Back again with a brand new post. So, my friends decided to write a show based on a popular play by Agatha Christie called "And Then There Were None", which we also did last year as our spring play. My friend Brian came up with it as an idea as a possible film or skit idea that we had to brainstorm last year. It tells the story of 6 dictators: Chairman Mao, the irrepressible Hitler, Kim Jung Un, the kick-ass Josef Stalin (played by me of course!), the longing to be like Hitler, Mussolini and finally the sickening Communist, Fidel Castro. They are all at a party hosted by Gabriel (the fallen angel aka the devil). All of a sudden, they start to get killed off one by one and they all have to figure out who's the killer before time runs out. I will not spoil the entire shaboozal.
I believe the rehearsal process is going pretty well. Today, we ran through the entire thing about 2-3 times, which went pretty quick considering that the show is about 10-15 minutes. I usually try out different ways as to meet my characters different objectives or what he hopes to achieve in the scene. For example, when Hitler accuses me of killing Gabriel, our host, co-director and friend Andrew told me that Stalin basically doesn't give a fuck about anything but himself and getting his own way. Whoever agrees with him goes with him. Whoever disagrees, well, *mocks head being cut off with finger and head going down*. To add to my "not giving a fuck", I mock Hitler by putting my finger underneath my nose, mocking his talking, and doing the Nazi solute. I think it was pretty funny, so I stayed with it. Hopefully the audience sees it too. I also try and look for a comfortable position to "die" in. Spoiler alert: I die by being poisoned by vodka. I need to hunch over the couch in a way that my stomach doesn't ache or my back. It should be more choreographed so to speak. I will get it eventually just like all of the others. One last thing is I feel as though I should have more stage direction so that I can have more interactions with the other dictators. Just because I don't give a fuck and think my idea is the best doesn't mean I can't physically interact with people. Is it because I'm old enough to be a grandpa that I can't get up, or I just don't want to because I could give less of a shit about what's going on? I think that's it. Overall, we are doing very well considering we are supposed to preform this by next week. Guess that's it for me now. See you soon, young artists!
