Blocking

No, we didn't take Memorial Day Weekend off.

The entire crew was around for a day full of running through sketches and blocking them on stage.  We began with an extensive set of run throughs for Shane's sketch.  It's my policy to not give away too much, but the sketch does have the Devil in it.  Andy is cast as the Prince of Darkness, and he has an entire posse with him.  We writers were treated to some richly amusing singing and dancing antics on stage by all of the actors.  The cast continues to amaze us with the way that they can make us laugh at sketches that we've read through several times and, in some instances, we have lived with for almost an entire year.

We then moved onto another sketch that involves the entire cast, Laura's "The Real Version."  This particular sketch was one that I had the chance to run through last week in absence.  Well, Andy put on a clinic with his treatment of the same character.  He had slightly different mannerism each run through, and he had us in stitches.  It was also fun to see the physicality of the scene from the seats this week as opposed to being in the thick of it. (Know this: Brigid is a very flexible human being.)

Another highlight of the week was seeing dudes kiss on stage again.  Wow, David really gets around.  The particular scene that involves this roMANce was the one that also ends in a gyrating braid of femininity at center stage.  Again, very funny stuff. Poor Janna wasn't feeling well and tapped out during the first run through of the lady-knot, but she made it through the second time around without incident.  (Pretty impressive she made it to rehearsal, actually. When she wasn't on stage she looked as if she was going to pass out.) (And another thing: Michelle is also a very flexible human being.)  The rehearsals for this sketch are also intriguing because we get to see and hear Sam's extensive knowledge of show tunes lyrics.  He could make serious bank as a singing male stripper in San Francisco or West Hollywood.

One of Ben's awesome sketches finally got a run through yesterday.  God-damn, that boy can write.  He has one sketch set in the Old West and one that involves a superhero.  The Old West sketch got a run through yesterday.  We had Sam as a Latino lover, Andy as modern day Slim Pickens, and Janna as a tough-as-nails saloon keeper.  This should be made into a feature film.  Or an Original Lifetime Movie (TM).  We ended the day with Brian's sketch involving the last rites.  (If he's Catholic he is SO excommunicated.)  David treated us to his Bronx accent as the perverted padre.

On the whole, it feels as if the show is coming together.  Some of the actors are already getting off book, and we kicked around ideas for a poster as well.  It's hard to believe that we are already halfway through our eight weeks of rehearsals.

Limited footage from yesterday.  The battery on my camera died.

More musical amusements.

Lucifer himself with his phalanx of females.

Naming Our Baby

What a great rehearsal we had yesterday.

The actors got to move off their chairs and start moving around the stage.  We selected a title, and we continued to work on the one musical piece in our show.

Andy was absent yesterday, so yours truly got to pinch hit for him in two sketches.  This was heaps of fun.  Both sketches involved kissing, or at least an attempt at kissing.  Had I known this, I would have shaved that morning.  At least I brushed and flossed.  Warning: Joe expects authenticity during his rehearsals.  Spoiler alert: dudes kiss in our show. We also had one scene end in a three-woman pile-up of gyration.  I think we've got a lock on that NC-17 rating.  

After our coffee break, we writers had to leave the theatre to submit a short list of titles for our show.  This burnt up a chunk of time.  We had some winners suggested and some lame ones.  Ultimately, we settled on "This is Going to be Awkward."  So, come see "This is Going to be Awkward" on June 29, July 6, July 13, or July 20 at 9:00 p.m. at Donny's Skybox located at Second City, North Ave. & Wells Ave., Chicago, IL.

While we made our short list of titles, Joe and the actors continued to run through sketches.  We re-entered just as they were finishing up with one of my submissions.  Again, the actors have really brought that piece to life in ways I didn't think possible.  They are awesome.

At the end of our day, it was time to run through Shane's music-inclusive sketch.  Andy is playing the main male singer in this piece, so Shane got to do his best rockstar bit as the other actors sang the chorus of his depraved lyrics.  Yes, the lyrics are depraved.  Come to the show to find out.

Some snaps from yesterday:

Shane, feeling the power of rock & roll.

David, Brigid, Janna, and Sam.

Janna and David.

Joe, Dan, and Mark. Hardy-har-har.

Blurry Sam. (His street name.)

The gang.  Singing campfire songs.

Brigid and Michelle.  Obviously, they are disgusted by me.

L to R:Dan, Laura, Benhur, Mark, Detroit Angie, and Brian.

Snip Snip

Another successful read through yesterday.  With all of our editing, our read through came in between fifty-seven and fifty-eight minutes.  Not bad, but still too long.  Ideally, we should be at fifty minutes. In theory, we'll shave more time in the coming weeks with rehearsals and the actors getting into a rhythm with the lines.

Still, were running too long and had to make the painful decision as a group to cut one of our sixteen sketches.  As a group, we are not good at this.  We are all far too polite and wary of not stepping on anybody's toes or hurting somebody's feelings.  Out of the gate, though Joe suggested a few sketches that should not be cut: our lone musical offering, two sketches with the same characters that gives our show a theme, and a very funny sketch gets entire cast involved.  This standoff in civility lasted several minutes.  Finally, the ice was broken when one of us -- I think it was Detroit Angie -- offered to cut her own sketch.  What ensued was almost all of us offering to ditch one of our own.  This finally led to a more frank discussion about our roster of sixteen sketches and which ones overlapped in terms of their characteristics, i.e two-person relationship scene, messing with the audience, physical comedy, etc.  In the end, we had two two-person relationship scenes involving very physical comedy on the block, and one of those was removed.  This saves us approximately 3 1/2 minutes.  If we are able to trim our running time in the coming weeks, we'll hopefully keep fifteen sketches in our show.  If not, we'll have to make another painful cut in a few more weeks.

Yesterday wasn't all painful, though.  We began with a very fun warm-up while we waited for a few people to arrive.  During the readings, we were treated to Sam's sultry Mexican accent, Dave's hand play, and an onslaught of East Coast privilege with Andy deftly handling the role of patriarch.  Janna had her hands full with a son destined to masturbate himself into the grave, and Michelle turned in another "solid" performance as a penis.

Speaking of penises, when I saw the two pieces of mine that Joe selected a few weeks ago, I felt that one of the sketches was definitely stronger than the other. To distinguish between the two, we'll call one the cross-dressing sketch and the other the penis sketch.  I thought the penis was stronger.  (That's a line that's dying to be taken out of context.)  However, after the actors have been involved, I think the cross-dressing sketch has become the stronger of the two.  The penis gets a little weak at the end. (Pun groan.)  I can't quite put my finger on it.  (Double pun groan.)  Fuck it, why not:  I think I need to play with the penis some more.  (Triple pun groan.)  Mark has volunteered to lend a hand (quadruple!), and he's a logical choice for such an endeavor.

More Pictures

Shane comes through with more footage from Rehearsal #1:

Detroit Angie, caffeine = happy face.

Brian.  Looking very throwback.

Dan.  Looking very 70s cop movie publicity still.

The Dudes.  Playing what appears to be an actual game of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Janna and the Boys.

Der Leiter.

Das Arschloch.

Mr. Mom.

Mr. Mojo.

When Mark says, "I'd like to pick your brain," remember this image. 

Reading Festival

After a week off, we're back.  We've begun the final phase of Second City's core writing program: Writing 6.  Eight weeks of rehearsals and minor tweaks to our sketches before they come to life in four shows at the beginning of the summer.

Today we had a read through of the sixteen sketches that Joe has selected as candidates for the show: two of each writer.  We convened at Donny's Skybox theater on the top floor of the training center along with our six actors: Brigid, Andy, Janna, Sam, Michelle, and David.  Sam and Michelle are also the Sam and Michelle from our Gorilla Tango show in March, David is a friend of mine from improv classes at Second City.  So, this group of talent is not entirely unknown to us.

Joe introduced everybody at the beginning, and told the actors what each writer's production role is for the show.  He also set a very pragmatic ground rule: all acting notes from the writers are filtered through him; all script suggestions from the actors are filtered through him.  I suspect this rule came about by learning the hard way.  I bet the production that taught that valuable lesson had intriguing backstage drama.

It was a great experience having others read our material, even though this first day was just a cold reading.  The different voices, the mannerisms, the dramatic pauses, and the first attempts at action based on the script (but not necessarily stage directions).  All casting decisions for the first read through were assigned by Joe.  (Including casting a woman as a penis. Hey, it worked; she killed.) It went really well. When the sketches were being read by the actors who were cast, the other actors often laughed.  Yeah!  Hell, we writers were also laughing because of the great readings from our cast -- which is nothing to sneeze at considering that we have lived with these pieces for several months and have heard them read several times.  Personally, I was most impressed when the cast was able to make me laugh at my own material -- my self-loathing had never allowed that to happen until yesterday.

After the first read through, the actors got a lengthy break, and Joe talked casting with the writers.  Each writer got to have input whether a different actor should read a role in the sketches the writer wrote.  We only made two or three changes.  The initial casting was that good.

We brought the actors back and read through a few sketches a second time -- including the few with casting changes.  The actors then were sent on their merry way, and a few shared some very kind words about the sketches.

Our final item of business was to decide on two pieces to get cut from the production.  GULP!  This was presented to us as an even more difficult decision because we supposedly have 16 solid pieces.  (Joe's words, not mine or any other writer's.)  True, but I imagine that when a production has one writer who really hasn't written great stuff, it would still be a delicate situation to suggest that that that person should have his or her stuff hacked from the show.

Anyhow, Mark quickly defused the situation by submitting that everybody try to edit their sketches to remove 1/2 to 1 page of material if that would allow us to keep all sixteen for the time being.  Done and done.  I have to get my red pencil and do some snipping this week.

Some snaps from yesterday:

THE MEN: (l to r -- David, Sam, and Andy)

THE DAN

Benhur and Brian

Me, looking dainty with my doppio espresso.

Shane, looking even daintier.

Finally, we have our director, Joe.  At his birthday party. Doused in de-constructed birthday cake.