The last time I directed, just over a year ago, I tried a different rehearsal model and it was hugely successful. It might be familiar to some of you, but it was new to me, in spite of years as a teacher, actor, director and playwright. It may not be right for every group or production, but it worked for us and I've never seen students (in this case at a college) get off book so quickly and completely. I was inspired by a director I'd seen in rehearsals and from Katie Mitchell's book "The Director's Craft."
Instead of reading their own parts for the first readthrough, the company -- actors, designers, stage managers and even some crew members -- sat in a circle and we read the play aloud with each person taking the next speech regardless of which character was talking. This way we really heard the text and avoided the fear of the first read, the urge to perform and we simply all focused on and heard the playwright's voice. We then did table work, talking about the background (the play was AS IT IS IN HEAVEN, an historical piece about the Shakers), about design, the production and what the play is about.
At this rehearsal one of the actors asked me when did they have to have to be off book. I said, "you will be." She said "but what day do we put the scripts down?" I replied "after today. You are off book after today. You will never be onstage with a script in hand."
We then began rehearsals on each scene, using what I call "nose to text." The actors read a section of the scene, looking only at the written page, not at each other, just reading the words, not trying to "act". We discuss the motivations and actions. They read it again, never taking their eyes of the page. Then they get on their feet and improvise the scene, playing the actions and motivations, not worrying if they are saying the right words. Next, back to reading, nose to text, then on their feet, no scripts, just improvising. Back to "nose to text." Back on stage. Each time they are using more lines from the text and we start allowing them to call for lines. By the end of that rehearsal they are off book for that scene and we have pretty much blocked it, organically.
I discussed the difference between short term and long term memory and told them that they still had to go over their lines every day or they wouldn't remember them for the next time we went over that scene. But with the confidence that they already knew the lines, they had more motivation to work at home on them. Within days we quickly moved to running longer chunks of the play, always off book, allowing the actors to call for lines. If they started paraphrasing, we would go back to "nose to text."
The other thing that helped was a cellphone ban. We treated the rehearsal room as a sacred space. When offstage waiting for their scene, students could do homework assignments so long as they were not on the internet. Usually the students went over lines when they offstage. And for the last rehearsal before tech, we sat and read the play again, a speed run, "nose to text."
Working this way requires very specific scheduling and strict adherence to the clock for each rehearsal, but the end result was a very confident cast creating honest moments on stage that they truly understood and owned.
Again, I understand this doesn't work for every production, but thinking of different rehearsal models may help solve the problem of learning lines for scenes.
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Arlene Hutton
playwright
New York NY
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-13-2015 18:00
From: Jason Lehman
Subject: Motivation And Lines
Does anyone have some good strategies for line motivation and deadlines? I have a huge problem with students trying to wait to the last minute to have lines done and so by off book dates they're just very .... Unfortunate. I've tried tying things to examples about learning lines early so they can focus on character, etc but they are way too distracted. Generally it's the cell phones. I tried to outlaw them but had a big rebellion. Also everyone wants everything spoon fed. No one seems to be taking initiative on anything. Many students aren't even using their rehearScore program to learn their music and wanting to only get it from the music director. We are both frustrated about that. Ideas?
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Jason Lehman
Griffin GA
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