A Night in the Studio

Tonight we found ourselves at Mary’s TV studio at Mt. Sinai Hospital, along Central Park East. And as the sun set on August's last Sunday, we set to work—with opening night less than one week away.

While Giselle and Tim ran lines in the lobby, Mary and I arranged our set for the night, including our props. Then Tim and Giselle continued to speed through their lines, as Mary finished her work for the day and I set up what I hoped would be the show’s music. Eventually, we all came together for a real run—straight through with sound—with the focus on character development.

Fifteen minutes later, and Mary went over her notes. (She approved the music, whew, but there’s still some work to do in that department.) And then, such pros that they are, Giselle and Tim went at it again, but with the intention of stopping and reworking parts at Mary’s discretion. And another substantive run emerged. We covered blocking, achieving a greater fluidity between memory monologues and the present scene (since lights and sound will also emphasize these two periods), additional props (hoo-ray beer!), and even…the script. I’ll admit, I made a rare concession—changing the pronouns and tense in a short paragraph to better express the idea to the audience. Ugh, if it’s to tell a better story…then I guess I can let it slide this time. But just this once!

But the focus of the night ended up being on the climax of the play (where else?): when Wayne and Marissa meld past and present, recall with different perspectives their special connection, and …oh, uh…dance together. It’s the moment (you can really have one in such a short time frame, really) and deserves this much emphasis.

And then wouldn’t you know it, just when were getting comfortable dancing and holding each other (Well, not me, no … never. I just write that stuff down and make other people do it on stage, and hope to live vicariously through their youthful wanton exuberance. How sad but true.) it was time to leave. 'Night, bitches!