work's not over with the Opening...

2009-03-16T17:40:00.000-07:00

We'd welcome any feedback on the show. Shoot us a comment if you feel inclined!!

The Opening Night was roundly considered to be a great success. The energy was strong and the cast put up a really first rate performance. The woman I was sitting next to absolutely adored the show; she laughed her head off, screamed for real during the knife throwing and sighed in the all the right places. At the end of it she applauded with great enthusiasm.

But the Opening Night is not the end of the journey of the show. As mentioned previously, Chris is very aware of the show's development across the journey of the season, and beyond. The show does not suddenly become exactly the same show every single night after it opens. This is particularly the case with a new play. I caught up with Lally and Chris to ask them how they thought the show was progressing:

Being Monday; the play has had 4 runs since I last saw it. Lally, on the other hand, has been to every performance bar one. Her sense is that the play is still developing a solid sense of itself. The actors are doing great work, but she thinks that it will be the end of this week or the beginning of next week before the play matures to a point that brings the work a consistency night on night.

I ask Lally what it is that she thinks is still developing in the work. She says she feels the world of the play is still being filled out, and that there are greater layers of intricacy in the performances every night.

I ask her whether she reads reviews, and what sort of effects they have on her. She tells me that she can't help but read all the reviews as they are released. She sees the reading of reviews as part of the experience of theatre, which can brings either relief or heart break. She can take poor reviews pretty hard.

I ask Chris what he is looking for now when he watches the show after opening night. He says that there are certain 'keys' to the dramatic experience of the play that need to be there night after night for the play to work. At this stage in the process he sees his role as making sure those 'keys' stay in tact. He makes notes for the actors to remind and prompt them to maintain their focus on these keys, and encourage them to keep them working in the way he expects them to. He also looks for when the actors seem to be getting too confident or 'comfortable' in important moments. This can lead to a moment losing its excitement or 'live-ness.'

But it is not all maintenance. Chris makes the point that there are developments in the relationships between the characters, as well as between the cast and tech crew that enrich the show as it runs. There are moments that the audience's reaction validates for the performers and helps them to build their understanding of their role.

On the other hand, there are ways that an audience might respond to a performance that encourages it to develop in a way that works well for a particular scene, but does not serve the play as a whole. The most obvious example of this is in humour; an actor responding to getting 'laughs' from a scene by playing to the comedy, when something slightly more serious in tone may work better overall.

Another thing Chris looks out for is the tendency to play the pace of a scene, rather than every thought. He suggests that sometimes actors can feel good in a scene because the pace of it is right, but in fact they are skipping over the detail of each individual thought. So, he has to remind them to keep the detail in mind.

Finally, he is looking out for how long term trends in the development of the piece are effecting different individual parts. A show is usually a an intricately balanced machine, and growth in one part of it effects the parts surrounding it. By way of a simple example; a fast scene might be balanced against a series of slow scenes. However, if the series of slow scenes starts to work faster, the balancing fast scene might need to be slowed down to make the entire sequence of scenes work.

I ask Chris what place Reviews have in the artistic process. Ideally he says, they part of the fabric of the existence of the show, and should facilitate and frame discussion about the work. I ask more specifically about what effect they have on the artistic process of the show itself, rather than the broad discussion or framing of the show.

He says that he makes it a practice not to discuss reviews with the cast, or to invest too much importance in them. Chris says he thinks the opinions of peers in the industry are probably far more potent, particularly for performers, than the opinions of critics. He sees the potential effects of reviews or peer opinion much the same as the effects of the audience. They can validate good developments, but also validate developments that seem useful in isolation but don't serve the whole.

Having said that, Chris sees that the influence on the process can be much more subtle than that. By example, Chris had a lot of notes to give after the second show. He felt he had many details of the kind above to relate to the actors . The reviews that were published on the Friday were all very positive, which allowed Chris to be as direct as he wanted to be in his notes. If however, the reviews had have been negative, Chris would have felt compromised in the delivery of these notes. He feels that the actors would have been less clear as to whether these notes were brought on by Chris's understanding of the show, or as a reaction to the press.

Tuesday is Q&A day at the Malthouse. I'll be going along to that to report on what the audience asks, and what the creatives have to say in reply!

Vaudeville Opening Night

2009-03-10T23:59:00.001-07:00

It's opening night. I've caught up with a handful of the actors and asked them what was uppermost in their minds. This is what they said;

'A tech thing. There's a new thing in getting up on the balcony. It's the sort of thing you could get wrong if you're not concentrating." - Matt (paraphrased)

'Give myself plenty of time to put my pin-curls in. Takes a good 25 minutes." - Julia.

'Trying not to let it become more than just the next show.' - Mark.

I also ran into a few of the other people working on the show and asked for any thoughts they had.

'I'm very excited. Every preview has been taking a step up. I'm expectant and hopeful of it taking another special leap into opening night.' - Chris.

'Excitement' - Lally.

'I think it's gonna live tonight.' - Stephen N.

'I got locked out of my house. God, I'm glad to be here. I love everyone so much.' - Jonathon.

'I'm very happy with where it's at, and very excited.' - Richard.

Vaudeville - Previews

2009-03-10T22:03:00.000-07:00

The preview period can be one of the most exciting periods for a new show. The show is close to being fully formed, yet it is also at a point where small changes can have very large effects on the piece.

Chris talks about the pleasure of feeling the audience's reactions to the piece. When you are intimately associated with a show your focus is on its improvement primarily. You forget the pleasures of the first readings and the first workshops. While you're in rehearsal you laugh at the jokes and delight in the offers the actors make that bring unexpected life or light to pieces of text, or silent moments. But, once you get into the final weeks, it is in improving the weaker moments that take up the biggest part of your time.

When people talk about the detail they find in the characterisation, and how they felt at certain electric moments, this can often re-invigorate these moments for the theatre-makers. They become new again through the experience they create in others.

The vibe at previews can vary significantly. Some people are there because they don't want to pay full price, some people are there because they like the unpredictability and extra 'live-ness' of previews, some are there because they have been given free tickets, some are there because it's the only night free in their schedules. It's a particular mix of people that is different from other audiences in the run. Chris addresses the audience for the first two previews to remind them that it's a preview and that work is still being done.

Indeed, every day the team works on the show before the night's preview. Chris generates a list of priorities for each rehearsal period before each show. The things he works on are broad issues in relation to the way the piece is being played. He identifies 'big picture' tweaks he wants to make to the show, then identifies all the specific moments in the piece that need detailing or shifting that will add up to generate the 'big picture' tweak that he has in mind.

It is a process of honing and refining. The discussion surrounds clarity, and what is serving the play. Now that the play is nearly fully formed, it is easier to tell what changes will serve the whole. This process engages a lot of different types of changes. Pieces of scenes are cut, lines are added to clarify moments, staging is switched to highlight something in particular. A myriad of different changes are made to shape the work towards opening night.

Some of the changes feel big, like cutting half a scene. Others feel smaller, like bringing a scene further upstage, or re-rehearsing a scene with a particular thought higher in mind. But, from a certain perspective, all of these changes are 'small' because they are all about clarifying, rather than generating anything new. However, as I said at the top, though each change might be small, their effect on the work can be highly significant.

Today's rehearsal is reasonably relaxed. The tension that accompanied the first preview has dissipated, and the company is building its confidence heading towards opening. If anything, there's a slightly weird atmosphere to the rehearsal. The cast break into unusual accents from time to time for no reason. People are murmuring refrains from the songs, odd connections are being made between lines, and people bring up random tangential references as they talk. It's not a lack of focus; when people are supposed to be 'on,' they are. It's just a slightly strange atmosphere that takes hold of the room. Perhaps it's reflective of the slightly 'no-mans land' place they are in at the moment; the play has played three times before an audience, but it hasn't opened; the routine is similar to the energy of being mid-run, yet it is still being rehearsed and modified daily. It's an 'in-between' state that most shows don't even get, seeing as most shows don't get to play four previews before they open.

Tonight's preview is the fourth and final. Tomorrow night is the opening. Somebody asked me in a comment last week whether the show would change a lot across the previews. The simple answer is that it has already changed a lot across the first three. Perhaps the more interesting question is what has changed, or how has it changed across the previews. Because no a great deal has been added. At its essence, the great majority of what has 'changed' was actually already there.

But through the bringing of aspects of the play to the fore and the pushing of other aspects back, the play is experienced differently, and yes, it is changing in important ways. I will try to get an opportunity to speak to Chris about how he understands the change in the piece in the final few days of the process. In some ways, especially when it's a new play, this feels like a separate process in itself.

Vaudeville - After dress run

2009-03-05T22:47:00.000-08:00

The final dress run is over. There's 2 hours now before the first preview opens to the public. All the actors have gone for dinner.

No major surprises. A couple of minor problems, but nothing that's nothing out of the ordinary and Chris says the dress run is where he thought it would be going into the first preview.

I'd love to be able to talk to the actors right now for you and get their thoughts 2 hours before going in front of the public with the show for the first time.

Right now I'm sitting in the theatre and it's completely quiet, save for Jonathon continuing to work on the set. He's a workaholic and will probably be going right up till opening with touches here and there.

I'll head up to the Green Room and see how they're feeling. I can't promise they'll want to talk. I imagine they'll just be focussing all of the energy for tonight.

Vaudeville Dress rehearsal interval

2009-03-05T20:48:00.000-08:00

VAUDEVILLE TWITTER.

"Good. Really good." - Liz

"So much nformation went in over the last 2 days, I'm not sure if all of it stuck" - Richard.

"Ditto." - Jethro.

"It's half time" - Kate.

"I don't if I'l ever get out of here. I mean the world, I've got completely drawn in to this world by the river that never was." - Stephen Armstrong.

Vaudeville - Day of the First Preview.

2009-03-05T18:14:00.000-08:00

VAUDEVILLE TWITTER.

Time 1.15pm

I asked some of the creatives to make a quick comment on where they were at before the dress rehearsal-

"It's all going SURPRISINGLY well. I gotta see it as a whole. Very important to get the arc of the lighting design" - Richard.

"There's a lot we haven't tech-ed" - Chris.

"I'm interested in how the tricks go." - Stephen.

"No. Go away!" - Jethro.

"I'm really excited about it, but I had a nightmare we performed it in a big outdoor amphitheatre with grass and the audience started having spontaneous games of soccer, including my brother. I asked them why they didn't like it and they said they did, they were just having a little break." - Lally.

Vaudeville Rehearsal Day 23 - One day before Preview.

2009-03-05T16:38:00.000-08:00

It's the last day before the first preview. The morning is for technical 'fix-ups,' with the actors arriving at 1.30pm again today.

The mood is relaxed. Yesterday's technical issues have mostly been worked out to everybody's satisfaction. Tomorrow's dress rehearsal will make it clear whether the solutions are working properly or not.

It has taken the entire afternoon and evening to finish the tech with the actors. Although the actors weren't performing at high energy, there have been a number of really important breakthroughs during the day. The lights, the sound, the set have all done their job in informing the actors how scenes are supposed to work in performance. You can feel pennies dropping all over the place, and connections being made that have previously been understood in an intellectual way, but not 'felt' by the actors.

Though they haven't run the play since last Tuesday, it feels as though it has come a long way during the last couple of days. The 'unknowns' have dimished significantly in the last couple of days in respect of their physical environment, and what they will experience on the stage, and that confidence is already being displayed as they 'run' scenes in the tech.

Chris says he expects tomorrow's dress rehearsal to be a bit rough. The actors will really have to conserve their energy through the dress rehearsal so they can hit the first preview with the energy it needs.

Although there is an audience tonight, previews are previews, and Chris expects the piece to develop significantly through the previews and through the season as well. The difference between previews and the season is that the cast are scheduled for rehearsal until opening night. If moments need fixing there is time to run them and work them. Once you get into performance the director has time to give notes, but no time to do any re-working of moments in a rehearsal context. This is a huge difference. There are times when notes cannot shift or reveal a moment; it can only be done in a rehearsal environment.

Further to that, a director usually wants the actors to 'own' their parts. It's part of the confidence a director wants their actors to have that allows them to grow and soar in their performance. Constant changes can sometimes undermine this confidence, depending on the actor and their relationhsip with the director. The energy the actors have once a show is in performance is for the show; this is a different kind of energy to the energy they use to explore the work in rehearsal. This can also sometimes make it difficult to shift something once a show has opened.

That's not to say that the show won't change. Chris makes the point that the show will inevitably change. The show will 'settle' and the actors will more deeply understand certain things as a product of the repetition. Also, it will change as a product of different audiences coming in to see the show each night. The actors are keenly aware of the things that work or don't work, and the show evolves in microscopic ways to this nightly dialogue. Sometimes a series of microscopic changes in a particular direction eventuate in significant changes to the show. Other times, it's a process of moments moving back and forth as different audiences respond differently, and more importantly, how the actors 'test' a moment in different ways to feel how it works best.

Tomorrow is the first dress rehearsal, and the first preview. The countdown has ticked over the zero days, and is now in the hours, minutes and seconds only. Right now the atmosphere is relaxed and confident, with a hint of expected apprehension. But we'll see whether that changes tomorrow.

Especially for Friday I'll be posting again between the dress run and the first preview, SO COME BACK FOR THAT!

Vaudeville Rehearsal Day 22 - "Heads down..."

2009-03-04T23:43:00.001-08:00

The morning is spent continuing yesterday's lighting plot, which is followed by the sound plot. There is still more work to be done on the lighting plot, but it will have to wait until tomorrow morning.

The actors arrive at around 1.30pm and go to get into costume for tech-ing. Chris and Lally are photographed by the newspaper on stage. They stand next to the infamous 'Machine of Unhappy;' (yes, it's as crazy as it sounds, and I imagine you'll get to see it in the paper).

The moment the actors arrive on stage in costume is exciting for everybody. Mark steps out first. What a great moment; everybody feels it. Wow.

Two hours later Chris says he's already numb to it and now he's just focused on the work needed to get the show into shape. The first audience will be in on Friday night.

Tech-ing a show can be really time consuming because every lighting cue, sound cue, action with a new prop, action associated with a new piece of set, every 'trick'; virtually everything that is not 'acting' is tested and worked through to be sure that everybody has it covered.

This tech time has a classic calm before the storm feel about it. The performers are generally the ones with the higher stress levels through the rehearsal period, but in tech time the pressure is transferred to everybody else, and the actors roll through the show at a medium energy while all the technical details are worked out.

As we expected there are some tricky technical challenges, which take considerable time to sort out. As each of these technical moments take shape it fills in some of the detail that Chris has been talking about in rehearsal. He might say, “At this point the something will do this thing we're planning,” but until you actually see it and feel it in the theatre it can be hard to comprehend the full power of it.

There are other things that unfortunately don't quite work in the tech run and need to be put off until a part of it is fixed or adjusted so it can work. There aren't many of those moments in the tech run, but the trouble sometimes is in knowing when to keep trying to get something to work and when to leave it and move on.

This concern is magnified because at this stage in the process, if something is left to later, later might never arrive and the element might end up being cut all together. Providing, of course, that the technical detail doesn't define a moment so important that it can't possibly be cut. But that can actually be worse; it's annoying to cut something because it technically doesn't work, it's a nightmare when that something can't be cut because it's vital, but it somehow doesn't quite work either.

As I said, fortunately, there are only a couple of problems that were put off for the sake of 'fixing.' Probably less than might have been expected for the level of technical detail in the show. Nevertheless, everybody would prefer there were none at all.

The day ends at 10.30pm and they've got about a third of the way into the second act. There's plenty left to do, but everybody agrees that it's been going well. The actors are super keen to get through it. Every minute spent working through technical details is a minute they can't run the scenes in the show, which is what they really want right now.

Tomorrow is the clincher, because after tomorrow, anything that's not working is just not going to have time to get fixed by the first preview. Of course, the Opening isn't until next Wednesday. But the public is still the public.

COMPETITION FOR TICKETS!!

2009-03-03T21:20:00.000-08:00

Just a reminder. I've got two tickets to the best comment of today and tomorrow. They are to Sunday afternoon's preview at 5pm. Get on it now!! Click where it says 'Comments' below. (And send it to goodbyevaudeville(at)gmail.com too, so I can email you back.)

Vaudeville Rehearsal Day 21

2009-03-03T16:53:00.000-08:00

Vaudeville Rehearsal Day 21. (Tuesday)

Yesterday the actors had the day off. With the performance schedule beginning this week the actors will be working nights, so Monday was a rest day. That doesn't mean that no work is happening on the show. The time away from the rehearsal room gives the rest of the team time to concentrate on the technical elements.

Tuesday begins with a run of the show in the morning and then another run of the second and third acts in the afternoon. Both of these rehearsals take place in the rehearsal room; I was a little premature in calling the end of the rehearsals in the Bagging Room in the most recent post.

There's going to be a lighting plot tonight and tomorrow morning. Chris tells the cast before the afternoon session that it's going to be predominately tech time after this, so they really need to hit their performances today.

As has already been mentioned, there is a lot of technical detail in this show, so we're going to need all of the tech time available to get the technical scenes into shape.

Creating a lighting design is an interesting process for anybody who's never seen it done. The lighting designer in collaboration with the director creates a lighting plan and supervises the rigging and the focussing of the lights. (The 'rig' is where the lights are hung. The 'focus' is where the light is pointed, and the quality of the light as it can be manipulated within the lantern.)

Then there is the 'plot.' In the 'plot' the lighting designer brings up each lighting 'state' that has been designed for each scene and transition. Then the director asks for lights to be higher or lower, or lights to be added or subtracted from the state. 'Walkers' mimic the movement of the actors on stage so everybody can tell what the scene will look like.

A good relationship between the lighting designer and the director is really important through this process. In many ways it's pain-staking, detailed work. A common conversation sounds like this;

Lighting Designer - “Scene 12. Lamp number 20 at 50%, 21 at 60%, 33 at 45%, 40 at 50...”
(He says this to the lighting board operator who drives the board)
Director - “Can we have the downstage area a bit brighter?”
Lighting Designer - “Okay. Let's change 20 to 60% and 21 to 60%.”
Director - “Can we remove that shadow on the edge of that wall”
Lighting - “Yeah, can you bring up 43 to 20 and drop 21 to 35.”

This basic conversation gets repeated in a variety of ways as they massage the states into shape. On large shows cues and states can run into hundreds. (I'm not sure how many cues Richard has plotted for Vaudeville.) And there's not a great deal of time to 'test' anything. If a state feels wrong or doesn't light the area that the actors play the scene in, the time in which to change things is limited. It's not negligible, but it's limited. And with big changes that require extra lamps to be rigged and focused, sometimes a choice has to be made about which changes of this are most important because there might not be time for them all.

Chris has worked with most of the design and technical team numerous times before, and it really shows when they're doing the plot. The communication is clear, the mood is relaxed and the they move through things with a great deal of efficiency. More important than that, the atmosphere and dialogue is more creative than it is functional.

Although there's a clear order of states that the team work through, and a lot of “Lamp 20 at 60, 30 at 40” etc, the work they do in this time is not nearly as linear as it sounds. There are lots of minor changes and tweaks across many elements of the show; the set, the physical patterns, the action of the actors, the props, as well as the lights themselves. This is all happening simultaneously at the same time as they work through each of the lighting states. Ideas come across many different aspects of the show that are 'banked' to keep working on if they have the time.

It's a tremendously exciting time. As lights are brought up for each state in the show, the stage begins to live and everybody gets their first glimpses of what the show is going to look like once it hits the stage. It's absolutely tremendous. The Beckett is looking incredible.

Vaudeville Day 20 - Last day in the Bagging Room

2009-03-01T20:23:00.000-08:00

Today is the final day of the 4 week rehearsal period. After this most of the rehearsing will be done in the theatre. Time sure flies. The poll on whether 4 weeks rehearsal is enough time gave the result that 54% thought it was too short. I might re-poll the same question next week to see whether opinions have changed over the course.

As per the pattern established over the last few days of rehearsal, today will be all about detailing important scenes. The post from Day 18 will give you an insight into how this goes if you didn't read that post.

I drop down to Wardrobe again to see how they're going. Amanda and Kate are working extraordinarily hard, and say they're on schedule, which means also working on the weekend. That's the nature of this kind of work; it's gotta be ready when it's gotta be ready.

Kate is dying some of the corsetry that Amanda was sewing up last time I was down there. Amanda tells me that making the underwear for this show has been incredibly time consuming. The amount of sewing is extreme. How extreme? Well, so far she's used 2 and a half kilometres of thread. 2 and a half kilometres of thread! (I know I'm repeating myself, but I'm trying to get my mind around it.) A handful of finished costumes hang around the studio, including Allarkini's robe, which looks pretty amazing.

She also volunteers that the actors seem more comfortable now. This is an interesting comment; of course it's the make-up and costumers who the actors unload all their worries and concerns upon. If things have calmed down for Amanda and Kate on that front, it's a good sign.

There is activity on a lot of different fronts today; everybody understands that the time available to work through issues is contracting with every minute.

Lawrence is here again today. I spend some time in the Shell Room with him, Jonathon, Darren and two of the actors [names withheld for magic security reasons]. The way Lawrence works is brilliant. His is a very technically specific craft, yet the way he chooses to employ the techniques are built purely on his imagination and connection with the show. The scene he is working with the actors on at the moment is based upon one line in the stage directions of the play. It has been Lawrence's job to understand the characters, interpret the timbre and atmosphere of the scene, and then construct how this single line is best to be realised.

The way Lawrence moves is very fluid and he is highly physically controlled. The way he directs the actors is a very carefully balanced combination of choreographic precision, with instruction on how they need to play the scene to convey what is 'real.' He is patient and generous, and as he describes how he has constructed the scene with the limitations of the actors' experience and the world of this particular show in mind, the enormous complexity of his task and the skill with which he's achieved it comes into view.

I also take some time to speak with Mark Jones, the composer and Musical Director of the show. Our conversation is far-reaching and raised some really brilliant insights into the work. I've decided to report on our conversation in two parts, because I can't possibly fit it into a single post. Also, some of what we talked about in relation to how the music works in the piece as a whole might be useful contextualised within the how the piece is shaping up for the first preview on Friday night.

Mark joined the project very early on as a musician and musical director. When he joined the project for the first development period he says there was no plot and no narrative; just a broad concept and some early character sketches.

Mark's character, Bones, the 'black faced' piano playing 'end man' existed very much in the way that he does now. Other characters have come and gone from different drafts, and others have always been in the script in some form, but have had significant evolution. The essence of the Bones character has remained quite constant from the beginning as Mark sees him.

The songs are such an important part of the piece. I ask him about the evolution of their composing. Mark says that in the first development he played existing music, but since that first development he's worked on and off on composing original songs for the show in collaboration with Chris, Lally and Maryanne.

The songs have begun from varying starting points. Some of them began with a melody that Mark created, others started from the idea for a scene in which they're central, others started with written text from Chris and/or Lally. In some ways they are still developing as verses or choruses get added and cut in accordance with how they are working in the show.

I ask Mark whether the songs are 'period' songs, and how he has dealt with that issue. His response echoes that of both the set and lighting designer. Much of the music he has written has a kind of a Rag Time feel, but it is not precisely music of the period and genre. Strictly speaking, the recordings of vaudeville artists of the time reveal simpler music, and quite a lot of talking with the piano underneath.

Mark's says his composition is definitely more musically sophisticated than the recordings of the music of the time that exists today. Like Jonathon and Richard, Mark has gone for a 'sense' of period, but has not been bound by historical 'fact' in what he's provided to the production.

The production must be resonant and interesting for today's audience. This means a 'sense' of period is better than historical accuracy in the case that the historically accurate music style does not serve the production. But the lines of what 'serves' the play and 'works' for an audience is not as clear as this statement suggests. For example, fuzziness in the period of music has been deemed okay, but last week they were researching the exact date the 'Dryzabone' coat was introduced. In the case of the coat the sense of historical accuracy that 'served' the play was understood to be far more literal.

These thresholds for accuracy clearly exist in all artistic works. Some 'facts' are considered sacred, some are considered malleable, and some just aren't considered much at all. How these lines get drawn is not always clear; partly they are decided by individual artists, partly by community 'standard,' partly on an individual basis by every audience member who accepts or rejects how these elements work within the piece.

Why it 'works' that the historical accuracy for some things can be massaged, but the accuracy for something else cannot is an interesting question. But theatre artists will say that their 'sense' that something is or isn't working in relation to its historical accuracy is very clear to them.

Chris phrase of the day; “Does anyone know where the invisible thread is?”

Vaudeville Rehearsal Day 19 - Stuntmen or daredevils?

2009-02-26T20:50:00.000-08:00

Thursday morning. Yesterday was detailing; that means today is the run.

The scheduled beginning time for the run is 10.30. There is a whole line of chairs set up at the back of the room when everybody arrives. The mere suggestion of an audience raises the ante. They are for a group of Malthouse permanent staff that are due to attend the run. The atmosphere in the room is more formal, and Darren, the Stage Manager also takes on a suitably more formal tone.

The tension in the room is a higher today, but it's manifesting itself more in focus than in efforts to release. It's an interesting curve of rising and lowering tensions that show themselves in the final stages of a rehearsal process.

I was talking to Matt Wilson about show anxiety. I bring up a thought from one of David Mamet's books that the nervousness of performing in public IS the fundamental energy of theatre. The stakes of being humiliated or adored are extraordinarily high. Without that fear, theatre is boring. The actors need to be scared. I often find myself relating this notion to nervous performers when they think they're under-prepared. (Although I have been told that my interpretation of these comments is a bit skewed.)

Matt says that it is a similar phenomenon with stuntmen. He tells me that stuntmen need to be scared before they perform a stunt. The fear keeps them alert to potential dangers, it keeps their survival instinct intact. They need to stay completely safe because they need to be able to get up the next day and do the stunt again. It occurs to me that their recognition of the danger resonates through the performance of the stunt. If the stuntman doesn't embody the potential danger, perhaps it's not as exciting for the audience.

The daredevil though, is a different breed, he says. The daredevil isn't scared. The daredevil has no survival instinct to stop them from getting hurt. If they crash and burn it's part of the experience, the lifestyle, the reason they do it. This is also exciting for an audience, or perhaps thrilling is a more accurate word, but possibly self-destructive for the daredevil. The conversation left me wondering whether some actors are stuntmen, and others daredevils.

The stakes raised by the Malthouse company staff fires the run. It feels like several steps advanced from anything the show has been before. It's a huge release of tension, and Darren calls lunch.

But, the release of tension at the good run is shortlived; after lunch it's back into details. There's still heaps of work. Heaps of technical details, plenty of moments that will need more detailing before they're ready. What needs work is pretty crystal, and Mark tells me later that the afternoon's work feels good. Friday's run is cancelled in favour of detailing. At this stage it feels that the notion of the 'whole' is now pretty solid in everybody's performances. It's the details within scenes that is now the priority.

Tomorrow is the last day of rehearsal before production week. Lawrence is here again, and I'll catch up with Wardrobe and to see how they're getting on. Next week most of the work will be done in the theatre. It's a highly technical show. There's the ocassional sign from the cast that they're worried about just how technical the show is going to be, and whether there's enough time to master the technical details. But for now, they are going hard on mastering the scenic moments. Tick, tock, tick, tock.

Vaudeville Rehearsal Day 18

2009-02-25T21:11:00.000-08:00

Support for being a Human Spider in the poll is pretty slight, so I've added this picture of one of the greats from old time Vaudeville to inspire you. Looks like a great act! So get on and vote.

Today it's a 'detailing' day. There is a complete schedule of scenes to run for the rest of the rehearsal period pinned up on the door. The scenes they are working on at this stage of the rehearsal are ones that have been causing issues; they're scheduled for further detailed work. To give you a sense of these rehearsals I've recorded a second-by- second breakdown of an hour in the Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd rehearsal room.

The hour is in the first half of the day. The company has just returned from a morning break, and will be working on a big group scene towards the end of Act I. Half way through this hour Carlee arrives to work on a choreographic scene close to the very beginning of the show;-

0 – 1.06 secs – Chris sets up the scene they will do, quick cast discussion of specifics and where everybody is positioned leading into it.
1.06 – 2.14 Runs the scene
2.14 – 2.45 Stops, discuss details of the final moments.
2.45 – 3.01 Run last bit of scene again.
3.01 - 7.49 Julia asks about technical details relating to the scene. Chris explains how the technical part is going to work. Following the tech explanation, they discuss how the broad pattern of movement works again. Chris works through the stakes of scene, what the important points in the scene are. Then moves to some character details that provide clarity for everybody's roles in this scene. More physical explanation, musical clarification for Mark. About to begin. Wait, another quick question that generates some more clarification for the other characters in the scene.
7.49 - 8.15 Run the last bit of the scene again.
8.15 – 8.38 Chris gives note to Alex about how he's coming in on an important line.
8.38 - 9.22 Runs the last bit again, then moving into the next bit of the scene.
9.22 - 10.35 Chris stops them. Clarity for Jim and Julia of the next bit.
10.35 - 11.29 Runs this bit again. Chris stops it.
11.29 - 12.48 Chris jumps in and clarifies the intention of the scene with Jim, then works in how this effects the other characters again. Actors do a 'dry' line run.
12.48 – 14.44 Run everything they've looked at from the same place again. Pause for a line check, without breaking the scene, begins again. Continues to run further into the scene than previously. Chris freezes the scene, then clarifies what's happening for the other characters in this specific moment. They are about to continue on without breaking...but, another question.
14.44 – 17.33 They break for real this time now, and Chris talks with Jim and Christen about their responses to the situation. There's some discussion about a line that's been proving difficult. Then they're into starting positions again.
17.33 – 17.54 Run from the same place again. Stops.
17.54 – 18.15 Quick vocal detail.
18.15 - 18.46 Run from the same place again. Stops.
18.46 – 19.00 Quick physical detail.
19.00 – 19.18 Run. Stop. Quick line check.
19.18 - 20.24 Run again, this time moving into the next part of the scene. Chris stops it when he's happy they're through that bit.
20.24 - 22.34 Chris clarifies that everything to that point is working. They move on to talk about what happens next in the sequence of scenes. Chris talks to Alex about the detail of the moment to come. Then adds Julia in.
22.34 - 23.34 Run again, starting from an earlier point to get back in.
23.34 – 23.52 Quick detail from Chris; physical and intention of scene.
23.52 - 26.20 Runs again from same spot, (Chris explains FX as they run, real time.) Runs on into the next section. Real time, Chris directs detail, with the scene continuing to run. Scene comes to its end.
26.20 - 27.21 Chris gives it the thumbs up. They're going to run everything they've looked at in the previous half hour. They discuss the set up, precisely which line to run from in the script, where they're positions are.
27.21 – 32.00 They run it all. One clarifying detail, midway, but they stay in it.
32.00 – 34.20 Stops. Chris likes it. Quick question about the overall pitching from Jim. Right? Not right? Chris thinks it's okay. They move onto the dance training. Carlee is here. They set up for the particular scene that Carlee is here to drill. Positions.
34.20 – 36.28 Into the dance sequence. Running it from the top.
36.28 – 37.31 Carlee gives notes. First few steps; good. Identifies problem spot.
37.31 – 37.59 Work through problem spot; slow speed. Stops.
37.59 - 38.42 Begins from the top again, same spot as above. Move by move, half pace. Stop
38.42 – 39.59 Carlee discusses details, and moves to work on the next bit.
39.59 – 40.21 Quick run
40.21 - 40.52 Again. Half time.
40.52 – 41.12 Carlee clarifies details.
41.12 - 41.30 Run.
41.30 – 41.50 Detail.
41.55 - 42.38 Run.
42.38 – 44.21 New bit to look at. Carlee talks the positioning. Discussion of who's looking at who to lead. A discussion of timing of the middle section.
44.21 - 44.56 Run. Carlee demonstrates and yells instructions for steps and timing.
44.56 – 47.58 Back to beginning. Discuss detail. Dry run of timing. More detail of steps and arms. Question to Mark on music at that point. Carlee re-details a previously broadly specified movement.
47.58 - 48.13 Walk it again from that point.
48.13 - 49.16 Quick question. Broad approval. Set up from beginning again.
49.16 - 50.02 Run from top. Carlee dance instructs everything again from out front.
50.02 - 51.30 Discuss positions of the final moment, and actions. They practice it. Then discusses the timing, given the little changes from the re-detailing.
51.30 – 51.40 Run
51.40 – 53.15 Discuss; Carlee wants to re-detail; it's still not quite working. They work through that.
53.15 – 53.39 Run.
53.39 - 55.27 Re-detail again. Something a bit looser; the tight choreography isn't quite right. They discuss that the movement will be driven by an energy now, rather than a tight choreography. Another question about final pose.
55.27 – 56.03 Run
56.03 - 58.49 Carlee is really happy with this final version. Chris wants to clarify the emphasised beats. Carlee asks the cast if they want to go from the top or just the last bit; they want to do the whole thing. Chris wants them to come in from a long way back, so as to cover the transitional space. Carlee and Chris clarify some further details. Chris sets them up for running the scene from the top.
58.49 - 1.08.20 Run from the beginning of the sequence.
1.08.20... ...

That's a typical hour for this time in the process. So many simultaneous questions, thoughts, ideas, stopping, starting, stopping, starting, and sometimes over and over for a single moment.
Tomorrow it's a run first thing - the exact opposite of today. What will it bring?

Vaudeville Rehearsal Day 17 - See how the whole play runs...

2009-02-24T16:54:00.000-08:00

The day starts with magic. Obviously I'm not at liberty to divulge any of that, so I headed down and spoke to Richard Vabre, the lighting designer. We were emailed a question in the week from Ian. It reads;

"Given that lighting technologies were far less advanced in Vaudeville days than they are today, how is the time period affecting the lighting design, if at all?"

This is Richard's reply.

When I get back to the rehearsal room. Jim and Chris work on some non-speaking bits. It's a scene focused on busy-ness. Chris thumps the floor at a fast pace to emphasize the pace at which Jim needs to move. He's banging the floor so hard that I could hear him down in the foyer. There was a slight jump in the rhythm which I now realise was Chris changing hands.

At the same time Stephen takes Christen to another room to do what Christen calls “remedial comedy classes.” They've both got a great ear for comedy, and the detailing they come back with is good stuff.

Chris moves onto some of the more important scenes to the central relationships. It will be interesting over the next few days to what Chris spends the majority of his time with. Whether it reveals what scenes the director sees as at the heart of the piece?

Richard, Jethro and Jonathon are all working extremely hard at the moment. The design element on this show across all levels is tremendously well developed, and generates a huge volume of work for everybody on the design team. That reminds me that I've got to get down to Wardrobe again to see how Amanda and Kate are getting on with the costumes.

The company prepares for a run in the afternoon. They are running the entire show. This is the first serious run of the whole show beginning to end. There's a little tension in the air, but nothing like last week.

When it's over it feels to me like a 'whole' for the first time. But what does Chris say?

He thinks it's taken a big step on from Friday, especially Act Two. Act One was a little bitsy, but to be expected since they've been concentrating so much on Act Two. He talks about the action between scenes in Act One, and the upstage action. Transitions are a big job at this stage of just about any process.

He thinks that Act Two is starting to work well. He says that the scenes they haven't touched on for a time that are the weakest, which is both predicable and reassuring. He also talks about how Act Two works from state to state. Again, a transition and rhythmic thing.

There's a bit of discussion about the set. Now that it's being built in the theatre there are some realisations occurring for everybody about how the set is going to work. They talk about some of the potentials they may be able to work with once they get in the space.

It's an issue in making professional theatre that is very hard to solve; how the actors can fully inhabit their world when they often don't get to work within it properly until production week. As we saw in the video last week, the rehearsal room is well kitted out with a genuinely impressive approximation of the set. Even so, it still doesn't feel the same as the theatre, or sound like it. And there are lots of minute physical details of the environment that will be different. Often it is these details that fire the actors' imaginations, and define the world. The way the performers engage with the set is the difference between it being perceived as a 'world' or a 'backdrop.'

Maryanne watched the run again this afternoon and took some more notes. My discussion with her the other day was more wide ranging than the couple of minutes of video. What a dramaturge does can be a bit of a mysterious art at times. But, it's worth relating some more of the conversation because it's interesting relative to how work is developed by theatre companies more generally.

Maryanne mentioned that dramaturgy is often thought of as primarily script work. She sees the role quite differently. She is very much focused on the whole; the physical images, the sound, the juxtaposition of elements, the actors' interpretations of moments, the character arcs, and really everything that comprises the production.

She talks about feeling the energy of the room, understanding where the actors are at in the process, how certain people watching the rehearsal might influence the particular run. Also, the need to feel what the director and writer are going for, and contribute within that frame. She needs to provide a fresh eye and an objective eye, but place herself in the frame of what the creatives are working towards, (which is possibly not at all an objective or readily understandable place.)

Time, time, time. Yes, the run confirmed that development is tracking well. But the countdown clock up top of this blog ticks on. Is there enough rehearsal time before the play opens to audiences? Just three more days in the rehearsal room, then we're in the theatre. That's when the pressure will really start to rise!

Tomorrow, something a little different - a second-by-second run down of an hour in the Vaudeville rehearsal room. Don't miss it!!

Darren word for the day – charred
Chris one word for the day – marathon

Vaudeville Day 16 - The Set has left the workshop

2009-02-23T15:32:00.000-08:00

The first day of the final week. And the set has left the worshop and is being built in the theatre. I'll try to sneak in and get a shot if I'm allowed:-

There's been some activity over the weekend, but not a lot of activity; a really good sign. Chris and Lally have decided to make a few cuts here and there, but the broad feeling is that the work that needs doing is predominantly on the scenes, not on the script.

It's an interesting balance for new scripts. Established scripts and 'classic' scripts have their own validation. There is an implied onus on the company to make the script work. When it is accepted that the writer has written a great script, it is expected that the script will make great theatre if the artists can make it 'live.' With new scripts there's a different balance. Text can be cut or changed basically at will. There is nothing sacred about the new script yet. The script can be 'developed' in whatever way required to serve the play, to make the play work on stage.

The challenge can be in knowing when to stand by the script, trusting that with hard work the actors will make the text work, and when to find fault with the script, and therefore cut or change it.

This is especially the case after early runs of a new play. There's no question that early runs will be rough. It is one of the great skills of a directors and dramaturgs of new plays to be able to decipher in these early runs when the 'roughness' is in the script and when it is in the performance readiness. Sometimes it can be really hard to tell.

I asked resident Malthouse Dramaturge in Residence Maryanne Lynch how she deciphered from early runs whether issues she saw were problems with the script, or problems stemming from lack of performance readiness. This is some of what she said;

And it's actually even more complicated than that. Actors are so good at getting things to work that sometimes they will make a moment or scene work that really isn't serving the play. This can encourage writers and directors to remain committed to a scene, when perhaps it interrupts the play's momentum or disrupts important 'arcs.'

Chris and the writing team have been making these calls over the weekend. For the most part they're trusting the script; after all, it has been literally years of development to this point.

So, for the company it's back to scene work again. Chris has developed a list of scenes to work on, and the cast make their way through these. Morale is really high today, as all the cast are getting closer and more comfortable with their characters. They are 'inhabiting' their characters more than before, rather than being mid-process of developing who they are. They seem freer today to work on the details of the scenes; thinking less, trusting that their offers are 'in character.'

Chris is directing like the conductor of an orchestra today. He moves into the space, eyes wide and arms outstretched, conducting the movement of the actors in the space. He winds them up, he slows them down, he controls their flow. There is great clarity in the rehearsal room now. They are consciously working on fewer simultaneous issues now because there is a 'living' base, which everybody shares and can evolve with each new direction or scenic idea. Previously, every change or new direction set off a chain of questions about how the direction would effect every other related issue. Now it is like the 'living' base accomodates and shifts for every new direction. It slots in, and the rest of the work shifts and slots into a new place quite naturally. They don't need to discuss it.

Accordingly, they are actually now able to work on more simultaneous issues. Chris is directing the secondary stage action at the same time as the primary dialogue. Before today the secondary, or incidental stage action has been only rudimentarily dealt with. For example Chris will say, “You guys will do so-and-so in the background, but we'll get to that later.” Well, “later” is now. There is headspace for both Chris and the cast to spend time on this level of action. It is incredibly important work. Now that it's there, it's already adding in a lot of detail in respect of the relationships. Some of the character issues and 'relationship' issues that they've been discussing in relation to the scripted scenes is being layered into the secondary action.

It draws my attention back to the limitations of script analysis. By its nature a script analysis will focus heavily on the dialogue, and can encourage consternation about whether certain elements of the play are being properly explored or enacted by the script. Sometimes though, vital elements of a relationship can actually be crystalised with a single, or a sequence of very short dialogue-less encounters in the incidental action. Action that occurs incidentally during another dialogue or song. It is very difficult to analyse the effect of these moments in a script analysis situation.

Tomorrow's list of scenes has already been drawn up, and there is another run tomorrow afternoon. The pattern seems well set; runs separated by focussed work on individual scenes that require detailing.

Vaudeville Rehearsal - Day 15. And then there were two (rehearsal rooms)

2009-02-22T19:54:00.000-08:00

STOP PRESS!!
I've just been authorised to give away tickets to the show. I've decided to run a competition over the next few days, based upon posts that have been in this blog. Details tomorrow.

Also, there's a new poll. Cast your votes!!

Today's video is a question I put to Malthouse Artistic Director Michael Kantor about the body of Chris and Lally's work. He's makes some really interesting points;

Carlee is back today and dance training is on again. The mood is light, everybody is wearing 'show' shoes, and some of the cast seem to even be wearing dance specific attire. There's a lot of laughter and everybody is having fun. The group's energy is irresistible. Carlee brings a fantastic 'just do it' attitude that the cast taps into. The phrase of the session is “repetition, repetition.” The choreography is simply going to need repetition if they are going to get it perfect, and they seem to be loving the simplicity of that.

While Carlee works on different parts of the choreography in one room, Lawrence, the Magic Consultant is working in another. Chris moves between the two rooms, checking in on both and providing the necessary input for those decisions that only a director can make. Another run of the second act is scheduled for the afternoon, so there is a tight schedule of scenes and moments to work on, in readiness for that run.

The company's energy feels slightly more relaxed today. As they work there seems less urgency. I might be imagining it, but the conversations seem slower, thoughts more deeply considered. Yesterday's script analysis is present in the conversations; there is more sharing of thoughts and less logic-based discussion. As we get closer to run time a buzz builds in the room. The dramaturgs Kate and Maryanne come in to watch the second act run. Feels as though there's a bit riding on it. It would be really great to have a breakthrough run before the weekend. It would give everybody a chance to relax and restore their energy levels in preparation for what is always a big final week before entering production week.

Will the threads come together? Will it build the drive it needs?

The second act begins.

The beginning calls for big energy and Jim is right up to it. He dominates the room and sets the tone perfectly.

The scenes generally seem considerably stronger, but the 'transitions' are still very present. This is always the case with early runs. But, the particular structure of this show makes the transitions between scenes especially apparent. Given the emphasis Chris places on the rhythms of the work, this is not at all surprising.

About half way through the run it has hit a solid tempo. The energy is now being maintained from scene to scene in a way it hasn't done so before; it's developing a self-sufficiency that it didn't have previously. Scenes are starting to build their meaning and drive from scenes that come prior; sort of an obvious thing to say, but when you rehearse scenes one at a time it can be difficult to feel the energy that the previous scenes provide, even if you know intellectually what it's going to provide. There are some great moments that genuinely surprise and energise the performance, even for an audience that are not new to the show.

The run winds up right before the end of the day. No time to hear from Chris how he thought it went. No time to hear from the dramaturgs who will also provide their reflections.
Everybody agrees that they will email over the weekend.

Darren's word for the day - "So you think you can dance"

Vaudeville Day 14 - An Odyssey into Wardrobe...

2009-02-19T17:52:00.000-08:00

Today is about script analysis. The majority of the day is spent working through the play moment by moment. Lally is leaving at the end of the week, and everybody needs to be absolutely clear on the script before we get into the final week. It became clear after yesterday's run that the company still needs some work to understand how the play is working in a nuts and bolts kind of way.

There have been quite a few small script changes over the last few days, and some minor changes in scene order. They talk through the play scene by scene, moment by moment to clarify that everybody has the same script, the same order of scenes, and a similar understanding of the journey of the play as a whole.

The discussion is focused, but engages a few different fronts, so it takes most of the day. There is a good amount of old fashioned script analysis; what does every scene do in the play, why characters say what they say when they say it. They discuss what each line and action means across the entire journey of the play. The process is long and there are occasional references to time running short, but everybody is digging in really hard.

I take the opportunity to go down and talk to wardrobe. Amanda and Kate are doing the costume build. The wardrobe section is in not in the main Malthouse building, which is probably why we haven't been down there before. Liz, seconded from VCA, takes me down there. It's kind of exciting to head down there; today's video is entitled, “My Wardrobe Odyssey.” Check it out.

Wardrobe is a really fabulous place. A large window to the left fills the room with natural light; sometimes a scarce commodity in theatre buildings. There are cool looking pieces of clothes-making equipment everywhere, those huge industrial strength fabric scissors, wigs, crazy hats, reams of material of all kinds. Jonathon is pulling a piece of ribbon out of somewhere and is asking if he can have it. And Bob Marley is playing! Amanda tells me she likes it here because they are removed from the stress that often inhabits the main theatre building. With openings and previews and closings and artists under pressure and issues of all kinds, theatre buildings house huge amounts of energy. It's what makes theatres such wonderful places, but this place does feel like a bit of a refuge.

There is a cape on the main work table, with all kinds of features being attached. It's detailed work. I ask Kate how long it will take to make; 2 days is the reply. What's more, she says, she has to make two of them.

Amanda is sewing up a corset off to the right. For somebody like me, who mostly wears clothes that have been mass made in China, it's actually pretty wonderful to see somebody sewing up a corset from scratch. Immediately, the question enters my mind of how much time all these costumes take to make. I notice that the trim on the corset is being ironed on. Nevertheless, it's a massive undertaking.

I ask them if they are on schedule. They say they are, but the appearance of the countdown on the blog was a bit frightening nonetheless. When I ask them if I could see the costumes they've made to date they point to a couple of big plastic bags full of pieces; turns out they don't completely sew things up until later on.

They tell me the build takes 2 people all of the 4 week rehearsal period to make the costumes. They generally work from about 7.30 until 6 in the evening. No doubt, there will be a lot of work to do once the show gets into production week and the actors are wearing them for the first time with performance energy.

Even though they wouldn't let me take any video, they would let me take a few snaps of a corner of the room. Maybe next time I'll be able to film their workshop for you. Tomorrow is the last day of the third week. Lawrence Leung is in the house, and I'll also be talking to Malthouse AD Michael Kantor. So don't miss tomorrow's blog. It's starting to feel close now!

PLUS – the 'Chair of Unhappy' arrives from the workshop. Now that is going to be something!

Vaudeville Rehearsal Day 13 - "Is he serious?...Are we gonna run it?..."

2009-02-18T18:03:00.000-08:00

This video was taken at the end of the day's work. It's the rehearsal room as it is set up now. Every day more things are added. I'll try to get down and have a look at how the set building is going for tomorrow. And the costumes too. The action down there seems to be building every day!

The cast run the play up to where we're at in the morning session. The first act is really exciting; there's a lot of buzz during the break between the first and second acts. Chris says afterwards that the first act is more advanced than he was imagining it would be at this point. It definitely has its own growth momentum now. There's details and 'special bits' to add, but it feels as though it has a beating heart now, which will pump blood through its whole.

The second act is about where Chris thought it would be, which is still rough. Given that they haven't quite finished rehearsing it, it's not a surprise. Even so, there's a palpable disappointment that the partial run hasn't quite brought together some of the threads that are proving illusive.

After lunch they sit down to de-brief. The things Chris talks about most are the big arcs, and the meaning of some of the important moments. One of the things the actors ask about is what Chris sees as the climax of the act. Because of the unusual structure they are unclear which moment is the climactic moment they are driving toward. This 'drive' is all important at this stage, the cast us unclear on it. What are the hierarchy of moments? What is the shape of the characters' individual journeys? The run has offered some insight and clarity to these questions that the cast share, but there is still a way to go.

One of the continuing lines of discusion surrounds what things in the play are part of an ongoing repeated cycle, and what things are happening for the first time. Trying to tease these questions out feels a bit like de-constructing an Escher painting. Defining a single moment one way or another often only creates logical conundrums for other moments in the play. Chris carefully offers definitive answers for some of the moments, and not for others.

The de-brief has been a good one. They've answered the questions they can and it's time to zoom back in again to the small picture. After the discussion they get down to work on the moments of the second act they've not yet covered. There's a strong desire to solve single moments again. For the second time this week the final scenes of the day involve Matt's character and one other. It's coincidence, but I wonder whether there is something useful about working with a speechless character at the end of the day. The scenes are necessarily more about physical action, and naturally eschew logical discussion about the text; good scenes to do when people are tired at the end of the day.

As promised, I caught up with Christen O'Leary to ask her about her process of working with the ventriloquist dummy. Christen's 'bodied' character is Maude, and her dummy is Doris.

She tells me that she had never done any ventriloquism before, and that she's never really been that interested in it. Having spent a couple of weeks with the dummy now, she's totally in awe of ventriloquists. It's an extraordinary skill that she feels might be a little under-rated. She makes the point that there is a magician on the show to train up the cast members doing magic tricks, but nobody thought there should be any such requirement for ventriloquism. (I believe it was thought that Christen's character is not necessarily an especially good ventriloquist. Nevertheless, it's a point well made.)

I ask her what is in her mind as she performs with the dummy. She says there are two things which are both surprisingly difficult. Firstly, not showing that you're talking. (Much more difficult than it seems, especially when you have to sing.) Secondly, she is acting a second character that is fully fledged and absolutely endowed with humanity.

This is interesting because I was presuming that the 'dummy' character is primarily speaking her 'bodied' character's sub-text. So why the need to approach the dummy as an entire character in and of itself. Why not approach the role as a single character? She agrees that the dummy mostly speaks the subtext, but says that she can't play it that way. The ventriloquism doesn't work unless the dummy can respond and interact like a 'real' person. The dummy must have its own life to be theatrically interesting.

Further, she feels that Maude is in denial of Doris. Maude doesn't see Doris as her own subconscious or subtext. Doris comprises some parts of Maude that Maude can't bear to look at. Doris is Maude's survival mechanism, the denial that allows her to function. “Some things in life are horrific.” says Christen, “Sometimes our mind saves us by shutting those things down.”

Christen talks about Maude's honesty in speaking through Doris, “She's incredibly honest. She's true to all the bile, she doesn't hide the frustration, the bile, the anger. She throws it in everybody's face.” But, she insists, you can't play that. She has to play Doris like she's her own character.

I ask her about the dummy's movement; the eyes, the mouth, the body. When they rehearsed this the detail they worked on in respect of the dummy's movements and timing was absolutely precise. Christen says that it's like working on two separate, distinct, simultaneous choreographies. Even for dancers that's a difficult job.

It occurred to me that we rarely work at this level of detail with 'real' bodies, and that perhaps we should. I put this to Christen. Her reply was that, for her personally, working in that way would be hell. She already feels that she builds this level of detail into her characters naturally. To do it formally would take large amounts of time, and would probably undermine the natural process that takes place irrespective. You can rely on a good process building this level of detail and refinement without trying to tackle it directly.

I finally ask her what is the most difficult thing about the performance. She replies that it is her 'act' in the play within the play. She says that 'big comedy' is really hard for her. She doesn't like delivering the big comic lines. The “walking wound” type of character is where she feels most comfortable as a performer. Given her strong background in comedy, this came as something of a surprise. Having said that, a number a years ago she played a burn victim in a full 'burns' recovery suit; her performance in that play has stayed with me for years.

Vaudeville Rehearsal Day 12 - Some new strategies, and some repeated challenges.

2009-02-17T17:58:00.000-08:00

In yesterday's video Chris held up a book called "Act as known" by Valantyne Napier. This book provided significant inspiration for the show. The video below entitled,

"Quotes from Valantyne Napier."

is a very quick multi-media 'flick through' of the book.

The rehearsals on the floor are well into the back end of the play; huge stakes scenes, scenes that wind up arcs, scenes that reveal important inner workings. It's close-in work again, and Chris is sitting on the floor with the actors doing line-by-line script analysis. They 'beat' these scenes out; identifying actions, intentions, sub-text, key-words for the characters in the scene. This work is more about getting into the psychological reality of the situation than the majority of the previous work. The tools they are using to work with the scenes have changed accordingly.

Lally has presented a 'final' version of these final scenes. Darren hands out the pages to the actors. It's not a completely new scene, just a revised version. The actors have been getting impatient for a 'final' edition of the entire second act. A full version was due to be distributed yesterday, but a computer error has delayed it, and it still hasn't arrived. The cast is being good about it. They know the nature of new plays is that the script won't be absolutely finalised until virtually the last moments. Even so, the delay caused by the computer error hasn't helped anybody.

Everybody sits in a circle and they read new script. They discuss the changes. They are subtle changes, but important. The discussion heads back to one of performance style for the play in general. One of the actors puts forward the thought that the characters and the language seem larger than life, so the actors feel the need to 'heighten' the performance style to match the language. But when they perform it that way it feels like a melodrama. On the other hand, if they play it with a more naturalistic style they feel that it doesn't make dramatic sense, or carry any force. So, where do the actors pitch it?

Chris responds by talking about the importance of the audience caring for the characters and believing in the reality. Lally responds with re-assurance that the scenes she is watching are really chilling and wonderful, and that so-and-so who came in said it seemed really special. They talk about it some more, but ultimately, there's no talking that can provide satisfaction for the questions. In some ways today's discussion echoes last week's about what is 'real' in the play. These are questions that Chris does not like to answer, except in broad, abstract terms. You get the feeling that they're the questions he wants the play itself to generate and be infused with. He doesn't want them answered by discussion.

It's a situation where everybody is wrestling with a new play. The actors feel they're in unfamiliar territory, and are anchored to unfamiliar moorings. It's good to get the issues 'out there' but continuing to work it on the floor is the only way to find where to pitch things. Everybody knows it - they truck on.

We're into the hard work now, moving towards the heart of the play. Moments are taking a long time to explore. Issues are denser and more complex. Answers are harder to find. Beats can't be skated over in this part of the play because the actors feel the deep importance, and need to embody the mystery, rather than grasp for it. Everything is incredibly fragile, delicate.

Tomorrow they will run the whole play for the first time. It seems early for the second act, but sometimes you have to 'zoom out' of a picture to see the whole before you can contextualise the complex detail close up. As Chris often says, it is the rhythm that will be the guide. Tomorrow's going to be a really big day. It's amazing how quickly these milestones stack up one after the other in the rehearsal of a show.

Also, I've spoken to Christen about how she's managing her multiple characters as Maude, the ventriloquist. It was a fascinating talk, and that will be in tomorrow's post too.

Lally word o the day – cyclical
Stephen word o the day - format
Chris word o the day – ontological distress

Vaudeville Rehearsal Day 11

2009-02-16T16:43:00.000-08:00

We'll start off with another question from a reader. This question is to Chris and comes from Don from parts unknown:-

And another breakthrough in our attempts to get to the bottom of 'Muddy Magic.' I just received this email;-

Hello Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd Blogger,

I have been enjoying your blog. The behind-the-scenes view of the show is fascinating: everyone has a different angle on the creative process and something to bring to the production.

Yes I can confirm there are only 4 "Muddy Magic" books in existence - bound in four different coloured covers. Chris Kohn the director protects the blue edition, Darren the production manager is keeper of the green edition, Jonathon Oxlade the designer is the custodian of the red edition and the author of the book (me) holds the remaining brown edition.

I'm sure prying bloggers with sneaky audio recording equipment are aware that I will be training the cast in the ways of "Muddy Magic" later next week, but you will never get past our iron-clad security!

If that's not a challenge I don't know what is!

Into the day's rehearsing.

What's a vaudeville show without dancing?! Just check out the second video down on the right, and you'll know what I'm talking about. (the woman dancing with the chair in her mouth really is incredible!)

Enter Carlee the choreographer. This is really going to be something. Actors usually have mixed feelings towards dancing. Often it's a love-hate thing. They love doing it, but it's not their training, so it's scary. And choreographers are not like theatre directors; they just say exactly what they want, they demonstrate, they don't worry about whether an actor is 'in the moment' or 'satisfied' - they just say what they want and expect the dancers to do it.

Carlee watches the first big song number and is immediately on the job-

First she wants Julia to fall back into the arms of the rest of the cast - 'trust exercise' style.
This instruction is closely followed by Julia's pointed warning to the cast;
“If any of you %$#*& s drop me!!...” Yep, we're off.

Next, it's marching, sort of to the music. Immediately, one of the actors interjects with a serious question concerning the psychological reality of his character behaving in this way. Err...yeah. Water off a duck's back for Carly. She ignores it and is onto adding a layer of 'popping' to the marching. 'Popping' is not that rap kind of stuff you sometimes see on a popular TV dance show. It's more like features added to the marching.

Starts off well. Everybody's 'popping' beautifully. Carlee wants the pops to be more “courageous.” They pump it up as instructed.

More marching, but this time Carlee asks for different arm action;- “Now...exaggerate it!” They pump that up too.

“Now we add box-step!!”

“You're joking!! I mean it...I mean it,” announces one of the actors. The room is silent for a second. But Carlee just rolls on and next thing they're all box-stepping.

“Now, we're going to move in the space. You three move forward, you move back. Then you two move in here. And when you meet in the middle, you scoop her up, and... ”

“Holy mother of...!!”

Three minutes of consternation later, and they're doing that too! Well, a couple of times, anyway, before they cut it for technical reasons. Then Chris has an idea about an addition:-

“That's a good idea!" says Carlee, "So, while we do the march forward, everybody bends down and picks a [censored.]”

Within 2 minutes Darren has raced out and found four [censored] to use. They add that into the march aaaaand...seamless!

Break.

It's a slightly weird mood. There's a lot of laughter, but not all of it is comfortable. There is a slight atmosphere underlying the laugher that already there was plenty to do; songs, magic tricks, complicated realities, characters within characters, and now choreography. Is it a bridge too far? Can everybody be expected to learn it all in the time we've got left? (Which reminds me, the poll is still running.)

After the break some of the choreography for individuals is done in a 'closed set' situation.

I talk to Matt about it afterwards. He seemed to take to the choreography with real gusto. No doubt it's the circus training and clowning that hold him in good stead. He tells me that a late, great circus entrepeneur once told him, "If you can't make it good, make it funny; if you can't make it funny, make it fast." He's being modest.

Vaudeville Rehearsal Day 10 - What does an Assistant Director do, anyway?

2009-02-15T19:40:00.000-08:00

Today's video is of a conversation I had with set designer Jonathon Oxlade about his initial points of inspiration. Check it out.

And don't forget to vote in the poll; only a few days left.

Already the end of the second week ! ! We are slightly down on the cast today because Julia has alternate commitments and is not rehearsing today. The focus necessarily moves to the scenes in which Julia does not have a significant part.

During this time I took the opportunity to talk with one of the most mysterious figures in professional theatre; the assistant director. What does an assistant director do?

Well, the experience of assistant directors varies broadly from project to project and director to director as to what responsibilities they are given and what role they take on for a production. There are no hard and fast rules for it. In some cases the role is almost strictly 'observational.' That is to say, you assist with watching rehearsal. In other cases, you might be given scenes to work on after the director has laid down the fundamental approach, or there might be a tour that the assistant director will ultimately take responsibility for.

I wouldn't want to over-generalize, especially on recent experience, but the first of the options mentioned above has been the common 'role' for a lot of assistant directors over the years. Young directors often talk about it in terms of a necessary evil to get introduced to the professional industry. I asked Vaudeville's Assistant Director, Stephen Nicolazzo, what his role is.
His response was that Chris and he have never formally defined what his role is. Nevertheless, he feels that it's pretty clear. Turns out that Stephen is not your usual AD. He has been working on the project for over a year, and has also assisted Chris on other projects. So they have an ongoing working relationship. This means that there is a core of trust between Chris and himself. Also, they share an aesthetic, which means he can make recommendations with confidence.

In the first weeks of the rehearsal period he has played a strong dramaturgical role. He feels he's good with writers, so has been working very closely with Lally on the script inside and outside of the rehearsal room. He offers Chris and Lally an analysis of scenes, discussing what the scene's importance to the play is, whether it's fulfiling its objectives, and how it may be tweaked to better do so.

He discusses how the play's arcs are working, looks at the intentions of the characters, and goes through the play word by word with Lally and Chris. He talks about bringing a different 'reading' of the scenes, which can help elucidate how the scene works, and may be built upon to strengthen or enrich it.

I ask him what his role with the actors in the rehearsal room is. He says that he provides Chris with an extra pair of eyes and ears. Because of his deep knowledge of the play he is in a position to nudge or remind Chris of aspects of scenes they have discussed before the rehearsal. These aspects can then be layered into the scene, or help provide the answer to an issue they're working on.

The crucial issue is one of trust. Stephen says that in a previous production Chris had sent him away with work to do with the performers, and had actively worked to give Stephen a 'voice' in the room. The success of these early attempts taught him not to doubt himself, and helped build his confidence.

Of course there is also the issue of gaining the actors' trust. The stage can be an extraordinarily vulnerable place for actors, and they place enormous faith in directors. Because the majority of the cast of Vaudeville haven't worked with Chris or Stephen before, they are naturally wary of trusting Stephen quite yet. But he's working on gaining that respect, and Chris's empowerment of Stephen is vital to that process. No doubt, as the opening looms ever closer, Stephen's role in assisting Chris on the floor in running and working scenes is going to get larger.

Chris and Stephen were introduced through a professional development program at Melbourne Uni's Union House. Seems to me to be a far better model of assistant director-ship, than simply being seconded onto projects, which is often the case.

Next Monday the choreographer's coming in. Can't wait to see how the cast handle that!

Vaudeville Rehearsal Day 9 -

2009-02-12T15:31:00.000-08:00

We'll start out with answering a question that Jessica from Murrumbeena sent in for Lally over the email. (Which is goodbyevaudeville(at)gmail.com)

It read;
Dear Lally, I know that you have done more than half a dozen collaborations with Chris Kohn. Are the plays you write with Chris different from the other plays you write?

This is Lally's response;

Don't forget to vote in the poll on the right. Remember voting is compulsory, fines may apply!

As promised, I caught up with Julia to ask her about the 'mirror' scene from the other day. As a quick re-cap, Julia is playing a couple of different characters that are similar and overlapping, and in fact one character might be said to 'play' the other at various times.

I was interested in how she was going about it, and caught up with her to talk about her process. Julia says she sees the role as actually playing 3 versions of a single character. At this stage in the process she is looking to be clear about intentions and actions. She says that she has a tendency to play 'states,' and that she is trying to work against this tendency by focusing on the action of every moment.

I ask her about her apparent starting point in voice associated with a physicality. She responds that she is naturally a thinker, and likes to 'think through things.' But, by the same token she also realises that she's not going to be able to 'think' her way through this role because the play isn't built that way. The focus on voice and physicality is part of a strategy to build another process outside of the thought process.

We talk a little bit about 'keys.' I ask her if she thinks there is a 'key' she will discover that will unlock the character(s) she is playing. Julia is not sure if it going to work that way. She says that for one of her characters an early rehearsal moment held an important key. In the rehearsal she had to strangle one of the other characters. The action of this moment provided an exceptionally strong immediate connection for her into a voice and physicality for that character. She sums up by saying that she thinks that if there is a 'key' to her role as a whole, it won't be a logical one. She thinks it could be a musical one.

Julia also makes the point that she is creating the character in collaboration with Chris. He directs her to play a moment in one way or another, and these directions and explorations also develop her sense of who she is playing. There is little point in her committing to decisions about the character if they are at odds with how Chris sees the character evolving. She is also aware that there are times when 'meaning' is made almost entirely from external factors. That is to say, a director might say, 'walk up the stairs, wait 3 beats, look left, then walk half way down again.' Externally this might carry enormous meaning, but she won't necessarily 'feel' it herself.

In today's rehearsal we continue working on the Julia's 'mirror' scene. It is a scene in which Julia's characters dialogue with themselves. To clarify the sense of the dialogue, Lally reads the other character's words. It's an interesting thing to have the writer read lines into the space. It's usually frowned upon to have a director read lines for an actor; it's usually viewed as short circuiting the actor's process. But the writer reading seems a different case. Certainly when Lally reads, Julia responds to it very positively and everybody feels that the result is a strong one.

The afternoon rehearsal is focused on a 'run' of everything we've done to date. We're only part way through the act, but even partial runs are extremely important for keeping everybody in touch with where we're up to. As has been already noted, the atmosphere in the second act is markedly different from the first act, both in the play and in the style of rehearsal. In recognition of this, rules of coming and going from the rehearsal room are modified to assist with concentration and maintaining the mood.

In contrast to first act rehearsals, not all of the performers have been in the room for every rehearsal. It is important that everybody catches up with what everybody else has been doing with Chris. Matt comments before we begin that he is reminded of a film shoot, in which the order of scenes is all of out place and it's hard to retain a sense of the 'whole.'

As they run there is a great deal of negotiation with the space. Over the last couple of days there have been a lot of props and bits of furniture and rostra making their way into the space. Costumes, too; Jim has been wearing a hat since yesterday. The space has begun to take on a new feel and shape that the run is now emphasising. The actors are working to find their way around it as they run the scenes. What do they with new pieces of set that weren't there before?, how do they sit on the new chairs?, where do they look when other scenes are running that they've not been present for previously?, where do they sit when they're offstage? how do you get to the spot to begin your scene, when you ended your last scene somewhere else? They're simple questions, and on one level they're easily solved, but on another level they are part of the entire pattern and experience of the performance for an actor. Every new thing must be assimilated into the actor's 'world.'

The run is understandably rough at this point, but like the run of the first act, the longer it goes the better it gets. When it's over Chris says he is happy with the emerging sense of the shape and flow. He talks about a tightening knot of relationships; it's a resonant image that everybody nods at. He goes on to talk about what each character sees or doesn't see of the other characters' scenes, and how they are going to work through that. He indicates that there is work to be done in filling out the picture with meaningful actions.

The actors talk about needing to plot out the play. They decide to get a big sheet of paper and plot all the characters' journeys on it. Chris talks about plotting a time-frame relative to an important moment in the piece- the sense of a countdown towards that crucial moment.

Overall, the run does what runs often do; it shows everybody just how much work there is to be done across all levels of the play. There's a feeling mild anxiety in the room. It is the end of the day, with only singing practice left to do. But it doesn't feel like the usual 'satisfied' finishing energy; people are more subdued and focused than normal. Even the actors that are leaving leave with the attitude of continued work. You get the impression that they are leaving to continue working.

Chris's word for the day – composition
Jonathon's word for the day – success

Vaudeville Rehearsal Day 8 - Lally plumbs the "Magical Depths"

2009-02-11T19:57:00.000-08:00

SCOOP!! I'VE JUST RECEIVED SOME STOLEN AUDIO IN WHICH SET DESIGNER JONATHON AND DIRECTOR CHRIS TALK ABOUT SETTING UP THE TOP SECRET 'MUDDY MAGIC.' Sure, the quality may be poor, the recording incomplete, the voices difficult to make out, the context obscure...

The rehearsing is well into the second act now. Last week Chris indicated that he wanted to finish a first pass at the whole play by the end of the second week. It's hard to tell whether we will get that far, but you never know. Chris's target of getting through the first act in Week One seemed ambitious, but things were pretty much to schedule.

Speaking of schedules let's do some quick calculations;
A 4 week rehearsal period is standard – that's 160 rehearsal hours.
With a performance time of around 2 hours that's a rough calculation of around 80 minutes of rehearsal for every minute of theatre.
Is this a reasonable amount of time?

Here are some things to consider;-
This time includes warm-ups, reads, theatrical exploration or exercises associated with each moment, design presentations, discussions, vocal and physical detailing, 'setting' to get in and out of running a scene, 'running' to performance readiness, scenes or moments that are worked on and later cut, and everything else the director needs to do on the rehearsal room floor.

Given all that, is 80 minutes of preparation enough for each minute of theatre? Does it depend on the play? Perhaps, perhaps not? Does it makes sense that there's a 'standard' at all? What do you think? I've set up a voting box over on the right. Tell us whether you think 80 minutes preparation for each minute of theatre is enough, not enough, or too much.

Back to the rehearsal.
Compared to the first act the second act contains a higher number of intimate moments. The scenes typically have fewer characters, as might be expected. The style of rehearsing has changed. There are fewer people in the room. It is quieter, and the confidence has risen to work towards more delicate moments. Chris works much more closely to the actors now, in spatial terms. Instead of placing himself always in the 'audience' position and talking from there, he spends much more time inside the playing space. The blocks of action they work in get smaller and smaller. They work very closely on slight moves, eye direction, tone in single words. The vulnerability in the creative process is higher in these intimate moments, as it is in performance. A joke that doesn't get a laugh is embarrassing but can be quickly forgotten. Moments of vulnerability that don't quite work, however, are much more disappointing because these moments are usually so much closer to the 'heart' of the artwork.

As I watch it feels to me that this 'close-in' directing can't be taught. It's about so many of the subtle conditions; instinct, trust, the invisible threads between actor and actor, between actor and director.

I promised I'd get back to Lally to find out how she went with continuing to develop the second act. I started by asking her whether her strategy for the play's continued development had gone to plan. Relieved, she said it basically had done. She was happy with the 're-fleshing' of characters, and Chris had made some suggestions to add some further 'flesh' too. In the process of looking at earlier scripts she had come across some 'floating scenes' that had never made it into the script. They were scenes that she had written quickly one day with nothing particular in mind. These 'floating scenes' had provided some wonderful additions. Lally commented that sometimes it is these kinds of scenes that often end up containing some of her best writing.
Another interesting thing she said was that she had discovered that the play required more 'magical depth.' She had worked hard over the weekend toward generating more of this 'magical depth' in the play. I'll leave you to wonder what 'magical depth' is until I get some more time with Lally later on.

Tomorrow I've a special for you; Jessica from Murrumbeena has sent in a question for Lally Katz. I've video-ed Lally's response and I'll put it up tomorrow!

One word for the day Stephen – trick
On word for the day Richard – sumptuous

Vaudeville Rehearsal Day 7 - "I'm looking at the woman, looking at the women, in the mirror..."

2009-02-10T17:45:00.000-08:00

I had a conversation with Matt today about his performing in "Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd." Matt is a well known circus performer with Circus Oz. He has already featured, albeit somewhat anonymously, in one of the previous images on this blog. (He's the one standing on top of a stack of about half a dozen chairs.)

During the readings he was completely silent, naturally, given that his character is mute. It was during the Script Discussion, mentioned in a previous posting, that his extensive knowledge of old Australian vaudeville became apparent. Matt foregrounded the historical links between circus and vaudeville, telling some stories about wonderful figures he met in various parts of the country; people who have incredible histories of their own in vaudeville.

'Vaudeville' is the first play of this type that Matt has performed in. Interestingly, when he was young he acted in plays with youth theatre companies, and was interested in being a character actor. Through his development as a performer he was drawn toward circus, however, and went on to forge a successful career in this area. As such, this theatre show is particularly interesting for him.

I asked him what the differences between rehearsing for circus and rehearsing for theatre are. This was his response;

Another particularly interesting comment was that details in circus are far more onerous and time consuming. Apart from the trick itself there is the rigging, the safety issues, the live band, as well as the inability to use aural cues because of the high amount of noise. When preparing for a circus act half the day can be spent in just coordinating the technical details for a single act.

Matt's character is mute. We talked about how mute characters are often especially poignant, and in this way his character is a very 'theatre' character, yet he also draws heavily on his circus skills. I asked him whether how he considered the particularities of being a mute character.
This was his response;

In the afternoon Julia works on a scene with a mirror. She plays a couple of different characters in the play, which are similar and connected. In fact, at the risk of generating spoilers, one of her characters actually 'plays' the other at certain times in the play. The moment they rehearse consists of Julia playing both her characters at once, having a conversation between the two, while looking at her own image in the mirror. It's a fascinating exploration. Playing two similar characters is perhaps a far more difficult thing than to play different characters with obvious contrasts. As Julia is explores these overlapping characters, she is trying to tease them apart in her mind and her voice.

Julia talks about the characters' voices as she's working through the scene. The 'voice' of the character is a very important notion for her. Last week she was looking for recordings of the time period, not especially for the music, but so she could tap into a style of 'voice' for the time. She wants to feel the rhythms, the intonations, the turns of phrase that in their turn provide a powerful 'in' to understanding the people of the time. We often hear the wonderful expression that the eyes are the windows to the soul. For Julia it seems that the voice is the window to the soul of a character.

In conversation with Chris, Julia demonstrates the voices of the characters she is playing, and the physicality that she has developed in relation to those voices. At this point in time the voice in combination with its physicality is the largest part of her definition of the two characters. But because of the overlapping nature of these characters this definition is being challenged by the demands of the scene. Julia works incredibly hard, all the time looking at her own image in the mirror; whether this makes the work harder or easier is difficult to tell. It's brilliant to watch. I'll try to find some time to talk with her about this scene and some of the details of how she builds character later on.

I'll also get back onto to Lally to find out how she and the writing team have gone in their development of the second act.

One word for the day for Julia – Shirley Jones
One word for the day for Darren – radical action
One word for the day forChris - accumulation
One word for the day for Lally – texture

Vaudeville Rehearsal Day 6 - "It's not a flat Earth"

2009-02-09T15:29:00.000-08:00

For those of you following, I'm still on the track of what's in the closely guarded, top secret, 4 editions in the whole world, "Muddy Magic" book. Darren is keeping a very close eye on his. This photo is about the closest I've got to it!

And another thing, we're now taking questions. If you have a question, please feel free email me on goodbyevaudeville(at)gmail.com and I'll try to get somebody on the team to answer it for you. On to the day's rehearsal...

The morning was spent cleaning up some of the details of the first act left over from last week, so that it could be run in the afternoon. Lally had been working on the second act over the weekend. The afternoon session began with a reading of this most recent draft. Last week Chris discussed with the actors that the second act will inform the first act considerably, and help fill out some more of the details the actors were exploring.

When the cast read the second act they did it on the stage, rather than around a table. And with the week's work that had already been done the reading is much more in performance mode than the first reading was. The voices are fuller and the rhythms are developing in a way that makes the reading carry more meaning than the previous read. The actors recognise the words and moments that carry deeper meaning. They work these words and moments with greater muscularity.

The reading is around 25 minutes shorter than last week's second act. Structurally it is somewhat deceptive. The cast talk about where the act's climaxes are. In this play scenes don't necessarily serve the purpose in the piece that they appear to, or scenes of their 'type' usually do. Chris talks them through how some of these scenes will work in performance. His explanation elucidates the structure more clearly for the group. He gives them an understanding that the functions of some scenes are not necessarily recognisable from their form. A scene that might seem like a romantic scene, may not serve as a romantic scene in the piece. A death scene may not actually contain a death. Scenes that seem like climaxes on the page, may not contain a climax in performance.

Conversation again moves to what is real and not real; what is 'actually' or 'really' happening in any given moment. This has been a constant question throughout the early rehearsal period. Some of the connections are incredibly complex, and it prompts Alex to bring up Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Aspects of the narrative are not necessarily linear and aren't necessarily made clearer by a 'logical' analysis. Chris talks about 'blind spots' and 'horizons lines;' just because something is below the horizon line doesn't mean it cannot exist, or isn't there. It's more a matter understanding the shape of the world in a different way.

The anchor for the actors will probably not be a logical one; it will be a 'pitching' anchor and a 'rhythmic' and a 'feeling' anchor. The premise is that audience does not have to unpack a play's logic to feel the truth of it.

The cast run the entire first act of the play. Of course there's a long way to go. There's always in these situations a combination of anxiety at how much work is still to be done, and amazement at how far it has already come.

One of the actors describes the run as a 'skeleton.' It seems that perhaps a 'skeleton' is an underestimation of what is already growing there. There are definitely organs and muscles already growing with the skeleton. I imagine it a bit like a growing body, only with some bits of the body growing much faster than others. A nearly mature skeleton, with a baby sized oesphagus, some different sized muscles beginning to take shape, a little bicep, one large buttock, some big lungs, stumps that might later exude fingers, a tiny nose beginning to grow out from a flattish face. A mix of recognisable form and fleshy potentials.

Word for the day Lally – full
Word for the day Stephen – expose
Word for the day Chris - reality
Word for the day Julia – displaced
Word for the day Richard - humour
Word for the day Darren – hot water

Vaudeville Rehearsal Period Day 5 - ...and the pace is building

2009-02-08T17:33:00.000-08:00

Vaudeville on "The Family Guy"

This morning’s singing practice is especially arresting. They are singing a song in which they all have contrasting parts. Chris describes the song as being a little like morphine. Not by coincidence the first scene of the day is the scene that has the song at its heart. The working relationships are getting more ‘natural’ every day. The flows of energy between people in the room are feeling much stronger, which in turn makes the work seem to be getting ‘easier.’

Chris takes advantage of the growing confidence to instil slightly more pace into the morning. There is a subtly increased emphasis on moving through the scene work and getting through moments more quickly. With the base that they’ve been slowly building over the previous 4 days there is now a collective desire to really get stuck into the scene work. It’s like the capacity of the group to digest the play is growing massively, and with it the appetite.

After the first scene has been worked through the group breaks into smaller groups to make the most of their time in preparation for the next scene on the schedule. Simultaneously Mark plays the piano with Matt on clarinet, Chris discusses some of the fundamental relationship curves with Julia and Jim, Christen sings into a mirror with her dummy, and Alex meditates on the script sitting by himself, occasionally mouthing lines. It’s a soundscape of singing, discussion and music that is separate, yet deeply and intimately connected; perhaps the kind of soundscape that is entirely unique to rehearsal rooms.

When scene work resumes with the entire cast they are working on a scene that has elements of a ‘play within a play.’ One of the actors asks the question, “Who is this bit for?” He wants to know whether the precise bit he is doing is meant for the actual audience, or one of the other characters in the play, or one of the other character’s characters. Does he ‘know’ he’s performing, or does he think it’s ‘real,’ or is he pretending he thinks it’s for real for the benefit of another character? These are really important questions to the play, and have the potential to become infinitely complex, and for the answers to loop back on themselves. The important point though, is that the actors must play something specific; they can’t play a meta-physical conundrum. There is a lot of work in finding this specific reading to play.

I caught up with Jethro in the afternoon, to see how his work is going. Jethro has worked as Sound Designer on all of the collaborations between Chris and Lally going back a number of years. I started out by asking him what question is uppermost in his mind right now in relation to the show;

“I looking for the overall tone and feeling; broad strokes. I’m looking for the sound journey, the beginning, middle and end of the sound journey. I’m asking what the colour palette is. At the moment it is a dirty rust colour.; old film, greys, blacks, brown.”

I asked him whether he was conscious of a body of work when designing for the collaborations between Chris and Lally, or whether he treated each show as a discrete entity. His first response was that he treated each show discretely, but with some thought forwards that there are definitely connections between previous works and the current work, and a similar feel to some of the worlds.

Finally I asked him whether he was working closely with the composer, Mark. He said that usually the sound designer and composer would work very closely together. But so far on this project they had not because Mark was performing the music live, so there wasn’t quite the need as when all the sound is recorded. He says that he expects to work more closely with Mark as the piece progresses, and that in many ways Mark’s composition has led the direction of the sound design.

Chris’s one word for the day – untangling
Darren’s one word for the day - dust

Rehearsal Period Day 4 - Writers Boot Up Act Two

2009-02-05T19:52:00.000-08:00

The first thing of the morning is to ‘run.’ Chris wants to run through everything we’ve looked at so far from the beginning of the play. The thing that strikes me immediately is how much work has been done in the overnight period. There’s a really obvious filtering or sifting that’s occurred away from the rehearsal room. Seeds from the earlier days’ work are now already flourishing. Or, to extend the metaphor, are lying dormant to grow later, and some will inevitably fail to fertilize beyond this point.

While Chris continues to work his way through the play, Lally, Stephen and Maryanne go to another room to work on the second act. There’s agreement after the reading that the second act isn’t quite ready yet. There is some script work that is best done ‘on the floor.’ An director with actors can quickly burn off text that isn’t working, or add text that the scene needs. There is another kind of script work that can really only be done by writers and dramaturges. ‘Big picture’ script work and generally any script issues that can’t be solved by interrogating a moment are better done by the writer or writing team. It is the latter kind of script work that the trio leave to do. Chris and the actors will be working on the first act into next week, giving the writing team a small window in which to keep developing the script.

Watching Chris as he develops the scenes with the actors, it occurs to me that there are (at least) two kinds of theatrical ‘moments’ that demand different treatment. Some moments can be, or need to be, solved gradually. The moment doesn’t need to be solved in the immediate rehearsal. It can be worked to a satisfactory point, then left for a later time. There are other moments that need to be solved in the immediate timeframe. To move onto something else before solving the moment only means that you will have to begin it all over again next time. The rhythm of rehearsals are in some ways governed by the demands of these different types of moments.

In the afternoon the heat starts to build. Everybody works with a lot of focus. There’s a fair bit of chaos in the first act of the show, and working on chaos takes enormous focus to get right. Nevertheless, there are inevitably a couple of moments when wires get crossed between stops and starts, or actors don’t get to the right place in time. Just for those brief moments, the inner life of the play reveals itself and shows us what the energy might feel like once the work gets closer to performance. It’s exhilarating. And the actors are feeling like a cast more and more.

Around this time I ducked out of the rehearsal room to catch up with Lally and Stephen to find out what they were working on in relation to the second act. They talked about 3 different areas of work they had in mind; restructuring, editing and “fine tooth combing.”

By restructuring they talked about working on the ‘flow.’ They wanted the flow to specifically contrast with that of Act One, and were working hard with the structure of scenes to achieve that contrast.

By editing they referred to a list of different tasks that were being undertaken. They were looking at previous drafts for elements they thought were valuable that may have been lost for one reason or another. They talked about “re-fleshing” the characters. Sometimes character detail in the script can be lost in drafts that are focussed on the narrative and broader arcs. By “re-fleshing” they were looking to bring some of this character detail and ‘colour’ back. They also discussed re-committing to the mystery within the piece. Again, as a play is re-drafted and script issues are ‘solved’ the innate mystery of the script can be lost in favour of connecting things and trying to ‘make sense’ of everything existing in the script. Often questions can be far more interesting than answers. Finally they talked about cutting back the obvious plot mechanics. This is related to some of the above points. There is a sense that once the world is built, some of the ‘scaffolding’ that was required in the building needs to be removed for the piece to be allowed to house its own integrity.

And the third thing is “fine tooth combing.” This is much what is sounds like; running through the script word by word, phrase by phrase, line by line, and cleaning it up.

Lally’s one word for the day - structuring
Chris’s one word for the day - fun
Darren’s one word for the day – magic
Stephen’s one word for the day – eerie
Kristen’s one word for the day – mental chaos

Rehearsal Period Day 3 - One in, All in.

2009-02-04T15:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday’s photograph; you’re probably wondering what that was about. Well, there’s a book that has been published for the show. It’s called “Muddy Magic” and I’ve been told there’s only 4 copies in the world. What’s more, access is extremely limited. More on that when nobody’s around and I can sneak a peak at it.

Days begin and end with singing; first thing and last thing. I asked Chris to comment on that;

“Singing around the piano is a great way to set the atmosphere for the day, and the perfect tool for building the ensemble, and helping them to get into each other’s rhythms.” (despite the quotation marks, that’s not actually a direct quote. You can ask New Weekly how that goes.)

Early in the day we were treated to one of Matt’s signature circus acts. We were talking about circus yesterday in the script discussion. It was mentioned that circus acts are so appealing because we see the performers doing things that shouldn’t be possible. It’s an expression of optimism and inspiration because it cracks the limitations we think constrict our lives. Matt was performing the act so the designers could judge whether it would fit in the confines of the set. While he was performing it there were jokes and commentary until a very specific moment. At that moment the act tipped over into what everybody felt was dangerous territory, and as one, everybody in the room fell silent. The power to spellbind a crowd; now that’s power for an actor.

The morning carried on with the script from where we left off yesterday. We moved on to the first big group scene. So many different things to work on all at once in this scene! The first big group scene is an establishing scene in many ways; spatially, in narrative, character construction, character relationships, tone, atmosphere, rhythm...the list is endless.

The process is one of ‘feeling’- Chris, Mark on piano, and the cast ‘feel’ their way into the world of the play. Everybody works through the scene making tentative offers of all kinds. There are subtle exchanges between everybody in the room. Chris encourages the performers to explore the ‘stuff’ of their characters when they aren’t the focus of the scene. He carefully insists that everything is available to change. It’s not a process of decision making. The group makes a series of offers that combined begin to define a sense of the world, while at the same time they feel their way through what the script is guiding them to do.

You get the sense that the greatest progress being made is perhaps not to the scene itself. The progress is in the slow definition of their world.

The first part of the afternoon is dedicated to working on Maude & Doris, the character played by Christen, and her ventriloquist’s dummy. Christen is not an experienced ventriloquist, and the process of learning to work with the dummy is wonderful and fascinating. Seems like something that could serve as valuable actor training in the same way that mask work is a part of many training courses. She is creating two characters who are the same person, using different tools for each. It seemed to me as I was watching that the kind of technical, practical questions that are necessarily asked of the dummy could quite often elucidate things for a 'human' character. I’ll try to talk with Christen about this when an opportunity presents itself.

I snuck a couple of questions to Richard, the lighting designer, as we watched the rehearsal. I asked him what he was most looking for at this stage of the process. His response was,

“Physical blocking, tone of the piece, feel of the world…”

And what does he see as his biggest questions to answer at this stage? He had two responses;

“I need to know more information about the set,” was his response. The shape and intent of what will be built is clear from the design presentation, but some set elements have a lot of detail that won’t be totally understood until it’s been built. This is an ongoing issue for professional theatre-makers. How do the artists develop a relationship with their physical world if they can’t interact with it?

And,

“How am I going to tackle the third act?” Yeah, the imaginative demands are massive for the third act. This is one of the big design/direction questions of the play.

Finally, I asked Richard how much of his work is technical/practical and how much is interpretative/creative. He said it is about 50/50.

Darren’s word for the morning – blocking
Darren’s word for the afternoon - cut
Richard’s word for the morning – entertaining
Stephen’s word for the morning – spread

Chris's word for the day - door

Rehearsal Period Day 2 - Things get unreal.

2009-02-03T15:58:00.000-08:00

There is a recent tradition in theatre that on a particular given date the cast and creatives will assemble on stage after the performance and field questions. These discussions are usually rewarding and elucidating for audiences. But after today’s script discussion of the cast and crew it seems to me that theatre goers would give a lot to be present at the discussions the artists have in the early stages of rehearsal.

It’s impossible to cover the breadth of discussion as the group revelled in all the issues thrown up by the play, from historical to meta-physical, theatrical, meta-theatrical, practical, psychological, social, musical, anecdotal, and everything else the reading of the play threw up the previous day.

One theme of discussion revolved around locating where the ‘reality’ or ‘realities’ of the play (co)-exist. The actors have very finely tuned antennae to what their characters understand as ‘real’ or ‘pretend,’ and a complex understanding that what is ‘real’ to their particular character may not be ‘real’ to other characters in the piece. Identifying points of realisation and transformation are vital to the actors as they map their journeys. The discussion itself echoed the theme, interchanging seamlessly between ‘real’ history and the ‘pretend’ world of the play, as well as the mythology of vaudeville existing somewhere between the ‘real’ and the ‘pretend.’ Of course this is a fundamental theme of the theatre, but one which is particularly poignant in relation to Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd.

During lunch the rehearsal room has been set up ready to begin work on the first scene of the piece, including old temporary rigged curtains. The changing set up of the room is a powerful signal that scene work on the script is ready to begin. It’s another level of anticipation, another level of focus; the initial period of acclimatisation is ending and everybody is ready to get working on the floor. We start at the start; simple choices, understanding the spatial set up, feeling the words in the space, the first sketches of character, the first interactions of actor to actor, character to character. Christen works with the ventriloquists dummy for the first time; how does the mouth work, how do the eyes work, how does the neck work. They are technical skills and questions that need exploring. Although the other actors don’t have such direct technical questions to explore, the impression is that they are doing something similar in relation to themselves and their characters in the space.

I had a quick word to Lally to get a sense of what was going through her mind. I asked her what specific questions she was asking herself on Day 2. This was her response;-

“I’m asking myself if I’m going to be able to rewrite some of the script that’s going to make it good enough to honour the possibilities of what it could be. Given the time, the support, the people who’ve given their time, their stories, the history of vaudeville…”

“What’s the best way to tell the truth of the characters and have it be theatrically satisfying?”

“What is the best technique of re-drafting?”

Lally’s words for the day – launching, re-remembering, inviting
Julia’s one word for the day – rejuvenating.

Rehearsal Period Day 1.

2009-02-02T15:27:00.000-08:00

As the cast and crew assembled for the first morning in the Malthouse foyer Michael Kantor’s welcome speech drew attention to the fact that this was only one of the project’s ‘first mornings.’ When prompted director Chris Kohn revealed that the project had begun back in 2005. Across a series of development periods there had already been a series of ‘first mornings’ before this one. And of course, that’s only in relation to "Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd." When you take into account the more than half a dozen collaborations between Lally Katz and Chris Kohn, the number of ‘first mornings’ builds into many, many more. We so often think of plays as discrete works, and in some ways they are, but in other ways they can be seen in the context of multiple collaborations between artists over many years.

The morning was spent reading the play. How to start a rehearsal process can be a difficult question; a new play, a new group of performers and creatives, with various existing (or non-existing) relationships. Reading the play can be as much about breaking the ice as it is about putting the play as whole at front and centre. Also, it allows everybody to be present and bear witness as the work begins. After this morning it is possible that all of the creatives won’t be in the room at the same time until the play is into dress rehearsal or even opening night.

After lunch it feels as though the creative work in rehearsal begins for real. Mark Jones, the composer and actor, leads the cast in learning the show’s first song. It’s a group choral number, which allows everybody to work together. Learning songs requires hard, detailed work, but sitting around a piano in a group to sing is a traditional joy that’s hard to resist. It’s work that allows the actors to hear each others’ voices, to work rhythmically together, to start to get in touch with each other. While the actors are singing as characters, and questions of character do emerge, their focus need not be as much on individual understandings of character as when they are rehearsing scenes.

Further, working on a song helps to prioritise the ‘forms’ of theatre at the heart of vaudeville. Before exploring the play about vaudeville, they are practising becoming ‘vaudevillians.’ The mood lightens, the group start being able to joke with each other and get to know each other’s creative energy. At the same time as the actors sing the rest of the group work on their respective responsibilities. Laptops come out and the team of designers continue to work, sneaking pieces of Chris’s time to ask a quick question or clarify a feeling they’ve been working with. Lally has loads of notes and ideas stemming from the reading already. A new script is generally a living document during a rehearsal period. As the text on the page is transformed into the spoken word nuances are continually being yielded up that writers will want to seize upon; advance or remove as it serves the play.

The group singing is broken up by a design presentation. Jonathon Oxlade [set and costume designer] and Chris talk about the visual design elements of the show. The fact that Jonathon is an illustrator as well as a set designer means that the sketches and materials he presents are especially close to what will eventually appear in the show. They are not merely functional design documents, so much as artworks in their own right. The actors feed off the presentation, inspired and excited by the clues the visual design elements present of the characters in Chris and Lally’s combined imaginations.

It will be all I can do not to accidentally fill this site with ‘spoilers.’ Nevertheless, over the next couple of days I’ll try to get some time with Jonathon to ask him a question or two about his process.

The day in a word for Lally - thrilling

The day in a word for Chris- soup

Welcome to the Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd blog.

2009-01-18T22:12:00.000-08:00

You are at the blog for Arena Theatre Company and Malthouse Theatre's new show "Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd." This is where you'll find a diary of the rehearsal period and loads of background on the show and it's artists. Watch the videos, read the stories, and send in any questions you might have about the show and its artists. We'll do our best to answer them for you. This is your backstage pass into one of Australia's most exciting new shows to premiere this year!