If you’ve ever seen a rehearsal room, you’re familiar with the imaginary world created there. Actors move about in a largely empty space, trying to relate to one another in the absence of any scenery or defined physical space. Only one element guides them along the way: spike tape.
The rehearsal room floor is covered with pieces of colored tape that indicate the edge of the stage and an array of imaginary barriers: walls, stairs, curtains, furniture and the like. We live in this world for weeks, until the schedule says “move to stage.” It happens this week.
For the director, this is a tell-tale moment. The staging will shift to accommodate real walls and stairs. The actors will feel that they have less room, or a vast distance to cover, depending on the layout of the theatre. I find it extraordinarily exciting.
Here in Utah, with six productions in rotating rep, moving to the stage is the theatrical equivalent of a Rubik’s Cube. Scenery flies out, tracks off, and spins around in a matter of hours to create another world on stage. Today, it’s our turn to step on stage for that most artificial of moments: the photo call.
Marketing departments need images to promote the show. And so, even though the play is still growing and changing, we take to the stage. Actors put on costumes and wigs for the first time. Everything seems a bit odd, yet in this state of premature imagination, we mark through some scenes to get the good shot. Here are a couple examples from the Pride and Prejudice photo shoot…
This week will hold many joys, challenges, and surprises. There is a growing sense of anticipation in the company. We’re on the verge of making new discoveries and letting the story drive us.
I am deep in Austenville.
Blake
