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T. James Belich
06/24/09

Fringe rehearsals continue

It's hard to believe I've been rehearsing for about 2 weeks already! The Fringe inches ever closer... I've had several rehearsals with my director Kevin already, plus a number on my own. It's been incredibly useful to have Kevin as part of the process. Sometimes you just need another person to react to in the creative process and spur new ideas. Our rehearsals together have mostly been focused on character: Who is Dr. Volt? Who is the Assistant? Why are they doing what they're doing? We've taken the first few pieces and talked through the subtext (what the characters are thinking), for example, to get an idea of their unspoken goals. Kevin also had me take the Assistant character, which I've been a little nervous about, and improv him starting at the very beginning. We learn in the play that the Assistant is a result of one of Dr. Volt's experiments, and so he had me start there: at the Assistant's moment of creation, and just play around with what happened next. It was a great exercise and a lot of nice moments came out of it. I also felt like I was able to start getting my brain around the character, and together we came up with some important character points that have been very useful as I continue to work with the character. The Assistant is a silent character, and so having definition to what he's thinking is vital. Otherwise what will likely come out is a bunch of mush - movement and actions with no real purpose behind them. The past several days I've been working through some of the Assistant pieces, trying to determine very specifically what he is doing and getting those actions clear in my own mind.

So things are moving along! Last week I agreed to be part of an "open mike" night hosted by Rockstar Storytellers, which will consist of a number of Fringe shows each doing 4-5 minutes of material. That takes place on July 7th at Kieran's Pub in Minneapolis, starting at 8:30 PM. It's a little daunting to think about doing a performance of this piece so soon, but I think it'll be good to get out there and (hopefully) get some buzz going!

Just 37 days left until Fringe!

Playwrighting, Acting

3 comments

# Daniel Gervais

on 06/26/09 at 04:16

Hi James,

Always good to find another theatre blog.

I'm writing a one man show for the Fringe Fest coming up in Halifax this September. I have a lot of challenges to meet: 1) I've never written a play, 2) I haven't acted (besides auditons) since graduating from Theatre school 4 years ago, 3) No director, no SM, so funding. Wow, the more I describe it, the crazier it seems.

I'm doing it anyway.

My questions is: what has been your biggest challenge so far in developing you one-man show? My show is based on the life a local historical figure, so I'm lucky enough to already have a story. I'm trying to focus on making that existing story dramatic and interesting.

Any advice?

Thanks,

Dan

# T. James Belich [Member]

on 06/26/09 at 10:03

Hi David, thanks for your comments! Developing the script has probably been the biggest challenge for me in this process. I wanted to take physics concepts and present them in a theatrical way, making them as interesting as possible for non-scientists, and finding a way to do that which also contains a fun story has definitely proved challenging. I've written a number of other plays and have done a lot of acting which certainly helped, but now that I'm in rehearsals working with the non-speaking character (I play 2 different characters) has been an acting challenge as I try to make the performance interesting without words. I also set myself up with some interesting technical challenges. :-)

Good luck with your own show, it sounds very exciting! Who is your show based on? Halifax sounds like a beautiful place to do a Fringe show; if only I had the vacation time to bring my show there as well. :-)

# Claudia on 06/28/09 at 18:22

This is getting so excited as the Fringe nears. I am even a wee bit envious of your participation in the Fringe - even though I know I have no interest. Just jumping on the excitement bandwagon. Best of luck July 7th! It's sort of like a preview or a sneak-peek and a very good idea!

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