Wednesday, September 12 - Day Two

The changes I made last night, most of them, seemed to be right. Until Karyn the Stage Manager pointed out that I had a character speaking in the new pages who wouldn't be on stage at that point. Try again.



Mid-afternoon, one of the actors (who shall remain nameless) started to nod off during the discussion. I cannot say I blame this particular actor. "Table work" means long hours of reading and discussion and is very tiring. Besides, we were discussing some other actor's scene. Having been an actor, I know that other people's scenes are frankly not very interesting. What was amazing was how this actor (who shall remain nameless) managed to sleep with his/her eyes open. Such talent!

Seriously, I'm not taking it personally, or as a comment on my script. Bob wisely chose that moment to give us our break and then kept us awake the rest of the day by simulating gunshots and reading the stage directions in a way that made them come alive. What a great group. Blocking starts tomorrow which will be good in two ways. First, I will finally get to see things happening (or not) and second, all that standing and moving around will help everyone stay awake, even actors who shall remain nameless.

Tuesday, September 11 -- First day of Rehearsal

It is 12:07AM (Wednesday morning) and I have just spent a couple of hours working on some changes. I only worked on the smaller, more manageable ones. There are a couple of scenes that will need a longer look than I can do tonight. GREAT first day though. At the meet and greet I felt just like Snow White when she's all alone and she has all that housework to do. Then the bluebirds start making the beds and the squirrels sweep with their tails. That's how it felt to finally get to the rehearsal hall and have all those nice smart creative people around. It takes a village to make a play. Whatever goes wrong from here,  Scott Henderson will fix it with lighting.

Glorious! -- Days 10-15: The Sets & Costumes Come to Life

While the actors and director are hard at work in the rehearsal hall, there's a flurry of activity throughout the the theatre as production staff focus their considerable talents on bringing the beautiful set and costume designs to glorious life.

Brian Perchaluk's elegant and simple design called for an actual proscenium (that framed opening you see in a more traditional, concert hall-style theatre) to be built on PTE's more untraditional thrust-style stage. Yards and yards of gauzy fabric became curtains, and red curtains from a PTE production of My Fair Lady more than 10 years ago were repurposed (theatre people never throw anything out!).

Florence Foster Jenkins was famous for, among other things, creating her own outlandish costumes, so costume designer Tamara Kucheran had some big shoes to fill. In addition to a shepardess costume that will have the audience chortling, the very talented wardrobe staff have recreated the actual cream satin dress that Florence wore for her final concert - complete with angel wings. It's been very entertaining to see the wings journey back and forth from the shop (where the framework and mechanics are created) to the wardrobe department, where the gauzy "feathers" are applied. Several times a day, they flutter through the main office, on a seemingly never-ending loop towards perfection.

Although it sometimes seems like chaos, every detail and timeline is controlled so that by the time the actors start rehearsing on stage, everything is ready for them -- although there are always details that are perfected right through to opening night.

GLORIOUS! -- Days 7-10: Building Characters & Sets

As the show starts to come together through the blocking, attention is turned to building the characters. The director works with the actors to ensure that there is meaning and honesty to the way that lines are delivered and the characters interact with each other.

In a comedy, especially with a character who is as bigger-than-life as Mrs. Foster Jenkins, it's easy to over-do the laughs and make the characters seem more like caricatures. It's essential to find the emotional bottom to a funny play -- it actually makes it even funnier. And the people in the play need to be real people, or you just don't care about them. Florence was more than a figure of ridicule. People loved her because of her enthusiasm and obvious joy in sharing her "gifts". In fact, this play is a bit of a love story, as her new accompanist, Cosme, learns to let go of his own world-weary cynicism and actually come to love his eccentric employer. The audience needs to be able to do the same, and that requires a lighter touch.

Meanwhile, with Where the Blood Mixes ending on the weekend, work can begin on the set in the theatre. The first step is to install the circular riser, and turn it over the talented team of scenic painters, who will be creating a beautiful inlayed wood floor out of several layers of paint. A lot of this work is done over the weekend, so that the rest of the set can be installed before the cast is scheduled to move from the rehearsal hall to the theatre.

Elsewhere, over a hundred yards of curtains are sewn up, and a pair of angel wings are taking shape from welded steel and gauzy fabric "feathers". In fact, the wardrobe staff has increased for this show by four sewers plus a "buyer" just for wardrobe. It's quite the undertaking!

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!