November 4, 2008: “Unde te duci tu, Ano” – Rehearsal Two

Dear Friend,

The second rehearsal for Wednesday’s forum theatre piece went equally as well as yesterday’s rehearsal. The actors went through the play once, after which the director, Maria, gave some feedback. The offstage focus had not been done, though, and it seemed that Maria was very much in favor of using the convention. My understanding about the piece, though, changed a little since last night’s rehearsal, primarily because of the availability of more props. The scene where I suggested the offstage focus should take place, for example, suddenly had a prop in it that I didn’t know would be there. This greatly changed the nature of the scene, as both actors needed to interact with the prop. This, therefore, changed the dynamic of the staging, and I began to think that offstage focus would not be appropriate for the scene. In fact, even when I had suggested it, I had wondered if offstage focus could be used in forum theatre at all.

In the scene, Alina portrayed Ana and Tudor portrayed Ana’s brother. The brother enters the scene and sees Ana reading an email on her computer. He sits down and looks at the screen. This is the staging. My original concern in last nights rehearsal was that Tudor was sitting directly behind Alina, or a little off to the side. In either case, he was being upstaged by Alina, which meant people would have a hard time seeing him. As I thought both characters were important to the scene, I suggested the offstage focus convention. Each character would be seen and given the right amount of attention. However, during this rehearsal Tudor informed me that he has to look at the computer screen, which would ruin the convention entirely. I hadn’t known this. Something needed to be changed.

Maria was still bent on using the offstage focus convention. I suggested, however, that using the convention in this scene would not work, as Tudor needed to look at the screen. That action was vital to the scene, so the blocking had to be changed a little. I explained I had only suggested the offstage focus as a means of fixing the problem of one upstaging the other, which was a problem that could be fixed in a number of ways. Also, I explained that doing offstage focus, while it’s a cool staging technique, needs to have a reason other than to use it simply because it’s cool. In the end, the blocking issue was resolved with some simple, minor changes and the offstage focus was rightly put off to the side.

Many people expressed they appreciated the time that was put into discussing the staging of the play during this rehearsal. Apparently not much discussion is had when they rehearse their plays. I’m not sure if my presence prompted that change or not, but people definitely appreciated the advice. Adi wanted us to play Boom-Chicka-Boom, which he has taken upon himself to request every chance he gets. I certainly hope I’m remembered for more than just bringing Boom-Chicka-Boom to A.R.T. Fusion. Maybe I can be remembered for also bringing offstage focus to A.R.T. Fusion. However, even if I’m simply the “Boom-Chicka-Boom guy,” I’m glad I was able to introduce something that will probably become a trend.

Blessings.
Kailen