Notes
This scene proved difficult for the ensemble as they had to remember their cues, their actions, their objective and remember to push me away when i ran at them. It took up until the first show night to get it right (luckily) even in the dress it was a bit messy. I think the element of nerves and "Oh shit we're performing to an paying audience right now" gave the sharpness and alertness we needed to make this scene happen.
Don't go too close to people for the lighting.
One of Fastows traits from the beggining was being right close up in peoples faces, ignoring any concept of personal boundaries (yeah, sure "character choice") however i ended up blocking peoples lighting meaning that the audience couldn't see their faces. I was asked to take a step back or two and did so reluctantly.
Let the Employees over to the other side of the audience
This is kind of linked to the previous note that in that going up to people and pursuing them, i wasn't allowing openness in terms of the staging of the scene. Having an audience on three sides and a rectangular stage space meant that we had to stretch the action and make it viewable on 180 degrees.
Quicker on cues, in the first scene, quicker thought process, quicker with the phone dialogue, just be quicker in general.
This is part of the world of Enron, everything is quick and the audience should be working to catch up with the action. If the dialogue doesn't leave them behind then our blistering pace on lines and cues sure should. Obviously there are moments where this isn't the case and everything is slowed down but a majority of the scenes should feel like the play's on cocaine. Also our play was too long so Ben wanted to cut it down, often achieving this by clapping, clicking or making a new strange noise/gesture at us. This is sure to shake up any scene and test the strength of your focus.
Rehearse/refine the trader scene
This was probably one of my biggest worries going into the performances, as mentioned above this was one of the scenes where speed drives everything. The trader scene is a cocktail of spontaneity, shouting, running, backflips maybe and a lil bullying but this is exactly what made it such a challenge to stage. The physicality, energy and staging of the scene was great but the nature of the dialogue often let us down. Lines seemed to repeat each other and come in different places each time prompting ben to set a rule where of being savage and not waiting for people to say their line, this is probably where that was most implemented but we got into habits of someone missing their cue and when they suddenly said the line it'd throw us all off. I'd be lying if i said there weren't a few inconsistencies on show night but the impact and energy of the scene almost never failed to carry us through.
More to find in the running (unfit, stupid looking, uncomfortable)
I found this scene really difficult to play and it even harder to just run whilst in character. It seems like a pretty simple thing to do i mean it's just walking around as a character but fast right? Well no. I don't know why exactly, but it isn't. I found myself slipping into kai-isms and straightening my posture but i'd become conscious of it, then fight against it and overcompensate. I got around this by setting an obstacle for myself. Every time i began to slip out of my physicality i'd trip myself over which also demonstrating a lack of coordination and strength, something Fastow also shows later on when opening the beer bottles. I also looked at how i could play with breathe and show how unfit Fastow by holding my breathe when not speaking and replicating my breathing when i have asthma attacks. I had to be careful with this for obvious reasons but i feel like it added a nice layer to scene. It was probably the most effective not personally and i'm happy with my response to it. Even if it wasn't incredibly noticeable to the audience, i was able to take on a note, not know how to solve it and find a solution.
Assigning roles to people carrying blocks
Well this didn't work but we tried anyway. We didn't really rehearse the carrying in of blocks for rehearsal so when we got into the space and realised how heavy they were it was a little bit of a problem moment. The blocks probably proved as the biggest technical struggle for me as i needed to learn where to get them, where to set them, when to set them and who to set them with with not long to go before opening and not a lot of time to rehearse. It went wrong a few times but we managed to solve it somehow on each show
Enjoy the Jurassic park line
Push the nerdy-ness and excitement. Enron is play of amplification, bright lights and loud sounds, the characters should reflect that.
Turn to face sam in titanic moment
Because Ben likes to make weird things even weirder and it pushes the comedy of the scene. Moments like this give comic relief to large sections of intense drama and sophisticated language, sometimes this contrast is exactly what's needed.
Raptor Notes
- Slower - more sustained Raptors
- Clear up on raptor cues
- Stalking observing, wait energised
- Spread out as raptors
The raptors were probably the most unrestricted roles in the play. We were bound by form of physicality, allowing the main events to take place and adjusting set at certain intervals but apart from that we were pretty much free to roam and that's one of the things i enjoyed most about it, we found new things in each show and formed relationships between one another. I established with will that i was the least favourite, it excuses why he was able to shoot me without the same attachment he had with the others, it also makes sense for him to keep a distance from me given the context of him having taken over from me. I noticed that as the raptors we keep our form for as long as possible but eventually surrender some of that to comfortability. You almost get into this rut of half performing but half in your own head and begin to get lost in the mindless action of stumbling around, the nerves of the show helped solve this but i also tried to keep track of the action by learning second half lines and testing myself during each run just to keep that alert and awareness of what's going on.
Remember props, set transitions and blocking of scenes
We blocked the first half first so it was important to remember scenes and what was going, this wasn't so difficult for scenes where it was just Sam and i but for the ensemble as you can probably imagine, it's quite difficult. Set transitions and props are some of the hardest things things to remember but they staple the show together, we're quick and efficient in solving issues but it'd be great if there weren't any issues to solve.
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