From 9.7.07: our 1st day of staging. We finish text work, from p. 27 on, then get into it – beginning blocking at 4 pm.

We talk about how the biggest conflict in the Middle East is between secular and religious people. In Israel, even the most secular Jews are more in touch with religion. But their making room for the fundamentalists of Judaism in the country has, in a way, backfired, as that population has expanded into a huge conservative swing minority.

Golda’s character’s passion is intellectual, not religious.

Aaron has a great sense of what motivates digression, the sense of how thoughts turn. He also has a good way of leaving things open-ended: “Let’s keep this on our table of questions. Once we know this play better, we’ll be able to answer it.”

We discuss the opening beat – we won’t actually be having Camille smoke. We talk through it, then run through it. Aaron, coming fresh off the design meeting, emphasizes that the images on the screen are pictures in her brain.

Then we start working forward, one section at a time. No preblocking. It’s run, improvise through, run again.

We work without the table and chair but end up putting both back.

We’re finding in the enacting that it’s best if these 3rd-party people face directly out front.

Lots of clarifying of simple stuff: who Golda’s speaking to and when, where her attention is.

It’s amazing how carrying an ashtray across a square of empty space, SL to SR, can change an environment, a play, a set, so completely. Placement of objects transforms a space. Props are powerful.

Everything comes through Golda’s mind. She puts memories on hold to reflect on them, then they come back to her and she reenacts them.

In a little less than 2 hours, we stage through the first section, top of p.4.