Greetings Tech rehearsal

We've just closed up the theatre and everyone has gone for the night. Today was the technical rehearsal for the show. After the rehearsal a group of volunteers -Renie and Don Barger, Stephanie Young and Dick Holland all treated the cast to chili, cornbread, salad and dessert. The cast was very appreciative of the food.

The show has about 30 light cues and about a dozen sound cues. Susan Odum is running sound. Susan is the mother of Audra Hall and this is her first time to work on the crew for a show. Ann Counts is stage managing the show and this is her first time in that position. Vicky Shelby is running the lights and she has worked dozens of shows on the light board and backstage. Starting the show is always the most difficult. There are 5 light cues to get from the time I finish the curtain speech until the actors first line. In greetings there are 3 sound cues to work with in the sequence as well. Ann and Susan both did a great job for their first time in those positions.

The actors had to stop when the scene changes came because they have to help take off (strike) and bring on (set) the various food and hand props used during the scenes. The cast is supposed to be eating meatloaf during the play. Ann Counts has come up with a substitute for the meatloaf that looks like a dark brown meatloaf but is easier to eat cold. I don't want to give away what she came up with but lets just say the actors love eating it.

At this point in the process we are still working out the details of how things happen and the characters are refining how they react to each other. The hardest thing for an actor to do is find the different emotions that are involved in a scene. Most actors start out by thinking about a scene in two dimensional terms. If they are supposed to get mad in a scene they yell a lot and get angry at the beginning of the scene. If they are supposed to calm someone down they talk in a calm voice and deliver their lines at measured rate of speed. The really good actors understand that a scene can have a dozen different emotions all in the build up and resolution to getting angry or calming someone down. The character may be frustrated, confused, threatened, scared, certain, and finally defensive. That's 6 different emotional levels to play all under the guise of angry. The actor also has to create what is going on as it happens. By that I mean that it always has to feel as if this is the first time they've ever done this. A wonderful quote that I found somewhere says that a characters lines are thinking out loud. As a character speaks it is not just telling someone something but discovering what they are saying at the same time. As the performers work on the last three dress rehearsals before opening it is the directors job to continue to work with the actors to create a sense of discovery. Each character has make it feel as if it is happening for the first time right in front of our eyes. In Doubt I described it to the actors as riding a roller coaster. Each time you get on the ride you discover something new twist or bump about the character or their feelings that you never saw before. A good playwright has sweated over every word choice, every pause in order to communicate something about the character and the plot. Comedies are harder to do than dramas because making someone laugh is often harder than making someone cry. Greetings is a comedy with some serious moments.

The cast of Greetings has worked hard along with Phil Counts the director to ride that roller coaster. Four days from now the show opens. My job as the Artistic Director is to give Phil feedback from a fresh pair of eyes and ears. To tell him when something I see doesn't make sense. It is the primary job of a director to be the audience's eyes and ears. To give the actors feedback that helps them to be believable. Actors and Directors can often get such tunnel vision about a show that they stop seeing what is actually happening because they are so focused on what is supposed to happen. The Greetings cast has been working on the show since the auditions on Sept. 8 & 9.

I can see their hard work paying off. There are some wonderful moments in the play with each character. If the company does its job right then it is the audience who gets to ride the roller coaster along with the cast. My note to the actors- Remember to keep your hands up high in the air at all times during the ride so you feel like you will fly out. Phil the director is there to hang on to you so you don't fly out the seat during the loop de loops. Most of all ... have fun!