Part 4 – Jan 21 – Courtroom Drama:

It’s getting close to the end of rehearsal. Time is running out – I’ll be drawing right to the last minute. We’re hanging the show for opening night Tuesday January 29th. We’ll be having a small meet and greet from 5-7 pm, if anyone would like to come down to see the drawings, and I hope, also see the 8 pm show. As of this writing tickets are still available. (Purchase tickets here).

[I’m Curious how a 14 year old boy comes to be sentenced to hang?]

Innocence Lost is about the aftermath of a murder. So of course there are trials and appeals, interrogations and interviews. Some of these scenes have all the dramatics of a police procedural. Big shot expert witnesses, testimony of the first responders. The stuff we’re so familiar with from our Laws and Orders and CSIs.

Allan Morgan is particularly cracking as the judge – spitting lines like ‘…there to be hanged by the neck until you are dead.’

Or the judgmental cop asking – Do you like girls kid? Maybe take’em into the woods?

Director, Roy Surette calls this Perry Mason Stuff. Some of the 20-something actors had to pull out phones and check that on Wikipedia.

What’s more interesting is the way the play handles the real situation. What it must have been like for the kids in the witness box. All of them seem out of their depth testifying – do they even know they’re building an incriminating timeline? Do they understand that it really does matter if it was 7:00 or 7:30 when they saw Steven and Lynn? Why are the authorities interrogating these school kids and not looking closer at the military personnel in town?

Pippa Leslie is particularly chilling as young Jocelyn Gaudet. Could this girl really comprehend what was going on? She seems hell bent on executing her classmate with testimony. Tying the noose with her words. Was she a thoughtless  kid lying for the attention, or just scared enough to say whatever the crown prosecutor wanted to hear? Did she make a small lie early, and end up way too deep?

It’s hard to say – who knows what any one of us would have done at that age. The crazy thing is that it ever happened. The idea that a gang of seventh grade kids could reliably testify in a death penalty case!  I understand why the story is still controversial.

I hear second hand, that there are people in Clinton who still say the jury did the right thing, despite what we know today.  Would you want to say your dad almost got a kid hung? Tough situation all around.

Part 3 – Jan 17 – Drawing Emotions:

[ Don’t get your hopes built up. Anything can happen. ]

We’re getting into the actual scenes now. Not just reading through it, but doing the scenes over and over. Looking for the best way to imply emotions. To show the undercurrents. The drawings come out less like portraits, and more like versions of the characters. I find when the actor is playing younger, (they often switch between addressing the audience ‘now’ and what happened ‘then’ within the same scene), the drawing also comes out younger. It’s the same people – but I’m drawing them smaller, more vulnerable. I didn’t start doing it on purpose – it just happened.

[ They found her dead? In Lawson’s Bush. ]

Sketching from life usually involves exploring a city, drawing architecture. Maybe sometimes drawing people doing interesting things – usually it’s people doing something work related. It’s not often that you draw people in emotionally charged situations.  Drawing these actors, I’m seeing expressions of anger, shock, disbelief, grief. A greater range than I’ve ever drawn. Perhaps not the ultimate truth, (they are acting after all, and you can tell they’re holding back some juice for later on) but still – emotional situations a sketch artist just doesn’t usually see.

[ I couldn’t think of anything sadder in the whole world. I still can’t. ]

[ The Father arrived in a belligerent manner asking why Steven had been picked up. ]

The great thing about the actors in rehearsal is they give me the scenes over and over, rewinding the action, trying on a slightly different attitude or emotion. (They actually make rewinding noises, walking and talking backwards speedily re-setting to the start of a scene. Really. Not kidding.)

This experience has been much more interesting than any drawing workshop. I get to draw the thing from life, but I also get three or four tries at it.

[ Eight to one. Upheld his conviction. ]

Part 2 – Jan 14 – Getting on their feet:

After the first few sessions of reading, the actors are up on their feet, doing blocking. The internet says the term comes from a practice of ‘using small wooden blocks to represent actors, moving these about on a miniature of a set of a planned work’. For these guys it’s walking through the script, half reading, half acting, getting the feel of things – sometimes calling out ‘line!’ when they need a hint from the production crew. Sometimes calling a stop to say – ‘wouldn’t it be better if I stood over here?’ Or ‘would my character know this at the time?’

It’s fascinating watching them work – I can see why the Actors Nightmare is a play about forgetting lines.

I’m continuing to study the faces. It’s challenging, as each actor has multiple roles in the play. Each time I’m wanting to portray them slightly differently. I’m imagining once they’re in costume it’s going to look even more impressive. People changing age and persona right before your eyes.

I was glad to get a good one of the playwright, Beverly Cooper – she was only here for a few days, so I made sure to get a few of her. And of course, the director, Roy Surette. I’m not sure what’s the right thing to say about directors – puppet master? collaborator? cheerleader? It’s certainly some of all of that.

As the actors block the scenes, sometimes a posture will happen, just for the briefest second, that really tells the story. Here’s a couple from early in the play, as the school kids are just finding out that their friend has been murdered.

At the end of a session I grabbed a shot of Steven Truscott’s bike leaning in the corner, with some other props – a detective’s hat, some old bakelite phones, a super 8 movie projector.  I don’t know what some of it is for, but I know that bike will be in a big scene soon.