| PACIFIC OVERTURES |
| Rehearsal Journal Page 4 |
| Sunday August 5, 2001 Today I started by working with Richard Newton who is a British dialect coach. I believe he also works with the sailors to help them with their cockney accent. It felt good to work with him knowing he can correct any blatant mistakes that I do. He also taught me to be more aware of stretching the facial muscles so the mouth will actually move properly. His advice, as well, was to pretend someone's cornered me and my back is to the wall. He says that should help me with my character who should be very stiff. He also did point out that the proper english sound should be very nasal, although I think that conflicts with my character interpretation of an older very-major-generally type person with a gruffer voice. Well, we'll see.... Afterwards, I walked into the studio. I wished I was in the fight scene since most of the rest of the cast was practicing kenjutsu in the studio. They were all practicing with bo-kens. |
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| Tuesday August 7, 2001 Tonight we blocked the assassination in act II as well as part of the finale number "Next." Again, I can't wait to see the show. The travelling scene before the assassination should really be quite scenic. I believe Kelley even said that there will be snow during this scene! The sliding screens play a big part in this scene as well. |
| At noon, we blocked the interior scenes for "Four Black Dragons." Linda Chuan plays my mother, Dana Shew as my wife, David Sanchez is my son, Sophie Oda is my daughter and Alex Hsu and Kevin Furuta play the front and back end of the Horse, respectively (or the "ass" as Kevin so delicately puts it). At 1 pm Nicole, Dana, Linda, Alex, Kevin, Tony Nam, Donny, Erwin, Romar and I all went to University Ave in Palo Alto for lunch. We went to an asian noodle house, that was pretty good, albeit a little busy. When we returned, we ran "Four Black Dragons" a few more times before continuing with the boat scenes (Alex and I, as cagebearers, carry in Michael). I invited Hisato to join Dave and me for dinner at Willow Street Pizza in Wilow Glen, which he accepted to my delight. |
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| (Left) Donnie looks on as Richard cuts at Linda... (right) Richard has Donnie shadow him... |