Cohesive Ensemble by Mo Brady

Last week's rehearsals were about getting comfortable - but this week we began to delve deeper!

Since the ensemble learned most of our material last week, we spent the first half of this week "cleaning" - specifying movements and music, so we all are sure where our arms are exactly placed on a jump, or that the vocal cut-off is on the second beat of a measure.

It is a taxing process to run and re-run a number, but the repetition builds your stamina to be performance-ready, and helps us to move together and become a coheisive ensemble.

On Saturday morning, the full company began stringing the show together in order. Beforehand, we had worked songs and scenework in seperate rooms simultaneously. Now, starting from the top of the show, Jack put the scenes on their feet, giving us entrances and exits, and seeing how the show would move.

Once we had initial blocking for a few scenes, we would go back and run it again.
And again.
And again.
The opportunity to run the scenes in sequence allows us to find the flow of the show, and begin creating the arc we will take audiences on, only a month from now.

Running a number multiple times also allows an actor to clarify the song's emotional journey. Each time we review a number, I've focused on specifying the intentions played in each scene.

While all of our songs certainly have a presentational element, each one has a different underlying tone that fuels the plot further forward. As we incorporate Jack's guidance with the staging, we find where the direction motivates specific movement, and visa versa. The ultimate goal being a throughline where the movements and motivation work seemlessly together.