Day Two at the LCT Directors Lab

Today was interesting if relatively uneventful. I was impressed by how quickly experiences that are new become old and a process of discernment (or judgment) begins. I participated in two discussions about religious plays, observed two rehearsals of projects in process, and made a visit to Ming Cho Lee's designer "Clambake" which is his annual showcase of young designers' work. In the evening, one of the lab directors (with a background from the Tectonic theatre company) discussed the project he is working on about families who have lost members in Iraq. Then we discussed the Oedipus project and the status of our Lab member from Zimbabwe, who is now on a plane.

I feel I should avoid any kind of "critical" commentary regarding other directors' work on this site.

What I will say is that the main thing that happened today is people began sharing their opinions: negative, positive, nuanced, not.

The question that no one seemed able to really answer today, but most felt was pretty interesting was "What is a relgious play?" as opposed to a play "about religion"? Is it performed for God? Does it confirm faith? Must it have a homogeneous audience to work? Is the feeling of secular transcendence in the theatre the same thing as "religious"? Why are we doing this?

A number of us went to O'Neal's afterward and socialized and discussed things. Some of the discussion was about the work we saw today, but the bulk of it was about the Lab itself. (We also just learned more about each other and a few people started to flirt a bit, at the very least to make friends more quickly.) On the whole, there was no "grousing", but rather an expression of the need to question a "system" in which one finds one's self, without having yet found the way to channel one's impulses or express one's opinions in the moment. Many people in this group feel hungrier than could be satisfied by today's activities, which is a good thing. This is very similar in that way to an early rehearsal. Most of the people I spoke with tonight are politically astute.

A number of people tonight expressed their convictions regarding colonialism (in a word).

One director said to me that when he was observing rehearsals, since he didn't really know the plays being worked on, he found himself paying attention to who was asking what questions of whom, etc., that is, how people in a rehearsal interact and what "roles" people play in rehearsal, perhaps related to power structures.

I shared my idea for working on Macbeth next week with a few people. I got the positive response I was implicitly asking for, to bolster my confidence.

I note that the actors hired to participate all seem very well qualified. I know one of them, and some others are "well known." I note also that they are not really part of the "Lab", which means that forming relationships with them may be somewhat of a challenge, particularly since their reasons for being here are probably not the same as ours. I hope I am mistaken about this, come next week.

A number of directors have decided to ignore parts of the schedule tomorrow and attend things they want to rather than those to which they have been assigned (although we will not be "assigned" to so much after tomorrow anyway).

There is a wider variety of ages among the directors than I first thought, and the youngest ones stand out the most, just in the way that they ask questions. I am on the older end, but I think not the oldest. The average seems to be late 20s or early to mid 30s. On the whole, people are straightforward, honest, and like to communicate. People are also loosely forming groups, which is natural, trying to figure out who they can relate to. I am finding that the people who are confident of their taste, but circumspect about process, are the ones I am talking to. The very fact of this happening is interesting, because it is both necessary that we form relationships, but mysterious to me how it actually comes to pass. Since this is a workshop environment with a limited time-frame, people are trying to form bonds relatively quickly--at least for a group of quite independently minded people.

I think many of us are doing our own kind of "social research" here, in addition to thinking about art.