Guildenstern's journal

6 sep '00

We've had three more rehearsals, and have worked through most of the first act. I'm off book up to midway through the first scene with the Player.

John just recently received the acting edition scripts from the publisher. To this point, we've been working with xeroxes of the old Grove Press paperback edition, with John's cuts.

I am shamed that I haven't spent more time with the text. There's so much to discover in it, and when something does pop out at me -- like the frequency with with the idea of "home" occurs, or the phrase "high and dry" -- I feel inadequate. I have not yet spent the time to build an inner life for Guildenstern -- it's more difficult because he's an icon, an abstraction.

This past weekend John held auditions for the minor roles, but he hasn't completed his casting decisions. Much depends on getting Matt to agree to do Hamlet, a much smaller role than the one in Shakespeare's play.

Another note that I see I've scribbled on the cover page of my book: Guil has elements of both Abbott (the straight man) and Costello (the one who goes ballistic).

before
index and backstory
after