6/22/2022 Rehearsal

The Winter’s Tale

Director: KP Powell

RDA Stage Manager: Keith Hale 

RDA Dramaturg: Kailey Potter 

Interns: Mary Rose Valentine, Margot Waldman, Topher Zane

Today, we started with a partial run of the show. It’s a brilliant thing to see the pieces of a show start to fit together. KP worked with campers on a few scenes and then we returned to working on the dance Mary Rose had taught the campers.

Quick and Quotable

• “In Lion King, Simba and Nala wrestle and that’s how you know that’s a relationship. In Up, he throws the ball at the dog, and then is like ‘I’ll love you forever.’ In Wall-E, they throw away trash together.” -KP Powell

Here, KP explained moments of romance in media to the campers. The scenes from movies he discussed were all moments that showed the audience two characters loved each other. Without such scenes, those stories are not complete. To become truly invested in the success of two characters’ love, the audience must see how much they love each other. KP applied this to a scene between Florizell (Archer) and Perdita (Mayela). He emphasized that that scene was the moment for Archer and Mayela to show the audience how much Florizell and Perdita love each other. Without the actors placing significance on this scene, the obstacles and attacks on their relationship that ensue would not be as impactful. With this direction, Mayela and Archer successfully showed their characters’ relationship.

Production insights

Today was off-book day for the campers. This means it was their first day acting without a script in hand. They could still call for line, but they were expected to be able to get through their scenes without falling out of character. Quite unlike most high school theater productions, the campers had their lines for just ten days to get off-book. The first day off-book is always rough, but the campers certainly rose to the occasion. We are all so proud of them! Next Saturday is the final milestone of memorization, they will no longer be able to call for line. Losing the crutch of calling for line is always nerve-wracking, but with seven days to acclimate to that new environment, I have no doubt they will be spectacular.