In the final run and recording of RW’s segment I asked Branden to take it easy.  When the circle opens and you see Charles standing and Branden squatting the scene would be Charles standing on Branden’s back and would then be slowly lowered to step to the floor.  Sophia is just standing facing upstage.  I imagined the scene being revealed slowly - the circle moving away - and being established for a bit of time as a place where either music, light, or projection could be featured could that also underscore the scene somehow.  Branden left the stage early (again letting him take it easy) during some of the walking and running etc with Charles in the duet.  He would be there until Bianca and Laina enter to join them.

The men’s duet could be seen as comic.  However, I’ve asked that they ’wipe’ it of comedy or reduce it to let the thing speak for itself.  They did this successfully during the last run.  Over all I am not interested in pushing moments that could be comic but letting the places in the segment where it might be possible to push for comedy ride an ambiguous edge – the might or might not be of comic.  My wish would be that the group not push for comedy anywhere in the segment.

As we were working I began to imagine scenes from the movie Big Fish.  Not that the segment is that at all but the group took on a nice eccentricity for me and that was my thought about them.  Again, as with my thought about  comedy, I would not push the character aspect or underscore it with costume props etc.  But that’s just me and when I turn it over I release it.

Renée