It Races By You

Play rehearsal went very well yesterday
but ultimately ran out of time.
Nervous we're an hour or two shy
from "perfecting" this baby beast.

I brought a soccer ball into rehearsal,
used it during warm-ups as focus exercise...
oh & a dollup of timing/pace too.
Each actor took the ball & centerstage
when it was his/her line.
Some funny funny interplay,
a physical manifestation of the constant tug
each character exerts when he/she pipes up.
The actors seemed to dig it too,
definitely loosened things up.
Although it was disconcerting at times to see
old stiff habits resume once they were walking/blocking...
still a few spot rehearsals & everyone was relaxed again.

There's one bit of business that still isn't working,
a charater aside during a cel phone call.
It's a LONG call w/ the other characters just standing about.
Needs to be faster, shorter.
Also need to pin down opening entrances...
one or two actors are still a little too busy.

But overall, I felt good.
Not just the $10 or so I spent on food props--
horse-sized Hersey bars and boxes of Junior Mints,
Taco Bell burritos & coffee cups.
Gotta remember to pre-pop the popcorn tonight too.
Looks like I also secured 4 stanchions from Randolph Loews...
so our movie theater lobby environment should be complete.
Still want to know where the clipboards are--
SerahRose could use one @ her counter station.
Oh well,
after this morning's tech run I'll have nothing else on mind
this afternoon. I'll find stuff.

**********************************************

The Boston Film Night was another matter, though.
Like last February's Rough Cutz it was fraught w/ technical difficulties,
bad booming sound.
I sat closer during the 2nd screening & that helped some,
but seriously...
someone step up & soundcheck.
I wonder if it's a matter that the programmers just slap all the shorts
on a single DVD
& only mix levels for the 1st clip
or gauge somewhere in the middle?
But even the speakers were mud,
anytime anyone stepped up to the mic to introduce or Q&A...
unintelligible muck.

Now this is where I'm gonna come across as pompous,
but heck! it's my blog & this is my ego here...
but the films?
The forty or so shorts Midnight Chimes & whoever culled for this?
There was a single good film-- "Aquarium".
And another film w/ potential but muddled character/storytelling--
"It's For Her".
And one other I liked esp. when you realized it was basically
a long take & a pretty solid performance for a phone call scene--
"Breaking Up".
But everything else?
Dross. The equivalent of dollar-a-pound clothing
& dustbin CD's.
Very dispiriting.
Here comes the fat head & high opinion...
"Aerodynamics" is lightyears beyond this amatuer regional crap.

So why am I still here?
Competing w/ the wanna-be's & the never have's?
The real talent isn't mixing it up at a video arcade on a Saturday night,
pushing business cards & bio's into strangers' faces.
No, it's working.
Professional paid persons just doing their thing in NY or LA
or Vancouver.
Sorry, Boston. You didn't impress me.