The Physics of Joy: Draft 2.1 w/ Notes
The second table-reading of The Physics of Joy happened about a week ago and, with apologies for the late post, here are rough notes and photos.
A big thank you once more to the amazing (and humbling) cast and crew, for breathing life into my words.
Notes
Read times
- 1 hour 48 minutes w/ action read
- 1 hour 29 minutes w/o action read
General thoughts
Most of the kinks were worked out between the last read and this one, with a few clear areas of work:
- "The Quintet" scene has some very real problems when it comes to the character of Jake. Too much of the old Odes work has lived on here, without any of the opportunities afforded that character in those early drafts. It's resulted in creating too much provocation, and has left Jake unsympathetic. Post this scene, it's very hard to care about him anymore, and I'm worried half the audience will have given up on him. I'm confident of the corrections I need to make, and think it should only take a night or two get it inline and singing again.
- Questions about order of escalation for the climax of Act II.
- A handful of places in both Act I and II where a scene as a whole is working, but a couple of lines in the middle are failing to successfully move from one concept/topic/intention to the next. Again, should be easily addressed.
- Some specific chunks, especially around monologues for JOY and EVAN, still need tightening up.
- Apply the same diligence to the financial conversation as you've done to physics and Irish-ness.