Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow...

FIRST REHEARSAL IS TOMORROW!

Funny how those kindergarten musings never quite go away."Will the other kids like me?" Yep, I've wondered it a few times today and it still matters. In non-totally social situations, however, they tend to like you more if you deliver the goods. And I am, after all, here to do a job! So, back to preparation.

I'll speak to preparation in installments, dealing with what I do as a director, what I'm learning, and how I prepare as an actor.

There is no substitute for solid preparation.

This goes for everything from preparing to take your on-the road test to get your driver's license--a major part of my preparation was my dad teaching me to drive on country roads in a stick-shift 56' Chevy with no power steering--to preparing to be a family leader when we go camping by watching my dad start magnificent campfires for years--I can now design and start a fire with one match nearly every time. Happy belated Father's Day, Dad.

I am still learning what the best pre-rehearsal process preparation is for a director (and I plan to learn much more this summer), but there are many steps I currently take that pay off every time. I have learned what follows from practice, from mistakes, from successes, from reading William Ball's A Sense of Direction, Jon Jory's Tips: Ideas for Directors, and Peter Brook's The Empty Space, and from working with and watching many talented directors, designers, actors, stage managers, teachers and mentors.

Many books (some of them good) have been written on the subject of directing. I certainly don't pretend to offer a formal treatise here; rather, I offer what follows as a skeletal summary of my current work on THE TEMPEST at this preparation stage of the journey. Enjoy.

1) READ THE PLAY. There is no better first step than reading the play several times, many times, when possible. I read first to let the story wash over me, to ascertain and understand the central conflict and theme(s), identify the climax of the play and the major turns along the way to the climax, to meet the characters, the setting, the world of the play. In the case of THE TEMPEST, I read the play first in the Arden edition. The individual Arden editions of Shakespeare's plays are the best, hands down, for preparation as a director or actor. Each page of the play is half-full of the play's actual text and half-full of notes and scholarship pertaining to that page of play text. The Arden editions also include scholarship and essays on the play's themes, historical context, noteworthy productions, problems and challenges, and other useful information. After a nice, slow Arden edition reading, I have a strong sense of the items mentioned above. I am ready for a second read.

Earlier today, I met with James to talk about first steps and possible areas where I might be of particular use. Great conversation. He's a dude. He is wise and easy-going, yet intense and passionate when that's what the moment needs. He's got so much experience. We spoke about some of the physical challenges of the play and how I may play a role in shaping/preserving/refining physical vocabulary of Caliban and a few others. We spoke about the challenge of physicalizing the storm at the beginning AND protecting the text so it can be heard and followed. A great challenge. I am excited to kick that one around.

We spoke about the director's job. He quoted a director who said that the chief job of a director is to be entertaining enough so the cast will come back to work tomorrow. He was joking, of course, but there is much truth there. Keeping the atmosphere positive, encouraging, safe, challenging, collaborative, etc. will keep the actors coming back to really work the next day.

After much quality conversation with James, I am sure of this: I will be back tomorrow!

As I look at the clock right now I realize it IS tomorrow! The time has come!