The Characters Take Shape

"Enter Versus holding the leash for the collars of two men dressed as leopards."

During the week, to save money, we rehearse in the Seattle Center Armory on a giant chess set. This is a practice we started during a play called King Beard, and it felt thematically appropriate. It's also a great way to max out a community space. It legitimately feels that this is why the building is here, to provide space for people to meet and create.

It's also often full of people sleeping there, but they are happy to share. It's open late. And there is coffee.

This week we went through scenes with the military characters and the artists exiled to Exile Isle. The soldiers are on the front of a war with The Goths, and because of some poor decisions back in Rome, they are running out of equipment just as they are poised to finish off those meddlesome Goths.

One of the soldiers is organizing the remaining swords with a color-coding system, and his captain has requested he use numbers instead. They fight about it, but they are also kind of joking. It's a fun way to capture the sort of relationship friends have when one of them is in charge.

This is based on a situation from many years ago when I was resposible for the inventory of a collection of cameras at a television network. They only had four cameras, so I gave them color names. The boss said to number them because I would eventually run out of colors. I was like, we only have four! And he was like, "Think big!" 

We weren't friends. These soldiers are, though, and also lovers. There's also a subplot about one of their ex-lovers who suffered from Phantom Limb Syndrome. As well, there's a bit stolen from a drunk in a bar who once talked my ear off about an ancient army who deployed their soldiers in pairs, the theory being that they would fight harder if they knew their only source of sex was likely to be killed if they didn't give the campaign their best. 

I think the drunk was making it up, but I never forgot it, and now it is "real" in this play. 

In this session there was an opportunity to trim a line. I often "overwrite" in the script to help the actors get a sense of character, and then we cut the line to make it sound more like speech and to streamline the thoughts (or jokes). 

In this case, the captain threatens to "stick Orange in your breast!" meaning the sword color-coded as orange would be used. It felt too fancy for someone to say in anger, so we changed it to "stick you with Orange!" 

The joke then is that Orange is checked out, so the secretary offers him another color to stick in him. It's written as "you can kill me with mauve," but we decided to change it to a dick color, because it's funny to say, "You can stick pink into me instead." 

But that is sort of too on the nose, and there was a funny quiet moment while we all thought about believable colors for dicks that would also be regionally appropriate. We landed on purple (though mauve would have done). 

This is the process. 

Exile Isle night went well as well. The cast has about twenty people in it, so there are lots of new folks to work with, and this is the first time with one of the fresh folks. He was very engaged and fit right in with our flexible style, making suggestions and edits throughout. Lots of laughs. 

The gag with this setup is Rome's best poet and philosopher have been sent to a very small island. They are being punished for declaring their love for one another. The Emperor was afraid that if poetry and philosophy "mated," people might actually start liking them more and maybe even listening to them! 

Poetry that "meant" something and philosophy with pleasing language. Too dangerous! 

So, they are stuck on this remote dot in the Adriatic where they are only visited once a month by an actor-friend who brings them supplies. There is much discussion, spoken as dialogue, over whether or not mimicry is the best form of humor, and they have conceived of a joke that becomes a major plot point in the arc of the show. 

The joke, which I will not here reveal!, is one a Berber tribesperson told me in Morocco. He barely spoke English, and the simplicity of his gestures sold the bit. It felt like the kind of universal humor a poet and philosopher might land on if they had infinite time to polish and craft their art. Alone together on an island. 

One of the actors had been in a car crash that morning, and getting to play around in rehearsal was a good way to wrap up his stressful day. Wardrobe also showed and quietly sketched while we worked out the lines. 

This set calls for a "broken column" dividing the island, so we will also need an actor to lay still for the duration of the scenes. We have to decide if they will lay feet or face toward the audience. Feet will be easier but face will be funnier. 

This weekend is intended to be an all-column rehearsal, but Seattle is expecting fifteen feet of pure white snow. It's coming down in wild sheets as I write this. And thus, we may have to put it on hold. The money we save by rehearsing at the chess set will make up for the money I'll lose on the weekend room rental. 

Counting the nickels. This is the process.