Much Ado About Nothing: Diving In

This past week, rehearsals finally started for "Much Ado".  It's a very welcome thing.  I'm ready to be up and going with this project, and so far it's been good.
"Much Ado About Nothing" consists of a lot of scenes within five acts.  The director and a couple people helping her have made cuts to the script, but it's still several hours long. We rehearse in small segments, either full scenes or partial scenes.  A few of the cast members are in other shows, so we haven't had everyone all at once yet.  This coming Saturday is a stumble-thru of what we are calling Act 1.
I appreciate the direction Angie is taking with doing this Shakespeare show.  Words are always important, but I feel that's true even more so with Shakespeare.  So far, the rehearsals have been reading through a scene, then breaking it down.  We're figuring out exactly what is going on, what is being said, and finding all the little hidden treasures in the script. She is constantly encouraging us to not memorize the words to just say them, but understanding and diving into the script. The words have beauty and meaning, and that needs to come across in how we understand and play our roles.
So after the initial read of the scene and talking about it, Angie gets us up on our feet to give it a go.  She'll give suggestions and different tactics to play off of.  She definitely has a vision for the show, but she wants us to be involved in it as well.
Angie and I talked about my character Conrade on Wednesday.  I've been doing a lot of thinking on my own, and it was great to have her thoughts.  The setting is 1960, Virginia, just after JFK's successful election. In our production, Don John (the main villian) has more of a communist persepctive on life and society. Conrade believes and sympathizes with his words and what he stands for. Some of this is due to her background story (which is being created).  I've discovered her superobjective and some traits in her character as well.  Having a couple days off (my director is in NYC), I'm excited to get back in and explore.
We're supposed to be off book by the 14th, but I should be off here in the next two days.  It's always nice to not have the script in hand.
Until next time!
~ Noel VanDenBosch