We're in Pretty Good Shape...

for a first run-through. We need to shave 17 minutes off the play. It's a one-act, and it can't be any longer than an hour and a half. That's about how much a butt-in-a-seat can endure.

Let me tell you a little about the improvisations. Up until two nights ago, we started every 3-hour rehearsal with at least an hour's worth of improv. The first few days, we did improvisations around events that have happened before the time-line of the play.

The first scene starts with an elderly woman talking to a doctor about the death of her son "last summer." The director had a improvise the scene where the woman is told of her son's death. Then he had us improvise the first time two of her relatives (Mrs. Holly, who I play, and Mrs. Holly's son, George) visit her after her son's death.

We also had very long "hot seat" improvisations. Each actor, as their character, was put into a "hot seat" and questioned by the other actors. Questioned about everything, from where we went to school to sexual preference.

The improvisations I liked the most were the ones done within an actual scene. For example, at the end of the the play, where my daughter describes the death of her cousin (the elderly woman's son), the director had the rest of the cast act as the band of street urchins involved in the actual death.

If you want to read more about the movie that was based on the play, check out the "Suddenly Last Summer" link.