For Campers, For Parents, Theatre Camp

Written by

Eli Dietrich

Let slip the dogs of war

Today’s Date: 7/3/23

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 the campers were in the playhouse for rehearsal! Because Mondays and Tuesdays are designated for playhouse rehearsal time, the campers were able to practice in the space. Kaley, our wonderful fight choreographer, was able to block all the fight scenes in the play! The first one was the fight in the middle of act five. This fight consists of Octavius (Zyir) and Antony (JD) killing the soldiers of Brutus (Isabella P.) and Cassius’ (Pheonix) armies. This fight ends up with most of the cast lying dead on stage. While these fights were happening, we ran Cassius’ (Pheonix) death scene with Titinius (Pax) and Pindarus (Sanchez). Moving on, we ran both Cassius and Titinius’ death scenes with Kaley, making sure that the fight choreography was well done. As this happened, Octavius (Zyir), Lepidus (James), and Antony (JD) worked on their small scene in act four, scene one. We worked upstairs on Brutus’ (Isabella P.) death scene, in which Caesar (Marcos) enters as a ghost. To end off, we worked on the Caesar death scene again in the space (picture of the day), which I think caused a lot more comfort with the scene. 

 

Quick and Quotable

  • From the play We established a tension between Mark Antony (JD) and Lepidus (James). This tension is a small addition to the scene but improves the comedy of the lines. 
  • From the director Natasia directed Brutus to be let down to the ground gently by Caesar’s ghost. This directly mirrors how Brutus lets Caesar down to the ground slowly in act three. 
  • From the cast The campers are realizing that they all have moments of violence in the play. I think that working with Kaley was extremely fun for them today.

 

Production Insights 

We have, more or less, blocked the entire play. Except for some smaller scenes that must be tidied up, there is an outline for the whole production. This means that our scene work and acting work are going to be the center of our next few rehearsals. We are waiting on confirmation to begin fitting costumes as well, so hopefully, in the next couple of days, the campers will have an idea of what they are wearing. I think that the readers here will hopefully receive a sneak peek of these costumes in tomorrow’s picture of the day. As I said earlier last week, this play has almost everyone on stage throughout almost the whole play. I just want to hammer this home because it outlines the true work and responsibility that these campers are capable of. Do not underestimate how your friends and children have grown and taken initiative at Shakespeare Camp. 

 

Eli Dietrich

Eli is the dramaturgy mentor 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 make Caesar salad from regular salad? You stab it twenty-three three times.