Yes, I know I said I’d write every day, but you didn’t actually believe me, did you?

The Lacuna Group has had two work sessions, I hesitate to call them rehearsals, on our production of Coriolanus, and I have to say that I’m very excited.

It’s not that I’m confident, yet, about our chances of success, although things are looking very positive that we’re going to show up on October 25 at the Greenville Street Park with something worth watching. It’s just that the sheer brainpower in the room is exhilarating. It’s like being at GHP twice a week: ideas flow, textual analysis just happens, and there are mad skillz all round.

One of the rather interesting things about the group is their willingness to play. We have not cast any roles (although we keep putting Marc as Volumnia); we’re not planning on casting the show for another week. We’re just playing with scenes, solving problems (Can we keep the fickle Citizens from getting laughed at? How mean is Volumnia? How can we point up the tempo changes in this scene? How do we show Romans being routed on the battlefield?), switching out roles, exploring.

Somehow, out of all this, ideas happen, and eventually, we trust, decisions will be made.

I say “somehow,” but that suggests we don’t know how it works. We do know how it works. It works as advertised: you play without concern about result, and results come without concern. It is a marvelous way to pass one’s time.

It’s also rather wonderful to be reunited with such great actors from my past: Greg Lee, Dan Coleman, Jeff Bishop, Kevin McInturff, Marc Honea. (Matthew Bailey and Jeff Allen join us… Saturday, guys?) I only wish the others whom we’d invited to join us had the time to do so. To hear those familiar voices tackle Shakespeare’s language with even greater assurance than the last time we were all together is heartwarming. I’m verklempt.