There wasn't any Neutrino Project rehearsal last night because of Thanksgiving. So Shaun and I (with our Sickest F***in' Stories and Around Midnite Series producer hats on respectively) had a meeting with Don Hall (with his WNEP Exective Producer hat on). Inevitably the conversation wandered to The Neutrino Project, because Don (with his Pit Bull PR hat on) is helping us do some of the PR for the show. We're usually pretty good at PR, but for once everything is on schedule. Postcards are in, cast tchotchkes are in, press releases are out, phone calls have been made, posters are ready to be posted. It's almost frightening.

Don's been reading this journal and pointed out that last week I didn't say what we actually did in rehearsal. (The fact that he could have asked Jen when she got home is, I suppose, beside the point.)

I've settled on two warm ups that we do every rehearsal -- follow the follower and race car. My thought is that since we're so disconnected when we're actually doing the show (that is, each team is in completely separate physical locations), anything that gets us started on the same page is good. So, we did those two warm-ups.

Then I sent everyone out in teams to do first scenes -- so shoot them fast and with minimal camera set ups. They'd come back to the rehearsal space, I'd watch the scene with the team, we'd talk about it, and then I'd send them out again to do another first scene. A lot of the scenes were great, but I found that by the end of an hour plus of scene after scene, it was wearing me out to be watching all of them with a critical eye. It's hard to be the director, huh?

So it was a nice change to grab a camera and get out in the field with just 3 actors and shoot some scenes. I had everyone switch up teams and go out to shoot 3 scenes (2 minutes, 4 minutes, 2 minutes) like they would in a real show (though we weren't doing the strict timing and running like we would in the show). To contrast with the last week's wackiness, I gave us all the directive to do our scenes as though we were trying to avoid audience laughter. It's a nice way to stay grounded.

Overall, another good rehearsal. Maybe because Shaun wasn't there. Heh. You can hear more about how hard it is to direct someone who you perform with when I'm grumpier. Tonight, it's Thanksgiving and I'm feeling good.