Rehearsal Withdrawal

I haven't had rehearsal since last Thursday. LAST Thursday! Can you believe that?! I am going through terrible withdrawal. No rehearsal for a week is totally understandable, though. We never have rehearsals on Fridays or Saturdays, and Sunday we had a week off from choreography due to Robin being in a tap cabaret the night before (which was fabulous, by the way). Monday night was the fifth annual Kevin Kline Awards - recognizing professional theatre in St. Louis. Tuesday night was just the four leads, we always have Wednesday nights off...and that brings us to tonight! FINALLY!

Although, I am a bit worried about tonight. I haven't been feeling so well lately. A lot of sinus stuff, a lot of throat stuff, a lot of coughing. I think I'm finally getting better though. It probably didn't help that I had a great time at the Kevin Kline Awards on Monday night. I had the honor of being invited to the awards by Ron Gibbs and I had a blast. It was so great to see so many theatre people from around town and re-connect and feel the energy of the room as everyone was there because of the same love and passion. Needless to say, Mara and Mike (both in "The Wild Party" with me - had a great night...and morning. We stayed out until 3 a.m. Networking with other theatre folk, of course! As a result, I took last night to stay-in and rest my body and my voice.

Speaking of tonight, I need to get back in "The Wild Party" frame of mind. People were buzzing about the show on Monday night and I was excited to talk about - even though it's been a week. I need to really get focused and realize what we have ahead of us. Tonight is Act 2. We are tackling it for the first time. Act 2 is mostly the four leads...but we have a lot to do towards the middle to the end of the act. It will be interesting to see if we actually leave stage during this act or not (we're always on stage in Act 1).

It will be good to see everyone too. In fact, we have even planned a 'drinks after rehearsal' thing tonight. I sent out an email earlier in the week to the cast to see if people wanted to do this, and they overwhelmingly responded yes. We all really like one another and haven't really hung out as a group outside rehearsal, so tonight will be fun. I still haven't decided where - I guess I better figure that out. Ugh. Nevertheless, rehearsal withdrawal will be non-existent in a few hours!

Do The Juggernaut...

My body hates me - it's official! My voice, my arms, my legs, my head...everything. I am at war with my body, and I think my body is winning! And I love it. I adore being in this show and getting to dance...to really dance again. Robin has outdone herself with the choreography. This past Sunday we learned 'The Juggernaut" - to give you an indication as to how difficult the choreography is, an excerpt from the song that we actually physically perform over and over again is as follows: one foot, one hand, one step, one turn, one touch, one hip, that's all you have to do. It's exhausting, exhilarating, and exciting all at the same time. This number definitely has the most going on, but for some reason I have been able to pick this one up easier than any of the others. It makes sense to me in my head - it's more of a continuous dance number than the others.

Last night we blocked more of Act 1. Some things are really starting to make sense to me while other things do not at all. It will all come together, but we're in the period where everything is kind of a cluster f#*k. It's sinking in more and more each day...being able to anticipate what is next and have it be natural is the struggle I am facing now. The 12 of us backing up the four leads have to constantly be aware of our surroundings at all times. Scott has really been emphasizing the need for us to establish our characters too and have a back story. He wants it to be clear to each other and to the audience how we know one another. In fact, he asked us last night to think of three questions, one of which was: who would we sleep with right now. As the bi-sexual producer of the group whose apparently always sex hungry, I easily answered yes to everyone! Regardless of this, though, I really need to make sure I'm staying in character and building relationships with those around me.

Tonight we are finishing up the blocking to Act 1 and then Thursday night we are running all of Act 1 off book. Ugh. Really? I don't know if I'm ready for that. But it's one of those things that I think will just happen and it will all fall into place. I mean you have to put the book down at some point...and we really can't start getting into the meat of the show until we get those damn scripts out of our hands. I also need to figure out how I'm going to continue to listen to the music - my car battery died on Friday night - when my car started again, the CD player/radio didn't work. Apparently there is some code that you have to put in...um, I don't know what that code is. So, I need to start remember to grab my iPod when I leave for rehearsal (I like to go over the dance numbers in my head before rehearsal). So - if you know how to get my CD player to work again, let me know - I would be ever so appreciative. For now, though, it's back to the script to review what we have done thus far.

First Read-Thru/Sing-Thru

Pretty damn exciting! Wow - you could just feel the excitement and the energy in the air at rehearsal on Tuesday night. It was our first read-thru of the script (which there isn't much of), and our first sing-thru of the whole show. Until now, we haven't heard much from the leads (they have been learning music off on their own with Scott) - so we were all anxious to hear. And we were all quiet impressed...which made us even more excited to be on this journey of "The Wild Party".

There is A LOT going on in this show and it's time to start focusing even more than before. It's non-stop. Sure it slows down for us in Act 2 a bit...but Act 1 is a whirlwind. By intermission I don't even know if the audience will know what hit them - so much to take in. So much to process. In fact, I don't know if I still know everything that is hitting me in Act 1. I do know; however, that I will be making out with Theresa at one point during Nikki's AMAZING number...so that's worth the price of admission right there, right?! (Theresa don't act like you're not excited...that we have to kiss...yet again).

Basically I left rehearsal on Tuesday night totally excited about everything - even more so than before - and I need to count my beats in the music even more so than before! Nevertheless, the show is in a really good spot at this point - and we have so much to go. We just keep layering it on, and tonight we continue those layers with our first blocking rehearsal of the first 22 pages (or so). I'm so pumped to get this on it's feet and begin building the characters and the story!

Words, Words, Words...

"...Left, left, right, left - jab - a slab, a rab rab on the jim jam right upper cut to the body body punch! Pow! To the belt - Ow! What a wallop! Jab, jab, flip, flam, on - the limb lamb, take it on the chin pull it out put it in. What a party what a night What a rock'em sock'em throw away the lock'em fight! Whoa..."

An excerpt of lyrics from our most recent song we learned last night - 'The Fight'. Yup - Andrew Lippa has filled this show was some incredibly hard music and a TON of words. God, this is such an ensemble show - and it's great. I mean, we have our four leads, but the ensemble is so essential to this piece and each night you can feel us becoming more and more connected.

Being connected may have something to do with our choreography rehearsal this past Sunday - we staged the number, 'A Wild, Wild Party' (which is awesome, by the way). The connection came in the fact that we are having simulated sex acts on stage - luckily for me, I have the pleasure of acting out my sex acts with the Mara Bollini (Dolores) and Deborah Sharn (Kate) - we have a bit of a three-way going on. I'm seriously hoping Mara and I don't have a child to look after eight months from now (if that gives you any indication). It's full of 20's-style dance moves and stylization and it just gets me more and more excited to continue putting this show together.

Thursday night we learn our last musical number - 'The Juggernaut', and then we review all the group numbers again. I will definitely be reviewing those with my iPod between now and then. There are such awesome harmonies, etc. that I want to make sure stay in-tact and there is a bunch of music that we sing that is not on the recoding, which means I need to look at those even more.

I am having such a blast rehearsing this show, and can't wait for all that is in store.