For Campers, For Parents, Theatre Camp

Written by

Eli Dietrich

Free as Caesar

Today’s Date: 7/7/23

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

It was a day for polishing the scenes. After a nice warm-up to get us into our bodies by Cole, we began from the beginning of the play and ran as much as we could, stopping the actors to give notes routinely. While this ended up with us only getting through act one by the end of the rehearsal period, I think it is going to be helpful for the campers. It is important to be extremely intentional with our actions while on stage because (as I mentioned in a recent post) many of the campers are off-book on their lines. This amazing productivity by our cast has allowed us to focus a lot on the quality of acting. 

 

Quick and Quotable

  • From the play “I was born free as Caesar” is the full line that the title of this post references. This comes in a monologue we worked on for a while with Cassius today. I think it is metaphorical for some of the major themes of Cassius’ character arc. 
  • From the director Natasia’s choice to focus on acting notes and stage work today I think will really benefit us when we go to the Playhouse next week, as we will have the intention needed to use that limited time optimally. 
  • From the cast Archer’s Caska has been made into a more well-rounded person as of today’s rehearsal. I find his scene in act one to be extremely funny, as I’m sure will you.

 

Production Insights 

SO MANY CAMPERS OFF-BOOK! It was genuinely so amazing to see. I know I expounded on this yesterday, but it cannot be underappreciated. Instead of repeating yesterday’s inferences like a broken record, instead, I’ll focus my commentary. Cassius’ monologue in 1.2b (which includes the title quote) was improved tenfold today. Phoenix gave chills to everybody in the room with that monologue, and being off-book is the reason for it. To hammer home the love story between our two leads, not looking at scripts made the eye contact between the lovers that much more palpable.

Eli Dietrich

Eli is the dramaturg for Julius Caesar. In his senior year of college at UNC-Chapel Hill, Eli's studies have been focused solely on Early Modern European Drama, and he is going to graduate next spring with a major in English and two minors in Early Modern History and Drama. His goal is to eventually become an English professor and spread the period's wonders to all. It is exciting to be working on this show, and he hopes that those who keep up to date with this wonderful blog will enjoy the connection and core experiences being made at rehearsal. It is the job of every actor in this show to find themselves within the lines of Shakespeare, and the hope is that parents and friends reading along will also end up being touched by the lines and ideas which Julius Caesar brings up.

-How do you cut Rome in half?
-With Caesars.