Thursday July 19th
Show Title: Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Director: Marshall B Garrett
Assistant Directors: Chase O’Neill and Olivia Pedigo
Production Intern: Abraham Joyner-Meyers
Rehearsal Room: Grafton
What we did
After a moment of connection, the cast each described the music they imagined as their characters theme songs. Oboe for Antiochus? As we continued with text work, we reached the first shipwreck, of which Pericles is the lone survivor. Marshall introduced Foley sounds. The cast built the sounds of the ship and the storm with their bodies and voices.
Quick and Quotable
From the play
PERICLES’ SHIELD: In Hac Spe Vivo
[The motto of Pericles’ crest of arms, “In this hope we live,” serves almost as a guide for the play, which despite many twists and turns resolves in happiness.]
From the director
MARSHALL: The sunlight is part of the scene.
[As we reached the positive city of Pentapolis in today’s text work, the sun came out, beautifully warming the rehearsal space.]
From the cast
PERICLES: Why do I have to Manet when they could all just Exeunt?!
Production Insights
In Pericles, the world of Ephesus is a deeply spiritual place. Not only is Diana’s temple located there, but Pericles’ wife, who seemingly dies in childbirth and thrown into the see is either revived or resurrected on its coast. While Pericles is not a Greek play, its setting makes the parallel to Greek theater especially powerful. As Marshall explained, Greek theater originated as a prayer, associated with the festival to Dionysus. The actors were the mouthpieces of the gods.
Abraham Joyner-Meyers
Abraham Joyner-Meyers is a fiddler, a juggler, and a huge Shakespeare nerd. He completed watching the Shakespearean canon in the fall after seeing ASC’s production of The Fall of King Henry (Henry VI, Part 3). His passion for the Bard also led him to attend ASCTC for two summers, where he acted in Two Gentleman of Veronaand Much Ado About Nothing. When Abe is not furiously reading, seeing, or acting in Shakespeare plays, he’ll often be found teaching himself to play new instruments, dancing at contras and with Morris teams, or training with his school archery team. He just completed his freshman year in the dual degree program between Harvard University and Berklee College of Music.