But when it goes well...

I'm trying to remember what i told you in my last post. I think i was all stressed out because of people leaving the play, but i had yet to come up with a solution, right? Well i spent all of yesterday in the crepe cafe on campus (yes, my university has a crepe cafe, it's amazing), re-reading the script for the five millionth time and trying to figure out a way to keep all the lines without adding anyone new to the cast, and guess what?

I BLOODY WELL DID!

Basically I'm splitting the lines of the characters who dropped out among other similar characters, so Susanna Walcott's lines are now split between Betty and Mercy, Marshall Herrick's lines all go to Cheever, and Judge Hawthorne's lines mostly go to Judge Danforth. The proof will be in the reading of the second half on Monday, but i think it'll work.

Even after that piece of good news, i still woke up this morning feeling behind schedule and worried that week 2 was almost over and we had yet to have a proper rehearsal, so i text my Proctor and my Abigail and asked them if they wanted to do a scene. I booked a last minute rehearsal room for one hour and we set to work. The scene that we were looking at is a very small but very important one, since it's the only time you see Proctor and Abigail alone. Both of the actors had read the scene in their respective auditions, but it was their first time reading it together. I told them to look over the scene again before they came in so that they were familiar with it.

I'm always nervous at the beginning of the rehearsal process, especially when working with people i haven't directed before, and i think the actors could sense that, but once we got going everything went spectacularly well. Both of them had learned their lines (on their first rehearsal! My mind was officially blown!) and were willing to play with the scene. We only had an hour, and were in a weird rehearsal room, so rather than trying to block the scene we just fiddled around with characterization and motivation, and i think we got some really beautiful stuff.

I came away from that one hour feeling like the week had been a positive one, which, all things considered, is rather remarkable.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my wonderful father, who reads all of my blog posts and who, after reading the previous post and the comment about the boots, sent me a lovely email telling me to keep my chin up, and to buy the boots at his expense. He is a lovely man, and I'm sure my cast will thank him for saving their director from a nervous breakdown.

I love you.

Oh dear oh dear

Continuing my documentation of the rehearsal process for the Crucible.

Today we had our first read through, or half of it. We only got to the interval, and it took us two hours. Three people were missing, two of whom play two characters, so i was reading in 5 parts as well as the stage directions (and as any of you who have read anything by Arthur Miller will know, there are a LOT of stage directions.) All of this was manageable enough, but then half way through one of the cast signalled that she wanted to talk to me. We left the rehearsal room while people continued reading, and she told me that she had decided she couldn't commit the time needed to be in the play, and that she was going to leave. We went back into the room, she packed up her stuff and left, all without interrupting the rest of the cast.

About half an hour later we had a break and i explained what had just happened to the rest of the cast. She is the second person to drop out in two days, and i said to the rest of the cast that if any of them were feeling the same it would be better for them to leave now, rather than disrupting the course further along the rehearsal process. Two more actresses left.

I'm beginning to think this play is cursed.

Saying that, the read through went well, the remaining actors are very good, even in the rather dry and normally awkward reading stage. People were performing their lines instead of just reading them, and i think that we can still make a strong play.

The dilemma i now face is whether to cut characters and lines, which i really don't want to do, or to multi-role people, which i think will look ridiculous. I plan on spending most of my day tomorrow in the crepe cafe on campus reading through the script and trying to make sense of this mess.

You know what would make me feel better? Those brown boots. Hint hint...

Veins into bendy straws

I'm completely in awe of this kid.





Ok, so, the experiment.
Basically, I've just cast my version of The Crucible, which is being performed in just over 9 weeks, and i thought I'd try and keep some sort of production diary charting the ups and downs, the stresses and triumphs, of the whole rehearsal process. So here goes.

First off I'll tell you about the audition process. I hate auditions. I cannot wait until I'm a big enough director that i can get a casting agent to do it for me. It is my least favourite part of the whole process. The thought of sitting in a room for 8 hours at a stretch, listening to the same speech over and over again and having to judge people puts me on edge. It's horrible when there are too many people and you have to not cast people who are good, but it's even worse when you don't have enough people audition. This thought keeps me awake at night. The hour before auditions start i can't be spoken to, I'm paralysed with terror in case no-one turns up. Normally my fears are completely unfounded and everything runs smoothly.

Normally.

Last week was the first round of auditions. The Crucible has a cast of 20. Over the 10 hours of auditions, spread out over 2 days, i had 21 people audition. I wept. There were some great people who auditioned, but not everyone who auditioned was good enough to cast. I re-called all but 2 of the people i saw. Then came the weekend, where i was at the catwalk show and couldn't focus on the play like i really needed to. I had to come up with some sort of solution. In re-reading the play i managed to cut out 3 characters without cutting any of the lines, and i booked some more auditions for Wednesday. I couldn't sleep on Saturday night because i had anxiety dreams about casting. My worst directorial fear was coming true.

On Monday were the recalls, and almost everyone performed very well. Monday evening was the director's meeting, where the directors of all the plays on this term come together and fight over actors. It all went surprisingly well, and i cast 10 out of my 17 roles. This meant that i had to find 7 people in my auditions on Wednesday, which were open to people who missed the auditions last week. Again, i didn't sleep because of anxiety dreams.

Wednesday came, and an hour after auditions opened i had only seen one person. I was on the brink of tears. Then people started showing up. Good people. I managed to cast the remaining roles without recalling, and started feeling slightly more confident. Booked rehearsal rooms and told people to meet this evening at 6 for the first read through.

So we get to today. The scripts which i ordered from amazon don't arrive, so my plans for a read through are scuppered and i have to come up with a rehearsal plan not remotely based on the text. At about 5:15pm, i get a text from an actress saying she can't be in the play. I try and remain calm, text message a girl i really wanted but couldn't place and offered her the role. I only hyperventilated for a minute. I wait in the common room and gradually the cast show up. They all think I'm crazy because I'm checking the time every two seconds and manically counting them to see if everyone is there.

We go into the rehearsal room and i explain that we have no scripts, and that i re-cast someone about half an hour before, and that we won't be doing a read through. Everyone seems understanding, excited and eager. We introduce ourselves and play some drama games. The cast seem to get on well and respond to the exercises, but are slightly unfocused and chatty. I put it down to nerves. Rather than play generic icebreaker games which aren't particularly productive in translation to performance, i chose exercises from physical theatre, getting people thinking about proximity, contact and movement, as well as hopefully breaking down inhibitions. Ideally playing these on their first meeting will mean that when we come to the read through tomorrow the cast will be less nervous in front of each other and really willing to go for it.

All in all I'm pretty happy with how today went, and much more relaxed about the whole process than i was when i woke up this morning. Feeling quietly optimistic.
Bring on the read through.

Silk and leather

This collection took my breath away. Its harshness and sensuality, the mix of textures, the asymmetric cuts, the colour, everything about it is just so damn sexy. Haider Ackerman knows how to make women look hot.

Now i just need to figure out how to translate it into my everyday wardrobe.

You're a slick little girl

So last weekend I did a catwalk show for Vidal Sassoon, and I thought I'd document it for you guys. I only brought my phone, so the photos aren't that high quality, but you get some idea of the process. I got in at 11am on Saturday, left at 11 that night, got back in at 8 on Sunday morning, and the show finished at about 7pm. Here's the weekend in pictures. Play the song while you look.

 

So there it is. What did you do last weekend? I hope for your sake it involved less painful shoes.

You're a stone fox

Does anyone else plan their outfits based on literature?
Seriously. Not like dressing up as your favourite book character; when I'm getting dressed i think about passages from books i love, passages which describe the effect of the way someone looks. The one that i can't get out of my head right now might give you an example of what i mean.

Lux Lisbon, The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides -
"Trip spent most of his days wandering the halls, hoping for Lux to appear, the most naked person with clothes on he had ever seen. Even in sensible school shoes she shuffled as though barefoot, and the baggy apparel Mrs. Lisbon bought for her only increased her appeal, as though after undressing she had put on whatever was handy. In cordouroys her thighs rubbed together, buzzing, and there was always at least one untidy marvel to unravel him: an untucked shirttail, a sock with a hole, a ripped seam showing underarm hair."

Do you understand? Or am I going slowly insane?

Don't stop dancing or you'll fall off

A couple of film clips today which make me smile.
I was thinking about musicals, and about films which incorporate song or dance sequences but which aren't musicals, and i thought I'd share some of my favourite sequences with you. Enjoy.









This one is so beautiful it hurts. Watch Dans Paris right now, all of you!


This one is slightly less moving, but makes me smile real big.


This isn't strictly a dance sequence, and it won't let me embed the video, but this scene stuck with me. I think it's beautiful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHWm9O-WgRA
Another one i definitely wanted to include, but which can't be found on youtube is the scene in the dance club from Away We Go which had me sobbing for about half an hour. Melanie Lynsky broke my heart. Go watch it. Also the bowling alley tap dance from Buffalo 66, which is dreamy.

You've all seen this before, but it makes me happy, so deal with it.


We watched this in my film seminar on musicals yesterday and my lecturer started crying. I love him so much. If any of you haven't seen enchanted yet, you need to. I saw it 3 times at the cinema. Amy Adams is amazing.


Did you notice that Patrick Dempsey is wearing the same outfit as the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, and that the dance and the shots echo the dance in the ballroom from that film, which in turn were taken from Sleeping Beauty? Disney is manipulating us with nostalgia, and it's working.

So yeah... more films should have dance sequences.
Can you think of any i missed, or that i should watch? I'm on the hunt.

Who needs a shrink?

When these shoes exist, who needs therapy?

Now I just need to pick a colour, and find some cash. I've had a shitty week, I think I can rationalise this...

Or, if any of you really love me, they're Jeffrey Campbell Lita boots, and I'm a size 9. I think the distressed brown leather, but it's up to you.

Let your hands do the talking.

I'm going a little blog crazy tonight, because I haven't had internet at home for so long and there's so much I want to share with you. I think this is the last for tonight. Enjoy it.



I love their faces, and way that it looks so simple and so complex at the same time, and the fact that the song is a remix of the one sung by Tom and Dickie in The Talented Mr Ripley.
I want to learn to do that.

Action! And Glorious Adventure!

Fan made trailers make me happy, and this one is one of the best i've ever seen.



Oh so stylish.

And while we're on the subject of films, here's a review/article i wrote about "I'm Still Here" which i think you should read.

I’m Still Here, the Joaquin Phoenix “documentary” that has had critics and fans alike guessing for two years came out last week, and like its mysterious star it’s a tough one to figure out.


When Phoenix went on David Letterman two years ago, the entertainment world was shocked. Though the actor had already cultivated an air of unpredictability, shunning the squeaky clean image so many film stars try so desperately to acquire, the sight of him bearded, bespectacled and mumbling was not something the media or the general public were prepared for. Speculation about his mental health abounded, countless parodies were performed, and more than one person wondered aloud if it were not all just a big hoax to raise the star’s media profile. The film world waited to see what Phoenix’s next move would be. And waited. And waited.

The film, directed and primarily shot by Casey Affleck, brother of Ben and brother-in-law to Phoenix, opens with the actor wondering whether the media portrays him as dark and mysterious because he is, or whether he is that way because that is how people expect him to be due to media coverage. An interesting, if not altogether original thought, which raises the question of how much anyone in the public eye can really control how people see them when everything about them is filtered through the distorted lens of celebrity.

The image that the audience get of Phoenix from the film, often drunk or high, fat, hairy and almost unintelligible (subtitles are used throughout the film, despite the fact that everyone is speaking English), is so different from any ‘behind the scenes’ glimpse of celebrity that it is at first funny, but quickly becomes mildly disturbing. Whether you believe the film is real or not (and Affleck finally revealed last week that it was a hoax), you are being allowed to see something very rare, a performance without a shred of vanity. The man simply doesn’t seem to care what people think of him.

When people thought the film was real this was impressive, but now we know it isn’t it becomes something almost revelatory. Try and think, just for a minute, of any other actor who would be willing to put his entire life on hold for two years, ruin his public image, and potentially jeopardize any future offers of work for the sake of a giant prank on the entertainment industry, his fans, and the world at large. Whether you like him or not, whether you see the point of it or not, you must admit, that takes some balls.

The film itself follows Phoenix from just after he finished shooting Two Lovers, through his attempts to set up his hip hop career, climaxing with the now infamous Letterman show. At turns hilarious and poignant; regardless of whether you’re watching him as a character or a man, the journey on screen is raw, disturbing and occasionally absurd. More of a curiosity than a film you’ll want to re-watch again and again, it confronts the viewer and makes them question how much they should trust the images of their favourite stars as shown to them by the entertainment media. In its own unusual and deeply unorthodox way it serves as a reminder that celebrities are people too, and that you shouldn’t judge anyone until you have all the facts, because what you see and what is real may be worlds apart.

Tomorrow I'm starting an experiment up here, so keep checking back. Hopefully it'll be interesting. Also I've had a review of Despicable Me written for about 4 months and it's finally getting published next week so i can post it, and I'm writing a review of Buried as soon as i finish this post, so that will be up shortly.
 
It's all systems go around here!