This rehearsal was exciting -- literally. Very productive and very spontaneous. 'nuff said.

We started with three improvisational games:

• Explosion Tag -- The purpose of this game is to crack players' so-called protective armor.
  
  Tag with a twist. Rick, Erin, Sandy and Kristen played a regular game of tag for about two minutes. Leader calls out "Not it!" Last player to call out becomes "it." That sort of thing. When I felt the energy level was high, I added another rule: when tagged, take a moment to "explode." Note that there is no set way to "explode" -- just explode spontaneously.
  
  This exercise does wonders. It gets everyone interacting with each other, encourages spontaneity without fear of looking completely silly -- not to say that you all looked completely silly -- OH! What a giveaway. No, really, I've done this exercise plenty of times, it's a favorite of mine.
  
  
• Tug of War -- The purpose of this game, in Viola Spolin's words, is to "awaken the invisible communication between players." Aptly put.
  
  Another simple premise, with a twist. Tug of War ... with an invisible rope. This game is played until the phenomenon of objects in space, not in the head, is experienced by everyone and is understood.
  
  We'll do this one again soon ... in pairs!
  
  
• Three Changes -- Another in the award-winning series of focus exercises, this one is designed to improve players' powers of observation.
  
  Break off into teams of two. Partners observe each other, noting everything -- dress, hair, accessories, everything. Partners then turn backs on each other and make three changes in their personal appearance. When ready, they turn around again and each proceeds to identify the changes on the other.
  
  When we get really good at this one, I've been known to crank it up to four, five, six, seven, yes -- even eight changes. Most people never realize just how their perception has changed until I do this, but it happens every time.
  
  
• Spelling -- A new addition to our Gibberish exercise is to spell your words during conversation.
  
  This time everyone talked, sometimes splitting the conversation into two pairs and then rejoining (nice touch, folks!). "English!" "Gibberish!" "Spelling!" The results are especially hilarious when we switched from gibberish directly into spelling. Remember, you still need to communicate with each other so, technically, you should be able to switch from gibberish to spelling!
  
  We closed rehearsal with this, which was deliberate -- start with a game, end with a game. Why not? The sub-goal here is to keep the words devoid of meaning, concentrating on the sounds of the letters instead, which we typically never do. It gives you something unusual and different to focus on during your conversations. Performers are typically more sensitized to the choices they make in delivering their scripted lines after a few rounds of this game.

Only one this week:

This one can throw people for a loop, I know! We read through a scene in slow motion. I wanted to demonstrate that not all lines were meant to be read at breakneck pace. That's not to say we were doing that -- we weren't. But I digress ...

The goal here is to focus on what it means to be "in slow motion" -- everything, you, the room, your fellow players. Talking slowly does not count as talking in slow motion! In doing this, everyone gets a clearer sense of being in the same place as opposed to being passive and alone. You're all in the same here-and-now moment together. Very important to be aware of while on-stage. The next thing to do here would be to focus on slow motion while reading the script with regular rhythms.

We spent a healthy amount of time (healthy?) discussing characters and scenes in the show. An important thing to realize here is that your analyses may vary wildly between each other. In fact, that's exactly what happened! We followed through on that and even engaged in a little debate, which is also good. There's plenty of insight to be had in that. The conversation is pretty much driven by the performers with me acting as moderator, offering my $0.02 or summation when I felt the urge.

You're well on your way to internalizing your parts and determining what you want to do to make your characters come alive for each other. Key point: for each other. If you've convinced each other, the audience is sure to be convinced. Nice bonus, eh?

The adventure continues Monday, July 8.