Dramarama by E. Lockhart

Author:E. Lockhart
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction - Young Adult
Publisher: Disney Publishing Worldwide

(click)

ON NIGHTS when the Hot Box Girls got out early, we stood at the door of the main Guys and Dolls studio for a few minutes after, watching the principals rehearse their scenes. It was amazing to see Morales in action. For example, one evening we watched Demi and Candie sing “I’ll Know”—a love duet.

Early in the scene, when Candie says “Chemistry?” and Demi says, “Yeah, chemistry,” Morales told Demi to look at Candie for one long beat before speaking— and suddenly Demi seemed like he really was in love, rather than just talking about it. The director also asked Demi to slow the phrasing down a tad—and the song sounded more sincere. He had Candie look up at the sky and keep her feet together while she sang, and she became a devout mission worker, rather than a shy high school student.

The man knew what he was doing. Everything he said to the actors made the show stronger. He wasn’t gentle and he wasn’t kind; he was eminently practical. He had a clear vision and he was a master at getting the actors to execute it. “Bushel and a Peck,” which we’d run a few more times until we got the Morales seal of approval, was a hundred times better with Nanette hinting at her boredom and exhaustion than it had been when she was unreservedly perky.

Now, I liked Reanne, I did. But she was no Morales. She was, in fact, losing control of her cast.

I was doing my best with Peter Quince. I had a few funny lines, at least, and Reanne was nice about my natural delivery of Shakespeare’s language. Quince is trying to get his group of foolish layabout friends to rehearse a play—and he’s a bit bossy, a bit shrill, full of frustration. But the first day we stood up to block it, the bad energy from having been trees all week made most of the mechanicals downright punchy. Flute and Starveling kept forgetting their movements, and Lyle and Snug were making jokes throughout the rehearsal. Snout was bouncing up and down and mouthing other people’s lines, trying to get Flute to laugh. And succeeding.

Reanne asked them to “channel that chaotic energy into the chaos of the scene,” but seemed unable to quiet them down enough so that we could get anything done. We started over with my initial speech, but Lyle was muttering behind me: “Maybe parents will object to my character’s name. Should we change it to Eugene? To avoid offense. Or maybe Engelbert? Because we don’t want our parents to think it’s racy and pull us out of the institute.”

I was standing downstage, script in hand, knowing I wasn’t doing a good job, and I thought, This show is going to be another Bedsheet Oedipus. Nobody wants to be in it. People aren’t concentrating. Teenagers wrapped in canvas with their arms sticking out do not create a fairy atmosphere, even if the teenagers are truly thinking about Mother Nature and struggling to convey her essence through posture.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.