CATCO Blog

Hello from Jeanine Thompson, co-director of The Mystery of Irma Vep!

We are finishing up our third week of rehearsals. I must say I have never laughed so much in a rehearsal process! It is obvious the years that Geoff ([Nelson] and Jon [Putnam] have spent working together. They are able to finish each other’s sentences, guess what the other is thinking, and with no more than a nod to a reference they are able to spontaneously burst into hilarious jokes, bits and songs. It has been an absolute honor and pleasure to be a part of this production team.

Our rehearsals have had many points of focus. We started by dissecting the script to clarify the story, the script’s references and the characters through-lines. James Bailey has been a great help by providing insights and suggestions for many often obscure references. We quickly got the actors on their feet to explore the foundations of the blocking. Are constant question has been: Who needs to go where, and when, in order to be where they need to be in order to make a quick costume change and reappear as someone else.

Do to the physically high stylization of the show, I have been conditioning the actors and working with them on Francois Delsarte’s whole body gestures of emotions and actions. The conditioning will assist the actors in the strength and agility necessary for the numerous quick changes and maintaining the fast pace of the show. The Delsarte work provides the physical style of the show by helping to place the show in the period around 1930. The Delsarte work also greatly assists the actors in making choices that will provide physical distinctions for each of their characters.

All of our hard work has set the platform for Geoff and Jon to jump into what they do so best – acting! I am constantly blown away by the quickness in which they work, their commitment to being present in each and every moment, and the honesty that comes through in all of their work. The jovial outbursts of hilarity are the cream on the top! Our audiences are certain to enjoy an evening of quick-change mastery, storyline surprises and many, many big belly laughs.

Hilarity highlights have been: The many jokes Geoff and Jon have made during our Delsarte training sessions by spontaneously creating their own “Delsartian” whole body emotional gestures accompanied by side comments. Geoff and Jon learning how to play the dulcimer. That was very funny in and of it however when they started riffing into other songs like Sunshine of Your Love, we were rolling off our seats. And Jon and Geoff recreating their own version of the mirror scene from Hitchcock’s movie Rebecca, both are wonderfully creepy but ours is also very funny!

–Jeanine Thompson, Co-director of The Mystery of Irma Vep

This entry was posted on Friday, May 14th, 2010 at 9:58 am and is filed under Behind the Scenes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.