The Guys...
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Don Kuehlhorn
Nov 7
It is, now, well past the end of the run. Time to reflect on what transpired. This was an intense play from all aspects. It was a two person play so a lot of words needed to be memorized. It was a two person play so a lot of emotion had to be portrayed and varied during the course of the play. I was a two person play so a bond between the actors was forged. This was a two person play so a lot of energy went into lines and blocking and feeling when not at the Playhouse. I don't get this level of involvement very often. It is refreshing and exhilarating and down right fun. I missed it soon after the strike and i miss it now. But, as in all theater, the play must go on and the players two.
Oct 22
Time flies when you are having fun and fun we are having. We just finished the second weekend, our four day marathon. Now we have our  last three performances then on to the next show. Usually i look forward to this. By the end of the run i am ready to try something new. Of course, that is a play with more then two characters and less onstage time.  This play is receivved very well and it is too much fun. On our Saturday night preformence we finished took our curtain call and waited for the audience to file out. Suddenly, i heard them NOT stop applauding. I finally realized that we had to come out for  a second curtain call. We have had standing ovations but this was way cool. I will miss this play. It will be one of my favorites but high on the list since everything i do is one of my favorites. Fun can't get better than this.
Oct. 15
The weekend has passed and i am back and the daily grind. I have ahd Sunday to relax and think about the opening run of "The Guys". I am my worst critic so i will share what i saw around me. It seemed to go well. Everyone had positive things to say about the play, even the director! We had our moments thoug. A light c glitch here and a sound glitch there. Notice i am not mentioning some lines gafffs from yours truly. All in all we opened to good houses and it plays well. I, for one, am having a great time with this piece. I usually go for my comfort zone and do comedy. However, this drama offers a lot of meat to get out of my comfort zone and yet still have some humor to take the dramatic pressure off. Only 7 more performances until we move on to the next challenge.But who's counting?
Oct. 11
Opening night! Well, not really, tonight is Dress Rehearsal but to me it is opening night. As a night it is still a rehearsal.That means that we can still be stopped by the director if something serious happens or we can do the things we need to do in order to make the show better. In reality, though, we run tonight just like a performance. We open at  8:00 and we have an audience if anyone from the community comes down to see the show for free. This is the only time we get before the paying customers come through the door. I count it as a performance so that i can get the butterflies out of my tummy before the real thing. It is always a scare to perform. Even the last show of a run holds risk of failure and that is the challenge to doing theater, "live", theater. Beginning tonight, Bonnie and i will be on a tight rope with only each other to support us. Bonnie has saved me several times during the rehearsals now i hope i don't need her help during the run. It all starts tonight.
Oct 4....
This evening marks the end of the "rehearsal" period. We have one week until we open on Friday, October 12. From now on we run the show with lights and sound and all the bells and whistles.  Oh yeah, and no one feeding lines when i get stuck! We have rehearsed in different places and that always throws a little disturbance into the mix. When you are comfortable in one place and you move to another there is an adjustment. Of course we need the interruptions and changes to build our concentration so there is that!
Now we will have to deal with lights and sound and all the produciton values that will upset the process again. But on Opening night, make the Dress Reharsal night we will be good to go.
Sept. 26...
I have returned from a week + visiting my son in Gunnison, Colorado. I feel refreshed and ready for action. Too bad the altitude didn't put more lines in my head. I did take my script along and read it almost every day.  I returned on Friday last and we had our rehearsal on Monday. I can't say i was word perfect but i did know where i was in the script the entire time. Yesterday we completed the reading and i was there as well. This is normal for me. I get to a point and need the onstage time to perfect the stage moments and script.. It will all come together. Bonnie is doing great, seemingly better than i am so i have a target to shoot for. We have three weeks. We are in great shape.  I think i may go on vacation again for a while!
Sept. 6...
End of week 2 of rehearsal. That is the rehearsal that We all gather around the book and read and discuss(see Sept. 4). My(our) work is still daily. Read the script. Memorize the lines. Part of the rehearsal that is now over until Monday is the director intervention. I am not sure that there is an actor out there that loves to be directed. An actor "feels" the part., Immerses him/herself in the character then the darn director comes along and says , "i want you to do it this way!" Geez, louise, don't we actors know better? The simple answer is , NO. By the way the difficult answer is NO. As an actor i will put my feelings and my emotions into the piece. I don't think i have ever been wrong but it could have happened. I am on stage in the action. I am busy saying lines and reacting. The director is watching the WHOLE thing and can see when an actor does/says something that will detract from the WHOLE production. Also, the director may have an insight myopic actors don't want to see 'cause it may lessen their role in the play. It isn't easy to accept direction. It isn't easy to give direction. They both require giving over of the self to the higher order of the play. When you do it in the proper way, the WHOLE play is better and the audience gets their WHOLE dollars worth.
Sept. 4...
Just back from a long holiday weekend... stayed home but checked the brain out for the holiday...and now back to the play. Last week was a marathon reading and reading again. Since the play is short, hour and a half and we don't move much, the focus of our director's work is on the script. We read then we discuss. She asks us questions about character or situation and we discuss. The more we know about what we think happened the more depth our character will have. I say "know" in the sense that we must recreate the feelings ot these 2 individuals. So as long as we have some sense of what our reality is then we can recreate the moment. It is not the real thing since we weren't there but it is our recreation.  Our discussions help us flesh out this reality.
Onward into the new world.
Aug. 23...
Well i am back in harness again. I got cast as Nick in the play "The Guys". It id  a daunting part, mostly becaus eit is two people on stage for an hour dealing with some heady stuff. Nick is a Captian in the New York Fire department who lost 8 men during the 9/11 incident. This is his story about thow to deal with such a personal tragedy. Joan, the other  character in this play, did not have a direct connection with gorund zero but begins to understand the greif and feelings as she attempts to write eulogies for the slain men.
My fear is the total trust we actors must develop with each other. there is no third actor to help uys out if we get stuck. We are there for each other. The thrill of this whole thing is the challenge to face a two person play. Let the fun begin!!!