The times are a-changing...

After 3 weeks of rehearsal we have our first full draft of our script! Our original ideas have grown, some have been discarded, new ones have emerged. We began with a framework, a story of encounter, of a Lebanese immigrant who teaches the patron of the hacienda how to improve his coffee business. There's a young campesino who works at the hacienda who's recruited by both the revolutionary and the federal soldier to join their ranks. And there's the literary mother, who, unbeknown to her husband, has been publishing political tracts in favor of the redistribution of land, the Mexican Revolution. These ideas have been transformed by the actors as they improvised the scenarios in rehearsal and revealed the depth and humor of each situation, and the potential for even better story telling. 

We're not finished yet, in conversations with Caity, our dramarturge and Gavin our stage manager we've reflected on what the actors have generated and considered the implications of their choices. For example, if our literary mother decides to leave her husband, how does that affect their daughter, the hacienda, the plot line? It's like being on an expedition with an incomplete map. The explorers recalibrate their next steps every day...