Jeff Kirwan

  Tonight was our designer run; the first opportunity for our costume, set, lights, and sound designers to see the show run through from beginning to end. It also happens to have been the our very first attempt at actually running the show through from beginning to end. To say that it was a little rough would do a grave disservice to the masterwork of chaos, confusion, and general bewilderment we treated our intrepid designers to this evening. To be fair, I admit that I'm being a bit hyperbolic here. In all honesty, given the complexity of this show, and the physical and emotional demands on the cast, we are about where I expected us to be at this point in the process. Note that "at this point in the process" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that statement. It is, after all, all about the process.  "Do the Work. Trust the process." These are mantras every theatre artist learns very early on, and returns to on difficult evenings like this one. There is always,

Week 2 of rehearsals is in the books. Although it feels more like 2 months because we've accomplished so much. The entire show is blocked, and Act I and Act II have both been run through at least once beginning to end. Some of the transitions in this show are brutally hectic, but I think we have a pretty good handle on them so far. There is much work yet to be done, but our venerable director, Warner, feels like we're in a good place, and I tend to agree. I'm about 95% there on my lines, and the other 5% will come with repetition. Now to turn my attention to character development. That's Frank Nicklin (my primary character) up above, taken from a profile of him written up in The Observer in 1999. Looking at those mischievous eyes and that equally mischievous grin gives me some insight into why Frank is written into this show the way he is. Frank is first and foremost the comic relief. Boisterous and quick with a quip, he's been a joy to play with in rehearsal. But m

  We are about a week and a half into rehearsals for Ink now, and it feels like we've been at it for months. I mean this in a good way, if that makes sense. There's A LOT going on in this show, and we're covering so much ground each rehearsal that scenes we blocked just three days ago seem like a distant memory. Last night and tonight we went back and reviewed scenes we blocked late last week and we were LOST. All of us. Thank Crom for Stage Managers. Kaylyn (our incredible SM) was on the spot, reviewing in real time, the copious blocking notes she had kept during our initial rehearsal. She kept us on track and moving forward.  Note to self: Blocking notes are like firewood. When you think you have enough, double it. That said, we're beginning to get into the real fun part of rehearsals now. Last night we spent the entire night running our newsroom ensemble scenes, exploring the relationships between our characters, experimenting with different dynamics, and just playin