It's almost too hot to think about Scotland

Rehearsals for the Scottish play started appropriately enough on Monday with dark skies, heavy rain and lots of thunder. Even though we were closed up inside teh theatre with no direct access to the outside world, we were well aware of the weather conditions as we could hear the rain on the roof as well as the numerous claps of thunder. The rain had cleared up by the end of the first day of rehearsal but it was still a very gloomy day. It helped us all get in the right frame of mind to think about evil deeds and the lust for power, and deadly revenge.


Cool temperatures and rain clouds soon gave way to high temperatures and even higher humidity . . . making rehearsal in our uncooled theatre nearly unbearable. In spite of the low confort factor, attendance has been good so far and all have been in good spirits and ready to get some work done. We have been working steadily with two days of table work, a first day of staging, and another day of situation based improv and more staging.


The building had really heated up by today and was already miserable by our 9:00 a.m. start time. I have been told that the humidity was 91 percent at 8:00 a.m. so you can imagine how muggy the theatre was after sitting closed up with no fresh air for at least 18 hours. By noon, I had had about all I could stand of the conditions and asked how many people would be mad if I sent them home early. No one seemed to complain. Not to me, at least. We'll just ahve to pick up what we missed today later on in the rehearsal process.


It is early enough that falling behind a little bit is not that big of a deal. We might miss the time later if we really get stuck. But for now we can take a few liberties.


Our choreographer worked in the dance studio with the wierd sisters today and said that it went great. She has lots of good ideas and it is going to be so much fun to collaborate with her. The good doctor stopped by, too, and we talked a little about the music for the show. He told me that he is planning to incorporate some vocals along wtih our disordant, dirge-like score. We are still brainstorming about how to get a theramin or theramin-sounding device into the show. The kids who know what a theramin is are pretty excited about its possible inclusion. I hope that we can figure it out so that this unique instrument can be included in our little show.


We'll take the weekend off, of course, as well as Monday. We have rehearsal on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday next week. If the weather cooperates we should get a lot done then.