We're into our third week of rehearsals and tonight was the first night where I started to feel comfortable and a little freer to play. It was a good night.

Rehearsals are usually *energizing*--I get an adrenaline rush from working/playing/creating for three hours, but until tonight, I've been mostly coming home from rehearsals tired. It's been awhile since I've had to work an 8-10 hour day and then turn around and have the energy to give to a 3-4 hour rehearsal. But I've been getting on the elliptical in the mornings for the past 2 weeks, and gaining some stamina.

We've now blocked the entire play and run thru it enough times so I don't have to think as much about where I'm supposed to be at any given time on stage. I've been doing some homework on the script and the character is coming into better focus. Still very fuzzy, but clearer.

I picked this show to audition for as my first play in San Jose for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it's a comedy. In my mind, a comedy is in some ways easier for me to perform in than a drama, although the risks are higher.

If you're in a drama and you don't move people, well, people generally get the point of the play and the story can help carry the day.

If you're in a comedy though, and you're not very funny...well...that's just painful for actor and audience alike. Comedy requires a very delicate sense of timing, pitch and rhythm to work, AND...

...as an actor you can also get by more on 'technique' in a comedy than in a drama. You don't have to 'feel' a double-take or a physical bit like a spit take. You just need to know how to set a joke up, maintain energy and tension and then have a sense of timing to deliver.

Don't get me wrong--comedy is difficult to master. There is a reason why you generally see great comedic actors or great dramatic actors, but rarely find actors who can do both. An actor like Jim Carrey is a very rare breed--someone who can do outrageous slapstick comedy well AND handle dramatic roles with sensitivity and get you to feel great empathy for him.

Meryl Streep is another, of course. She's just brilliant in whatever she does.

This is a challenging play for me because my character is generally the 'straight' man--he doesn't have a lot of funny stuff given to him in the script--he's the one who sets up jokes for others or helps the plot along. So it's up to the actor playing the role (me) to fill in things that may or may not be in the script to create an interesting, three-dimensional character on stage.

Jerry is also described as a nice, affable sort of fellow--and I tend to play more intense, darker roles and have always struggled some with 'nice guy' roles. So this role asks me to stretch some in the type of role that I normally play, but at the same time, gives me something familiar to fall back on by playing a comedy.

I still have lots of drudge work to do---I need to give the character a real personal history and make choices about things like his relationship to space, time and movement. And I have to learn to play piano well enough to sound like a professional jingle writer. (my profession in the play)...and I need to learn lines.

I really can't do anything physical though until I've learned my lines and I don't have to carry my script around. But all this is feeling less like work and more like play.

You've got to do the work to *earn* the right to play. But once you've done the work...you get to pay hard. And for me...THAT'S the fun part. I've been starting slow with this play--slower than what I usually do--but I can feel myself getting back into the groove. I'm starting to feel like I'm visiting with an old friend that I haven't seen in awhile.

Okay...off to learn lines now.