Today’s Date: 7/4/23
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
Alas! We have officially completed blocking our play! Natasia blocked 3.2b, which is Mark Antony’s (JD) most famous “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” speech. This scene is coming along really well, and almost everybody is on stage for it, creating an environment of ruckus and rabble. We also learned how to say some of the lines in a way that talks over eachother, creating a sense of chaos. As this was going on, many of the campers got fitted for their costumes. By the time we began running the beginning of act five, four or five campers were in costume. We ran the blocking for 3.2b, 3.3, 4.1, 4.2a, 4.2b, 4.2c, 5.1, 5.3a, 5.3b, and 5.4. These scenes include the rioting of the plebians, Cinna the Poet’s (Hattie) death, a quarrel between Cassius and Brutus, a meeting between Octavius (Zyir), Antony (JD), and Lepidus (James), an encounter between the two armies, the death of Cassius, the death of Titinius (Pax), and the death of Brutus, respectively, in that order. All in all, quite a productive day.
Quick and Quotable
- From the play The effect of having people come on stage in costumes not assigned to their characters was hilarious. Particularly, Carson was fitted for a long robe to wear as Calphurnia, but she also plays a soldier. This means that this gruff soldier came on stage with an ornate robe.
- From the director Natasia made the decision to block the entirety of the play today instead of running the acts we already blocked. Meaning that when we rehearse tomorrow, we will begin to do run-throughs of whole acts.
- From the cast Right before Cassius and Brutus split during the war, Cassius has a strange line about it being “his birthday.” Phoenix and Isabella P. had trouble not laughing during this scene, as did we all.
Production Insights
YAY, BLOCKING! Today was extremely productive for the staff and campers alike. Not only did we block many, many scenes, but we also were able to complete much of the costuming needed. Sadly, we won’t be able to take many of the costumes with us for our rehearsals the rest of the week. However, once we get back to the playhouse at the beginning of the next week, we will hopefully have a solid amount of costumes for campers. Tomorrow we are in Grafton Hall, which is much closer than last week’s rehearsal space. The campers are excited to not be walking up as many hills.