A description of a rehersal for an unconventional play. |
The First Rehearsal Exercise With and Without Words. A play. what about? homelessness. how will we do it? we don't know. but you get in and you go to a rehearsal. the first rehearsal. And you do an exercise so the director knows what you can do. It begins with directions: At the back of the theater, the pods, no words exist Aloud, in Thought, in your Actions none, blank. You start there In your turn, you leave and go onstage and, in your mind, build your idea of home. Then, in your turn, you go back to the pods, become blank again, and end there. The exercise begins. There are no words to convey, in words, the utter lack of words, but all at once, You are out in the cold, with no words for blankets, for shoes on your feet, for clothes on your back, for food in your stomach, for feelings in your heart. The well in the desert just ran dry, the fire in the snowstorm just went out. You aren’t there. You are empty. You simply are. No mothers arms No father’s wisdom No teacher’s guidance No comforting sounds No soothing music Nothing. Others begin to go up, to leave the blankness, to go home. Home is where the heart is, and you can’t go home, not yet. Parched, watch them drink. Starving, watch them eat. Alone in a snowstorm of blankness and white noise you see the windows to other people’s homes and their warmth but you sit in the cold because you can’t go home. No light no sound no home. Your turn. Walking away now. The words come back. The ugly green jealousy is gone because you’re home too. Wrap in your blanket, feel your warm clothes, express yourself to yourself again. Play your games rest a heavy head eat till you burst. Love and family return music returns laughter returns light returns safety returns. The Nothing is gone. And then it’s time to go again. The warm silence becomes cold silence empty and wordless after home. And then it’s over. We discuss it, and get our schedules and check technicalities, but the pods will be empty and wordless and very there in a cold way for a few months ‘til the show is over and it’s words are gone and we all go home. |