First rehearsal is always a scary one. Why? Well, to start with, it’s the first time you get to see if you made the right decisions from your casting. I have read in several ‘directing actor’ books (as well as experienced previously) that often actors ‘nail the reading’ in a casting but then when you get to the rehearsal it’s like…where did the character from the casting go. My understanding of this is that when actors come into a casting, it’s like they have the camera on them then – like they know we are doing a close-up. Let me tell you something, in my limited experience doing this, actors come up with an extra 10 – 15% of magic when they got a camera on them – they know it’s game time, and they come to play.
‘Course none of what I’m saying here has any relevance with regard to our first rehearsal because when Alberick and Monica arrived to my place, I cracked a cheap bottle of Brut, and followed strong with two bottles of crushed grapes and a block of Camembert and Danish Blue. We all became good friends after that.
