Learning the Ropes
Posted by Mary T on November 12, 2012
We have completed one week of rehearsals for the Lorca School show, but to me, as a new member of the Monkey crew, it feels like we have completed a month of rehearsals! We have gotten so much accomplished! With stories featuring transformers and bionicles*, John Cena roundhouse kicking some multi-grain bread into existence and best friends from all walks of life, I have learned a thing or two about what it means to be a Monkey this week. A few things I have learned:
-Style changes everything. Sometimes a story has many different layers. Unexpected characters, contradicting points of view, or physical action that seems difficult to execute are all things that can be brought to life in a new way through simply making a story into a musical number or adding a Wrestlemania announcer as narration.
-Zombies don’t even care about people. They just want to eat berries.
-The answer to creating something new is “yes” and then you figure out the specifics after. Sometimes that means that your original idea doesn’t get to stay, but the attitude of enthusiasm and eagerness in this group makes every idea worth exploring.
-There are some specific terms that Monkeys use for different aspects of rehearsals. For instance, “plug-ins” are actors that are needed for a scene that has already been adapted but requires more characters than were available during the original adaptation process. In “Soda and Juice” by Alan B. we got to see the original dialogue between Soda and Juice, but to make the scene complete, we added “plug-ins” to help create the environment of a cooler full of sodas and juices.
-Music, music and more music! Music makes me lose control! Monkeys sing all the time in rehearsal, even when nobody is asking them to.
-Lorca School is going to love this show. Stay tuned! More to come!
Also, look at these pictures!
Jeff as John Cena holds a customer (Brandon) hostage while he checks to see if his bread really does taste terrible!
Brandon (played by Andres) recounts the story of how he was chased by Zombies (Tim)!
*I didn’t even know what a Bionicle was before we started adapting “When I Was Playing with My Toys” by Tony O. They are really cool and sometimes come over to your house and hang out with you and sometimes star in action movies, depending on the day.