Today’s Date: 6/29/23
Show Title: JULIUS CAESAR
Director: Natasia Reinhardt
Staff Crew: Assistant Directors: Cole Metz and Liv Meredith. Dramaturg: Eli Dietrich. Stage Manager: Lillian Malone.
What we did
Today’s rehearsal was super packed with work. For the interest of clarity, I will give the scenes we did and what they contain below:
1.2c: Caska (Archer) and Cassius (Pheonix) enter and talk about how the senators tried to give Caesar kingship earlier. We blocked this scene all the way through and established the power dynamic between the two characters.
1.3: Caska (Archer) and Cicero (Hudson) speak about the omens and portents happening in the town. Archer established his character exceptionally in this scene.
2.1a: Lucius (Isabel V.) and Brutus (Isabella P.) are at home, and Lucius finds a letter that Cassius left for Brutus.
2.1b: The rest of the conspirators enter and talk. We established power dynamics in this scene, and the campers had terrific insights.
2.1c: Portia (Jime) and Brutus (Isabella P.) have a heated discussion about why Brutus is lying. This scene is excellent for establishing Brutus’ character.
2.3: Cole took Artemidorus (Hudson) and the Soothsayer (Desi) and worked on their warning to Caesar about his death. This is important to drive home the mystery in the play.
We also spent time with many of the campers going over scansion. While Caesar’s scansion is very basic, it was still interesting to see the many approaches to working on their lines the campers had.
Quick and Quotable
- From the play We established Caska’s character in 1.2c as being scared of being caught; I think this will play into the Caesar murder scene and the rest of Caska’s character arc.
- From the director Natasia wanted each of the conspirators to think about their power dynamics. What do you want from the people in the scene? Who do you agree with? Among other questions, these insights helped the actors establish their feelings about the lines they said.
- From the cast Cassius (Pheonix) and Brutus (Isabella P.) took the time today to work on a more connected handshake than the other conspirators. This physical representation of their relationship helped the campers with intention in the scene.
Production Insights
Today we blocked more than half of the play. Blocking the play will allow us to focus on music and fighting later on. The character work the campers did today was incredibly impressive. I have directed Caesar before and seen it many times; it is very challenging to work out the intricacies of these old Roman characters. The campers went above and beyond in their understanding of the play to an extent that rivals professional scene work. The campers are having fun with the idea that Caesar is a comedy. I think that the expectation of working on a “tragedy” set the cast up to be pleasantly surprised by our direction.