Ah, the Cinco De Mayo rehearsal.

So, another day of slugging through it. As we get close to end week one, the “honeymoon period” is over, and yet we all haven’t mastered puppetry or learned all of our lines – which leads to small amounts of tension and nervousness. To be expected. If everyone was giddy, and the show was done on day 4, we’d be in much more trouble.

The plan for tomorrow? To stop blocking the show, and have Ludwig lead a few hours of workshops on how puppets can work together. There is nothing harder in the puppet world than three people working one puppet (like Falstaff) – it takes three people being of the same mind, and all of them working to make one small action seem normal. So Ludwig will lead some exercises on how our Falstaff and our “arms” (at one point or another the other puppeteers come in to work the arms of the puppet) can work together to really pull off something cohesive.

Today we spent almost 30 minutes on how Falstaff would pick up a chair, move it from one hand to another, and then set it down. Sounds simple, feels like algebra, and actually looks rather cool. Still at this pace, we should be set to open sometime in August of 2007. Dying is easy, comedy is hard, and puppets may in fact kill you.

On that note. Off to have margaritas with the out of town puppeteers.

Sweet Margaritas, they're a bit easier to master.