First Week

I feel terrific about the first week of work with Stella, Stanley, Blanche and Mitch. I allowed big chunks at the beginning of each night for character work. On Tuesday, we did about an hour of physical exercises that emphasized contact, so that the actors would start getting comfortable with each other physically. Both Weds and Thurs we did prop exercises. One was to search for an object (prop) that is very special to the character, and then to write about it in their actor journals. The second night, I asked them to write about a ghost that is haunting them, and then to find an object that belonged to that person. Our Friday night session focused on sensual sense memory, with the goal of awakening their sensitivities to their characters' desires. The second half of each night was scene work, always starting with very detailed questions about what had just come before, time of day, mood prior to scene, etc. We made it all the way through Act I, and will finish Act II by Friday this week.