I've decided to make several posts reflecting about Jumping Mouse- the process, the performances, the mask making, as well as the things that went right with the show.
But pretty much everything that could have gone wrong in a show happened with Jumping Mouse.
I'm not saying I'm not happy with Jumping Mouse, but this show has been incredibly challenging.
The performances were what I wanted them to be. I'm not saying I'm not proud of the show and proud of my actors. I am proud. I think Jumping Mouse is an awesome play. But pretty much everything that could have happened to stress me out as a director did happen.
First of all, I wasn't supposed to be directing. I was supposed to be focusing entirely on designing the masks and puppets. But before the process even started, the director Zach had lined up for Jumping Mouse had over committed and wasn't able to do it. I was happy to volunteer- This was a week or so after the Yellow Boat had ended and I was feeling bereft without a show. I don't regret the choice to direct Jumping Mouse at all, but I won't say it made my final semester of Div III particularly easy.
Then the auditions turned up one actor, total. I've already written about my casting process for Jumping Mouse, and I'm just emphasizing here, it was really difficult. Everyone seemed to have already committed to a lot of things by the time our auditions came around, and even when we came up with a cast, everyone's schedule was completely impossible. The only times we could ever meet was Sunday in the afternoons and Tuesdays from 9-11, which meant that half of the time, everyone was absolutely exhausted, cranky, and ready to go home to bed.
Attendance was a huge problem. We had one full cast rehearsal, total, before the play went up. All of our rehearsals were supposed to be full cast rehearsals, because most of the time the actors are onstage, but at least one person was absent every time we tried to rehearse. Without everyone there, we often had to skip through entire scenes, which messed with the flow of the play. Most of the time only one person was missing, but without everyone there, it was often hard for the actors to take things seriously, especially in conjunction with late nights. We also had a lot of actors being sick, which always presents a problem. When an actor is sick, it feels wrong to expect a perfect performance from them, but I often left rehearsals feeling like I wasn't getting what I wanted from them in terms of the high energy we needed. There was only one dress rehearsal where we had a full cast present, and one actor was sick with strep throat.
Line memorization was another challenge. We set march break as a deadline for having everything memorized, and when they came back, most of them did not have the lines down as well as I needed them to have them. One actor struggled so much with the lines we ended up having to drop him and recast the role of Old Mouse. Some of the others were still floundering with lines during the last week of rehearsals, and I would have to endure long pauses while they struggled to pick up their cues, giving me helpless looks and mouthing 'line.'
The most difficult part for me about being a director is my own perfectionism. In making the masks, I spent a lot of time making them look exactly the way I wanted them to look, fitting them together into a very specific visual aesthetic that made the show what it was. I think I really succeeded in creating a visually cohesive play with no set and cardboard props and masks. I was able to spend the 150+ hours it took to make them perfect. With the actors, though, I wish I had had more time with them to perfect each moment the way I wanted. I didn't want to lead a really demanding process where I would call my actors for hours every day. I wanted rehearsals to be relaxed and fun, and they were. But because of attendance problems, actors dropping out, and sickness, rehearsals were always sort of stressful for me. I think it's because I see every mistake the actors make as a reflection on me. If they mess up, I flinch, even though I have no control over what happens once they're onstage. Because all in all, a show is supposed to reflect a director's vision, and I always find it frustrating when things deviate from the specific way I want things to look onstage.
Despite all this, I think the show was really lovely. The audience seemed to really like it, and most importantly the children seemed very excited and engaged, even the littlest ones. I think the script shone, the actors are all incredibly talented, and the masks were exactly what I wanted them to be. I just think the play would have been better if things had gone a little smoother, and we had had more time as a cast to perfect every single moment of the show. But that is the nature of the theatre; there is never enough time and things always go terribly wrong. The exciting thing is overcoming all those terrible things and pushing through, and hopefully the audience never notices.
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