Brush-up rehearsal was tonight.

[xiphias]

Apparently, if you don't have anything to work on, the mid-run brush-up rehearsal is done as a "hack night", where people filk the songs and goof around. We didn't do that -- we actually did have stuff to work on.

But not that much.

I can't help but wonder if we wouldn't have been better off working the three or four little bits we needed to work and then doing a hack night after that -- I've never been involved with a production before, but the biggest problem we have (and it's not, frankly, a very big problem) is that we're not projecting quite as much enthusiasm and energy as we did opening night. It's not like we're NOT enthusiastic or energetic -- it's just that we're not quite as up there as were were. The show is still damn good.

But I wonder if holding a hack night might have topped off the gas tank of our enthusiasm, as it were.

I really don't know -- I've not seen what a hack night actually is. And I don't know what its effects actually are.

And the brush-up rehearsal was useful -- we worked out a timing issue that the male chorus has been having with the blocking, which basically comes down to the fact that I was consistently late on my cue because I was moving more than anyone else. . . we're all standing in a circle facing forward, and then we march clockwise. That means that people on the left of the circle just march forward, people on the front and the back turn 90 degrees, and I, at the extreme right edge of the corner, have to do a complete about-face and step at exactly the same moment as everyone else. . . I think I've been the person messing up the timimg. . .

Comments

[navrins]

I think you may be right, but it's hard to say. Certainly the SM was certain she wanted a real rehearsal, and I certainly didn't think it was a bad idea, though hack nights can be good for enthusiasm.

You were not the person messing up the timing. It's possible you were one of the persons messing up the timing.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

The truth is, the hack night pickup rehearsals I've been part of have usually wound up with one or two naturally funny people and everyone else sort of pathetically trying to top them. They're not as much fun as they sound, and they can even be risky - that terribly clever filk or naughty joke can occasionally comes out of people's mouths in performance.

These days, when I'm directing a show that's in good shape, I don't bother with a walk-around pickup at all; at most, I just gather the cast at my house to run lines.

stuck in rhode island

[deerdancer22.livejournal.com]

I've been reading all the posts and wish so much life wasn't so hectic down here. We have the whole Crane clan coming for a week for Thanksgiving and there is so much cleaning to do!

We have a whole bunch of friends who are big G&S fans and would have loved to organize a field trip to the "Big City" to see you.

If you remember an Brain Gym exercises they would come in handy for the blocking and timing. Even just cross crawl :>}