R&D Update: Rehearsal
Orpheus & Eurydice Project
Actors are magicians
Possibly a little hyperbolic, but I stand behind it. Last week I got to see a small excerpt of the play brought to life by some really gifted actors (Naheema Shafau as Orpheus, Sojourner Hazelwood-Connell as Eurydice, Rich Dee as Hades) and it was enough to make a playwright weep.
I’ve learned some other things in the process of getting the play on its feet.
This script is really dense. I assumed that my 90 page script would make for a 90-100 minute play. It’s more like 3hrs. So I’ll be trimming it down in the coming months.
Don’t judge dialogue until you hear it. This should be obvious, but watching Cheryl (the director) break down the script with the actors to find flow and rhythm. This process also means I end up rewriting lines that sound super weird spoken out loud
Actors are magicians. OK I said this already, but they really are. Naheema, Sojourner and Rich all made choices that didn’t even occur to me but now I can’t imagine the characters behaving any other way!
