Saturday 2 – June 9th – Day Six

A different day today.

We didn’t need to arrive until 11 am today so I picked up my laundry. Good to be back in shirts, socks and skivvies.

First, we had the fifth of the five plays that they have been rehearsing. It was a 65 minute play titled “Minor Gods”. A very interesting premise: A man has developed a test that will tell if a fetus will turn into a gay or lesbian. The man is seeking government funding to find a “cure” for those for those fetus’ who may turn gay.

What could have been a very heavy play was lightened considerably but some very well done humor. Nevertheless the play at times seemed disconnected and talky. There were some very long passages that need to be shortened.

Of particular interest is that the cast spent 2 ½ weeks at the table and only three days on their feet. Also of interest, the play takes place in a motel room and on the three days they were on their feet, the set designer changed the size of the hotel room. The actors liked the challenge.

But – – – again they spent most of the time working on rewriting the script.

This afternoon, we split up into groups of 25 with some directors, some actors, some playwrights and some designers. They gave us a page with a lot of questions on it. Most related to how things worked with the playwright in the room. I offered my thoughts on how the process went was roundly criticized. (What’s new?) I still think I am right. What I heard over and over was that the process produced a far better play than before the rehearsals. Duh! Hire professional directors, professional actors and professional designers and spend three weeks working on the script and it should get better.

The question in my mind is whether that was an efficient use of resources and my answer is no. Remember that the initial question proposed by Lincoln Center was how to bring a new play to the stage in the four week rehearsal period allowed. If they took 2 ½ weeks to get up from the table we are looking at a seven or eight week rehearsal period.

The schedule for today listed “Reflections on what we’ve learned so far” as the topic. So I spent a couple of hours writing out my thoughts. I’ll post them after this. Remember you read up .

After this talk back period we had cookies and soda and said good bye to the actors and playwrights. I will miss Roy Thinnes and several of the playwrights. Tomorrow the designers go home after we spend a couple of hours looking at their work. Then we’re down to 58 Directors for the next two weeks.

After dinner all the Directors got together and introduced ourselves although we already know many of them. Got out early tonight: 9 pm.

That’s all for today.

Now I have to type my comments.