Where does the Baby Go?
Tonight we blocked Act II with Mr Ambron. It went mostly well. We blocked most of the scenes without a hitch.
There was one little hiccup, which took a bit more time that it should have. There is a silly joke where the play sets the audience up to think that the characters are talking about a new baby but it turns out to be a new sewing machine. Its not that strong of a joke but it became a sticking point during blocking. Then there is a second and lesser joke in which we find out that there is a baby in the scene, but the baby is not the least noteworthy.
The biggest part of the problem was that the director misunderstood the nature of the problem. The scene was already going poorly before the problem came up. It was going poorly because there were a lot of actors on the stage. The director does not work well with so many actors on the stage at the same time. He generally has a difficult time explaing what he wants from so many actors. He has an attitude that everyone should understand what he wants without him even having to explain it. And sadly this is his 100th musical.
An actor attempted to address the specific problem. Right away the director took the problem to be that the actor didn't understanding the text. That was not the case. The actor did understand the text. Instead, the actor was actually having a problem understanding how we would make the joke work with the props.
This was further complicated by the fact that we do not yet have the actual props and we were using imaginary ones. One actress, playing the mother, pretend that was she was carrying the prop-baby into the scene. The actor playing the father thought that to make the joke work the prop-baby had to be pre-set on the stage.
I was kind of watching this from the sidelines but then I got into the middle of things. It took me a moment to see the problem and then I was on the side of the actor trying to explain the nature of the problem to the director. The director was still stuck on the the idea that the actor didn't understand the text. I checked in the the actor, "This is about the props, not the text right?" He replied, "Yes" and then we were able to slowly get the director on the same page with us.
Then, instead of making an executive decision, or saying, "hold one let me think about it," the director said, "I don't care." This did nothing to help resolve the problem. So we had to then keep hashing it out.
Eventually the actor made his case for why the baby-prop should be preset on the stage and the director agreed.
Then yet another actress pointed out the historical inaccuracy of having the baby with his father. This brought the problem back to life all over again.
I believe that we finally decided that the baby should be pre-set on the stage, but I guess we will see on Wednesday when we run this act of the play again. :)
I hope I can be a much better director when I direct my show this winter.
There was one little hiccup, which took a bit more time that it should have. There is a silly joke where the play sets the audience up to think that the characters are talking about a new baby but it turns out to be a new sewing machine. Its not that strong of a joke but it became a sticking point during blocking. Then there is a second and lesser joke in which we find out that there is a baby in the scene, but the baby is not the least noteworthy.
The biggest part of the problem was that the director misunderstood the nature of the problem. The scene was already going poorly before the problem came up. It was going poorly because there were a lot of actors on the stage. The director does not work well with so many actors on the stage at the same time. He generally has a difficult time explaing what he wants from so many actors. He has an attitude that everyone should understand what he wants without him even having to explain it. And sadly this is his 100th musical.
An actor attempted to address the specific problem. Right away the director took the problem to be that the actor didn't understanding the text. That was not the case. The actor did understand the text. Instead, the actor was actually having a problem understanding how we would make the joke work with the props.
This was further complicated by the fact that we do not yet have the actual props and we were using imaginary ones. One actress, playing the mother, pretend that was she was carrying the prop-baby into the scene. The actor playing the father thought that to make the joke work the prop-baby had to be pre-set on the stage.
I was kind of watching this from the sidelines but then I got into the middle of things. It took me a moment to see the problem and then I was on the side of the actor trying to explain the nature of the problem to the director. The director was still stuck on the the idea that the actor didn't understand the text. I checked in the the actor, "This is about the props, not the text right?" He replied, "Yes" and then we were able to slowly get the director on the same page with us.
Then, instead of making an executive decision, or saying, "hold one let me think about it," the director said, "I don't care." This did nothing to help resolve the problem. So we had to then keep hashing it out.
Eventually the actor made his case for why the baby-prop should be preset on the stage and the director agreed.
Then yet another actress pointed out the historical inaccuracy of having the baby with his father. This brought the problem back to life all over again.
I believe that we finally decided that the baby should be pre-set on the stage, but I guess we will see on Wednesday when we run this act of the play again. :)
I hope I can be a much better director when I direct my show this winter.