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100 SAINTS YOU
SHOULD KNOW AT
STEPPENWOLF |
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| JULY 15, 2006 |
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Yesterday was a very exciting day for us at First Look. We had our designer runs for the design team and for the marketing folks. Dexter Bullard's run took place in the morning, he is directing Butcher of Baraboo. Our run for 100 Saints was in the afternoon at 2.
We haven't run 100 Saints top to bottom yet, since we spend most of the rehearsal period working on scenes. Yesterday was the first time we glued it all together and it was exhilarating to see it all the way through and with some fresh eyes besides. I was particularly happy with the way the second act went. It was moving and powerful and I credit the actors for the way they pulled it together remembering all the recent adjustments we have made and following the thru line of the piece.
Ed Sobel, who is the Director of New Play Development at Steppenwolf, was very encouraging and insightful and offered some thoughts that Kate Fodor our playwright and Rosie Forrest our dramaturge and I began to chew on over night.
Today (Saturday), Kate called me to offer some thoughts as to how to approach the changes, which include trimming a monologue of Matthew's and salting in some of the more important plot points in other scenes. We are thinking about moving the Maplethorpe projections to an earlier scene and bringing them back under a prayer of Matthew's. This will be a major shift and it will take a lot of time off the first act.
Kate is typing up the changes now and will e-mail them to our stage manager and I so that we can print them out for the cast. Tonight we will read them and perhaps try them as well, if we feel confident that they work. I don't know if we'll get to a run tonight, but at least we can work through the play with these changes and see how it all scans.
This is what makes new work exciting and we couldn't do it without a cast that is pliant and eager as well as brave. We certainly have that.
I'll let you know how it works out in the days to come. Monday is tech and that will be a challenge. What do real people do for a living?
More Anon!
Beej |
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2006/07 SEASON
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2005/06 SEASON
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