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!

Monday, April 5, 2010

GLORIOUS! -- Days 3-5: Blocking

You know you're on to something when the rest of the cast cracks up as Shelley Thompson, playing Florence Foster Jenkins, strives for that high C and misses it by a mile. Shelley's amazing at singing badly, especially since she's quite an accomplished singer in real life. That was made quite clear, as she had to run through an aria several times singing properly, so that she could go through it again and sing it badly in a believable way. Believe it or not, you actually have to KNOW a song before you can butcher it convincingly!

In the early days of rehearsal, it's all about beginning to attach the dialogue to movement around the set. The actors are still "on book" (or carrying their scripts) for a day or two, but after that, it's (mostly) committed to memory, and the focus is on inhabiting the space.

The rehearsal hall floor has been taped out by the Stage Manager, so that the edges of the stage area, the position of the set pieces, and the outline of the "revolve" are all visible to the actors. The Props Department has brought out rehearsal furniture, all very lovely but not necessarily what will be used on stage, so that the actors can learn to move around the final set, even before they get there.

Even at this early stage, you can see how funny, and how touching, this show will be when all the preparation is done -- only 23 days from now!
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