ENTER THE REHEARSAL HALL -- WHERE THE MAGIC BEGINS!

There is something magical about sitting in an audience as the house lights dim.

The buzz in the room settles into quiet anticipation as we wait to be transported into someone else's world, someone else's story. But what we see on the stage is just the culmination of weeks, sometimes months of work behind the scenes by artists of all description: actors, directors, designers, wardrobe people, carpenters, painters, sound and light experts and others.

This blog will give you a fly-on-the-wall glimpse into that unknown world, following the rehearsal process.
This will be your guide to the hard work, fun and weirdness of putting together a play
for a professional theatre company.

You'll never watch a play in the same way again!

Thursday, October 17, 2013


October 11, 2013 -- We laugh a lot. Boy, do we laugh a lot.

It’s not necessarily because we are producing a comedy that laughter has found its way into the rehearsal hall. It’s the people. If we were doing a heavy drama with this group of stage managers and creative artists, I believe we’d be laughing just as much.

It doesn’t hurt that we’re doing a comedy. A truly funny one at that.

What makes it truly funny? As opposed to, what, falsely funny? I think things are truly funny when we see ourselves in the characters and we think to ourselves, “It’s so true!” and then…“I’m so glad that’s happening to them and not me.”

How does one tackle the performance of comedy? For it to be “truly” fun, our performances must be “true”. That means, we can’t try to be funny, we just need to play the scene given to us with strong intentions and let the writing do the work. That’s not always easy. It can feel like more fun in rehearsal to “act funny” but in the end that’s not what needs to be onstage and that’s why we have a director.  Bob Metcalfe is our referee and coach. He blows the whistle on our mugging and throws a flag when we cross the line. But he also encourages us to go as far as we can within the boundaries of the playing field.


Laughter in the rehearsal hall does not always translate to laughter in the theatre…so I think it’s a good sign that in the last few days it’s become deafeningly quite during our run-throughs…that means the audience is coming soon…and a play without an audience is silent. We cannot wait to share McIvor’s play with you and feel free to share your laughter with us.
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