Rehearsals have begun! Home in Boston...

SOooo...
I am in my second week of rehearsals with Chamber Theatre and it is a very different theatrical experience than others/most I have had. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I am thinking more positively these days and so I keep reminding myself that I am a working actor who can pay his bills doing what he loves to do. Over the past two weeks my castmates and I have learned the extremely specific style involved in doing theatre that is based off of literature. This company has been in the works for 30 years and so they have a very clear idea of what each "story" within the show must be.

At first I found this to be very strange and unsettling but it has grown on me. I don't mind molding myself into extreme genres because it actually is a challenge. I will admit that at times I crack up laughing, thinking to myself that what I am doing is so ridiculous (and sometimes not really even acting)--but I know the in the end that the trick is to make what I am told to do into something real for myself. If i don't do that I will go friggan nuts...

The stories are:

The Fall of the House of Usher
The Ransom of Red Chief
The Lady or the Tiger
The Open Window
The Most Dangerous Game


Nonetheless...the people I am working with are the shit...no joke. The director is serious enough but also very playful, knowing that at times what we are doing is in fact kinda ridiculous--as do the other actors and techies. And THANK GOD everyone in this tour has a wild sense of humor and adventure. I don't think I could do this or at least have as much fun doing it if I wasn't working with the free-spirited kind of people I am working with. That is definately a blessing I am very happy about.

We have been working on the set with the actual props and set pieces since day one which is amazing. I haven't had that happen with any show I have done. The show itself is crazy complicated. Each of the stories have either crazy fight choreography or at least a good amount of physical comedy. I have a lot of these things to do myself. For example; in one of the stories a little "boy" (really a girl, but that is just details really) jumps on my back twice, kicks me, punches me, runs me into walls and huge "taller than me" rocks and on and on and on...It is a BLAST! A little tiring but still a really incredible time each day.

I cannot keep saying how wonderful it feels to be a working actor. I am happy everyday. I have started to get that "I feel like a kid" sorta feeling back as well which is really really really nice...Doing this show is the true essence of playing. I don't have to take myself seriously (and believe me...NONE of us do) and I think that actually allows me/us to really let go and just PLAY. And that is what acting is all about...Playing and Creating! :)

So with a smile...I sign off for now and go to bed...For in the AM I have to drive the 15 seat passenger van that we will take around the country back into Dorchester for another crazy long day of rehearsal! Oh...and we named the van "Grandma Fucker"...not like someone who does this to Grandma...but rather a Grandma NAMED Fucker....just wanted to clear that up!

Until next time...
PEACE