Tomorrow night Body Armor opens. It will run Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with a curtain time of 10:00 PM each night. A night of 10 minute shows produced by Downstage at SLC.
It has been the fastest process I’ve ever experienced in the theater. We met for the first time last Monday (11/28). We rehearsed Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Tech stuff happened Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdee. Tomorrow we open.
The image to the right is of my make-up. Body Armor is about a soldier that experiences post traumatic stress disorder. Instead of a quiet evening alone with a woman, he flashes back 15 years ago to a time when he killed a man in a fire fight. By the end of the play he reveals his external wounds (hence the pic) with the hopes of find a step toward forgiving himself. It’s a powerful piece which resonates specifically within today’s political/military climate.
In many ways it’s been a learning experience. On a personal level some painful, exposing things were brought out into the open. I hurt someone a long time ago and finally had the opportunity to tell them, without feeling as though I was put on the defensive, how I felt about my actions. On the professional performance side of things – I found out that there are good amazing directors at SLC that are not faculty. Nina Pinchin is, simply put, the best director I have worked with to date at SLC. I can only hope to work with her again.
Of course, the material, written by Neil Knox, is as we’ve described in rehearsal, ‘loaded’. He writes with the actors in mind and builds movement and speed into his scripts. It’s intense. Thank you Neil for asking me to perfom this role. I did my best to honor what you’ve written and hope that my performance honors your wonderful script.
Hoo-ha.