We open in less than two weeks, and I feel like I'm finding my groove finally. Maybe a little slower than I had hoped, but it's getting there. Scott seems pretty happy with where the show is, so maybe I should just trust that.
I'm reading Eva's biography, and I'm almost all the way through. It's a fast read, and really insightful. Much of the material about her early life really made me feel for her. I can't imagine what it would have been like to have been a woman at that time in Argentina. As we've been discussing in rehearsals, Argentina was, at that time, (and sort of still is) extremely sexist and male dominated. Women in positions of power today still have a tough time now and then, but it's nothing like it was then. That's probably why there was such extreme hatred and opposition towards her. People may not agree with everything Hilary Clinton has to say, but I would guess most people on the whole have some respect for her. It wasn't that way for Eva.
As a child, she was described as a beautiful girl, but pale and fragile, with enormous eyes. She was born out of wedlock to an established man (Duarte) who already had a wife and family somewhere else. Because of this, the family was not welcome at his funeral. Eva's father died when she was only 6, and after much arguing between the families, Eva and her siblings were finally allowed to go in and pay their respects. At the funeral march though, they had to walk behind his other with the rest of the public. They were entitled to nothing. Eva's mother kept the last name Duarte for the children, but had anyone of importance found out about that, there would have been some serious consequences.
Let's review: A man leaves his wife and family, has an affair, has several more children, leaves them, then dies, and now the 2nd family is scorned and hated and gets nothing. Hmmm....it's a man's world indeed. I suppose if I had been Eva, I would have been pretty bitter and angry too...
The biography states that although she was poor, she was generally a happy child. The more she was stepped on though, it seemed to harden her. As she was working her way up the ladder in the theater world, it was almost like a "one step foward, two steps back" kind of scenario. Reading about all of these episodes is really helping me to create a more 3-dimensional character. I feel like I understand her more and more. As I said in previous blogs, many women play Eva as just a manipulative power hungry bitch. But she wasn't, and I don't want to play her that way.
Although I still struggle, I'm really having a blast working on this show. It's exhausting both mentally and physically, but I'm loving it. The ensemble is super strong and I love listening to them sing. Sometimes listening to the group numbers really gets me pumped and puts me in just the right mindset. Todd and John are both awesome to perform with, and I feel like the three of us are all connecting on the same levels. I feel very safe with both of them. If I make a new choice or play a moment differently as I'm exploring the material, I know that they'll both let me do my thing and go along for the ride. It's nice working with actors you can trust. I feel like the three of us are all on the same path right now. I know that when I screw something up, I tend to be kind of hard on myself. I think they are the same way. We expect so much out of ourselves, which can be good and bad. I'll usually mutter some obscenity and shake my head and mentally kick myself for making what I would consider a stupid mistake. They are the same way. But they aren't stupid mistakes. There's a lot going on, and sometimes the focus is so strong in one area that something slips in another. This phase in the process will pass though, as it always does. We'll only get stronger from here. Until next time folks!
p.s. I think everyone should go read this...http://www.newlinetheatre.com/evitachapter.html
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