Tracking is a concept my dear friend Ellen Isom clarified for me years ago while doing the Full Monty at Stages. Everyone in the cast has a track: it's who you are from scene to scene. It's not generally a huge deal if you only play one role but it is especially helpful a person plays multiple roles. So, when an understudy has to go on, they can fill in their "new" track and others can see how they are going to fill in the spots in the understudy's original track. Clear as mud, right?
Today I spent about an hour and a half going through the script tracking all 13 performers. Jesus has the easiest track -he never has to be anyone but Jesus, no quickie costume changes for him! However, there are some others that will have to be quick-change artists of the highest degree. (If you saw me in Unbeatable last fall, you get the idea: 15 seconds to be a different person in a different costume, with a whole different character.) And seriously, Jesus will be the only one who's sitting pretty all the time. I was actually three scenes past Pilate when I realized, "uhhh, where is Pilate? who is Pilate? crap, I need Pilate." Probably better for me to have done it in pencil. Lesson learned.
To ease some of my stress, I know mostly how this piece will be cast and that's extremely helpful. However, given the size of our ensemble, we need to fill approximately 4 roles. I'm talking to a friend this week and trying to convince another SATEist who moved back home to NY to come back (she's the reason I was like, "where in the world is Pilate?!" So that leaves two roles to be filled. Feel free to forward suggestions! And if they were of the male persuasion that would be AWESOME because we are heavily laden with chicks. But in all honest, I don't care if they are girls are boys because SATE shows are about bodies in space - not parts.
I can honestly say that I've wondered about this -- about exits and entrances and costume changes. When a playwright is writing, are they think about these things? Are they thinking about the "tracking"? (Now I have a name for it -- yay!) Particularly when I've done shows with seemingly impossible scene/costume changes, I have to wonder: "Did the writer know this would happen? How did this work in their head? How have other people done these changes successfully in their productions?" Although that last question usually leads me to realize that "other productions" usually have more money, and therefore more people to help with fast changes, etc. Or so it seems in my head.
ReplyDelete"Tracking" -- I like it! Learned something new today.