Synchronicity

This week, the two casts for Lamb Lays with Lion vs. Katie Mitchell's The Seagull have been meeting together after spending the first two weeks of the rehearsal process working separately. It's pretty intense. Since my side, the Katie Mitchell "realism" side, is performing at the same time as the other cast, I haven't had that much opportunity to watch the other half perform, although it seems to be, from what I can tell, an almost cinematic take, full of irony, using microphones and lighting as tools to alienate and disrupt the audience and performance.

One aspect of performing at the same time as the other cast is how difficult it is to speak in synchronicity with them. While sometimes there are intentional moments of discord, when the actors speak at different paces, for the most part we are supposed to speak as one voice, while our movements, characterizations, and actions are very different.

I'm finding that I have a tendency to be fairly creative with my lines, which I simply cannot do in this production. I have to speak them absolutely verbatum from the script. The process also requires communication with the actor on the other side in terms of when to take pauses and things like that. It can be a bit frustrating, but in the moments when I'm not not acting, and instead watching the performance, it really is a pretty cool effect.

One little perk that I quite enjoy is that the Katie Mitchell cast gets to drink tea and eat biscuits between acts. I can't believe how much more civilized this makes the whole experience! Why have I not been drinking tea and eating biscuits for every show I've ever been in? It's fantastic.