39 Steps: Start at the Start

Good Evening,
Blog/Day #4

Starting at the start is appropriate for today. We have begun. We have begun physical and dialect work with the actors. All departments are ramped up and busy finding props, and building pieces and painting the walls (see photo).
And tonight, we begin working with the text and putting this thing up and playing with it. I ask the actors to learn the lines for each "beat" we will be working so that we can have full play and freedom of movement and expression. We work with the lines first, running them, hearing them, hearing each other say them and it gives me an opportunity to hear rhythms and the language construct in a way that, really, I've only heard in my head before. Then we play and work at building the scene piece by piece, deconstructing the scene in terms of what's going on, where are we, what are the relationships and much, much more. It's another exciting "first" night in the process.
There are many "first" night with the last one being Opening Night...in...36 days!