Monday, January 9, 2012

Styles: First Read-Through


Remember that photo shoot?

The rehearsal process for The Mysterious Affair at Styles, like all of our outreach tours, will last between two and three weeks. However, to get a head-start Director Lisa invited us to have a first read-through yesterday morning. Our acting company, which includes Anne, Emily and Michael were present, James had a conflict prior to scheduling this event. Tim stepped in to read in his place.

I am also THRILLED that we have Diana with us again this year to act as Rehearsal Stage Manager. She worked with us for Decameron last year, keeping strict account of entrances, exits, costumes, props, and, well, everything really.

Reading the entire script took 62 minutes. We would shave off several minutes if Diana weren't reading every single stage direction ... but we will add minutes to realize all of that acting business. Lisa has asked for an additional 10 minutes of cuts. Not sure if that is possible, but at least I have a couple weeks to work over the piece before rehearsals begin in earnest.

Poirot's conclusion appears to be the most obvious place to shave seconds, if not minutes. Reading it aloud, I felt I was repeating several revelations, each one perhaps in the context of a different revelation, but there has to be a way to tighten the resolution. Big "Ah-HAH!" moments are all well and good, but there should only be two or three of them.

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