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A Playwright Finds It All Comes Out in the Wash By STEVE HARPER
Perhaps nothing is more exciting for a playwright than watching characters who have existed only in his imagination come alive onstage for the first time. Second-year acting students had a chance to share in that excitement last month, as they worked closely with three playwrights in Juilliard's Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program to prepare and present three new plays in workshop performances. Playwright Steve Harper chronicled the challenges and rewards of the rehearsal process as his new comedy The Laundry Channel (whose central character receives mysterious messages from the hostess of a cable TV program only he can see) got up onto its feet.
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| Actors (left to right) Michael Markham, Vanessa Williams, Daniel Shelley, Rachel Nicks, and Erin Krakow rehearse The Laundry Channel. (Photo by Jane Rubinsky) |
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Day 1: It's exciting to start rehearsals for this project. It's nice to see my cast assembled, meet my stage manager (Lisa Gaviletz) and begin. I'm delighted to work with talented people to help bring my play to life. Gus Kaikkonen (my director) and I field questions about the play. One of the actors volunteers to play the piano for the song and the dance. This is a big relief, since we didn't know how we were going to do the music—whether we'd have to hire someone or have the music recorded.Day 2: Gus leads a more in-depth discussion of each scene before and after it's read. In one monologue I make a small rewrite, requested for clarity by Gus and an actor. Amazingly, another small tweak is suggested moments later. I'm suddenly aware of the "no rewriting" rule established by the playwriting faculty, and how it's meant to prevent a flood of changes. We engage in a lively discussion about the play's relevant topics: race, television, parenting, religion, homophobia.Day 3: I'm tired tonight—since rehearsal comes right after our weekly three-hour playwriting class. We pick up where we left off for more slow analysis. At times, it seems like we've got a long way to go.Day 4: There's good energy tonight—all the actors are having good moments. Vanessa, who plays the Laundress (a phantom) confronts François (who plays the lead) so intently it's really moving and creepy.Day 5: Our first scene-by-scene rehearsals. Gus asks actors to make up their version of the blocking before he blocks the scenes. As the actors do this, script in hand, they take awkward pauses. I have to resist the urge to start cutting bits. I fight off the notion that this forward lurching oddness is my play, is what I've written. I change/clarify one line and force myself to think positive thoughts.Day 6: Two actors playing all the "TV characters" are added to some scenes. They create the atmosphere where, in a full production, an elaborate sound design might do the trick. Finally seeing the Laundress with a blindfold on, folding clothing, is really fun and odd.Day 7: Rehearsal tonight features a stumble through of Act 1—remarkably on its feet—a true synthesis of Gus's ideas and actors' ideas. The improvised TV bits feel too long now.Day 8: I'm tired, the actors are tired. Everyone is getting silly in rehearsal. The first scene of the play seems deadly: awkward and boring. I make a few word changes (for clarity only) in one scene. Things were going well with François' work on the monologues. I'm happy about that.Day 11: Many/most of the actors are "off book," with lines memorized. Good stuff still happening. We get to the song and clearly it needs work.Day 12: Good rehearsal. Lots of work on the song. We stumble though Act 2 up until the final laundry game show sequence.Day 15: Suddenly the actors are owning the work and scenes are crackling with life. There are inventive and wonderful things happening. Some moments are very moving. I get caught up in the story again—in the frustrations of the characters and the desperate search for solutions. Erin's fortune-teller and Rachel's grandma make me laugh. I get choked up as I leave rehearsal in the midst of a really strong scene.Day 16: Moving nicely through Act 2. Good acting from Daniel and François in the psychiatrist scene and nice stuff from Nick and Mike in the Clay/Mark scene.Day 17: A good rehearsal. A chunk of good work on the song. Gus gets it to "rain" laundry (as per stage directions) by having actors toss clothes from the offstage side of a flat—a surprisingly nice effect.Day 18: Our first and only Saturday rehearsal. Gus thinks things will go very well next week. I feel like a nervous parent watching his child cross the street.Day 20: We're working through all the scenes tonight. Much good work from everyone. I add some simple lyrics to two small moments.Day 21: We run the play and there's a leap forward in the energy and commitment of the actors. Lines are getting better. I give notes in the last few moments of rehearsal. Gus tells me later that he thought I was kind of harsh. (Was I?) When I leave rehearsal, I have a headache.Day 22: Deep breaths, some prayer and meditation, and I'm calmer today. We continue notes and have a run through—a very good one. I am consciously gentle with myself and the actors.Day 23: Before the show, I arrive to give thank-you notes and silly gifts to the cast. Among the gifts: a magnet decrying the evils of housework, bath soap packaged to look like detergent. The entire company does a cheer before the house opens.For me, watching the show is surreal throughout. The actors do tremendously well. I'm surveying the audience, drinking in the actors' work. There are moments when the play seems like it's going in slow motion, but it's probably just me. Once I imagine a line was skipped. Gus assures me that it wasn't. Later—a line is definitely skipped. But the audience is laughing and seems engaged in the story. Some scenes in Act 2 are particularly moving to me. Overall it's great. My story is at turns, funny, strange. I hear gasps after the final black-out. The applause comes. And I feel such relief and excitement. I'm very pleased.
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