Beyond gore

This production of Titus Andronicus, wrapping up tonight, is light on the gore and shock effects, and wrestles with the core of the conflicts between the Roman factions, the vengeful Goth queen, and wild cards like her advisor and lover, Aaron.

Spouse and I were talking this morning about how Titus is all about love of children. Titus, Tamora, Aaron all make their key decisions based on their perceptions of what their children need or what they expect of them. Maybe that's why the characters who have neither parents nor children in the play (Saturnine, Marcus, Bassianus) seem less substantial to me.

Shallow breathing

I am reminded, by my stance for the last few minutes of the current production of Titus Andronicus, of the importance of planning for one's death, since it may come suddenly. In this case I receive a dinner fork to the spinal column, and it does more damage than you would think likely. It's important to die in character, of course, but there are some more mundane considerations: don't fall across the leading lady in such away that you cut off blood circulation to any of her body parts, come to rest in a way that you can stay at rest without your knees or knuckles screaming at you and trying to make you writhe, and find a position that lets you go on with the standard actorly business of breathing without distracting the audience by the rhythmic rise and fall of your chest.

I am sure there are the elements of an e-book in this: Sorrow is an Enemy: Leadership Principles of the Andronici. I will send it to the staff at BP immediately.

open-ended

I have a short play part-way done. It has been part-way done since November, when my big writing project that lasted until this month got really busy. But it's also part-way done because it has been evolving in surprising ways, and I'm a little scared of it.

The complainant who does not really have a complaint is about to view a lineup of suspects that is not really a lineup. Is the hard-bitten police lieutenant not really hard-bitten? Or perhaps not a lieutenant? Stay tuned...

learning learning

When I learn lines, I try to subdivide long scenes into meaningful and manageable chunks of a page or less of script. Then I learn the first chunk of the scene, and then the last chunk. This gives me confidence that I will be able to enter and leave the scene strong, even if I rattle around a lot in the middle. Similarly, I usually learn first my last scene in a play, and may even work backwards, scene by scene, depending on the rehearsal schedule.

What bumps into this is the debt I owe my other actors to provide them, as early as possible, with an energized performance that is somewhere in the neighborhood of what I hope to do in front of our audience. I don't much like surprising people with new business or a new emotional level when they are struggling with their own lines and characterizations. So scenes where I might not have much to say, but where other people's performances rely on my informed response to them, get high priority, too.

We ran through Act 2 last night pretty well; as you can see, the gaps are closing. By Sunday's rehearsal I hope to not have to call 'Line!' to the stage manager at all.

Just one week to go!

Act 2, Scene 3

This is a power scene. Titus is rejected by the tribunes as he pleads for his condemned sons' lives, and is reduced to preaching to the paving stones. Then his daughter Lavinia is brought in, having been deprived of her hands and tongue. Then he learns he may be able to save his sons' lives by chopping of his left hand and sending it to the emperor. What is a loving father to do?

 As you can see from my Goalscape, I worked on 2:3 a LOT yesterday and today. About halfway through the scene during the rehearsal tonight, I will have to whip the script out of my pocket. I could in theory have learned more lines last night; but the passions in the scene are pretty intense and I was exhausted as if I had been boxing.

The lines, the lines!

Titus rehearsals are going well. On Sunday we had a morning of combat training for all those moments when bodies go flying or sharp objects zip quickly past earnest actors' body parts. In the afternoon we ran--well, staggered--through the entire show, and not too badly.

With two weeks to go, here is my updated Goalscape of the lines I have to learn. The light-colored areas are where I still have work to do:

Those two big scenes at the bottom of the chart are obviously where I have to put my energies. I have left them until now because they are full of long speeches by me with relatively little interaction with other actors. I did the other scenes first so I could give my fellow cast members some lively and appropriate interaction, to feed energy back to them. In Act 2, scene 3, I do a lot of talking to paving stones, which have not minded the neglect so far.

Drawback of getting older, that I had not noted until now, is that my eyesight has changed so that, when I lie down to talk intimately with said stones, I am too close to my script to read the words. Good stimulus to learning them, I guess.

Taking on Titus

About twenty years ago I wrote short versions of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and Timon of Athens for the Hampshire Shakespeare Company, and they went really well. Last week I agreed to step into an almost-full-length version of Titus, as the actor playing Titus had to withdraw for personal reasons. I had my first rehearsal Tuesday, and the show opens June 18, and I am remembering why I enjoyed the twenty-minute version so much. There are so many lines...!

Fortunately, the cast and director are kind and patient, and I think it will turn out to be a great show for Ghostlight Theater. Hands chopped off here, tongues torn out there...and excellent grammar.

I made myself a Goalscape of the script, to keep track of the scenes I have to learn. As you can see, I have about a third of the lines down and a LONG way to go (the "pp" numbers are Titus' pages; the whole script is about 75 pages long:

I'll let you know how it goes...