Stumble-Through

“If there’s an empty space, just fill it with a line, that’s what I like to do. Even if it’s from another show.” Ron Albertson Waiting for Guffman

We ran all of Act II on Saturday and all of Act I last night. In theory, we were off-book, which means that we are allowed to call for lines but not allowed to carry our books around and read our dialogue and blocking from them. Not as smooth as a run-through, these rehearsals are generally known as "stumble-throughs." We'll get through a half a page or so and there will be a pause as at least one of thinks "Is that me? Do I have a line here?" Some lines - no matter how declarative - are delivered as a question to David, who, as our stage manager, is sitting on book for us. I think my favorite thing about stumble-throughs is that one can have this sort of exchange: "Am I here?" "No, you're over there." (Regarding blocking.) Sometimes theater is just that surreal.

Director Eileen has declared a moratorium on what she calls "self-critiquing" - comments like "I'm so stupid - I should know this." It is a given that dialogue that one knows perfectly at one's desk or in the car is gone at rehearsal. This makes perfect sense because all the mental cues for one's next line are in the environment where one learns the lines. Over the run of reheasals the environment changes to the rehearsal hall and one's brain can say "You're standing behind the chair, so you're going to say X." Having gotten through both acts once, the next rehearsal will be smoother as will the one after that. Piece by piece, the jig-saw puzzle is being filled in. So we need to stop calling ourselves names and just assume that we each know the next line. Many times this will actually be true.

A "director" that I worked with once - and I use that term very loosely - (Bill, you know who I mean) once did say something useful. He said "If you forget a line, just say 'line.' Don't beat yourself up, don't drop character, don't say 'fuck.' Just say 'line.' We'll feed you line and we'll move on." I leaned over and whispered to the person next to me that I had thought that "fuck" was German for "line."