What an unusual experience this week has been.
On December 9, we had our last full cast rehearsal before our Act 1 stumble-through, during which we staged the St. Dunstan's Marketplace scene and did some review of the opening of the show. I then had three rehearsals (December 10, 12, and 16) for which no more than five actors were called at any time, and it was only two people for very large periods of time.
It's hard work rehearsing a large cast show. It doesn't really matter how focused or hard-working any cast is – and this cast is really focused and hard-working – running a large rehearsal is very hard work, and you always feel like you spend more time doing traffic control than you spend directing, so I was really looking forward to doing the three smaller rehearsals. Those rehearsals were really fun for me. We got to assemble some very challenging musical moments. We got to polish scenes that we had already staged, playing with different levels and different intentions and exploring the power dynamics between various characters. After staging one scene, we actually had time to do table work, reading the text to discover the rhythm of the scene, before putting it back on its feet. Those moments are the real joy of the work for me – they are the reason that I will always prefer rehearsing over simply performing a piece.
Given my enjoyment of the smaller rehearsals, it was surprising to me, on Monday night's stumble-through, how excited I was to see the entire cast back in the rehearsal room – it made me feel all "warm and fuzzy." I think that people who work in theatre are (absolutely must be) inherently collaborative, and it was a real joy to share our work with the rest of the company, to see how the work of people had developed during their week off, and just to spend time again with people who are working so hard on the same project as me.
This is a very special cast, and I am very happy to share this rehearsal period with all of them.
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