Process and Progress

From one of the nice days. Two weeks ago. When the weather was acting like spring... Ode to the sun...

Yesterday we staged the third portion of I:ii (what we call part 'c'), which is definitely the section that I have looked at, and memorized the least (of course, right?), so I definitely was on book for my first rehearsal after the off-book date (goddammit!). It's also the part of the scene that is the most physically complicated, complete with 3-4 asides both to the audience and to Ariel, and many more mid-speech shifts to address new people. And there are only 4 of us onstage, so... staging it definitely will help the words stick in my brain.

We do ALL of I:ii (a,b, & c) tonight, so instead of finishing off memorizing Act V, I am looking over and getting more comfortable with the entirety of I:ii. The half of the first section is the strongest, and then I lose a bit of the momentum, but get it back when Ariel enters (I think it helps that I still remember a LOT of her lines), and am fairly strong through all of 'b', but 'c' is still problematic. It's in there, but there's so much more dialogue, and shifts both physically and mentally, PLUS I'm pretending to hate Ferdinand to make sure he really loves and deserves Miranda, so there's the added element of Prospero being a good actor. Yesh.

That'll be my plan for the day. Sit here, mentally run lines, maybe even write them out... Get it more securely up there. I am fairly impressed with the amount that stayed in my head when I haven't really looked at that act since I "finished" memorizing it on Friday. The first two sections really are there. WHEW. Good to know that I don't lose it when I take some time off. Or start looking at a different act or section.

Once I've nailed down I & V, I'll move onto IV (the wedding), which has a few semi-large paragraphs, and the big one "Our revels now are ended"; and finally clean it all up with II & III, where it's mostly audience asides, and the moment after Ariel's harpy speech where I compliment her work. Getting there! Slowly but surely.

Unfortunately, there's only so much memorizing I can do in one day before I get burnt out. That's why, it's nice to start out by going OVER something I'm fairly comfortable with before I move on. It's always surprising, too. Some sections are so intuitive that memorizing them is a cinch, and others I am still struggling with (stupid "sole drift of my purpose" WHY WILL THAT NOT STICK IN MY HEADBRAIN?!). Honestly, it's mostly specific words. Like, I know what comes next, and I know what it sounds like, and what it starts with, but I just cannot for the life of me remember that particular word. You have NO IDEA how annoying that is. And, concurrently, how amazing it is when you get over that hurdle and suddenly know exactly what to say without searching for it for 5 stinking minutes.

After that lovely trip into my memorization process (y'all are getting a lot of that. I'd apologize, but my brainpower is too busy retaining Prospero right now), I will let that all sink in. More rehearsal tonight, tomorrow, and Friday. With a surprise day off on Saturday, and our first stumble through in the park Sunday (emphasis on STUMBLE).

We have yet to stage either of the lurker scenes (Acts II & III where I invisibly spy on Miranda & Ferdinand, and the castaways respectively), and those lines, I'm sure, will come once I know the staging. But, the goal is to no longer have script in hand for the stumble through (except MAYBE for those two acts). It's asking a LOT of my memorization concentration and power in the next few days. And I'm SURE it will be rough, but... it'd be nice to start finding the deeper meanings in the moments.