Behind the Curtain welcomes guest blogger Michael Place from the cast of The Neverending Story. Rehearsal began this week, and the show opens December 7, 2007.
First day of rehearsal for The Neverending Story! Finally. I feel like I’ve been waiting for this day for months, mostly because we all have been waiting that long. We switched around the schedule a bit to do an evening meet and greet so that more connected and interested individuals could attend. No complaint on my end, we started rehearsal at noon today.
I have worked at SCT before as an undergraduate at the UW in The Outsiders back in 2003 but since then most of my excuses to come to this amazingly wonderful theater were to see my good friend and colleague Lathrop rock the Charlotte Martin or Eve Alvord. Today’s approach to the building was slightly different.
My heart pounded as I arrived much too early for our noon rehearsal. I was really nervous. Are you kidding Atreyu!? One of my childhood dreams turned reality. And there’s all of those first day of rehearsal fears and worries, wanting to do good work, wanting to get along with the cast and director, I keep hearing that first impressions are important. With 20 minutes to kill before showing up casually on time I sat across the walkway from the theatre, on a conveniently provided chair, and watched the fountain for 15 minutes while I received instructions via text message from Gwen, Marya Sea and my mom to “Go! Play! Love!”
I entered the west rehearsal hall to a very welcoming table of my new comrades and after [director] David Bennett, our articulate and fearless leader, gave a short speech we hit the text. I am blown away by the talent at this table. Let's see, the table was arranged with David and Claire Zawa, our lovely SM [stage manager], at the head, and then (clockwise) sat Anne Hitt, Hans Altwies, David Goldstein, Gabe Baron, Lisa Estridge, Chad Jennings, Tim Hyland, myself, Brad Farwell, Sarah Hartlett, Betsy Schwartz, Emily Chisholm (whose Childlike Empress charmed me day 1). It quickly became very clear to me that I will learn quite a bit by working in the presence of these multifaceted, experienced and joyful actors. I know that somewhere they must all be experiencing the familiar first day of school feeling that I am, but all that is reading is…ease, professionalism. As Tim Hyland (who, if you refer to the above seating chart, you will notice was sitting next to me) literally vibrated my chair with his resonance as he read the Bookseller. I knew I was truly lucky to be in that room.
We took dinner and then returned to wine, cheese and several of SCT’s staff including [Artistic Director] Linda Hartzell and the design team for NES. The design presentations blew me away but rather than go into too much detail I suggest coming to see the show. I will say that I was so impressed with the range of influences in the design and how grand a scope they are working with. Creating Fantastica in its entirety is, after all, no easy feat. I am continually impressed, finding myself self-aware at times thinking, "look around you, take this in, you are a part of something beautiful and magical." We then read a few scenes. It was awesome to have some SCT students there as well.
The evening ended pretty quickly but I think we were all ready to head our respective directions and process the day’s work. Tomorrow we go again. This time 10am. I cant wait to go back.
First day of rehearsal for The Neverending Story! Finally. I feel like I’ve been waiting for this day for months, mostly because we all have been waiting that long. We switched around the schedule a bit to do an evening meet and greet so that more connected and interested individuals could attend. No complaint on my end, we started rehearsal at noon today.
I have worked at SCT before as an undergraduate at the UW in The Outsiders back in 2003 but since then most of my excuses to come to this amazingly wonderful theater were to see my good friend and colleague Lathrop rock the Charlotte Martin or Eve Alvord. Today’s approach to the building was slightly different.
My heart pounded as I arrived much too early for our noon rehearsal. I was really nervous. Are you kidding Atreyu!? One of my childhood dreams turned reality. And there’s all of those first day of rehearsal fears and worries, wanting to do good work, wanting to get along with the cast and director, I keep hearing that first impressions are important. With 20 minutes to kill before showing up casually on time I sat across the walkway from the theatre, on a conveniently provided chair, and watched the fountain for 15 minutes while I received instructions via text message from Gwen, Marya Sea and my mom to “Go! Play! Love!”
I entered the west rehearsal hall to a very welcoming table of my new comrades and after [director] David Bennett, our articulate and fearless leader, gave a short speech we hit the text. I am blown away by the talent at this table. Let's see, the table was arranged with David and Claire Zawa, our lovely SM [stage manager], at the head, and then (clockwise) sat Anne Hitt, Hans Altwies, David Goldstein, Gabe Baron, Lisa Estridge, Chad Jennings, Tim Hyland, myself, Brad Farwell, Sarah Hartlett, Betsy Schwartz, Emily Chisholm (whose Childlike Empress charmed me day 1). It quickly became very clear to me that I will learn quite a bit by working in the presence of these multifaceted, experienced and joyful actors. I know that somewhere they must all be experiencing the familiar first day of school feeling that I am, but all that is reading is…ease, professionalism. As Tim Hyland (who, if you refer to the above seating chart, you will notice was sitting next to me) literally vibrated my chair with his resonance as he read the Bookseller. I knew I was truly lucky to be in that room.
We took dinner and then returned to wine, cheese and several of SCT’s staff including [Artistic Director] Linda Hartzell and the design team for NES. The design presentations blew me away but rather than go into too much detail I suggest coming to see the show. I will say that I was so impressed with the range of influences in the design and how grand a scope they are working with. Creating Fantastica in its entirety is, after all, no easy feat. I am continually impressed, finding myself self-aware at times thinking, "look around you, take this in, you are a part of something beautiful and magical." We then read a few scenes. It was awesome to have some SCT students there as well.
The evening ended pretty quickly but I think we were all ready to head our respective directions and process the day’s work. Tomorrow we go again. This time 10am. I cant wait to go back.
