Opening Night

Working in summer theatre seems to mean you don't have a lot of free time. Oh wait, that's what being in college theatre means too. I was thinking yesterday about how much work we do all the time. We must be insane to actually seek out doing theatre. But overall, I think it's worth it. I mean, to create art? That's pretty freaking cool.
We've done 2 previews of As You Like It and we're opening it tonight at 8. So far, so good. Even though I do spend most of the time after intermission not doing much. I make up for that fact by being in rehearsal for other shows all day. We've started All's Well That Ends Well rehearsals already. So, now we have 3 sets of rehearsals going on with 2 rehearsal spaces and 2 stage managers with 2 ASMs. We've resorted to communicating by IM when we're all in different spaces. Ah, the saving graces of technology. All's Well has a unique rehearsal thing. The director is doing something called "dropping in" created at Shakespeare and Co, just up the road from Berkshire! You feed lines word by word to the actors from behind and then give them some context and have them say the word again. All they do is repeat the word based on the emotional response to the statement. For example, if we were doing Hamlet... "To be" repeat. Have you ever been stung by a bee? "to be" Have you ever considered suicide "to be" your father was just murdered "to be" you're all alone in the world "to be" etc.
It's definitely weird and super intense, but I think there is also something to be gained out of it. I think I'd considered using a modified version of it when directing. Especially something like Shakespeare. Also, that's a new goal--to direct a Shakespeare play within the next 5 years.

I'm also trying to deal with copious amounts of Fulbright information and sending in of forms. It's really annoying to be working all day and have maybe an hour of free time and to have to use that free time to read in a foreign language, to fill out forms, or to just try to figure out what the hell is going on.

Off to get ready for another day of rehearsal and then opening night!