I do laundry and clean in prep for my trip to Montreal tomorrow. I’m so excited to go but I still have a full day of training today. I have Climb at 3:30 but I arrive an hour early because I’m going to be in costume again. I do my pin curls by myself for the first time and get a “thumbs up” from Thomas – one of the wig guys.
I head out to the theatre and jump on the Wall. It’s a hot and humid day and I’m quickly sweating in my multi-layered costume. It’s only scary because, when my palms are sweaty, I don’t feel as secure on the Wall. Gail, who is up on the Wall beside me, lets me wipe my hands on her sweatshirt. Her generosity knows no bounds. I have a chance to rehearse the bit that happens on the Passarelle, before the valets, sister and Nanny get on the Wall, and that works well. I also feel really good about the initial sequence on the Wall that occurs before the attack (which contains the slide).
Once we move into the attack portion of Climb, the pegs fire and the Wall rotates to its next position. Gail walks me through the Nanny track. Track is the term for the sequence of movements any one person does in an act. For the acrobats who don’t play a specific character, their tracks are numbered – track 3, track 8, etc. The valets have the Acro Valet track and the Zany Valet track. Make sense? Good. Cuz track is also used in a larger sense – like the Main Track for Nanny implies a certain set of scenes over the course of the show. Moving on.
In the show, the Wall doesn’t stop rotating from the time of the attack to after the point where the Nanny gets off. In training, the Wall stops at certain angles so that bits can be rehearsed. The hard part about training on the Wall is that we are on it for a really long time (whereas, in the show, I’m on the Wall for less than 10 min.). I’m also doing bits over and over, which gets tiring. It’s hard to get the flow of the Nanny’s whole sequence since we keep stopping. Some of the angles at which I’ll move from one peg to another are slightly different so I’m looking forward to getting to do a run of it at some point. I am happy to learn my basic routine but I just think it will be tricky to do it when pegs are firing in real time and the Wall is rotating. I’m also worried about being able to keep my body at the right angle so that I don’t fall. It will take another few rehearsals before I’m validated for Climb but I’m generally feeling pretty good about the progress made today.
I quickly change out of my costume (well, quick is a relative term when I have a wig and 5 layers of clothing – not to mention a shoe that has 3 parts) and head to the trampoline. I’m still working on the cradle (back drop, twist in the air to back drop facing the other direction) but I’m not too frustrated yet because it’s a hard move to learn. It’s just not natural to land on your back and I can be fairly inconsistent. I also start to work on the cat twist (a back drop where you roll in the air to another backdrop facing the same way). To start, Paul just has me try to bounce solely on my back. It’s really tough because your center of gravity is so different. I’m kinda getting that move down before time is up for the day.
I have been slowly making friends and one of the coolest people I have met here is Erica – the gal who does the Arial Duet dressed as the twin sister. She is also the person I’ll be doing Deep with most often. She’s in my dressing room and she’s been an awesome source of info about pretty much anything Cirque related. It’s nice to have someone of whom you can ask a stupid question without feeling like an ass. Here’s a photo of her near the end of her “getting ready” process:
Before the show, I make a special request to try and see the top part of Refuge. Gail gets hauled up to the top of the Wall but the monitor never shows her getting unhooked, even though that’s something that the audience sees. Gail and Jen have explained to me what happens and we walked through it on the mat but I haven’t seen it since then. I get permission to be up in the catwalk and I end up seeing Climb and Refuge from there. It’s an awesome view and I want to do it again.
I leave for Montreal tomorrow and I’ll be gone a full week. I’m really excited to go (I’ve never been) and I’m even more excited that my mom is flying out to join me for the trip. YAHOOO!!!!!!
Jeana is a classically trained actress who hails from Los Angeles where she lives with her husband (actor Scott Dawson) and two cats. She has appeared in countless theatre productions with many esteemed companies such as the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum and Grove Theatre Center. Jeana has also appeared on television in Saving Grace (opposite Holly Hunter), NBC's critically acclaimed Journeyman and the long running medical drama Strong Medicine. 