Today, a word or two (or 1421, to be more accurate) about the rehearsal process for the first season of Raiders of the Temple of Doom's Last Crusade. As I mentioned earlier, the brilliant Russell Fletcher had agreed to be the show's director, and after we formalised our arrangement with a contract, we both mapped out a rehearsal schedule for the show that took into account our various work and family commitments. I remember we couldn't rehearse on September 4th, 5th or 11th, because I was shooting a small role in the movie Now Add Honey, for example. It was quite tricky, but eventually we got there. This was one of the times that, as the show's producer, I was glad that I was the only person in the cast. It certainly made this scheduling easier than it would have been with more people in the show.

In the end, the rehearsals ended up taking place over the six week period just before the show opened. Here's how it all broke down; 

Monday 19/08: 12 PM - 3 PM
Wednesday 21/08: 12 PM - 3 PM
Friday 23/08: 12 PM - 3 PM

Monday 26/08: 1 PM - 3 PM
Tuesday 27/08: 9:30 AM - 3 PM
Wednesday 28/08: 9:30 AM - 3 PM
Thursday 29/08: 9:30 AM - 3 PM

Tuesday 03/09: 9:30 AM – 3 PM
Friday 06/09: 9:30 AM – 3 PM

Monday 09/09: 1 PM – 3 PM
Tuesday 10/09: 9:30 AM – 12 PM

Thursday 12/09: 9:30 AM – 3 PM
Friday 13/09: 9:30 AM – 3 PM

PRODUCTION WEEK
Monday 16/09: 1 PM - 3 PM
Tuesday 17/09: 2 PM – 4 PM
Wednesday 18/09: 10 AM – 1 PM
Thursday 19/09: Tech rehearsal at North Melbourne Town Hall 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Friday 20/09: Dress rehearsal – day, FIRST PERFORMANCE 8:00 PM

77 hours of rehearsals in total. They took place mostly at Russell's house, sometimes at my house, and we did manage to get a few in at a great production space called Revolt Productions, which was run by a friend of Russell's.

So, what was the process like?

Well, the earlier rehearsals consisted of Russell and I "getting the script on its feet", working through it, and devising and locking in all the staging and choreography. We'd go through the show, scripts in hand, quite slowly, one scene at a time, repeating it as often as necessary, with me jotting down all of our agreed moves - and sometimes lighting or sound effects - in my hard copy of the script. After each session, I'd take those notes and type them up into the next draft of the script. This gave me a document that I could use to also rehearse at home, in between 'official' rehearsals, marrying the moves to the words, so that eventually the whole thing would become second nature.

As I became more and more familiar with the words and the moves, and they started to sink in to my head, we'd rehearse longer and longer sections of the show, rather than just single scenes. Eventually, we got it to a stage where we could rehearse each of the three sections of the show (Raiders, Temple of Doom and Last Crusade) from start to finish. 

I'd always be exhausted and dripping with sweat afterwards, but on we went...

Little by little, my stamina improved to the point where I could finally manage to do all three, one after the other, from start to finish, and keep the required energy levels up. But it wasn't easy. This required more cardio fitness than I'd ever been called on to provide in any other show. But the constant repetition of the show served to train me up physically as well as mentally.

As we ran the show again and again and again, and it got well and truly into my bones, Russell's notes and tweaks could become more and more specific. And they certainly did. Here's an example of his notes after one of our run-throughs;

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ACT 1

1. The whole opening section was too rushed and shouty. I would love it if from the very start you have vocal and physical discipline that slows down and is VERY focused. Every change to different characters should be sharp – BE STILL in the next character before you start speaking.
2. Chasm wasn’t delineated. You stepped in it rather than over it to switch to Satipo
3. Dive to centre stage for the Belloq exchange. We missed Indy saying "Belloq." You cannot be on the floor for sightlines. You need to be up for Indy.
4. Marcus / Musgrove scene – I thought this scene too lost all physical discipline – you need so much more stillness. Your body seems to move uncontrollably, whereas we need characters in tableaux to delineate them clearly. Later in the show, esp. when you’re going fast, you can afford being rubbery, but you must set up the convention before you break it. The focus was too side to side. What will separate this show from any other is the ability to use the audience as the camera and CLEARLY define character changes. This will also affect and support your vocal discipline. This scene was rushed rather than excited – the stakes of possibly finding the ark MUST BE HIGH. Your control and blocking must be crisp. Marcus STILL, hands in pockets, Indy moving like a cat – he should pack trunk from stage right.
5. Toht needs articulation – couldn’t understand him.
6. Indy needs to be excited that the Germans are digging in wrong place. I found Indy too mumbly last night. You need him to be very articulate and give him the same vocal athletics as you do the other characters. Otherwise it seems like he doesn’t care. He needs to be warm towards his friends and steely to his enemies. Take us on the emotional ride.
7. Map room – some humming when stepping over model city, gets louder when you put staff in place.
8. Characters on trunk need more stillness and need to lean over - so you stay in light – to peer into Well of Souls
9. Bazooka needs to be a heavy weapon on your shoulder

ACT 2

1. Step into light for song and stay in light. You don’t have to move too much till tap dancing. Be sweet and delicate.
2. Delineation between Lao Che and Indy. Lao was hands on knees? He needs much more mischievous bad guy energy. Evil. Lost character a bit.
3. Shaman needs to be more articulate and have more gravitas – its that fine line again between being tempted to send him up all the time and setting a clear high stakes premise for the story. He sends himself up anyway with the "stolen children" line.
4. Shorty was too big and cartoony last night. Needs more stillness. Your size makes it funny anyway. You don’t have to oversell it. And don’t kick the trunk.
5. Vocal energy w puppets needs to be bigger.
6. "Goodbye Mola Ram" – missed it – needs to be bitter and triumphant

ACT 3

1. Must decide which character is moving in scenes and which ones are still. ESP in Marcus scenes – I think he’s just standing w hands in pockets. Will make stage business more interesting and help delineate character.
2. Sean Connery had the wanders. When he is seated – go back to him being seated
3. Indy throws the gun and puts hands up – diff between Connery and Indy 'hands up' positions
4. Marcus should be more flustered and hot.
5. Character changes – keep clean
6. Both Indy and Connery need to make bike noises – diff ones would be fun. Be emotional, not shouty.
7. Hitler needs to be played more out front – and bring him downstage a bit.
8. Donovan always has a gun. Should be VERY excited about grail. Don’t rush the drinking. Milk that scene. Likewise w Indy w grail – HIGH STAKES
9. Underscoring as you ride into the sunset needs to be fun and TRIUMPHANT – it's the finale!!!

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So, as you can see, he really was polishing this show. I was, and am, so grateful to Russell for all of his incredibly detailed work. 
By the end of that laborious, painstaking, fastidious - but still very enjoyable - process, we were finally ready.

Ready, that is, for OPENING NIGHT.....