Inside Rehearsal of Simple People
My staging comes from discovering the space. The actors first move in the set and then I rediscover the space as they feel freed or trapped by it. It is always unique and heartfelt and then I impose my own movement style and choices on top of that. I like song and dance. . All people can dance and sing, just maybe not in the Broadway musical sense. The voice and body are your own and I try to bring out what each actor can bring to the stage in voice and movement. If they actors say they can’t sing or dance, the will in my work. I sprinkle in realistic staging, otherwise there is no reason for the environment. If I were to completely ignore the set and do funny business with songs and dance the audience wouldn’t take the content of the story seriously. Homeless executives is both humorous and tragic.
I intentionally keep actors in the dark as to why am I directing in certain ways. I want to watch their discoveries. Actors and directors can’t exist without each other’s input. We are like food to one another. As the rehearsal process deepens I become more specific in directing the actors. Then we reach a phase where both freedom and frustration sets in. Eventually the actors reveal a character state. Once in the state is inhabited then we can then travel anywhere.
I make changes in the script late in the process because writing words and hearing them are different. What has made sense on paper doesn’t always translate to the stage. Or I see that one character may not be able to say the thing I wrote, and then realize it was meant for the other character. And frankly, there is the simple fact that sometimes I just don’t know what I am doing. I have to wait for it to become apparent to me.
My story is simple. Everyone knows what has happened with the economic crisis. Sometimes an object or a pet was left behind because they were forced out of their home. This detail has great significance. Sometimes I leave in the cliche and sometimes I take out the obvious. Sometimes by overstating certain content the story becomes absurd and perhaps meaningful or humorous. By not giving all the information to a piece, the work is then open to interpretation. I want the audience to feel more than the information of a story without too much emotional manipulation. I want the characters to reveal inner feelings and passions. Being homeless is being faceless.