on our feet

I know people are fascinated by the fact that we are rehearsing online. It’s kind of cool, using the latest technology, and it’s totally amazing that we can do it at all, thanks to that technology. It does have its challenges, however.

The first, obvious one, is finding a time when we are all up and about, as there is a 16 hour time difference between Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and Phoenix, Arizona, USA.  We’ve found our ‘window of opportunity’ is 6.30 pm in Phoenix, which is 11.30 am in Brisbane the following day.

The next challenge is to resist the temptation to sit in front of the computer screen, reading the text, or talking face to face, chatting about this that and the other – all relevant to the production of course, but it’s not really rehearsing.

Rehearsing, for me, is trying stuff out, on my feet. It involves moving about in the room, exploring the different surprising moments that occur when I move in a different way, or to a different space. I am much more responsive to my scene partner if I am physically active.

So I am delighted to report that today, Lauren and I both abandoned our chairs, and started leaping about, me in the seminar room on the sixth floor of the Michie Building at UQ, St Lucia, and Lauren in her tiny work room in her home in Phoenix. We only worked on about five pages of text, but boy oh boy! What a Difference!

We are alive.