Starting to Run

Hello All!

We are now entering into week 4 of our production process, and boy is time flying. As I wrote at the end of my last entry, we have started running the show and really trying to find the full character arcs. As a lot of the actors have commented to me, it's kind of like melding all of these smaller versions of a character together, in moving from this scene by scene sort of existence into a living breathing character. One of the cooler exercises that we did this week is one of my personal favorites entitled interview with a character. I took the guys aside and after giving them the setup, had a one on one conversation with them in character, with incredibly interesting results. The benefit that I find to the exercise, is that as an actor it really forces you to think about your character, really helping to make your character real, while as a director it can clue you in to different nuances in an actor's perception of character that you can use in the process of creating a show. For me, I was able to find out a lot about the backstories that people had set up for themselves, and in rehearsal we were able to choose the moments to really bring those things out. Though that entire exercise was incredibly mentally based, we then switched over to a military simulation exercise to really get these guys to realize the physical strain on these soldiers as well. I think that this improvisation helped them to connect to the situation and hopefully they can keep their sense of urgency and danger when we rejoin the rehearsal process.

Thanks and Love!

Chrich

Blocking the Show

To tag on to my director's previous post, I would like to include my reflections on the past 2 weeks of blocking the show, which have gone by so fast!! In our second week of rehearsal we experienced some real breakthroughs with the process of character creation. Part of our warmups everyday became an exploration of making the transition into character both physically and mentally. I found it as a way to create the world from each person, to their connections with others, to finally their interactions from the bar. I think this kind of repetitive exercise allowed everyone to make new personal discoveries everyday, and to expand their character day by day as they prepared to enter into blocking the show for that day. As we went through the week I think we saw the benefits of this initial connection to character and particularly later on in the week when we revisited some of the earlier scenes, we were able to see substantial growth, especially for week 2 of the production process. Most particularly, on Thursday we were running Commander Osembenga's first scene, and the tension had been great in the past, but we were trying to get the entire ensemble to really react as one to the Commander's new energy. Suddenly it clicked for everyone in the middle of the scene and the actors' responses became chilling in response to this powerful man's presence. Truly this was a breakthrough in our process, because the ensemble was able to really move together, which is definitely a step in the right direction as far as the creation of this show is concerned.

Moving on to Week 3 in our process, we finished the task of blocking the show, which is always a huge step in the production process, and began to run it. The transition from blocking a show to the run shifts the entire show into a much wider focus and arc, especially for the actors. Up to this point, we as a production are thinking in the context of scenes, focusing on specific character moments, however it is the first run that allows us to delve into the character as a whole. During this enlightening time actors usually find out what the show has in store for them, and for our actors the consensus became, "Wow, this show is really hard." Though it seems like a rather elementary deduction to make, I think that such a simple statement reflects the intensity of this show. Ruined is different than any traditional theatre-going experience because it is jam-packed and it takes no prisoners in its portrayal of the ongoing conflict in the Congo. Because of this unforgiving approach, the level of dedication that these actors need not only to their circumstances, but to their characters is absolutely exhausting and for that I respect them. I think many people have come across the quote " If you're not sweating, you're not doing it right," and that saying certainly rings true in the context of this show. So I invite you all to continue reading this blog following our progress and to come out and see these actors sweat!!

Thanks and Love!

Chrich

Working on Ruined from the Outside In

Jambo! My name is Artisia, I am the director of Ruined and thought I would share a little bit about the process I am using for the show. We have been rehearsing since February 21st. We spent the first week doing some dramaturgical work - read through, discussion, video..., the second week blocking (took a break for Spring Break) and resumed blocking this week. As of today, Friday, March 16, I am happy to report that we have blocked 12 of the 13 scenes of the play.

My goal was to approach blocking as an artist would drawing the shape of a body. One usually begins by creating shapes, then layering in muscle and other details. Thus for Ruined, I began by creating a general outline of movement by first (particularly in the smaller scenes) allowing actors to create a general traffic pattern for themselves. I see what natural inclinations they make and then adjust or layer my outline onto their movement patterns. Together we create shapes or what we call compositions - stage pictures based on the given circumstances of the text and initial impressions.

Now that we have created an outline, next week we will begin to fill in the muscle. The muscles of the body allow us to DO, to be in MOTION, and they grow stronger the more they are utilized. The muscle in terms of the rehearsal process is where we begin to layer in all of the justification for why we are doing, moving, reacting, etc. We start playing our objectives and testing our tactics against our outline. What doesn't work, we reshape until our compositions are solid and natural. In the case of Ruined, there is also violence, dance, music and dialect. Thus, we have regular rehearsal calls for the fight and dance choreography (as opposed to workshops in the initial phase), the band begins to attend rehearsals more frequently, and the accent (if not mastered) will begin to sound more authentic. We will be here for roughly the same amount of time we spent in the first phase - 3 weeks.

Lastly, we will finish our drawing process with adding the unique details that distinguish our body from another body...the shape of the eyes, the color of the skin, the mole behind the right ear lobe, the handlines in our palms. These would be things like tempo, rhythm and general comfort within our environment. The work of the other designers add to this phase significantly as the set, costumes and lights are loaded into the space and we move from the studio into the theatre. This part of the drawing process will take us right into openning nite!

I am truly excited about this production and will make guest appearances on Chrich's blog from time to time to share my thoughts. He is such a wonderful addition to this process as he is truly an actors' director. I also appreciate having such an apt Stage Manager, Kelsey Schneider, on my team as well. The two of them are helping to make the creation of this portraiture a beautiful moment on the journey to meeting you on openning nite!

See you at the show,

Artisia

Rehearsal Week 1

Our first week of rehearsal has gone swimmingly, but contrary to most shows, we didn’t just dive into the reading of the script and the creation process. The first day we had our dramaturgical presentation, and began to watch a documentary entitled Heart of Darkness, which is a Nightline report on the conflict in the Congo. Because the circumstances of the show are so far removed from our everyday reality, I think it was particularly important for us to begin with the emotions and reactions to first hand accounts of the conflict. The cast not only was able to take a lot away from the beginning parts of this documentary in a dramaturgical sense, but it also engendered discussions about character creation, and the many layers that will go into that process. After such an information packed first day, the next natural thing was to start the first reading of the play, but because of the dramaturgical session at the beginning of the process it became a more informed reading of the text. The actors were able to make connections with their characters' back stories and begin an investigation of the physicality of their characters, using the people they saw in the documentary as a base. Once this dialogue began all kinds of possibilities opened up to the actors and in the next week we will hopefully be able to take their thoughts and put them into their bodies. I am really excited to engage in this next step with my director because I'll truly get the opportunity to watch her work at really sculpting the skeleton of the show, and of course I'll make sure to report back and let you all know how things are going in the rehearsal room!!

Thanks and Love!

Chrich

The Casting Process

There is always something unnerving about the audition process, no matter which side of it you're on. As an actor it's all of the preparation and the buildup to the audition itself, in addition to the nerve-racking waiting period in which you pray you get cast in some show or other, but I can assure you, you are not alone. This was not my first time on the other side of a casting experience but this experience was a little more difficult because of all of the dramaturgical information that had to inform the casting process. This becomes even more difficult when you realize how good all of the actors are. This is the point when an actor can come in and completely revolutionize your entire concept, bringing your entire show together. The sad part is that sometimes as actors we don't necessarily understand the process, or give ourselves too little credit. Every actor that had the guts to step before us and audition showed me something unique, and I was grateful for their willingness to do so. To be honest this makes you want to cast everyone in your show, however because of size restrictions or the restrictions of the text this isn’t possible, and so you shift your approach. For our production of Ruined we were luckily allowed a little bit of leeway with the creation of an ensemble of Mama Nadi's other girls and soldiers, which allowed us to include more people in the show. But in addition to that, it allowed us to use the show as a learning process for everyone involved, which I truly think is the true function of theatre in such an educational environment. I hope that the cast can then take their casting as a challenge, and put in the work to not only create a great show, but to learn something about themselves from the experience.

In our next installment we'll address the first couple of days of rehearsal and the unique process we're using for this show.

Thanks and Love,

Chrich