Word all you pirate lovers out there! It’s Friday, only a week since I left for Beef & Boards, yet it seems like we have sailed all the way around the world… yeah I just went there. Anyways here is what we have been up to over at the Beef…

As you may, or may not know, act one ends with this awesomely huge brawl on board the Hispaniola: the sea shifts from an impending downpour, the wind cracks on the sails, the crew is full of angst from weeks at sea, and to complicate matters, land has just been spotted! What better time to have a fight for the ages? Enter Adam Noble, our killer (no pun intended) fight director. Not only is Adam is great guy, he teaches at the best college in the world, my alma matter, Indiana University. And although we didn’t get to work together at IU (Adam arrived just after I left), we are quickly making up for lost time with this production.

We had fight rehearsals on Tuesday and Thursday and to say this guy is great would be an understatement. He rocks. One of the things I really like about Adam’s direction is that he remains focused on telling the story. Those of you who saw our premiere know that the fight (brilliantly staged by John Bellamo, might I add) was a highlight of the show. Adam is working hard with the cast to take the fight to the next level, making sure our fight not only looks authentic, but also communicates the direness of the situation, and in turn, I am discovering the best ways to replace the air in between moves with acting choices that communicate to our audience exactly what is going on. I could go on and on about how awesome our fight is shaping up, but I guess you’ll just have to come see our show for yourself and find out!

I can’t speak for the rest of the cast, but today’s rehearsal was amazing for me. We worked a ton of moment to moment beats, and I was able to discover and hash out several things that make Jim Hawkins tick. As an actor, this work can sometimes be tedious and it’s vital to stay on your game; not judging or expecting anything from your process – after all it is a process… I thought I did a good job of that today (kudos to me), and as a result, I had some great discoveries – discoveries, which I never could have reached without pushing myself; asking difficult questions and applying their answers to my work on Jim. I already love performing Treasure Island, but after our work today, I NEED to perform this show. I so clearly relate to Jim’s arc and his super objective to be viewed as a man.

Tomorrow is our designer run. Basically this is when all of the creative team sits in on a full run through and decides if the show will be good or not. Just kidding. But truth be told, I can’t wait for our run tomorrow – so much of our work thus far has been ironing out moment to moment stuff, so we have yet to feel out the ebb and flow of our particular show. This run is going be an amazing tool to figure out exactly what we need to spend time on. Additionally, the cast of Cats (currently playing B&B) is going to sit in, so I’m very excited to share our show with them. Plus, it’s been awhile since I got the rush of a full run of TI, and selfishly, I’m ready to bring it. This show is the most important project I have ever worked on, and I am aching to deliver the goods onstage.

Off to look over some material! Till next time…

Rick

Oh, one more thing – I looooooooove hearing your thoughts, so please, comment away!