IV

Our director is incredibly useful and switched on - everyone seems to love him, partly because he is friendly and doesn't take himself or the play too seriously, and partly because his notes are practical: "Make your voice higher there," or "Make sure you plant so you have enough support for that line." He doesn't tell you how to feel, he gives you help on what to DO, which helps shortcut a lot of confusion when you have a whole 10 days to put a show together.

I thought I was the only one getting irritated with the leading man. He's clearly talented, and has a beautiful voice, but he spends so much time apologizing or giving explanations for a mistake that I would love this to be a play in which I slap the man silly. He's always full of wind blown compliments that I just can't take seriously, and on top of the hemming and hawing, adds a lot of useless, "Oh, we'll make it work," and "That's our job, to give you directors what you want!"

For instance, in the middle of a scene, he might break character and turn his head and say, "What's that line? Damn, I can never get that right, I don't know what my problem is. I had it last night, but now it's just gone. Well, I'll get it. That's my job!" Then we can finally continue with the work. EVERY mistake gets some variation of this palaver.

So our director, bless him, mentions today that if we forget something, we should just stay with the moment and call for a line. Great, I think, wonderful. I am not the only person who noticed this. I was sitting nearby when maybe 5 minutes later, we got yet another oh-so-sorry monologue, and I could hear our director mutter under his breath, "God, Sam! Just stay with the damn scene!!!"

It's nice to find you aren't alone in an irritation.