AYL: rehearsal = magic

I’ve always loved rehearsal. It’s a place where the magic happens. Don’t get me wrong: performance is great…it’s the payoff, when you get to see how all of that hard work has created something for the audience, and that’s special, too. But rehearsal? There is just something magical–a kind of alchemy–that happens between a group of actors when you’re in the act of discovery.

As You Like It is no different.

Every rehearsal offers opportunity for the cast to grow. In confidence. In knowledge. In interpersonal chemistry. And when it’s going good, there are discoveries made that are simply wonderful. I’ve talked at some length before about emotional beats and how we’re finding opportunities for them it little things like rings, tattoos, and basses.

And I’ve been blessed with a cast that is curious, thoughtful, and brave. So these discoveries, this magic, seems to happen almost every night.

Last night was our last rehearsal as we take a break for the holidays. I won’t meet with them again until January 2. I’m going to miss them and the magic they bring.

But there’s work to do. Need to create chord changes for “Under the Greenwood Tree.” Need to grid-out then cut out then brace the behemoth of a tree (I laid the l[a]uan out last night when I drew out the grid… holy moly, it pretty much spans the stage…I love it), then paint it and then–god help us–raise it…I’d really like that to happen before the 2nd, but it may not happen. Need to select the 52 poems to print out onto different shades of card stock to be stapled onto the tree (I’m replacing the complex cutting out of leaves with the idea of the tree actually bearing the fruit of poetry…another piece of magic that has come from simple discussions with the actors). Work.

Magic.

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