History was made
MY FAIR LADY Day 16
September 15, 2006
Friday marked a historical moment at Signature. It was our very last rehearsal in the rehearsal room at Signature’s converted-garage space, because later this fall we’re moving into our new two-theater building in Shirlington Village. At the end of the day, all the actors and crew for MY FAIR LADY signed a concrete wall that we’re leaving behind. We also had a beer and champagne toast to all the great memories we’ve had in the space. We reminisced about rehearsing FOLLIES in the cramped space and the names of folks who created work for our stage in this room — Fred Ebb and John Kander writing a new ending to THE RINK, actors like Dorothy Loudon, Mario Cantone, Flo Lacey, Linda Emond, David Garrison, Jacqui Piro, and of course, the composer of Nevermore, Matt Conner. (That came from him!) Actually, I think Matt saw all our reminiscing starting to go to a sad place, so he helped lighten the mood with one of his usual wise-cracks. It was truly a memorable day. I'll take a picture of the wall of signatures and post it soon so you can see the memories of the garage beginning to pile up.
Rehearsals went well; we put the whole show together for the first time. It's always a train wreck doing the first full run-through, and this was no exception, but there were so many great things happening that I’m very encouraged. Saturday we move onto the set, which I think is just stunning. People are going to really be surprised with the physical design of the show as it’s so different, yet so appropriate. I hate when directors change things for the sake of change alone or try to make some huge statement — I always say, “If the authors had intended that, then they would have wrote it that way.” For our production of MY FAIR LADY, I feel we've created a world that enhances the play and have also found a way to make the show even more moving than any of us realized. The next few days will be great, seeing the show on the stage in the real space as well as discovering what new set of problems we’ll now need to fix!
— ES
September 15, 2006
Friday marked a historical moment at Signature. It was our very last rehearsal in the rehearsal room at Signature’s converted-garage space, because later this fall we’re moving into our new two-theater building in Shirlington Village. At the end of the day, all the actors and crew for MY FAIR LADY signed a concrete wall that we’re leaving behind. We also had a beer and champagne toast to all the great memories we’ve had in the space. We reminisced about rehearsing FOLLIES in the cramped space and the names of folks who created work for our stage in this room — Fred Ebb and John Kander writing a new ending to THE RINK, actors like Dorothy Loudon, Mario Cantone, Flo Lacey, Linda Emond, David Garrison, Jacqui Piro, and of course, the composer of Nevermore, Matt Conner. (That came from him!) Actually, I think Matt saw all our reminiscing starting to go to a sad place, so he helped lighten the mood with one of his usual wise-cracks. It was truly a memorable day. I'll take a picture of the wall of signatures and post it soon so you can see the memories of the garage beginning to pile up.
Rehearsals went well; we put the whole show together for the first time. It's always a train wreck doing the first full run-through, and this was no exception, but there were so many great things happening that I’m very encouraged. Saturday we move onto the set, which I think is just stunning. People are going to really be surprised with the physical design of the show as it’s so different, yet so appropriate. I hate when directors change things for the sake of change alone or try to make some huge statement — I always say, “If the authors had intended that, then they would have wrote it that way.” For our production of MY FAIR LADY, I feel we've created a world that enhances the play and have also found a way to make the show even more moving than any of us realized. The next few days will be great, seeing the show on the stage in the real space as well as discovering what new set of problems we’ll now need to fix!
— ES
posted by Eric Schaeffer at
12:19 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home