Learning the Ropes

We're into our second week, and we're still pushing forward hard. We've gotten a lot of the show blocked out over the past few days, including a few groups scenes and a lot of the choreography. Tonight the cast will learn the choreography for another group number (Shakin' at the Hop) and then we'll review everything we've learned. It's great to see so much progress being made in such a small time! The choreography is intricate, but the cast is picking it up like champs.

Blocking the scenes is going really quickly as well. It's a different experience working on this show; because it's a recreation of the European tour, a lot of the blocking is already determined. We don't have to start from scratch. Mac will give the actors the blocking, and we run it to see if there are any changes that need to be made. He'll usually sit down with the actors then to discuss the circumstances of the scene: why are you here, what time is it, where are we, etc. Then he'll use that to help the actors hone in on specific actions and objectives. What is it your character wants in this scene? How will they go about getting it? With that in mind, we'll run the scene again and see how it works.

The blocking isn't concrete; things are added and subtracted depending on how well they work, or if they look natural. Occasionally, 'bits' (in many cases, physical jokes) that worked overseas don't play as well here. That's a really interesting insight he shared: certain jokes or types of humor that we find funny don't work in other countries, and vice versa. It makes sense, but it's not something that I ever really thought about. Grease encompasses a specific time and feeling in American culture... how is that interpreted elsewhere?

Grease is the word... but does something get lost in translation?

--Sarah Coon