Blocking Complete!

We finished blocking the rest of the script this morning. Whew! That was a LOT of stuff to do. I showed the actors a picture of a Maxell advertisement where a guy is sitting in a chair in front of a speaker and the force of the sound is blowing back his hair and his tie-- he's hanging onto the arms of the chair for dear life! THAT's how this show needs to be to our audiences. They are along for a ride!

We have added a couple neat sections to the show where we plan to personalize each performance based on the performance location. Each local community has unique historical significance and we hope to point some of those out at each performance.

Below is a photo of the actors going through their blocking. Looks boring-- but they're really working hard to make sure all the movements are exact and precise. The first one shows Shannon going through one of her many speeches. Alexis, Vic and John are in the background listening intently so they know when to make their next entrances. (FYI this is her "Katie Riggs" speech about a woman surviving Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence)

Notice there are no costumes, no props or scenery? This is our rehearsal room. The sets are still being built in another room. They will be ready for us to rehearse on in about another week. That's okay because we have an awful lot of work to do in the meantime.

Below is another shot from today's blocking rehearsal. It shows John ( think he's still listening to Shannon's speech) with Alexis and Vic in the background. They will be holding their scripts for about another week or so. After that, they'll have all their lines learned and then the real fun begins! My favorite part of the whole process is the spark of imagination that happens after the actors are "off book" and can really concentrate on character development. Very cool stuff!

Tomorrow, we'll be reviewing the blocking for the whole show. Repetition, repetition, repetition....