Rolling through Rehearsals - Fetch

 The technical challenges are arising!

With COVID, and trying to balance three actors who cannot cross the center of a split screen, blocking is not the easiest feat. We've had to be creative with entrances and exits, working to have the correct motivation for where each actor is sitting/what side of the screen they are on, and more. Our first blocking rehearsal, we spent the majority of the time just figuring out how to make the split screen work. And I think we finally did! Lorna came in with some great ideas that just needed minor tweaking.

It has been so fun to see the physicality of these characters come to life. Writing the characters as dogs, knowing they are going to be played by humans, I had a billion different ideas of what the play could look like. I am very grateful that Lorna's vision of the play was SO similar to what I had in my head from the beginning of writing the plays. There have also been some choices that pleasantly surprised me. AJ doing a southern accent, Noah rolling around the floor and climbing over the furniture, and Leah's dog mannerisms. Every rehearsal is super fun. 

The one thing that I think I preferred as a writer for Townsend when I was just passing off the script as soon as the final version was written, is that I can only listen to my own writing a few times without going crazy. This is all because of myself only. It has been alright because it is constantly developing in the theatrical aspects, but I am starting to get annoyed by my own writing.

It will be interesting to see how filming goes. I'm glad that we aren't using mics on their persons because this allows for them to have a lot of physicality without the worry of breaking a mic pack, but this also means the actors have to be really conscious of where they are directing their voice. Especially since they are so far below the camera being on all fours. I do enjoy seeing these things develop throughout the rehearsals, and all of the actors we have for this show are so talented and are making such amazing choices with the notes they are given.

Can't wait for sunday! Off book day is EVERYONE's favourite.