First day of rehearsals today. I was somewhat apprehensive, having spent much of the weekend desperately trying to sort out the casting. It has proved an administrative nightmare. I am absolutely the worst at keeping written notes, so my scrawled comments on a copy of the attendance sheet, plus the pages and pages of stuff in a small notebook, were proving impossible to decipher. I did have some photos, and a short video of each pair improvising a scene, and they had all said their name before performing. But as most of the names were unfathomable, that did not help. I was, for a time, in despair, but fortunately Val came to my assistance, and with some forensic skills was able to work out who most of them were. Or, I suppose, who they might be.
Eventually, I felt it was sufficiently complete (there were still the flocks, of both birds and sheep, to be individually identified, but that task could wait.) And so I sent it to the cast via WhatsApp.
Problems abounded – wrong spellings, confusions over people with similar names, and, worst of all, two people left out altogether. I promised them I would sort it out tomorrow. Which is today.
So it was particularly awkward when a whole host of new problems arrived as soon as they did: another girl left out, wrong names for characters… I scrawled some notes in my script, and eventually we managed to get started. I had already sent a note to Saba Ma’am, asking for another student to act as combination production assistant, stage manager, and assistant director. (Actually, they all fall under the umbrella of Stage Manager, but I have never had the luxury of having one before, so a new experience.)
It was not the greatest of starts. At 1.30, our intended start time, there were eleven of them. And they dribbled in after that. It was pouring with rain – understandable in the monsoon season – and this had a real impact on their individual journeys. The room too, a Dance Studio, was difficult. It was long and thin (while my acting area is round), the aircon leaked, so had to be switched off, the fans were noisy…
Despite all of this, the rehearsal itself was productive. We were blocking the final scene, the only one that contains them all, and we got through that pretty successfully, so that everyone (who was there) knew when and where they had to come on. We had also done a little bit of character work (now that they knew their characters.)
Afterwards, I reviewed the process separately with both Medha and Saba, and they suggested another full-cast rehearsal tomorrow to get the cast sorted. I agreed with some reluctance; the job did need to be completed. But when I got home, I set to work again with the new notes I had received, sent them a message or two, and it seemed there were just two gaps: Bear, and a Monkey. And then I remembered someone had taken Bear’s role during the rehearsal (though I did have to ask who that was). And someone else volunteered for Monkey.
Done.
(Maybe.)
