Now that rehearsals (or at least read-throughs) have begun for As You Like It, it’s helpful to let the actors know when they need to be there (because, needless to say, with all the characters in the play, not everyone needs to be there every night)…
For those who really want to know #howthesausagegetsmade … here’s a little method of my madness:
First I begin with the appearance grid, where I outlined when each character appears on stage, broken down by not only scenes but page chunks within scenes as well (those are the columns), and grouped not only by character, but also by the various characters some actors portray (the rows).
then I take that information and I begin to group the data by which roles/actors appear together and on what pages those interactions take place…
and then I can group those performance groups together into possible rehearsal chunks…
Once, I’ve got rehearsal groupings, I put those groups/”nights” onto post-it notes that contain which actors I need for that night (in green ink) and/or those actors who are not needed–and thus excluded–from the rehearsal (in red) ink…
Then it’s time to check out the conflict calendar–which is based on both the conflicts the actors noted on their audition sheet and the new conflicts they added on the first night of rehearsal–and I can begin to lay out the post-its on dates, making sure that the green names don’t match the names listed as conflicts on a given date (or that the red names do match those conflicted names)…
and
and
Thus, I have a pretty solid rundown of the post-Thanksgiving/pre-Christmas blocking rehearsals, and a tentative idea of how the January slate of rehearsals will look in the run-up to opening…
And that’s …
#howthesausagegetsmade