1st Onsite Rehearsal...

I had really been looking forward to rehearsing at Casa Romantica so we can get a better feel and idea as to where exactly we're going to be and what we're doing.

Last night was it!

Sadly I came down with Strep Throat AND an Upper Respiratory Infection this week so I've been down for the count.  I still have a horrible cough so rehearsing outdoors probably didn't help all that much but we powered through.  Oh - and side note - our Hamlet just came down with strep.  Jesus.  I'm sure I infected the poor boy.  So he wasn't even there last night.  No making out for us for awhile and that's my favorite part!!  *blush*  Yes, I may have a crush...

Moving on -

My carpool consisted of Gertrude and one of the Shadow Hamlets.  We headed out about 5:30 not sure what traffic would be like getting down to San Clemente.  We flew there.  Arrived an hour early.  Oops!  So the three of us chatted and chilled for a bit until our director and his carpool showed up.  We almost had a whole cast.  Our Hamlet being down (sorry) and Jeremy weren't there but all the rest of us were!  The grounds supervisor let us in and he and the new program director Bethany wandered around throughout the night peeking in on scenes and working out some logistical stuff with Dave.

I chatted with Bethany a bit and she's a peach.  Has a theatre background too so that will be super helpful!

Before we got started the view was breathtaking and the sun was just setting.

Casa Romantica

Petey

Brenda and I headed to our nunnery scene area which was outside in the cold wind!  Yikes!  Before we got started though we of course had some photo fun!  Brenda took the B&W photos.

The little photographers

Shadow Hamlet catching the sun!

Then we got down to business.  We ran it a bunch of times and worked with the elements (train, wind, ocean) and it seemed to come together!  It got super dark though, so we will need to figure out some lighting solutions.  Dave came out to watch and now wants to change the whole damn thing.  Sigh.  He's back on the movement thing, so I told him I wasn't comfortable with it and we're to work on it Sunday.  This is the 1st time in the process I'm frustrated and not happy with something.  So hopefully Sunday (we have another all day rehearsal) will remedy that.  He shooed me inside and I wandered around shooting a few shots and made this collage:

Since my next scene to work on is the bathroom suicide scene I didn't really have much to do.  Tonight's rehearsal was "room rehearsal" but Dave said to go ahead and work on my Mad Scene in the area so I did.  Bryan was able to join me so it was good to get to run that a few times.  I have a lot more room to play with now of course, so that's going to be fun.

We then shifted to the 2nd act room scenes and I wandered around the teeny tiny bathroom for a while trying to figure out some ideas.  Dave came in at one point and sat down on the top of the toilet while Jill squeezed into the little corner of the shower to watch me.  I'm glad they did because it was nice to get the feel of being a bit claustrophobic which it's going to be when my scene is live.  I ran through it once relatively emotionless since I was just getting my bearings but Dave's not worried.  He liked it and wants me to add some of my mad scene poetry in there which I like.  It'll be interesting to see if people actually walk into the bathroom or just watch from the next room.

Everyone worked in there rooms and we nailed down where things are actually going to happen.  Defiantly some moving around and re-staging a bit but it's all going to be really cool!

We thanked the folks keeping an eye on us and headed out.  Brenda took a few pretty atmosphere shots:

She's quite the little photographer!  You'll probably be seeing much more of her photos in my blogs rather than mine since she's shooting more and they're awesome!



Anywhoo - done for the night.  It's going to be such a trip once this thing is up and running!