Oh hai

SO here is the first blog entry for 'Southern Firelight,' which has remained shrouded in mystery, much like the play itself...My fault for being so late on the posts, here's some highlights from journaling through the rehearsal process: The first blocking rehearsal today was exciting. I didn’t really have a game plan for blocking the first scene, per say, only ideas of how I wanted the scene to feel. Honestly, this is somewhat how I prefer. I would like to set a tone for the scene and make executive decisions, but also give the actors opportunities to make discoveries on their own...
...We had a really powerful moment in rehearsal, which I thought was great for the cast. I ended up using technique I picked up watching my mom’s old friend, who directs high school and college theater, when we attended one of his rehearsals...: I had him(Jonathan) say the line to me as it’s said, but this time I put my hands on his shoulders and planted my feet. I challenged him to get past me as he was saying him line. He hesitantly leaned against me while saying his lines...I had him try again and really commit to the push, and the attempt to get by me. This time he actually tried to get past me and I pushed back, holding him in place. What came out was a raw, genuine, angry delivery of the line like we hadn’t heard come out of Jonathan before. After that I think we were all stunned for a second, and I think Aaron was the first one to remark “holy s***.” That got the whole group very excited about things. I think it gave everyone encouragement, and showed them just what direction we were headed...
...In a cool moment of directorial discovery, I solved a staging problem with a simple theatrical solution that really added to the effect of the show. In the play, one of the characters, Abram, is murdered. The second half of the play, the other character, James, converses with what is either Abram's ghost, or a paranoid hallucination of Jame's mind. The problem was how to get the actors body off stage, and what to replace it with. I won't give away the trick, but needless to say, it makes the play far more spookier, and really brings the audience right into the supernatural element of the show...
...Haha well cool I haven’t written a journal entry in over two weeks but that’s just how I role (unintentional pun typo!). Some things have stayed the same and some are radically different. The show is blocked, the scripts are at least out of the actors hands, if not in their brains entirely, and it can be performed on stage. We are on the fine tuning process, and there is not much time for fine tuning left. We have six more hours of rehearsal time before tech weekend which I’m hoping to god will be productive and useful. I met with Jonathan solo today. My other actor is out of town until tomorrow. We worked on memorization and delivery, feeling the emotions instead of replicating them. I am astounded every rehearsal we have by the progress of Jonathan as an actor, considering this is his first involvement in the theatre. Chris Ormerod demonstrates a great role-model of a hard worker in rehearsal and I think this has rubbed off on Jonathan. While he grabs my attention because of the leaps and bounds he makes each rehearsal, I believe Chris is an unsung hero who influences Jonathan towards diligence; him being the first fellow-actor Jonathan has come in contact with.

That's all he wrote for now folks! I will try to be more diligent with the posts from now on. See you all when the 1-acts go up!

-Rowan