Fool: Variety

I have a tendency to push hard and sometimes rush lines. And while Bo is happy that I can connect with May's emotions and he mentioned that this quality is part of why he cast me, May needs variety and depth. There is a ton of intensity and frustration between May and Eddie, but too much of playing this one note won't portray enough of May's personality or what she's going through. So yesterday Bo asked me to really start searching for other choices rather than just pushing at Eddie in anger, and find other ways of approaching the relationship between Eddie and May. Sometimes May can be at a loss for what to do next or even be sarcastic instead of always throwing daggers at Eddie. That way the icy glares and cutting remarks will be more effective when they're called for!

Another example of needing variety in delivery is that May has three different sections where she makes a small speech about how she needs Eddie to leave and get out of her life because she's too hurt and she can't do this anymore. But each time needs to have a slightly different or hightened motive to it, otherwise Sam Shepard wouldn't have chosen to write such similar mini monologs for her.

Today I played a lot with new options, and Bo was appreciative of that. Some worked and some didn't, but we're in great shape and have a handful of rehearsals to keep tweaking.

However, we had somewhat of a rocky run through in general... Granted, we're adding more props and technical cues, but we backslid on a few specifics that we had made progress with in the past. They're just small details, so we're not shaken. But now's the time to really buckle down and nail the specifics, get in a solid rhythm of the show, and know our lines in our sleep! We've always had a strong foundation and connection to the characters and each other, but now we're a little more than a week away from opening. And this is when I prefer to set everything into somewhat of a loose routine where there's still room to grow, but we can expect what to achieve in each performance and how it will all play out (not that we get stale or anticipate things in the moment, just that we have a clear guide to follow). We've had lots of time to play with different deliveries, and discoveries will continue to happen as they should, but overarchingly it's good to get in a pattern for how the show plays out and to keep improving in the remaining rehearsals.