Director Brian Townsend, left, gives a blocking direction to Kevin Talanges (Cable) on the Guild stage.
Blocking rehearsals can be tedious, but with Brian Townsend directing, they are usually fun and filled with laughter. Brian has done a lot of planning for this show, scheduling the rehearsals to jibe with conflicts in cast member schedules. We were scheduled to do Scene 1-3 at 9:00pm last night. Everyone needed was present so we started about 8:50 with Brian saying, “Oh,boy. We’re ahead of schedule.”
Brian tell the actors to slow down, speed up, look this way, look that way, be louder, be softer, cross quickly, cross slowly, etc., etc. Brian also does a great job of reacting to stuff the actors do, saying things like, “Yeah. Yeah. Do it that way.”
Colleen Meade-Ripper (Bloody Mary) rehearses “Bali Ha’i” with Kevin Talanges (Cable), Raouf El-Alami (a SeaBee), Will Turbett (Professor), Tom Davis – hidden (Billis), and Kenyada Davis (StewPot) taking blocking notes.
Colleen is going to be fantastic as Bloody Mary. She has the dialect down and she can really sing it.
Six more blocking rehearsals and we run Act 1.