You may have noticed a decided lack of photographs in the last couple of entries. Clever you. Problem is, in all the rushing around to get ready for the trip to Philadelphia, I managed to forget to load Paint Shop Pro onto the laptop, which means that I have no way of importing the photos from the digital camera to the computer. Aren't I silly? I'm planning a trip back to Pittsburgh after next Sunday's rehearsal, so I'll try to get that done while I'm there.
This first week of rehearsals has been fun but exhausting. The approach to the show that Aaron Posner, the director is taking is different from the other productions of Picasso that I've done. Those other productions stressed the comedy of the script - it's Steve Martin, after all - but Aaron's approach is much more about invoking the wonder of what the play is really about. It's really about the ideas and how excited all the characters are about all the ideas flying around.
Aaron expressed surprise that we had completely blocked the play and begun to get involved in detailed scenework by the end of the first week of rehearsal. But it occurred to me after he'd said so that it really shouldn't be a surprise at all - the show's really only around ninety minutes long, and we'd been rehearsing it 8 hours a day for 6 days. That's enough time for sixteen performances of the play.
Anyway, despite the long rehearsals, the work has been fun. Aaron's approach is forcing me away from the schticky stuff I do so well, and toward, for want of a better phrase, an emotional realism that's co-existing with the wackiness of the play.
The one bit of mixed news for the week is that the costume designer and Aaron have decided to go with my own hair and mustache for Einstein, as opposed to using a wig and a fake mustache. While this will prove to be much more comfortable for me in the long run, it's going to impact my plans to have my head-shots redone while I'm here in Philadelphia. That stuff'll just have to wait 'til I get up to New York City. I was hoping to hit the ground running when I got there, but those plans will have to be modified.
The rest of the cast is great fun to work with. With the exception of myself and two others, they're all local Philadelphia professionals, and each one is really good. Someday, I'm going to manage to get a snapshot of them so you can see them.
As we've been rehearsing so much, I've not had a chance to get to see as much of Philadelphia as I'd like, though that'll change once the show's gotten up and the run's begun. Actually, it might even change sooner. The rehearsal schedule for this coming week seems to be a little lighter. Today I wandered around the section of town known as Old City, and took a walk from the theater to the new actor housing that I'll be moving into later this week or early next (God willing!). I was told that it was a twenty minute walk to the theater, but I'm guessing that it's closer to twenty-five... maybe even thirty, if I take my time.
I also got to see Chocolat at the cinema today. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but I enjoyed it a lot. For some reason, through no fault of his own, I can't stop seeing Johnny Depp as the guy from 21 Jump Street. I think just by saying that, I'm dating myself. The film was directed by Lasse Halstrom, a director whose work I admire, but for some reason it seemed to me he slapped this one together rather quickly. Some of his choices of shots were a little jarring, I thought. And I didn't love the editing. Juliette Binoche was wonderful, as was Judi Dench. And I'd watch Alfred Molina read the phone book, to be honest. He give me hope that I can work someday. "Long live the character men!" I say.
This first week of rehearsals has been fun but exhausting. The approach to the show that Aaron Posner, the director is taking is different from the other productions of Picasso that I've done. Those other productions stressed the comedy of the script - it's Steve Martin, after all - but Aaron's approach is much more about invoking the wonder of what the play is really about. It's really about the ideas and how excited all the characters are about all the ideas flying around.
Aaron expressed surprise that we had completely blocked the play and begun to get involved in detailed scenework by the end of the first week of rehearsal. But it occurred to me after he'd said so that it really shouldn't be a surprise at all - the show's really only around ninety minutes long, and we'd been rehearsing it 8 hours a day for 6 days. That's enough time for sixteen performances of the play.
Anyway, despite the long rehearsals, the work has been fun. Aaron's approach is forcing me away from the schticky stuff I do so well, and toward, for want of a better phrase, an emotional realism that's co-existing with the wackiness of the play.
The one bit of mixed news for the week is that the costume designer and Aaron have decided to go with my own hair and mustache for Einstein, as opposed to using a wig and a fake mustache. While this will prove to be much more comfortable for me in the long run, it's going to impact my plans to have my head-shots redone while I'm here in Philadelphia. That stuff'll just have to wait 'til I get up to New York City. I was hoping to hit the ground running when I got there, but those plans will have to be modified.
The rest of the cast is great fun to work with. With the exception of myself and two others, they're all local Philadelphia professionals, and each one is really good. Someday, I'm going to manage to get a snapshot of them so you can see them.
As we've been rehearsing so much, I've not had a chance to get to see as much of Philadelphia as I'd like, though that'll change once the show's gotten up and the run's begun. Actually, it might even change sooner. The rehearsal schedule for this coming week seems to be a little lighter. Today I wandered around the section of town known as Old City, and took a walk from the theater to the new actor housing that I'll be moving into later this week or early next (God willing!). I was told that it was a twenty minute walk to the theater, but I'm guessing that it's closer to twenty-five... maybe even thirty, if I take my time.
I also got to see Chocolat at the cinema today. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but I enjoyed it a lot. For some reason, through no fault of his own, I can't stop seeing Johnny Depp as the guy from 21 Jump Street. I think just by saying that, I'm dating myself. The film was directed by Lasse Halstrom, a director whose work I admire, but for some reason it seemed to me he slapped this one together rather quickly. Some of his choices of shots were a little jarring, I thought. And I didn't love the editing. Juliette Binoche was wonderful, as was Judi Dench. And I'd watch Alfred Molina read the phone book, to be honest. He give me hope that I can work someday. "Long live the character men!" I say.
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