Tale #32: Left Speechless

Romance: an emotional attraction or aura belonging to an especially heroic era, adventure, or activity. – Merriam Webster

Any musical worth its salt must feature romance in some capacity. Whether it’s the star-crossed lovers of West Side Story, the mismatched pair in My Fair Lady, or the PG companions in The Sound of Music, people like to watch other people fall in love, talk about love, find love, struggle with love, long for love, sing about love, etc.

Having directed four teen musicals at VACT (well 4.75 considering we almost made it through Chicago High School Edition before COVID shut us down) I have worked with multiple teenage actors on their romantic scenes. With each production, I grew as a director in my ability to stage romantic scenes and in making them less awkward to rehearse.

When I first started directing, I was only twenty-two years old. So I was only four-eight years older than the teens I was directing. So for my first couple of productions, Mama Terry came in to help me with the romantic scenes. It would all be fine until she’d call me over to demonstrate a stroke of the cheek or a graze of the arm. Definitely felt like we were pushing some Mother/Daughter boundaries.

When running scenes with kisses, I would treat them like I would a dance number. I would say that we are doing it full out or we are marking it. When you mark a dance, you don’t do the movements fully. So if a scene was to be done full out, that meant all kisses and embraces were done fully. If a scene was marking, the actors didn’t have to do the kisses.

Now teenagers will be teenagers, so I would always ask the cast not to whoop and holler when two of their co-cast members did their kiss. I asked them to be professional when a scene was running. Unfortunately, not all of the staff got the same message, as demonstrated through one very awkward rehearsal of the balcony scene in West Side Story in which a staff member went “woo hoo” during the big kiss.

During the 2019 production of Newsies, there was a big romantic moment that happened on a rooftop. We did not have the full set pieces until we moved into the theater, so for rehearsal purposes I set a fence of chairs out to represent the size of the rooftop space they would be working in.

There are two kisses in this scene. The first one is when Katherine Plumber surprises Jack Kelly by breaking their argument to go in for a big kiss. The second one is much more romantic and happens after a buildup in the song. The second kiss is initiated by Jack Kelly.

The two actors we had playing these roles were very talented and very mature for their age. We rehearsed it just the two of them with myself and our producer there. The first kiss was easier to stage because it was a shock kiss; she just goes for it. Therefore it’s ok if it looks a little clumsy because that would be very natural. The second one was a little more difficult because it was a tender romantic embrace. The audience needs to be able to see and feel the chemistry.

Romantic scenes are some of the most difficult to block because it has to be believable without looking completely staged. It has to have the precision and timing of a dance number without it looking like they are just going through steps. It certainly helps when you have actors that are a little more natural when it comes to romance.

The first time we ran the two kisses full out in the scene was on a calm Sunday evening. The first shock kiss went and it was funny and surprising and really believable. Then the scene went on, they sang, and then we got to the second kiss.

Mr. Jack Kelly just went for it.

It looked great. It was incredibly believable. You could feel the chemistry. It was intense.

It may have been a little too intense though because after Jack pulled away and said his next line, Katherine just stood there. She stood there for a while. Just quiet. Not saying anything.

Insert cricket chirps.

After it got really long, I awkwardly leaned in towards the fake rooftop and just said, “honey, it’s your line.”

The scene went right on and it was fine. There was no need to discuss it.

Now these two got along great throughout the show process. It definitely helps to work romantic scenes when the actors are comfortable with each other.

But humans are humans.

Any human will be left speechless after a really good kiss.