Yes, yes, it's true I am a complete sucker for movement. And working with an actress like Marilee, who will come up with a gorgeous movement sequence for just about anything, well it's just so delicious. (seriously, you could say, "worm infested apples" to her and she'd find a way to beautifully express that in her body).
BUT. Are there moments when the movement, instead of unleashing another level of rich storytelling, actually serves as a distraction from the emotion?
There's a new section in this piece and it starts with "Love me. Hate me....Hold me. Don't touch me..." followed by a tirade of disgust against blind people. At first we tried to physicalize the scene. The conflicting emotions in the language formed a sort of push-and-pull in Marilee's body and we had her bouncing across the space, tugged and groped by the invisible hands of fraught emotions.
It was pretty.
But safe. Not too emotional. Nice and safe.
After several rounds of working on this section's choreography, Marilee boldly suggested we see what happened if she spoke the text in stillness.
Here, finally, when it was just Marilee facing the world, just Marilee, standing vulnerably before us, no movement to transform the moment, but only words rich with meaning, did the emotional weight of this section suddenly begin to percolate.
And it was here, in the stillness, that the heart of TRUCE revealed itself to us, week 2 of our rehearsals.
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