Today’s Date: 6/29/2019
Show Title: Gallathea
Director: Finch
Assistant Directors: Lauren Carlton and Cortland Nesley
Production Intern: Spencer Cohen (Stage Manager) and Jules Talbot (Dramaturg)
Rehearsal Room: Blackfriars Playhouse
What we did:
Today was Gallathea’s first rehearsal in the Blackfriars Playhouse. We had the space from nine two noon. First, we took a tour of the playhouse—not just the house, but the maze-like backstage and downstair areas behind the curtains—and afterward used the rest of our three hours for a cue-to-cue. A cue-to-cue is a run-through of a show where the scenes themselves are skipped except for cue lines, or the words that trigger an action onstage—maybe an entrance, exit, or music. Cue-to-cues are how to transfer blocking from a rehearsal space (not always an accurate representation of the stage) into the actual theatre, and they’re especially useful for clarifying scene transitions. We made a tremendous amount of progress in the cue-to-cute, finishing all of acts one to three and most of act five (we saved act four for our next rehearsal—the finals scene took precedence because there are just so many bodies onstage).
Quick and Quotable
From the play:
VENUS
Fortune-tellers? Tell me my fortune.
RAFE
We do not mean fortune-tellers, we mean fortune tellers.
From the director:
“Oh no, they fixed the squeaky floorboard? Squeaky floorboards are so useful.”
From a cast member:
*The sound of curtains loudly flapping.*
—Every single actor’s entrance
“Cupid is going to be weird today.”
—Esme (Cupid/Hebe), rolling around on the floor
Production Insights:
This is maybe the busiest time at camp besides performance day. On top of regular rehearsal, tonight is both the final ASCTC showcase rehearsal and showcase performance. Every cast member of Gallathea has a second (or third, or fourth, or fifth) role in showcase. I’m writing this blog post as I watch Andrew W., Rafe in Gallathea, play Aumerle in Richard II instead, two vastly different roles. Often as an actor you’re typecast as one specific sort of character, and I’m really appreciating the chance to see the breadth of every campers’ range.
Jules Talbot
Jules Talbot is a sophomore at NYU Gallatin studying Shakespeare, creative writing, illustration, and all of the disciplines where they overlap, from graphic novels to scenic art and playwriting. Currently, she’s working on a comic book adaptation of Hamlet called “I Am Dead, Horatio”; she has seen around twenty-three productions of Hamlet, and if you have any recommendations, is always looking for more.