THE THREE MAPS

The three maps represent decisions. By making choices and remaining open to change, you provide a place of freedom for the actor to create. When an actor asks a question, ask them what they think the answer is. It is usually a choice between one of two things, and one is clearly more interesting. Don’t be afraid if you don’t have the answer to every question, it will be found in the rehearsal. The biggest challenges always have the most theatrical solutions.

The Word Map…
The script is the source. Stick to the facts. Be word perfect and follow the punctuation.

The Emotion Map…
Break the script into units, wherever there is a shift; a physical or emotional change in the action. Mark each unit in pencil and assign it a label, to forward the character toward their objective. This practice leads to creative and specific thinking about every individual moment of the play. Please note; actors may verb every line, with an active verb that identifies what their character is getting from or doing to the other character in the scene… ‘I must crush her’ or ‘I want to convince him’. Be open to changing your units or verbs when ideas come together.

The Blocking Map…
To prepare for blocking rehearsals, know where actors have to be, and always work with set and props. The pattern of movement evolves from the first two maps. Actors must be clear on their objectives as they advance and retreat through the decisions in their character’s arc. Use the actor’s impulses, skills and abilities, (i.e. music, dance, juggling, cooking,) whatever, wherever possible. Any skill that can be performed with intention can be part of a performance. To capture and maintain the audience’s focus, movement on stage should be efficient. Actors should only move when they have a line and they should not be moving while other actors are talking, unless it is synchronized or counter-movement. Any business that is in the script or created by the actors must inform the larger action of the play. As an exercise, try alternating between units from an active or moving unit to a still or stationary unit. The result is a physical punctuation of the emotions. Block the play as quickly as possible. Always give the actors time to write down their moves. There is no acting during blocking. The actors will want to keep going back over it, but you are working on a structure for the whole play. Stay focused on creating the blocking map. You will practice, experiment and perfect the moments later.

THE REHEARSAL SCHEDULE…

All plays are different. This is a sample how to divide your time. The more meticulous you are with THE HOMEWORK, the less time you will have to spend around the table with the actors. Also the director must have design and production meeting before and during rehearsal. Rule of thumb: A letter size page of double-spaced dialogue yields about a minute of performance. Read a few pages aloud to time a page. You should rehearse (not including tech time) at least one hour for each minute of performance. For example, if you have a 60 page play, it will have a 60-minute performance and you should rehearse for at least 60 hours. Schedule 80 hours, flexibility is a bonus. (Field trips to a relevant location can be interesting.) The following is a sample schedule with sixteen rehearsals at five hours each (16 x 3 = 80). Then tech, etc…

Rehearsal…

• Have fun. Sign Artist Contracts. Describe your process and provide THE HOMEWORK. Review the schedule and responsibilities. Conduct casual interviews covering personal histories and make note of skills and interests. Read through the script.
• Warm up. Table, focus on labelling units. Try to keep the discussion brief.
• Warm up. Table, focus on labelling units. Briefly discuss character and scene.
• Warm up. Table, focus on labelling units. Read through the script and have the actors say the verb out loud before each line.
• Warm up. Blocking with props. End with a run-through of the blocking set that day.
• Warm up. Blocking with props. End with a run-through of the blocking set that day.
• Warm up. Blocking with props. End with a run-through of the blocking set that day.
• Warm up. Blocking with props. End with a run-through of the blocking set that day.
• Warm up. Actors off book, with the THREE MAPS memorized. Attempt a stumble-through. Run the play from beginning to end, try not to worry about getting everything right. You should be able to see what areas will need the most work.
• Warm up. Stop and start work-through. From the beginning, work by unit. The director can begin to transfer ownership to the actors by encouraging them to experiment. Let the actors try anything it takes. As Daniel Brooks says, “Attack details with rigor.” Watch pattern, pace, tone and rhythm. The next day start where you left off, until you are done.
• Warm up. Stop and start work-through. Experiment and play. Attack details with rigor.
• Warm up. Stop and start work-through. Experiment and play. Attack details with rigor.
• Warm up. Work Bits. By this time, you should be ready to run the play many times. Take an hour or so to practice the moments that need it. Warm up with an Italian Run, where the actors speak their lines as fast as they can without stopping (blocking is optional). Set the run-through at the same time each day, leaving half-hour for notes.
• Warm up. Work bits. Run-through. End with notes.
• Warm up. Work bits. Run-through. End with notes.
• Warm up. Work bits. Run-through. End with notes.

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Technical Rehearsal…
Prepare actors to work hard and be ignored at the same time.
Dress Rehearsal…
The play should be run exactly the same as it will be in front of an audience.
Free Preview…
Please have an audience before you invite people and sell tickets.
Opening Night...
Do not give any more notes, unless you are asked. Congratulations, you are done.

ETIQUIETTE AND TIPS…

• Safety first. Never put yourself or others at risk. Always warm up, practice bits, business and fight sequences.
• Have fun.
• Know how to give a note… say something positive or ask a question about something that is unclear. Once I heard a story about a director who only ever gives a note by saying, “clear” or “unclear”. It doesn’t matter whether or not she likes something, only that the moment is contributing to forwarding the story. Is it clear? Ask questions… instead of saying, “She has no redeeming qualities.” Ask, “Why does he love her?”
• Know how to take a note. It is never personal. No excuses. There are two responses to a note, “Thank you” or “I don’t understand”.
• Never give a line reading, please. That is, never tell an actor how you want a line said by reading it out loud.
• “No blocking, No wimping,” is a TheatreSports tradition. You have to say ‘yes’ to every idea and comment fully to trying to make it work. Also known in improv as ‘Yes and…’ The, once you have said yes to the idea, you can add your own idea. According to Dr. Phil, ‘every idea is the best idea for fifteen minutes’. Especially when you disagree, spend fifteen minutes considering the other person’s view as the best. All notes are good notes and the best idea wins.
• Artists must write all notes down and practice them, so a director never has to give the same note twice. Rehearse at home and perform at rehearsal. Do majority of the work outside the hall. Be prepared. Be specific. Then you will be open to changes that will be worthwhile.
• Directors should not give notes one half hour before or one half hour after a public performance, unless an actor requests it.
• Artist Contracts. Image the play has the best outcome possible and the worst outcome possible and consider how you feel about your title either way.
• Know the schedule and your responsibilities. Be on time every time. Or arrive early and set up or work. Also, stay late to help strike the rehearsal set and clean up.
• Do something for your career every day. Discipline equals freedom. Set deadlines for yourself.

INSPIRATIONS…

OBJECTIVES ACCORDING TO DAVID SUZUKI… from THE NATURE OF THINGS; “Why Sex?” I have included these notes, because they explore super objective of all creatures…

• Reproduction is one cell turning into two, and sex is two cells turning into one.
• The goal of males is to exploit females to produce their offspring. And the goal of females is to exploit males to invest in their offspring.
• It is believed sex originated billions of years ago between cells of equal size. But as time went on it became impossible for each cell to be both rich in nutrients and mobile. What evolved may explain the differences we now see between sperm and eggs. Each became a specialist.
• Males always go for quantity and females are interested in quality.
• Men universally want a mate who was younger than they are. Both monogamy and adultery occur in nature.
• We are the only species who can choose not to reproduce at all. As much as we consider ourselves rational beings, something we call chemistry still plays a role.
• Love is a peacemaking emotion, to ensure males and females can get together and have children; then remain together long enough for those children to survive.

REMINDERS FROM ANNE BOGART’S BOOK A DIRECTOR PREPARES…

Memory… Every time you stage a play, you are embodying a memory. Your personal history and society’s history are continually brought into question. Explore them.
Violence… To be decisive is violent. Once a strong decision is made, there is room for the freedom to discover more.
Eroticism… Some thing stops you in your tracks. You feel drawn to it. You sense its energy and power. It disorients you. You make first contact, it responds. You experience extended intercourse. You are changed irrevocably.
Terror… Use your terror of differentiation and your terror of conflict. The result is an offering of new ideas. “Yes, I will include your suggestion, but I will come at it from another angle and add these new notions.”
Stereotype… If you light a fire under a stereotype, it will transform into authentic, personal, expressive moments.
Embarrassment… A good actor risks embarrassment in every moment.
Resistance… To meet and overcome resistance is a heroic act that requires courage and a connection to a reason for the action. Laziness, impatience and distraction are those constant resistances we face in almost every moment of our waking life.

CHARACTER AND SCENE…
Acting Guide based on notes from Audition, by Michael Shurtleff…

Objectives… Identify the super objective or the goal of the lead character in life, that thing that motivates a character to the take action to change their situation. An objective is the goal of the character in the play, the scene and the unit.
Character Arc… Track each character’s arc, or the shape of the journey from the exposition of their desires, through their obstacles, to their climax and denouement.
Relationship… Who is your character talking to? Do they have a higher status, lower status? Are they a peer or a love interest? How much do you need this person and what for? What does the character do? What do they say? What do others say about them?
Conflict… What is your character fighting for? Do they want respect, justice, peace, love or control? At first, the character may not be aware of this conflict or its significance.
Humour… Identify your character’s specific sense of humour. Humour is an essential ingredient to any relationship; the more serious the stakes, the more important the humour. Find humour in every scene, event and relationship.
Opposites… The opposite is also true. Find the places in the scene where your character goes directly against their best interest, either through words or body language or both. Find the inner life; i.e. if the character is seeking a love relationship, be independent and able to stand on your own two feet.
Discoveries… What’s new? What does your character find out during the scene that creates change? What happened in the moment right before the scene? What happens in the moment right after the scene?
Communication and Competition… What does your character have to do to be heard? Who and what must your character overcome to achieve communication? Explore the consequences of confrontation.
Importance… What is specifically important to your character? Need something NOW. Make concrete choices. What do I want? What interferes with me getting what I want? Keep stakes high, every scene is the day that will change your life. Don’t start without it. Relate everything to your own life. Tap your fantasy life as well. Circle a word in each sentence that needs to be punched.
Events… What physical action actually happens in the scene? Do you enter or exit? Do you receive a message or a massage? Find the events.
Place… Where is the scene happening? What are the circumstances? Is it summer at the lake or someone’s wedding day? Use the place and the space.
Game Playing/Role Playing… What role is your character playing? Are you a mom or a friend? And what game does your character play to survive? Are you the class clown or the cool guy?
Mystery or Secret… What could your character never admit to? What does your character expect people know without telling them?

WARM UPS AND IMPROV GAMES…

At the beginning of each rehearsal have some physical and vocal warm ups prepared and encourage the others to contribute their favourites. Improv is a great way to get the actors in touch with their tools before they begin rehearsing. Try to build the improv throughout the rehearsal process by beginning with silent improv while you are doing table work, then add talking, eventually improvise scenes from the play.

Stretches and Shakes… Isolations, then add vocalisations. Anything from relaxation exercises to Jumping Jacks.

Boneless Chicken… Attempt tasks as though you have no bones.

Finding Centre… With eyes closed, trace your entire body with your hands.

Personal Interview… Split into pairs and ask questions for ten minutes. Then, take turns introducing your partner to the group.

Character Interview… Based on what you know about your character, take questions from the group and improvise answers about the past and the future.

Noise Machine… A single person begins a movement and a sound. Then, the rest join one at a time, with a different, yet compatible, movement and sound.

Hug Tag… Wander around aimlessly, leader shouts a number and you jump into groups of that number. Extras are out.

Zoom Zoom Zorch McGillacudy Fraser… This is a word passing game. In a circle, say “Zoom” to the person beside you and they pass it along to the person beside them. “Zorch” switches the direction. McGillacudy makes it skip a person. Or one can point across the circle and say “Fraser”, and that person must pass the Zoom. If you screw up you are out.

Genre Game… Begin with a two person scene on a random topic, then change genres on the fly by shouting out… comedy, tragedy, film noir, silent film, western, melodrama, cop show, soap opera, absurdist, talk show, documentary, game show, mystery, disc jockey, BBC news, sports caster, musical, opera, Shakespeare, clown, sci-fi, Children’s theatre, etc.

Freeze Tag… Give two people a location in which to improvise a scene. When they are in interesting physical position someone yells, “Freeze!” The actors on stage freeze and the person who shouted taps either of the actors on the shoulder. The tapped person goes out and the new person assumes their exact position and continues the scene with a new idea, location, direction, etc.

Attack and Advance… One-person begins a scene, with a random activity. When someone says “attack” and you must do the activity with vigour until you are released with “advance”, then you carry on with the scene.

Free Associating… This can be done in pairs or in a firing line of three people free and one person associating.

One word at a time… Two or three people in a line are given a topic and must tell a story one word at a time. Ends with “the moral of the story is...” If you screw up you are out.

Importance of offers… Try a scene with blocking and wimping, that is, say ‘no’ to the ideas of others and do not commit to their ideas at all. Then try it with yes, yes, yes!

Storyteller… In pairs, one person tells a story and the other throws in related and unrelated words. The storyteller must incorporate the words. Or the listener asks questions to mix it up.

Mirror games… One person leads, the other follows. Then reverse. Then both lead and follow, make it seem like no one is leading or following.

One person speaks… for one minute about self. Then audience adds an activity and they try to tell the story again while doing the activity.

Party Host… One person is the host and guests arrive one at a time. The host must try to guess what each of their guests does for a living, or what is special about them.

Stand, sit and lie down… Given a conflict, three people do a scene. At all times, one of them must be standing, one sitting and one lying down. If they screw up they are replaced.

In circle… with eyes down, one person counts to three and you look up, either straight ahead, left or right. If you establish eye contact you scream and you are both out.

What are you doing? One actor improvises an activity, like tennis. Once the scene is established, the next actor comes on stage and asks, ‘What are you doing?’ The first actor answers anything except what they are actually doing, like “baking a pie”, while they are clearly swinging a racquet. The second actor begins doing the activity that the first actor answered and the first actor leaves the stage. Repeat.

Group Juggle… In a circle, start with one tennis ball and establish a pattern. Throw the ball to a person across the circle. Each person catches and throws the ball once. You can’t throw it to the person beside you and the last person to have the ball can’t be beside the first person to throw. Once a pattern is set, keep going, then add more balls. Very cool!

BIBLIOGRAPHY…

Bogart, Anne A DIRECTOR PREPARES, New York: Routledge, 2001

Clurman, Harold ON DIRECTING, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1972

Dean, Alexander and Carra, Lawrence FUNDAMENTALS OF DIRECTING, New York:
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974.

Dietrich, John E. PLAY DIRECTION, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1953.

Saint-Denis, Michel TRAINING FOR THE THEATRE, New York: Theatre Arts Books, 1982.

Saint-Denis, Michel THEATRE; THE REDISCOVERY OF STYLE, London: Heineman, 1969.

SUMMER IN SPOLETO 2007; EXPOSURE TO THE EXPERIMENTAL www.lamama.org

Last summer, my co-creator Jenn Griffin and I attended a three-week International Symposium for Directors in Italy, held by New York Company La Mama E.T.C. In this exceptional opportunity, we participated with twenty-five other mid-career directors, taking intensive workshops lead by six prominent, world-class teaching artists.

My work was impacted deeply by each of the teaching artists. Putu Wijaya (Indonesia) meditatively stripped us down to our rawest selves with slow motion and concentration exercises. Then, we harvested inspiration from our surroundings to build monologue stories on the spot. Petar Todorov (Bulgaria) experimented with physical techniques to illuminate the human impulses in the text of Strindberg’s Miss Julie. Yoshi Oida (Japan) reminded us of what he calls “Jo-Ha-Kyu”: the importance of beginning, development and climax in story-telling and in life. With Yoshi, we also explored many of his “actor’s tricks”, including a method of breaking down ancient Greek text into syllables to demonstrate the theatrical relationship between sound and emotion. Andrei Serban (Romania) showed his methods, which were most similar to my own, due to his relentless drive for action on stage. He assigned us scenes from Sarah Kane’s Cleansed, which we performed in diverse locales throughout our Italian country-side estate. Enrique Pardo and his wife Linda Wise (Peru/France) incorporated choreography and voice to bring forward meaning in text. Annie-B Parsons (Untied States) worked quickly to lead us through the creation of an enormous amount of choreography. I was able to discover practical and philosophical tools of creation.

Those were just our formal teaching artists. We also had evening sessions in things like; voice, career coaching and I lead a discussion on dramaturgy. We were visited by the incredible Italian actor Dario D’Ambrosi, who talked about his experiences filming the Passion of the Christ, and working for and opening a new space for his work with people with disability. Neville Boundy, playwright from the Royal Shakespeare Company, spoke one evening about his life as a playwright. He gave tips and encouraged dramaturgy. And he reminded us to create a life for your characters internally that is parallel to our own, yet different enough to allow for the imagination to work. Draw on your facts, but do not get bogged down by them. Then, even Oliver Stone dropped by for a chat one sunny afternoon.

Videos… www.youtube.com, search “lamama umbria” to see 3 nine-minute videos of Yoshi Oida and 3 nine-minute videos of Andrei Serban

PUTU WIJAYA, INDONESIA… THEATRE MANDIRI
‘“Mandiri” is Indonesian for self-sufficient and independent but at the same time working together as a team. Teater Mandiri believes that theatre is a spiritual expression and therefore strives to create a lasting and spiritual experience deep in the heart of the audience.’

• 4-hour workshops, no talking, no drinking, no washroom, no eating
• To begin each session we cleaned the studio or stage with no plan, no talking, when we were done, there was more to do
• Breathing exercises based on five count in, five count hold, five count exhales, “Take 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Hole 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Release, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,”
• Dead tree, living tree… eyes closed, as slowly as you can, take the form of a tree, die and then live again. Then move across the room as the tree, if you touch anything or anyone, you die and live again to continue to your goal… as slow as you can
• Running around fast, zig-zag, drunk
• Stare at spot for as long as you can, until tears, then close eyes, look left, then right, up then down

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