Aaaarrgggghhhh

Usually the 70 minute drive home from rehearsals calms me so that I'm ready for a nice night's sleep. Not so last night. Nope, last night I had a raging, nauseating stress headache born of complete and utter frustration with our director. I now understand why actors depart productions due to "creative differences".

I first became concerned about our director when he told us the playwright had made a mistake with a particular scene between Axel and Tansy. He felt Tansy was talking about her relationship with Willum (as opposed to one with Axel). As such our lines were duly modified. I was shocked at his interpretation, and the expression on my face was a pure WTF?! moment. Larry Shue clearly references the prior relationship between Axel and Tansy - they almost got married! And it is this prior relationship that sets up the premise of the play. Thankfully Anthony, who plays Axel, was on the same page Larry Shue. After further discussion our director acquiesced and we're doing the scene as written.

Last week I was directed to play a particular scene as if it was the most normal thing in the world; that everyone does it and that it's an every day occurrence. I didn't completely agree with his direction (it's not a "normal" thing nor something "everyone" does every day) but I decided to go with it. He is, after all, our director. After many more stops and starts (some with barely getting two words out of my mouth!), it was becoming apparent to me that we had two different ideas of Tansy. I left rehearsal a bit frustrated, questioning my acting abilities and wondering if I was reading the same script as the director. After talking with Anthony I felt better and affirmed renewed focus.

Alas, last night was worse. With nary a sound out of my mouth or movement, our director frequently stopped me. While complimenting me on my instincts (uh huh, sure) I was told to tone down volume, increase volume, walk with no purpose, slow the pace, pick up the pace, react more, overact less, don't telegraph, do indicate. Basically I was being directed to not only ignore punctuation and italics in Shue's script but the intent of the words themselves! By the end of the Act I felt Tansy wasn't much more than a Stepford wife.

I wasn't the only one singled out. He gave direction to Chris and Dan to tighten up stutters and pauses during a scene which is supposed to be painfully boring. Chris questioned the director at one point, but gave in like I did. After last night's rehearsal I am convinced that our director has no clue about this play.

I'll be the first one to admit that I've had it relatively easy the last couple of years. Many of the area directors are familiar with my work. They know what I can do and, more importantly, they trust me to do it. One of the reasons I decided to audition for The Nerd was for the challenge of working with a new group. No kidding that you've got to be careful what you ask for.