The Memorization Begins

(Guest posted by Marc Biagi)

It begins. Because we're on a tight rehearsal and production schedule for this play, our director, DJ Sullivan, has given the cast the mission to have the play memorized by our first table read on Monday, January 5.

O_o
Panic sets in! Yikes, what was I doin' watching all of those movies while I was sick!

Well, gotta start somewhere, and fortunately the audition was the first 10th of the play and that'll be easier to memorize. Now ONLY the other 90% to go...

The hard part will be all of the overlapping that's gonna happen in many of these scenes. A whole lot easier to memorize once you've done the table read and start blocking and performing with the rest of the cast, but still possible. Sadly, we weren't able to meet for the pre-holiday table read where DJ would've revealed her units (beats) to us, and we'd start to get the feel for the other characters' voice and delivery. I'll be interested to see where my units (beats) and hers diverge. For me, subtext begins to work hand-in-hand with the memorization process as do the natural units or beats.

Last night, the great highlighting began as I read thru the script again laughing to myself. More of the character and subtextual subtleties started to unfold and reveal themselves to me. The surreal thing is I was doing this while Wonderland was playing on the TV. And no, not Alice in..., the Val Kilmer film about the true story of John Holmes and his involvement in a quadruple murder in LA. BTW...I never use yellow highlighters. For me, they are difficult to read with a lot of light and under the stage, I miss half my highlights that way. I prefer Orange, Pink and Green. I used pink for this show for some reason (hey, no comments from the peanut gallery).

BTW...I'll probably get myself into trouble here by admitting this, particularly if I'm not fully memorized by the deadline. It seems I have a modicum of photographic memory when it comes to memorization. Definitely seems to help. But it takes a while to develop (seriously). Sometimes, I actually can see parts of the page and the text itself too, but it ain't word-perfect, that's for sure. Still, I hadn't really realized how much of a part of my process this gift is until talking with Sherri Allen and Kevin Six while working through his play No Problem this last summer.

Movies Over the Holidays

(Guest posted by Marc Biagi)

Well, we've been down with a nasty cold for the holidays which threw the proverbial wrench into our social plans. Instead we've been taking advantage of the healing time to catch up on some great movie watching...

My folks gave us a gift certificate to Amazon and among the things we got were DVDs of Bergman's Fanny & Alexander, Burton & Taylor in the Mike Nichols-directed film of Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf, and Zhang Yimou's epic To Live. We've seen all of these many times, and have decided to add them to our library as all are incredible in their own ways. Yeah, not exactly holiday films (although there's a great family Christmas gathering in F&A).

If you've never seen them, here's the scoop:

Fanny & Alexander - This is a fictionalized semi-biographical story of Bergman's strange childhood and visions. It's very long (if you watch the originally intended 5 hour TV series version -- though it doesn't seem made-for-TV in the least), and weaves a complex history following Alexander through his childhood in Sweden. There are some terrific monologues (or parts that can be crafted into such) for those searching for something no one else has done. Although my other half enjoys this far more than I do (particularly for the incredibly lavish period Christmas celebration scenes), there's a lot going for this film, but you definitely have to have the patience and mood to start the journey. And hey...don't forget to check out Anakin Skywalker's mom when she was young...

Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf - Although I'd read the play years ago, I hadn't seen the film until after going to the Globe's recent production, in which, sadly, Martha was terrible and the actors were forced to work with getting nothing useful from her. I'm glad I saw the film afterward, since I might have walked out at intermission otherwise (however, the rest of the actors did a good job -- especially those playing George and Honey). Still amazing that this was Mike Nichols' first film! (sings: what a difference a stage makes...)

To Live - My favorite film by Zhang Yimou (House of the Flying Daggers) yet. Ain't no wires or martial arts in this one folks -- this is sometimes referred as the Chinese Gone with the Wind, and although it's quite different in nature, it certainly has that kind of epic impact. It follows the lives of a couple as they struggle with a reversal of fortune and the winds of change under Communism. This film will take you on a rollercoaster ride of emotions through struggle, triumphs and even some great moments of comedy. You may recognize the actors who play Fugui (Ge You, Farewell My Concubine) and Jiazhen (Gong Li, Memoirs of a Geisha) who are both outstanding in this incredibly moving film.

And one other movie we got from Netflix that's worth note:

The Dark Knight - Arguably, this should be under the category Brain & Eye Candy, however, Heath Ledger's performance really blew me away. Now, while there were a lot of issues with this film plot and pacing-wise, I was mesmerized by Ledger's Joker. He stole every scene he was in and his subtext was thick, smoky and delicious. It is an intense performance that would be difficult for any actor to embody, and he was, IMHO, stellar. TEH bomb, literally. Makes it even more tragic that we won't see any more from him...but it was a high note to end on performance-wise. And for any nay-sayers out there -- lemme see you do better!

Yeah, we watched other stuff too, but these were definitely the highlights for me.