Working through rehearsal today included learning a bit about stage violence. In my scene as a messenger with Cleopatra I deliver a message that she does not particularly like – that Antony has married Octavia – and she takes out her agression on me. Today we worked through staging that “fight” and I had a lot of fun. In the scene, Alyssa slaps me twice, and then as I attempt to crawl away upstage, she kicks me in the bottom sending my flying belly first towards the audience. Then she straddles me, rolls me over onto my back and gets right in my face, threatening me with a knife. I’ve never done any work with stage violence at all, and must confess that today was great fun. Its amazing just how real staged violence can look even though the actors barely come into contact with one another.
Peace out everybody! Its storming tonight in Staunton! Happy Tuesday night.
