This is my favorite way to work on a script. We often break it into 'beats' of a page or two each, and rehearse it that way.
As an additional means to explore the scene and its characters, I ask my kids to pick a specific, playable objective each time they run the beat. No 'to be upset' or 'to not help her' - more like 'to prove my point' or 'to push him past his breaking point.'
We run each beat three times, and usually the third time I ask the actors to generate an 'outrageous' objective, that they think their character would not pursue. Often, we stumble across what's really going on in a scene by playing against our preconceived notions of the characters and what they want.
This makes it ideal, even preferable, to wait on blocking until as late as the final week before dress rehearsals. Why tell the actors where to move if they don't understand the characters' intentions yet?
It's slow going, and not always necessary, but a splendid way to explore a more complicated script.
------------------------------
Josh Kauffman
Teacher
Winfield AL
Original Message:
Sent: 12-20-2016 03:28
From: Laura Steenson
Subject: 12 Angry Jurors Question
A couple of years ago we tried a new way of working on shows. I got the idea from this forum, though I can't remember whose idea it was or what they called it. We call it "nose to text" and it works like this:
- Read the scene. No blocking, no real intonation, just read it, nose to text, word for word, exactly what's on the page.
- Put the books aside and act the scene. They won't get every word or even every line, but they must get from the beginning to the end. If we're doing a really complicated scene or doing more than a couple of pages at a time, we'll first outline the highlights - "what topics do you have to cover?" is usually what I say to them.
- Grab the books, read again.
- Put the books away, act the scene again.
- Lather, rinse, repeat as many times as needed.
The thing I love with this is it gets them out of the books early, the blocking is very organic, and they leave with the scene memorized. We totally skip the line calling phase when we use this version.
On the flip side, if you go with a method like this, you have to be ready to accept that it will take longer to get the whole show blocked. Under normal circumstances, I get a show blocked in a week, two max, and then the rest of the time is for refreshing and refining. With this, last time we didn't finish blocking until we'd been rehearsing 4 or 5 weeks, but when we finished, the whole show was done and there was very little refining to be done.
I personally wouldn't do it with every show - we didn't do it with any of our shows last year - but there are some shows that it works well with. In my opinion, it's best for shows with a lot of standing/sitting around and talking, where it's more about relationship and conversation than action. We used it for A Company of Wayward Saints before and now we're doing it with The Diviners. I think it might work really well for a show like 12 Angry Jurors.
------------------------------
Laura Steenson
Theatre Director
Reynolds High School
Troutdale OR
Original Message:
Sent: 12-16-2016 08:04
From: Heather Cribbs
Subject: 12 Angry Jurors Question
I would like to direct this in the next year or so and was wondering the same thing! I'll be following this for advice. (:
------------------------------
Heather Cribbs
Theatre Director
New Smyrna Beach High School
New Smyrna Beach, FL
Original Message:
Sent: 12-12-2016 09:19
From: Jordan Fox
Subject: 12 Angry Jurors Question
I am directing 12 Angry Jurors and curious how to break down rehearsals into 2 hour blocks. Has anyone directed it before and willing to share their rehearsal schedule? Thank you so much and happy holidays!