Today’s Date: June 23rd, 2025

Show Title: 1 Henry VI

Director: Hailey Pearce

Staff Crew: Emerson Helmbrecht and Topher Zane (RDAs); Alexa Palena and Analise Toone (Interns)

What we did

Today, we were back in the playhouse for rehearsal! We started with a music rehearsal for our preshow song led by team music captain Brooke. I won’t spoil which song we will be doing, but let’s say the campers are bringing a lovely Hozier song to life. After that, we continued trekking with blocking, finishing Act 4 today. This act includes a coronation, many deaths, and victories. I saw only glimpses of these scenes as I continued to work with campers to memorize their many, many lines across the two shows. 

Quick and Quotable

• From the play: “From their ashes shall be reared a phoenix that shall make all France afeared.” -Lucy

• From the staff: “You are all Hozier. I want to see it in your faces.” -Brooke 
• From the cast: “Treat him as you would in front of the king.” “So I can’t punch him?” -Hailey and Laura

Production Insights 

It is so helpful to have these Blackfriars days in our rehearsal schedule. While we do our best to recreate the space in Deming, there are still challenges and perks of the playhouse that are impossible to mimic. The scenes in Act 4 require many people on stage and complicated blocking, so being able to put these scenes on their feet in the playhouse means we have to do less restaging later on.