Day Two with Matt and Mark

MATT

I’m sharing today’s post with fellow Showcase-actor Mark Tucker.

I’m always fascinated by working with Elizabeth – this will be my third time and it’s always a great learning experience. Even for a process as short and as (comparatively) small-scale as this showcase, she insists on a high level of dedication to every line, movement, inflection, etc. while rehearsing. While working on a scene from The Tempest, Elizabeth goaded us (me and actress Caroline Brent, playing Ferdinand and Miranda respectively) to make honest discoveries about the characters and avoid the normal histrionics of Shakespeare. Elizabeth is always wary of actors working too much “in their heads,” which is something I think [and hope] any aspiring actor would appreciate. Rehearsal atmosphere with Elizabeth is always interesting and fun. By request, I won’t speak of some of the more amusing events of the day.

On a random personal note: it was strangely comforting to jump into a role I’d played before for Empty Chair (I was lucky enough to play Richard in Elizabeth’s Richard III in 2008). In the showcase scene from Henry VI, Part III, Richard is only a creepy bystander to the actual conflict of the moment, acted out brilliantly by Mark (as King Edward) and Lee Havlicek, but Elizabeth encouraged me to rehash the physicality she had dictated for the same character years ago, which was a way to instantly recreate the character. It was a nice stroll down memory lane.

 MARK

I’ll be finishing the second half of this wonderful shared blog post.  Today I worked on the Taming of the Shrew scene, with Samantha Sheahan and Caroline Brent.  We ran over it several times, really working on listening to each other.  As Matt already mentioned, we worked on the Henry VI, Part III and, despite me having an awful time listening to the simple direction of “walk here, now,” it went extremely well.  Lee, playing Lady Grey, was able to do some excellent scene work despite my bumbling around the space.  We also made decisions about four of Shakespeare’s beautiful sonnets, which we are incorporating into the Showcase.

While I wasn’t working on scenes, I had a wonderful time watching everyone act, direct, laugh, and occasionally cry (but only when the scene called for it.)  Every person working on this production loves the work we are doing, which makes watching everything come together, surprisingly quickly, an absolute treat. I’m sure everyone who gets the chance to come out to the Showcase will see all of the passion involved in the process appear on stage.