If you were to follow me around for one day this week, you'd probably think, "Man. I don't know what drug she's on, but I gotta get me some of that." It's rare that I'm not grinning ear-to-ear, jumping up and down, or prancing and dancing about campus with excitement. The majority of this sheer exuberance comes from being a part of our little show, bobrauschenbergamerica. At the end of each rehearsal, I think "Gah, I wish we had another hour or two together," or "tomorrow's rehearsal can't come soon enough!" Even after a week of rehearsals, this excitement and utter joy hasn't faded one bit for me. (You don't even want to know the amount of bodily flailing that went down when the cast list was posted.)
While that bliss hasn't died down, I now am able to focus it on our work in rehearsals. I have to say, I've never experience a rehearsal process quite like this one. Before bob, I would've been apprehensive about spending a full week of rehearsal time on table work and this mysterious "training" rather than blocking, lines, choreography, movement, and transitions. In hindsight, however, I have learned more this week than I have in my entire life. I don't just mean about acting... Which I have, but I've also learned so much about life itself. I view the world completely differently. I am curious about every person, place, or thing I see. I pay attention to shapes in people and in nature. I am aware of my surroundings and my spatial relationships with people and objects around me. I look at the way people relate to each other. Would they fit in our world? What objects fit in our world? Our crazy, unpredictable, yet surprisingly realistic world.
I want to be immersed in our world all the time. It's truly a beautiful place. If this is how I feel about it after a week, I can't imagine the kind of growth that wi happen between now and the final curtain.
It's gonna be a wild ride, and I'm beyond excited for every second of it.
While that bliss hasn't died down, I now am able to focus it on our work in rehearsals. I have to say, I've never experience a rehearsal process quite like this one. Before bob, I would've been apprehensive about spending a full week of rehearsal time on table work and this mysterious "training" rather than blocking, lines, choreography, movement, and transitions. In hindsight, however, I have learned more this week than I have in my entire life. I don't just mean about acting... Which I have, but I've also learned so much about life itself. I view the world completely differently. I am curious about every person, place, or thing I see. I pay attention to shapes in people and in nature. I am aware of my surroundings and my spatial relationships with people and objects around me. I look at the way people relate to each other. Would they fit in our world? What objects fit in our world? Our crazy, unpredictable, yet surprisingly realistic world.
I want to be immersed in our world all the time. It's truly a beautiful place. If this is how I feel about it after a week, I can't imagine the kind of growth that wi happen between now and the final curtain.
It's gonna be a wild ride, and I'm beyond excited for every second of it.
- Mollie
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From Lauren Ezzo (Susan):
Hello People! If you’re reading this then you must be interested in our production of bobrauschenbergamerica, so thank you for that! I think I speak for everybody when I say that we are thrilled to be putting it up and can’t wait for you to see it.
This past week has been a fascinating process. We’ve been doing mostly table work and research, talking to each other, coming up with ideas, swapping pop culture references and “riffing” on basically anything we want to. For your benefit, here are some of the things we’ve read/talked about/seen/heard/thought of that we feel are in the spirit of the show:
-Laugh-In
-Carol Burnett
-The Last Picture Show
-Fourth of July Family Traditions
-Warhol
-And so,so much good music...Arcade Fire, Johnny Cash, Elliot Smith, Lipps Inc....it’s been too cool.
bobrausch is a obviously a fun show. It’s a funny show. It’s a very human show. All of the characters are people we know-our mom, our partner, ourselves. All of them are hurt or broken in some way, and all of them share a deep desire for the freedom and healing that come through creative energy. It’s universal. It’s something across the board that we can agree upon-art is good. We need it.
On that note, I think I’ll sign off...come support our art, and thanks for reading!
- Lauren
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From Dylan Connor (Carl):
Working on bobrauschenbergamerica has been a veritable flurry of extreme and contrasting experiences. This is the shortest time frame I've had to put a show together, yet we've spent the longest time on table-work. It's been the most absolutely freeing rehearsal process, yet the stakes to "get it right" have never been higher. The script has personally, emotionally affected me in a way beyond any other script I've worked with, yet it seems to be grounded in such a detached reality.
Working so intimately and intensively with just nine other cast members has allowed our experiences to parallel and intertwine with one another, but I also feel the process has been entirely my individual journey. We're only a week into the process, and already I look at theatre, chickens, art, myself, the American flag, roller skates, the universe, and pizza in a brand new light. I've been assimilated into the world of this play; I am now a seamless part of the cast of wonderfully off-kilter yet impossibly real characters, and I am beyond excited to continue exploring this boundless new territory.
- Dylan
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