Veldt Notes 5/4
Overall: I'm SUPER proud of you all and so excited for your work! You guys are doing great. The piece as a whole (and as one of a triptych of amazing work) really stands up and punches aggressively, and I like it a lot. These notes begin the process of fine-tuning and calibrating, building on the strong foundations that you all bring. So don't stop bringing it! Stay energized and keep your eyes and ears open for fresh discoveries always!
Electrician and George-- get in place in the blackout ahead of lights up. Do your best to get their efficiently and ahead of the cue.
Gracie: Slow your speech introducing the room.
George--When you press invisible buttons (for the buzzer, the radio, etc), do a little more work to show how easy/hard it is to press the button... this is purely a physical technique note. I want you to visualize what that button looks like, whether it's reliable or not, what color it is. This doesn't need to take time, it just needs to be specific.
Thundercats: During the Paris moment, was it just me or were you all backstage right? Or maybe the acoustics were weird? If you are all backstage right, distribute evenly to the four sides of the stage. If not, disregard this note.
Peter and Wendy: Look for ways to cheat 360 degrees at the top of the Loon Lake sequence. Yes, the boat needs to be visualized downstage center beyond the audience; but establish that Loon Lake is all around you, too.
Gracie: Change to your blocking--during Loon Lake, enter USR but join the DSR corner. Be US of Lauren.
Wendy and Peter: Once the boat disappears, during your lines, look for the boat 360 degrees around you as well as DS.
Lauren and Gwyneth: Excellent Poise throughout the Loon Lake sequence. Other Thundercats: Don't mirror exactly what they're doing, but what can you do physically that's in the same world as what they do? Essentially, their spines are exactly poised as if to say, "I'm ready for anything, but I'm also perfectly still, but filled with dynamic tension and energy" or something like that. What does that look like in your individual bodies?
Everyone: The avalanche moment can be bigger for all of you: Wendy, Peter, Thundercats all inclusive. While you're furiously pounding the floor, I want your backs to be radiating overwhelming destructive rage. Peter and Wendy, look above for falling debris: Peter with delight, Wendy with dismay.
London Bridge: Thundercats practice exiting quickly and with as much efficient quiet as possible. Not absolute silence, but deliberate, precise like (thunder)cats.
George: Be a little surprised that you don't see Lydia waiting for you at the door when you enter at the top of Beat 3. Play it like she usually hears the helicopter and runs out with lemonade or something, but this time she didn't, what the hell?
Lydia: Adjust your blocking to be in the middle of the grid squares instead of the extreme edge, this is to keep you fully lit.
Thundercats: First Africa sequence: Gracie is making a really strong choice of keeping her head down for a big chunk of that Beat. No one else gets to put their head down the way she does, but how else can you activate your head/torso to indicate that the room is aggressively transformed? Keep your limbs tight, but heads tilted, reared back--think of coiled springs, cocked guns, the ready pose from the stick routine we learned ages ago. Life in stillness, burning tension.
Ensemble: You gathered into Voltron just a hair too early. Break down the process a little bit. It should go as follows:
George: "...Pride. Isn't that a fine word?..." gather SR, but Don't Unite yet. Be feeding on things.
George: "No... lunch is over..." Peter and Wendy exit. Lions Unite into One Lion.
George: ..."Lions with teeth like daggers..." Thundercats listen to this speech. Start physicalizing/embodying one Voltron Lion, but with distinct bits; teeth, slavering, purring, rumbling, tails twitching, claws flexing, mane bristling. Start breathing together. Life in your faces.
Andrew, find an aggressive "ready" stance that activates your whole body at your position.
Gracie, find a moment before the "pounce" in which you start rising higher. Everyone, this will cue you into starting to get ready to truly pounce.
Lydia, give it two breaths before you start to exit after "They can't come out, can they? They can't?"
George and Lydia, find more ways to break out of being straight-on in configuration with one another. Always be off-center so both sides of the stage can see at least one of you full-on.
George: If I ever do have you staying onstage during a blackout but you have to move to another position, travel along the lines of the grid on the deck, don't move in diagonals.
George: don't point at the crescent moon in the Veldt Night Room. See it with your eyes.
George: Slow the litany of places you want the room to be instead of the Veldt when the Jackals are laughing at you. Be panicked and fearful, but be clear and still trying to assert your authority.
Lydia: More fear as you resort to candles in your candle speech.
Emma: Use the metal spheres during the Apple Valley / Loon Lake 2 sequence
All: After Lydia says "So Lovely" in the dark, take a breath before you all move to exit
Peter: don't be squared in the same plane as Maclean. You have to place yourself off of her since you're entering into the scene. Whenever you face off directly, be in two different planes.
Everyone: Vocal Support. Think of clarity, think of specificity in what you say. Don't let the acting choice of panic muddy your vocal technique.
Maclean: Build the urgency earlier in your speech beginning, "Machines make your bed..." Let each thought rush into each other, as the inner anxiety and dismay that you feel bleeds into the things you're saying.
George: Reference the guts of the Room that you're holding in your hand as you ask whether the Room is dead.
Everyone: The pace from when George and Lydia enter the Room for the final time, should be rolling quick, like rushing water just before the waterfall.
Tech Notes:
Prop: Can the guts of the computer be bloody in some way?
Lights: I was wrong, please shorten the final fadeout from an 8 count to a five count
I love you all!
pjs
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