Jeffrey exits stage right and returns to pour himself a glass of hazelnut coffee creamer, Drew sifts through empty Just Fab shoeboxes, and Maggie brings two fingers up to her lips and inhales. The setting, the fake props, the confusion - say no more, it’s blocking time for Mammoth’s cast and crew.
For those who never joined the thespian crew, blocking is the phase of theatre production when we focus on the facilitation of movement, and the actions to coincide with the script. Blocking guides actors through the set to enhance and propagate their lines.
I remember blocking for the three musicals I acted in during high school – for a veteran chorus member, these rehearsals were mind-numbingly boring, but for someone in a small cast like that of Mammoth, rehearsals are packed with action.
Now in the early stages of blocking (read: two rehearsals done, many to go) Mammoth cast and crew are developing best practices for stage-crossing, ad-libbing, sitting, standing, and a wide variety of other “ing” words. While all of the blocking for Mammoth happens in one set - the living room of the three siblings’ home - the three actors must still maneuver themselves strategically around each other and their props. What sets Mammoth apart from other plays are both its modernity and its mundanity, which calls for a nonchalant vibe between and from the actors.
Thus the challenge in blocking Mammoth does not lie so much as knowing exactly when one character picks up a box or when another character stomps across the room; the challenge is in the effort made toward blocking, and disguising it completely. Mammoth, which is so real and entertainingly "quotidienne", calls for playwright Kate Royal and the actors to explore motion planning while using their space proactively and wisely.
Since the first thing an audience always notices, even subconsciously, is the way an actor moves in and out of the stage - stage presence, if you will - the blocking of Mammoth will likely be one of the more significant phases of the play’s production and determinant of its overall success.
For those who never joined the thespian crew, blocking is the phase of theatre production when we focus on the facilitation of movement, and the actions to coincide with the script. Blocking guides actors through the set to enhance and propagate their lines.
I remember blocking for the three musicals I acted in during high school – for a veteran chorus member, these rehearsals were mind-numbingly boring, but for someone in a small cast like that of Mammoth, rehearsals are packed with action.
Now in the early stages of blocking (read: two rehearsals done, many to go) Mammoth cast and crew are developing best practices for stage-crossing, ad-libbing, sitting, standing, and a wide variety of other “ing” words. While all of the blocking for Mammoth happens in one set - the living room of the three siblings’ home - the three actors must still maneuver themselves strategically around each other and their props. What sets Mammoth apart from other plays are both its modernity and its mundanity, which calls for a nonchalant vibe between and from the actors.
Thus the challenge in blocking Mammoth does not lie so much as knowing exactly when one character picks up a box or when another character stomps across the room; the challenge is in the effort made toward blocking, and disguising it completely. Mammoth, which is so real and entertainingly "quotidienne", calls for playwright Kate Royal and the actors to explore motion planning while using their space proactively and wisely.
Since the first thing an audience always notices, even subconsciously, is the way an actor moves in and out of the stage - stage presence, if you will - the blocking of Mammoth will likely be one of the more significant phases of the play’s production and determinant of its overall success.