Larry's 01/31/2012 "True Acting Tip Of The Day"...
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 07:51AM 
Four more days until we open Becky Shaw! If you have been following the tips, you know I am directing this brutally funny play at the wonderful FREEFALL THEATRE, an award winning Equity Theatre in St. Pete, Florida which is also the home of the True Acting Institute in the United States. If you are anywhere in the area, our new series of Meisner classes begin on February 8th at freeFall.
As it is the main focus of my life at the moment, this week, I am devoting the True Acting Tips column to Becky Shaw. For further reading on what we have been doing in the rehearsal room, please read the fanatastic blog created by professor Gaye Burgess, who has been sitting in and observing. Click to visit the BECKY SHAW BLOG.
On Sunday we had our first "ten-out-of-twelve", working from 10am until 10pm with a two hour break in the middle. This day was devoted to working out technical demands of the play which has nine scenes and seven different locations, each requiring a totally unique setting! Eric Davis, the Artistic Director at freeFall is our set, sound and costume designer for Becky Shaw and he has truly outdone himself in every department. The multi dimensional set Eric has designed, (with a huge back wall covered by a "wallpaper" revealing the faces of the five characters), utilizes swinging walls to give us new configurations for the different settings of the play. Most stunning of all, Eric has created a series of beautiful, cinematic videos that are being projected onto the two outer walls of the set during the show. These videos, at times, give us a tour of the physical locations and other times explore the psychological landscape of the characters' minds and as each scene begins, the stage lights come up as the videos morph into a still image which becomes an integral part of the current location of the play.
Obviously, all these technical elements of Becky Shaw needed much attention on Sunday, which was also the first time we had the opportunity to rehearse the light, sound and video cues as our four person crew moved the furniture and props in and out of place for each location of the play. And, as we worked through these issues in the theatre, the five actors were using the time to sit in the green room and do a four hour line rehearsal.
Truly, one of the best things about working on Becky Shaw at freeFall, is the continual feeling that every single person involved - both cast and technical staff - are on the same page, focused intensively on our common mission of telling the story in the most authentic, specific and passionate way. Unfortunately, many times in this industry, you have to work with people who make the project only about themselves out of a desparate need to feed their own egos. So, it is a breath of fresh air to work with our extraordinary cast and production staff, in a most colloborative environment, where the play is the thing!
Here's the tip, the best results are always achieved through true collaboration...
Collaboration: is working together to achieve a goal. It is a recursive process where two or more people work together to realize shared goals. This is more than the intersection of common goals seen in co-operative ventures, but a deep, collective, determination to reach an identical objective, for example, an intriguing endeavor that is creative in nature — by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus."
