Big Daddy Richard

I'm taking a break from jamming lines into my head to share this adventure with you, my five loyal readers.  If you aren't aware of it yet, I am playing Richard III with Shakespeare by the Sea.  We will actually have six live performances.  And I am excited and terrified!  Here's the info, in case you want to see some live theatre in San Pedro and are available one of these two weekends to drive on down and enjoy some Shakespeare outside, quite literally By the Sea.

Richard III – Fri, Sat, Sun – Jul 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25
Love’s Labour’s Lost – Fri, Sat, Sun – Aug 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22
FRI & SAT performances at 8pm, SUN performances at 7pm

And it's free!  We will ask for money, because we are trying to keep afloat after last year, but pay what you can and will.

Oh yeah, we are also doing Love's Labour's later in the summer.  But I'm not in that one because I'm having surgery.  You know, like I do now.  (It's a little procedure, and hopefully will end these constant trips to the ER.

Here are the lovely people in the show:

A damn fine group!  And my only complaint is that we don't get enough rehearsal time together.  AB5 is a scourge to theatre makers in this state.  The people it hurts are the actors who now get fewer rehearsals together, because that's what happens when you give restrictions without providing any resources to non-profit theatres.  So we'll be making the same money but rehearsing fewer hours.  Because the budget doesn't increase during a pandemic, nor are people as able to give money after scraping through last year...unless you are Bezos.  In which case, give us some money, please!!!  I bought so much stuff on Amazon last year.

And now that we somehow pulled a show out of our butts (with no rehearsal) in doing Titus successfully, we are expected to somehow repeat that miracle.  We are all working very hard to make this show happen.  Unfortunately, we are working by ourselves outside of rehearsal.

But let's focus on the positive.  We are finally fulfilling the promised 2020 season, albeit on a smaller scale.  There will be no tour this summer.  But I have found my way to Valley Park in Hermosa Beach almost daily to work on my lines.  If you walk by and see a crazy bearded man walking around and around a table while muttering something and occasionally gesturing frantically toward the invisible audience that exists only in his head, that's me.  I'm only a danger to those standing in my way to get the crown.

I am so honored and humbled to play this role.  And I'm ready for it.  There are roles that come too early, and some that come too late (unless, apparently you are Ian McKellan).  But the ones that come when you are ready are the ones you can really drop into.  And although I wish we had a full run (and rehearsal process...enough already with that complaint, PV), last year wasn't the time for this play.  It was almost too politically relevant for the climate in which we were living.  Plus, living through all my illnesses last year and thinking I may not make it through (briefly) changed me.  We grow through adversity. And now that I have started (finally) feeling better, I recognize what a gift this is that I get to share these stories with the world.  I always knew that, but not like now.  Not having an audience will teach you just how much you rely on them.  Without an audience, you aren't telling a story.  You're just reciting words into the air.  

So what does all that have to do with Richard?  Well, there are some roles that I didn't feel ready for, and Richard was at the top of that list.  Playing Iago a few years ago gave me an inkling that I could do it.  And I was certainly excited when it was announced for the 2020 season.  Excited and terrified, but not in the way I am now.  Then I was terrified that I wouldn't be up to it.  I'm not terrified by that now.  I know I'm equal to the task,  I have cracked him open and seen his guts.  I know how he works now.  Now I'm just terrified that I won't be able to jam all the words into my head.  But I'm sure I'll be fine there too.  I always am. 

It's just that this isn't the way I work.  On my own.  Head in a script, wandering around a park muttering.  Ok, I do wander around parks muttering, but it's usually Pt. Fermin when we are rehearsing and I'm not on stage for a bit.  I learn by doing.  By rehearsing.  By inhabiting the space with my fellow actors and looking into their eyes and sensing their heartbeats and learning their rhythms.  It's meant to be an intimate communal process...creating a play.  That's where the magic is imbued that is set forth when the audience brings the final component of the spell.  

And we will have rehearsal.  Here's visual proof that we've already had one:  

There will be no scripts on the day.  And we won't just stand there and scream the play at you.  I mean Brendan will, but that's just his voice...he's loud.  (I'm envious of that, and most things about Brendan...I mean, c'mon look at him).

Anyway, back to jamming words into my brain and see what sticks until tomorrow when I keep on slamming that verse through my thick skull.  And hopefully we'll see you there.

It will be filmed for those who can't make it.  But, trust me, watching a filmed version of a play is just not the same.  You don't get to be part of the incantation from your couch.  

PV