Awhile back I wrote a new script for the 26th Abbie Fest, which is to be unleashed on the world this coming August. We cracked open the script yesterday, and started learning lines. It's a strange little piece, sort of inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. Sort of. In a very, very tangential way.
Lots of words. It's always a challenge. It's also sort of a "clearing." You learn lines that aren't really yours, you learn a cadence, a stream of language, it's sort of like trying on another consciousness. It's not easy learning lines, even if you are the one who wrote the lines.
You have to commit to the piece, even if you aren't totally committed to the piece. I mean, I am committed to the piece, I want to do the best show we possibly can, but the words are not necessarily my words, my thoughts, my feelings. But you "pretend" they are, or "act" as if they are. That's the thing.
It's a sort of strange process. But I do love it. It's not like any other process. It's a long game of pretend. And the pretending is a process of getting to some essential truth or meaning. It's always an experiment, especially, our work - an experimental take on an experiment.