That is one of the reasons I was thrilled that Diana Castle accepted my invitation to lead a Directors Workshop for Directors NYC. I had been thinking about leadership and vision in directing, and she having mentored artists for more than 25 years in her creative philosophy and practical application which she calls THE IMAGINED LIFE–not to mention her recent mentorship appointment at Creative Visions Foundation–was completely in tune with this topic.

“There’s a difference between thinking of the beach, and thinking from the beach,” she says to the workshop attendees, and a soft “hmm” accompanies the mental shift in the room.

As a director, I take away from this workshop ideas on how to keep myself and my actors from intellectualizing, the importance of pulling forth different circumstances in order to create a layered person, the challenges that actors face and how I might help to overcome them, and much more.

More than just offering helpful tools, Diana Castle speaks about the power of imagination and how develop it–and she speaks about the human experience. She reminds me of the things I love most about writing, directing, and working with actors–the recognition, the adventure, the co-creative experience, the going beyond ourselves, and the power and magic of empathy.

Diana Castle’s The Imagined Life Directors Workshop took place Monday, April 30, 2012 in NYC.

Diana Castle Links
TheImaginedLife.com
Diana Castle on Facebook

Directors NYC Links
directorsnyc.com
Directors NYC on Facebook

So, here’s how it went.

Directing Segment #1

I introduced the scene for my fellow directors then told them my goals for the Hour, which were to work in beats and get to some specifics (since we had worked on more general shape-of-the-scene work during rehearsal).

We started with Beat #1: From the beginning through “You’re giving me the creeps.”

(Read the scene here)

I gave the actors a couple of things to work with at the top of the scene. For Richard, some sort of nervous habit–perhaps something he’s not aware of that he does when he’s thinking, or some sort of stance that he believes makes him look more adult. For Peggy Sue, I suggested the subtext for the line, “What I really think is that I had a heart attack at the reunion and died,” could be, “Oh, my poor children.”

We ran through the first beat a couple of times, but something was off. I thought perhaps the extra things I threw at the actors were too much. But then I realized what was missing–we needed that opening improv that we had done in rehearsal.

I didn’t want a repeat of rehearsal (hence not starting with this improv in the first place) but this opening improv (where Peggy Sue comes to Richard in the lab and strikes up a conversation about being from the future) really helped to anchor the top of the scene.

Moving on to Beat #2, from “Am I dead or not?” through “I don’ t want to die!” we worked on different scenarios for the almost-getting-hit-by-a-truck portion of the scene.

I decided to talk to Ellen alone, so I asked Ari to step out into the hallway. I asked Ellen who would be more frightened of getting hit by a truck, 17 year old Peggy or 42 year old Peggy? Ellen said 17 year old Peggy, so we went with the idea that she reverted to a 17 year old mindset upon standing in front of the oncoming truck.

Read more…

I am very appreciative of Ellen Haynes, Ari Vigoda, and my fellow DnA directors. Thank you for participating in my first Director’s Hour and for all your feedback and support!

I’d done a lot of work on the scene on Sunday and early on Monday, trying to mine the scene for more of…something. I felt like I wasn’t quite as connected to this scene as I was with The Dead Zone (I’d previously directed a scene from The Dead Zone for a similarly-formatted special event workshop at DnA). So I took another look at my Directing Actors book and that helped me to ask myself some questions:

What is this film about?
Not getting stuck in regret. Rediscovering love. Reconnecting with who you are. Having dreams and that feeling that your whole life is ahead of you.

What is Peggy Sue fighting for?
To get back to her real life.

What is Richard fighting for?
Respect.

I wrote down the transformation that the characters go through. It’s the transformations that interest me.

I wrote down a question I had about the scene: Does running away from the truck prove that Peggy Sue’s not dead?

I wrote down what Judith Weston calls the emotional event, even though I had already written it down a few days before, but this time I worded it differently. I’m noticing how valuable it is to rethink or restate character objectives, throughlines, etc. because as I work on it my interpretations can change.

As I was writing, something sparked my interest: Richard becoming Peggy Sue’s savior. I already knew that she went to him for help and that he wanted to help her, but emotionally speaking, I hadn’t fully considered what it might mean for him. Richard was striving for respect and found it by becoming the one who Peggy Sue depended on to save her.

The fact that he doesn’t ultimately save her (in the movie version anyway…the screenplay I found had a different ending) doesn’t matter to this scene.

It’s easy to focus on the main character, but taking a deeper look at the supporting characters’ point of view is incredibly helpful when analyzing a scene.

Took another look at my 3 beats and decided that I would lengthen the first beat for the purposes or the workshop. I wrote down ideas for how to approach each beat, and felt the scene becoming fuller, more engaging, more dynamic. That feeling/vision for the scene is what I was looking for, so I kept it with me as I wrote down my Plan of Attack and later in the workshop.

We started by reading through the scene, then making sure the actors were caught up on the scenario and going over any relevant facts about the characters.

We spent quite a bit of time going over blocking because it was a bit of a challenge to allow the two characters to walk down the street when there really wasn’t enough room to do so. But after doing an improv that took place in a lab at school, we decided to start the scene in the lab, then have the two characters walk outside. I never would have thought of that option if we hadn’t done that improv.

Speaking of improvs…here’s what we did:

• Peggy Sue coming to the lab to see Richard and telling him that she’s travelled back in time. (Loved the moment during the improv when Peggy said she’s 42, and Richard said something like, “Whoa, that’s old!”)
• Richard approaches Peggy Sue (as a true 17 year old, prior to time-travel-event), at her locker to tell her that he won’t be able to tutor her after all because he’s decided to concentrate on writing his book (This was to help establish their previous relationship). Then we did the first improv again, briefly, of Peggy Sue telling Richard she’s travelled back in time, then we did the scene. Then another improv:
• Richard approaches Peggy Sue at graduation and realizes that she’s back to being a 17 year old. (This was interesting because I felt it could inform the end of the scene when Richard says, “What if you’re not here tomorrow?”)

We also did an exercise where we went through the scene as though Peggy Sue really was 17 and was just playing a joke on Richard. (I liked the way it shook up the scene a bit. I thought it might be a way to find some moments for Peggy Sue when she really does kind of revert to being 17). 

A few of the other things we talked about / worked on during rehearsal: Peggy Sue as an Adult vs. 17 year old vs. being a mother with a son who is about Richard’s age. Peggy Sue’s beliefs about God (we may go into that further on Monday); what Richard is talking about when he says “molecule in chaos” and “discontinuous aberration.” Richard trying to comfort Peggy Sue; Richard realizing the consequences if Peggy Sue had been run over by the truck.

Overall, I’m happy with the work we’ve done so far. On Monday, the plan is to work on specifics and polish the scene.

Beats
These are a little arbitrary, but it’s how I decided to break it down.

Beat 1 – Some Madman
Who: Richard
Thru: “…getting a divorce.”

Beat 2 – Peggy Sue is a Corpse
Who: Peggy
Thru: “I don’t want to die!”

Beat 3 – Science and God
Who: Richard/Peggy
Thru: “…not here tomorrow?”

Paraphrase
I paraphrased the scene in my notebook, but I’m not going to type all that up here. I just want to note that through paraphrasing, I got an idea for a possible improv to do with the actors. Rather than posting the improv idea here, I’ll post about any improvs we use, and why, after the fact. This exercise also strengthened my interest in Peggy’s beliefs about God (something I don’t think is mentioned anywhere else in the script) and Richard’s philosophical quotes.

Research
Looked up the Confucius quote online and found variations of the following: “‘The way out is through the door. Why is it that no one will use this method?”
–I take this to mean use the simplest, most obvious approach.

Also looked up the Einstein quote, which appears to be more of a paraphrasing of: “Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the ‘old one’. I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice.” (Found here)
–I take this to mean that he believes there is a purpose, a design, to the Universe.

Associations
Richard’s comment about being in the “clutches of a madman” makes me think of comic books.

Richard quoting Einstein and Confucius reminds me that Richard is potentially on the verge of a significant breakthrough in the understanding of time and/or perception.

High School. There’s definitely a lot I can mine from my personal experience in high school. The nerds vs. the cool folks. Will have to think on that longer.

While following Judith Weston’s guidelines for script analysis, I like to start with Facts, Images, and Physical Life.

Facts (things are were true before the script begins)

• Peggy Sue is a 42 year old woman on the verge of a divorce with two grown children.
• Peggy Sue got pregnant with her daughter when she was 18.
• Richard Norvik is a rich and successful businessman, inventor, author.
• Peggy Sue and Richard went to high school together.

 
Images (from the dialogue)

• Peggy Sue’s Images: heart attack, died, God
• Richard’s Images: clutches of some madman, manipulate your brain, corpse, way out is through the door, go right through you, play dice with the Universe, molecule in chaos, discontinuous aberration, out of whack, don’t get crazy

 
Physical Life (for the scene we’re working on)

• Peggy Sue and Richard are carrying their schoolbooks.
• This is an exterior scene. They are near the street. A truck drives by during the scene.
• Richard may wear glasses. He may have a pocket protector. He may have a kite with him.
• Richard may have a notebook with him so he can write down Peggy Sue’s info about the future and ideas for how to help her.
• Peggy Sue is likely wearing a skirt. (Must look into fashions from 1960. Even though the actors are not required to be in costume for this workshop, their characters’ wardrobe may impact the scene).
• Peggy Sue may be carrying her baton. She may have her majorette uniform on or with her.

Now I need to find an actor to play Richard Norvik, a smart young man who loves science and inventing–and who endeavors to help Peggy Sue with her time travel issue.

Peggy Sue Got Married (screencap by www.moviescreenshots.blogspot.com)

DnA is a group of directors in NYC who get together weekly to practice the craft of directing actors. A Director’s Hour is when a director picks their own scene from a produced movie, casts the actors, rehearses once or twice on their own, then has an hour during one of the DnA Workshops to continue rehearsing the scene in front of the other directors and receive feedback.

I wanted to pick a lighter movie / scene, so I chose a scene between Peggy Sue, a woman who has been transported back in time to her high school days, and Richard Norvik, the smartest guy in her high school.

Here’s the scene:

   EXT. STREET

   Peggy and Richard are walking, carrying their books.

                        RICHARD
            I'd be very careful if I were you.
            You don't want to fall into the
            clutches of some madman with plans
            to manipulate your brain.

                        PEGGY
            That's why I was getting a divorce.
Read more...

This scene is from the rehearsal draft of the screenplay found here. (I fixed a couple typos and removed some of the description–we usually remove all of the description at DnA, but I decided to leave some in). I was looking at some youtube clips of this movie and it looks like only the first half of this scene made it to the screen.