The Copperhead Script Work

I'm not a huge fan of table work. I understand the value of it, and that it's nice to get the entire company around a table and just talk through scenes. It gets people on the same page, and creates a unified "baseline" of understanding to begin from. I certainly think it's useful.

Illustrative only - I know none of these people

But it's not fun. Not that everything has to be fun, per se, but I have a pretty strong history of making most of my leaps of understanding once I'm on my feet and looking into the eyes of the other characters. I have a hard time feeling "in the moment" when I'm sitting at a table looking at a script, even if everyone at the table is trying to feed off each other.

Me? I just sit there wanting to get up.

Of course, I'm talking about The Copperhead, which started rehearsals on this past Sunday with the first read-thru, and continued last night with table work. I felt a little antsy last night. It's pretty much entirely my fault. I've been sitting on this script for a long while, and making an effort to get off book before we even started makes sitting around a table reading feel like being in a cage.

(I'm also well aware that getting off book before we started, well, not everyone thinks that's smart. What can I say? I was anxious and I had time on my hands. It's been a pretty long dry spell.)

It's one of the reasons that staged readings aren't really my forte. The script starts to feel like a ball and chain. Not the words, but the actual book, physically. I also have an over-fixation on getting the lines exactly if I have the script in hand. I begin to think more about what I'm saying, instead of just playing. Makes me a little stiff. 

That's intensified when you start to realize there's a lot of really great people in the room with you. Kathy Scambiatterra has put together a pretty sharp group. Couple of people I know, and a whole lot I don't. Lots of veterans of The Artistic Home, and, as always, it's gonna be fun to see a new dynamic play out.

Let's just hope I don't screw up. LOL!