Dan here -
Great, fascinating, terrifying first night of rehearsals. It was the first time we actually had all of the cast in the same room at the same time. At the end of last week we met to do three days of table work and called people in smaller chunks to parse this beast out. Those days were fulfilling and ecouraging - but last night was something else all together. Many of the cast and guests had never been in BSM's space before and it's wonderful to see people react. We sat at tables right in the middle and everybody huddled around. And not just the cast - designers (naturally), and Martin came to hear the play, some interested third parties - it seemed like tons of folks. The read went relatively briskly and we chatted about characters and why we are even here in the first place. Katherine Fritz's costume designs were a hit. It's always wonderful to see folks getting the first glimpse of how their character might look. Jokes and ideas and additions whirred around as the whole room crowded around a Mac to get a peek.
I'm spending most of the evening trying not to let folks see how hard I'm sweating. It's been a few years before I've directed anything, let alone a project of this scope. We started at the top of the play, and it became an exercise in trying to make ten people in an opening scene not look like just a bunch of folks standing around. Not as easy as it looks, even with a game plan. Still, much cheered by the work and the commitment folks seem to be bringing. Tonight it's just me and three or four others to sort out scenes between the Cardinal and his randy lady. Should be fun.
Also - huge box of goodies came yesterday: Posters, postcards, business cards (with individutal character shots like Tops trading cards), magnets - oh my. Gotta get these sprinkled around so people can see what we're up to. And huge thanks to Aaron Oster for the gorgeous photos you'll see on all of this stuff, and his design expertise to make it all come together.
I'm starting to feel like a commercial or something. I'm out.