Observations on the Difficulties of Starting a Project

The first stroke on canvas is always a mistake and that the remainder of the work on the canvas is the attempt to fix that mistake — Picasso

An excerpt from Anne Bogart

I arrive at the first rehearsal nervous and buzzing with ideas, notions, associations, metaphors, images and whatever the months of preparation, research and study have ignited in me. I am bursting to share them. I usually spend the first few hours sharing every thought in my head to everyone assembled, speaking the world of the play into shared consciousness.

We then begin to brainstorm together, to free-associate and question every notion. After that, we start the process of generating stage moments that either “land” within the world of the play that we are imagining, or not.

Once I have communicated all of my research thoughts, ideas and notions on the initial day of rehearsal, I’m able to move onto the second day, certainly with a plan but also blank. This ensures I am available to go where the process needs to move and without the expectation or assumptions that any of my initial ideas will actually come into being.