Drum Head Sounds!

King Lear: Blocking Day 4

"But when I came unto my beds,
With heigh-ho, the wind and the rain,
The toss-pots still had drunken heads".

"For the rain it raineth every day.
With heigh-ho, the wind and the rain,
For the rain it raineth every day".

Fool
King Lear
Act III, Scene I

Our percussionist, Brian Johnson, joined us today. What a difference sound makes. He brought an assortment of small drums and symbols (not even a fraction of the instruments he'll be using in the show) and we ran Act III Scene I. In this scene, King Lear, Ciaus (a disguised Kent) and the Fool are caught out in the countryside in the middle of a storm. This scene is important because it is the height of the King's madness and makes for high tension. Whether he will be able to come back to his senses is left in question as the storm rages all around. The Crescendos Brian is including mirror greatly the slipping in and out of this rage and strangeness. I was struck by how technical this all must be to work in the scene. The areas where these crescendos peak must work around the actors speech and vise-versa. We found ourselves running it over and over to adjust timing and levels. I feel we were all left with a clear understanding of the direction we are going with sound and content.

After a quick dinner break, we were back to work. I watched as Kent Cassella (Gloucester ) and Todd Lawson (Edmund) worked Scene II in Act III. I love watching other actors work and feel that I learn just as much by watching as by doing. I must admit that I was unsure of Todd's approach to Edmund at first but after having watched him work for the past several days I feel he is bringing a fresh, strong look to the character and that he has clear cut intentions in his scenes. I think Edmund is my favorite character in the play and I know Todd will be awesome! It is fun to watch Kent and Todd feed off each other and the scenes between their two characters are ripe with controversy and betrayal.

John Forbes, the lighting designer, came by in the second half of rehearsal to start putting together a lighting scheme for the show. We have all been so involved in the development of our characters that we take for granted all the other jobs that must be done to make the show work. The hours of behind the scene work all the technical staff puts in are not only appreciated but essential to our success and on behalf of the entire crew, I would like to thank them in advance. Having done my work study at college in the shop of the theater I know how hard it can all be and how it can often times be overlooked. It is nice to start putting some faces to names this early in the process so we can work together to showcase all our talents in this production.

And finally poor Edgar. Perhaps the most deceived character in the play. I have been watching Christopher Edwards since day one to see how he was going to overcome some of the physical and emotional obstacles his character faces in the show. His character is forced to take on the role of a lunatic in order to hide his identity after he is chased from the kingdom. There are just so many stereotypical ways to play this lunacy and Chris has avoided them all. His performance was so stirring and emotionally honest that he left everyone watching moved. I can't wait to see how much more he will bring to the role as rehearsals continue. We have staged and run half the play at this point and we all are feeling great about that. This puts us a bit ahead of schedule but let's us know we still have a long way to go. I left rehearsals exhausted but emboldened to the fact that we have a show!