The Wedding Singer - 2nd Rehearsal

Well, I was a bit miffed on Friday to say the least that my dance-sneakers hadn’t arrived in time for my first dance rehearsal, but having pulled out a pair of character shoes that were around 15 years old, checked that they were still in usable condition and still fit (yes!) I packed them in my bag and headed off to rehearsal number 2.

The ‘Acting’

I had to get there a bit earlier than most of the cast, due to being one of the (eek) principal characters, although having said that I was conscious I was late having decided to have a last minute practice of the opening number in front of my mum’s piano.  I signed in and went upstairs to be greeted by a few of the other cast members who had already started their scene rehearsal.  Sitting down patiently to watch I cringed at the cheesiness of the lines, but thankfully the director’s vision made less of the cheese and more of the humour

– I hope that this comes across in the final production! 

I got chance to do my first proper run-through of my first scene with the other central character, my grandson, Robbie (nb. My character’s grandson!), which went fairly well I think.  Myself and the director obviously had different ideas on what we thought the character should be like (mine solely based on what I’d seen of Ellen Albertini Dow in the film)  so I have to admit I felt rather embarrassed and almost worried when I was asked to change what I was doing.  As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve never played a central character in a large stage production before, so this is alien to me – thinking about it after the fact, it’s only natural that characterisation and mannerisms are viewed differently by the actors and the directors, and so my job isn’t so much to ‘impress’ straight off, as to show the ability to mould myself into the person that the director wants me to  be.

The ‘Dancing’

Directions written, and a five minute breather with some of the “young’uns” that I’ve been getting to know, then the hard part started – the dancing!  Now this I have done before, but not since I was fifteen when I was infinitely fitter and more supple than I am now, and I had been somewhat shocked by the sheer pain that I’d incurred for the three days after the initial audition for the chorus-line.  I had come prepared this time, I had gone on a self styled fitness regime of Yogalates (which MUST be said in an Australian accent) walking, swimming, and more recently the addition of Salsa dancing since the auditions a month ago, and it made a world of difference.  Not.

The shoes I was wearing were perilously slippery, so any movement that involved sliding into a pose involved copious amounts of muscle work to stop from doing the splits (definitely something I wanted to avoid!) and many of the spins ended up in me losing balance as I was unable to stop.  After about 5 minutes I was drenched in sweat and my face had gone a bright pink colour, and everyone else looked glowing, shiny and the same colour as they had been when they started! Oh, and did I mention we had to sing while we were dancing too?

But it wasn’t all bad.  The dance routine was 80% what we had already learnt at the audition, so most parts actually came to me quicker than they otherwise would have done.  I wasn’t out of breath or chesty at all, which I put down to having quit smoking some time ago, and it was just great fun to do!

Hopefully in the next few weeks, I’ll be able to break in my new shoes, work on the coordination which hasn’t been tested much in the last 10 years, and also start working on my character development.

Next week – more dancing, more singing, and working on my American accent…