How many rehearsals?

Alex wrote: > you can't master a character until you have mastered the lines and to my mind rehearsals don't truely start until the lines have been mastered. Truly? Perhaps you mean until the lines have been LEARNT...I don't know that lines can be MASTERED until they are integrated with character, motivation, physical action, environment, and interaction with others onstage...all things that come from rehearsal. I personally find it very difficult to learn lines in a vacuum. Just looking at a script and repeating the lines will only carry me so far; but it's in the process of a good rehearsal that I learn the rhythms of the play, my physical and emotional journey in the context of the drama, and I definitely get a handle on my character long before I master the lines. Once I feel like I have mastered my character, however...once I feel like I understand what they want and how they would think and speak and react in the given circumstances...then it seems that lines come easily and don't need to be 'learnt' - they just 'are'. That is when it feels like 'mastery'. Cheers, Craig ~<8>-/====\---------