Monday, January 31, 2011

Falling - Alexandra Cunningham

In Romeo and Juliet, we do a lot of falling.  Whether I'm portraying a street women in a Market scene getting pushed by one of Tybalt's cohorts, or when I'm dancing Juliet and being struck by my father, fainting from poison or collapsing from stabbing myself - I am falling to the ground quite a bit.  Last week in our first full 'run-through' (or rehearsing the entire show from start to finish in the studio), I fell twice - unintentionally.  The first fall was comical.  Christie, who plays the nurse was unavailable for the rehearsal, so Amanda kindly stepped in for her.  I had never practiced jumping on to Amanda's lap, so when it came for the time in the choreography to leap onto the Nurses lap, I went for it.  Unfortunately - neither of us was ready for it and we just toppled over, and in hysterics tried to salvage the rest of the scene.  The second time, was in the same rehearsal.  Just before Juliet takes the poison, she has second thoughts.  Ron has choreographed a dramatic solo in which we must run around the stage confused and scared, not sure what to do, and in the middle of it, as I was shuffling backwards, I slipped on a slick spot from sweat and before I knew it, I was face down on the floor.  Shocked, I just stayed there for what felt like an eternity and finally said something appropriately eloquent like, "wow."  Well, I suppose that I can just wrap it up by taking it as good practice.  I learned that the best way to make it look like you are falling to the floor is to just go for it, and fall.  Hopefully I can just keep to the choreography now and not find myself on my face unexpectedly!

No comments:

Post a Comment