A lot  goes on behind the scenes when preparing for a theatrical production, even an amateur one.  Once decisions have been made about casting one of the first priorities is for directors and actors to agree on where actors should be on the stage during each scene and how they should move while delivering their lines. The theatrical name given to this process is ”blocking”. 

It may surprise you to know that this doesn’t just happen on its own, it must be planned; otherwise, people could be standing in front of one another or there might be too many actors on one side of the stage or there could be people standing in a line- which would look more like a choir recital than a play.

I suppose that movements on stage come almost naturally to experienced performers but to relative novices, like me, some gentle prodding from the director is usually needed.  In ”The Memory of Water”, we have two directors who are affectionately called the good cop and the bad cop and they don’t hesitate to blow their directorial whistles when an actor is in the wrong place on the stage.  Now, I must get back to the next priority for any actor – learning lines and cues and imagining myself as Frank, my character in ”The Memory of Water”.