blocking
Wow. We did a read-through of our one act play on Wednesday after school. I wasn't sure how long the play would run (for those of you unfamiliar with one act rules, we are limited to no longer than 35 minutes). It's a script I wrote (co-wrote, actually) myself and it runs barely to 24 pages. I've always figured about a minute a page on average, so I figured we were good. Our read-through took something like 28 minutes, and I know there are places in the play where there is action with no dialogue, so I figure that could add maybe five minutes (yeah, there's that much built in). Thursday night, we had our first blocking rehearsal, a two-hour rehearsal. We probably didn't get started until maybe 15 minutes into that, but in that time, we didn't even get through the entire play to block it. That had been my goal. Part (most?) of the problem was that I didn't have much blocked out ahead of time, so it was kind of a process of "Hold it, let's back up and try this" over and over. I'm not worried about it by any means, but I was surprised, I guess. On a positive note, the kids seem to really like the show.
posted by Kootch | 8:02 PM
1 Comments:
You had hoped to block the entire show in one two hour chunk of time? Wow. I thought I was being aggressive in hoping to get through mine in three two-hour rehearsals.
Sometimes I come in with it all pre-written down, but of course things don't always look as good on stage as it does in my head. This year (as with the first play we worked on last year) I've got some basics in mind and I'm trying to be open with the students and let it be fairly organic. Some don't have a very good clue and I have to shape it more, but some are very knowledgeable and have a good feel for what works (we like these kids!). I did ten pages on Thursday last, and this past Friday I did an additional 13 pages. Today I'm shooting to finish it off (the blocking) but I'm not sure that it will happen ... I expect to run out of time with about four pages left. However, I don't worry too much about it ... this is a farce, and today's section is going to be carefully choreographed because it involves intricate timing on exits and entrances.
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