It's a Mysterious Process

Rehearsal can be a rocky, rocky road. Especially when half the rehearsal is spent working on improv and not all of the actors are fully comfortable with improv. And even more especially when the script is being built from the ground up around the actors. There are moments when all the pain of writing, improv, acting and tech seem to collide and create atomic explosions of artistic angst. Those moments when everyone in the rehearsal room is thinking "Why the bleep do I put myself through this?"

Last night's rehearsal had a few moments like that. Everyone was tired and cranky (Friday night rehearsal are tough). The script is a mostly ugly and awkward adolescent of a rough draft. We worked through a difficult improv that left the actors visibly frustrated. All in all, a diffcult night.

But...

But, in the middle of that difficult improv, there was a beautiful, crystal clear moment. In a through the looking glass moment from the second act, when their lives are turned upside down, Mark Pracht (playing Henry) grabs Amy Harmon (playing Zita), and says: "This is important. Who do you think I am?" It was just a moment, but it unlocked the whole second act for me, opened up the theme of the play and allowed me to reconcile all the disparate parts of the work.

Of course, now I have to go right back to the nasty, slogging work of getting it all down on paper (it's soooo much better in my head), but I'm guided by that one clear moment. Thank God for actors who are willing to work through the ugly and trust to the mysterious process.