REHEARSALS BEGIN

As the company of MERRILY gets ready to move out this weekend, the cast for THE STUDIO is slaving away upstairs. “Slaving” almost seems like an understatement. THE STUDIO is a 3 person play that has two of the three dancing almost nonstop from beginning to end. Eight hour days for two dancers can be pretty grueling. Grueling for them that is, not at all for those of us who get to watch them dance.

THE STUDIO is a play with dance. The piece follows a well-known choreographer as he creates a new work for 2 dancers. It often blurs the line between a play and a ballet. A week ago, I might have described it to people as the dance equivalent to Terrance McNally’s MASTER CLASS. I now realize that cannot even begin to describe this piece and the way it incorporates dance and text. The play is written, directed, and choreographed by Christopher d’Amboise. Christopher choreographed Signature’s production of SAVING AIMEE this past season. During the previews for AIMEE, before the show started, I would sit in the back of the house with Christopher. A few times he would start to talk to me about THE STUDIO and how excited he was to get a chance to bring it to this space, describing all the various ways he thought it could work in the MAX Theatre. His excitement about the piece and bringing it to Signature was contagious then and even more so now. It’s only week one but the work being done in the rehearsal room is something really inspiring. Not only is it a lot for the dancers, learning several variations on a dance that is used throughout the piece, but also for Stephen Lee Anderson who is playing the choreographer Emil. The show is almost completely scored and requires the actor playing Emil to line up the music with the text.

Signature is thrilled to have these three actors on our stage. The dancers, Lisa and Jackie, are played by Tyler Hanes and Chryssie Whitehead. Both were recently in the Broadway revival of A CHORUS LINE. They are joined by Stephen Lee Anderson, who also has numerous Broadway credits ranging from JULIUS CAESER to WICKED.

As the rehearsals for the show continue, I’ll be keeping you posted on how things are going. I can promise you that you will be nothing short of amazed by the talent of these three individuals as I constantly find my breath taken away and we are in week one of rehearsal.

Matt Gardiner, Assistant Director