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April 23, 2008

Thunder Clown - Six Ring Show 04/22

Thunder Clown only had four bodies on stage tonight and it showed. The team doesn't have the capacity to run that lean yet, but they put in a monstrous effort to cover.   There was a general instability around deep character exploration due to an absence of power on the back line and when that happens a lot of exposition starts to spew, and once that happens, it’s hard to look away.

In rehearsal we had a couple of our best invocations to date, and I think that the team is finally firing on all cylinders.  We need to cement the idea of nodding back to our suggestion in our game and work on listening to the ideas that are coming out of the opening now that it is creating larger themes in “Thou Art” and “I am”.

For next week, I think we’ll work specifically on slower scenes again at the top, and then have fun with edits, staying away from the opening since we seem to be honing in on it. 

Also, a note to self on tech.  If you, as a director, don’t make sure that the tech team understands what the performance teams’ goals are for a show, tech can actually work against the performers as it tries to help.

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Posted by Chuck Charbeneau at 4:27 PM | Comments (0)

April 14, 2008

Thunder Clown - Six Ring Show 04/07

This week the team had a LOT more fun. They took their time and played in each one of their scenes. They weren't afraid of letting ideas hang out there for a minute or two or to allow for unknown characters or ideas to be present in their scenes.

From here forward it’s all about patience and allowing them to play as smart as they really are.  My goal is for them to be able to fill a 45 minute show with one Harold.  How sweet is that?

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Posted by Chuck Charbeneau at 1:40 PM | Comments (0)

April 7, 2008

Thunder Clown - Six Ring Show 04/01 - No Foolin'

While the team felt generally icky about their set, this was, over all, a great milestone in their work.

They took some wonderful chances this week, and made moves that they would never have attempted as recently as three weeks ago.

Over all, their scenes were slower and they used edits to lengthen and explore. They started with personal initiations that allowed them to have character points of view later in the set when the characters were called back.

They took chances with tag outs and scene painting, and are proving that their timing instincts are definitely maturing, getting into and out of a scene when it was needed, even if the initiation needed some work.

I can tell that they are questioning being in the ensemble and that they don't know if I've got them pointed in the right direction. They are uncomfortable because they are in new territory and there is an underlying fear. They are now ready to be put back together.

I just hope that they trust me long enough to do it.

Posted by Chuck Charbeneau at 9:38 AM | Comments (0)