Pity me, John. Pity me.

7 hours of rehearsals today.

I'm feeling worse than i have all year. My cold is worse, and y wisdom teeth are coming through, which makes me whole head ache. Had to come to campus early to book a dentist appointment, and the earliest i could get is for a week tomorrow, so i have another week of this to endure before it even gets checked out. Not fun.

During the day i planned 4 short rehearsals of specific scenes with small casts. First off was the end of act 2. The beginning of act 2 is great, but the end gets a bit messy, so it was good to go over some areas of staging and specific moments. The hour went pretty quickly, and although we got a lot done the scene still needs some polishing. Again, my cast are for the most part completely amazing, and it was an easy start to the day. Some of the lines for the scene are still slightly shaky, but i still think it's the strongest act in the play.

The next hour was supposed to be the start of act 3. Act 3 is by far the weakest, and this was an important rehearsal. One character dominates the act in terms of lines, and he is the only actor (apart from James, who just joined the cast) who isn't even close to being off book. He is the only actor I'm worried about, and he didn't turn up. No text, no call, just didn't come. For the third time. Why is it the actors that need the most rehearsal time that turn up to the least amount of rehearsals? It's driving me crazy. I don't know what to do about him. He's dragging the entire play down and i don't know what i can do to stop it. Bah. I took an hour off, took some cold medication and snuggled in an armchair.

Hour number 3 and i was doing a very short scene between Proctor and Abigail from act 1. It was one of the first scenes we rehearsed, and i haven't specifically looked at it since. Both actors are so great, knew their lines, knew exactly what the scene needs to be and took every note i gave them immediately. By the end of the hour the scene looked perfect. I just hope it stays that standard for the next 3 weeks until performance.

Hour 4 was Proctor and Elizabeth doing their scene from act 4. I love this scene so much, it breaks my heart every time. Again, both actors are awesome, great at taking direction, know their lines and are willing to really perform in rehearsal. By the end of the hour the scene was looking great. Happy, ill, tired Lucy.

After a 2 hour break, a burger, and a pint of alcoholic ginger beer i headed back the the rehearsal room for our first full run through. My producer Sarah was there to prompt so i could just watch and make notes. I told the cast not to have their scripts on stage, and to do the run as a performance, as though in front of an audience. The first act went alright, the second was slower than it should have been, but alright, the third was so awful it doesn't bear thinking about, and the fourth was mixed highs and lows. The run came in at just under 3 hours, with pausing, occasional re-running and FAR TOO MUCH prompting. Line learning is the bane of a director's life, i swear. You can rehearse for hours and hours, but you can't force lines into some one's head.

All in all the day was productive, and for the most part pretty rewarding. All but one of my cast are amazing, and getting better with every rehearsal. I'm stressing about the one who doesn't know his lines, and i don't feel i can even start work on his delivery until he knows them at least a little. The worst thing is that i know he is trying, and he gets so angry with himself for not knowing them that i don't feel i can tell him off any more. I'm getting so frustrated.

Tomorrow I'm fitting the cast with costumes, and maybe doing some small rehearsals in the afternoon, but it should be a pretty light day. I think i need it.