A lot has happened in the last 10 days. Three nights of auditions and final call-backs. We now have a full cast. And last Sunday night was the first rehearsal with the full cast – a read through. I always love these, maybe for a slightly different reason than everyone else. There’s always been something special about hearing all those different voice timbres of the cast that I find very motivating. And they somehow work their way into the various themes that I end up writing for the characters. It’s hard to explain, not sure I really can. But I just go with it and it’s never failed to help me get unstuck from the writing I do in a vacuum, before I hear the cast.

The other thing that happens is a series of “lessons” from our director, Steve Dooner, who is an astounding, yet humble Shakespeare scholar. I just sit and listen to him explain context, fill in details and describe the subtext of character’s dialogue. This combined with hearing Shakespeare helps de-confuse me. As I am reminded every time we do a production, Shakespeare is meant to be experienced, heard and seen, not read. Ever since high school, I’ve struggled with understanding his plays when I read them. And then finally someone said “well yeah, they’re not meant to be read”. Somehow that always makes me feel just a little less of an under-educated tech nerd.

Onward! Rehearsal schedule now moves immediately into three nights a week.

Today’s snippet – a bit of gospel.