Update 2005-07-01
Last night we had a great rehearsal where we just talked about some of the issues in the play. Chad asked for me & Steve to speak to the cast to help them understand where we got the idea for the play and what were our reasons for writing it.
Well, you know how Steve and I hate to talk about ourselves... but we gave everybody the low-down and slowly the dialogue started to grow into very lively discussions about the many issues in the play - gun control, power struggles with real and perceived weapons, pacificism, human nature, the death penalty, the agendizing of war, historical context, Manifest Destiny, societal ownership and responsibility, the Civil Rights movement... I think everyone enjoyed it - I thought it was just great, excellent, wonderful (for me personally anyway). We all did not agree, but we all didn't disagree, we were starting to think as a company and see deeper into one another.
A wonderful reveletory moment was when Annie told us that she does in fact own firearms. And her challenge with her character of the 2nd Legal Aide (Diana) is to speak her monologue where she talks about an incident where she recklessly and impulsively reaches for her gun. Annie's background is that of great responsibility and respect for firearms. And even though there are the careless ones out there (Diana probably falls into that category), they are the ones who make the news and give the responsible gun owners a bad name. A very interesting POV I did not expect. (And now the cast is going to be really nice to Annie, too...)
Welcome Eric Kuritsky to the cast in the role of the Rabbi! I have had the pleasure of working with Eric's wife Natalie last year in The 1940's Radio Hour (Bay Street Players, directed by SOTR actor Jeff Lindberg and featuring Josh Geoghagan, also in SOTR). I first saw both of them on stage about a decade ago at the now-defunct Acting Studio on South Orange Avenue in a production of Paul Rudnick's Jeffrey. They were both very funny (Eric was very convincing as a queen - he played the role done by Patrick Stewart in the film version) and I enjoyed it immensely. (WHITLOCK! That's the actor's name that he and I couldn't think of! Steve Whitlock!)
Sadly, we only had a full cast for a brief moment: Bill Welter, who read so wonderfully for the Revolutionary War Captain/Korean War Vet must leave our production because he has a trip planned to visit his son up in Boston during the middle of our run. Yes, it's a shame. Bill, we hardly knew ye... but it was nice to almost work with you. We'll just have to wait until next time.
After we continued with 'sectioning' the play into rehearsable chunks, we finished getting costume measurements from folks, and Chad went over the rehearsal schedule for the next two weeks. Afterwards, some of us went and hung out at Houlihan's. Of course Jeff was the hungriest of us all and after our food took forever, he was the last one to get served. Poor baby! But hanging with him, Josh, JavaJohn (that's what I call John Bateman because during Into The Woods at VCC he was never without a cup of coffee in his hand), Eric, Chad, and Steve was fun, and I especially liked getting to know Patrick and John W. Steve called me as we were driving home and said, "We have a really cool cast!" I concurred. We definitely look forward to hanging with them some more. And the others, too! Since I already know many of the people involved, I am dying to get to know Gina and Jocelyn better, as they are still strangers to me.
Well, you know how Steve and I hate to talk about ourselves... but we gave everybody the low-down and slowly the dialogue started to grow into very lively discussions about the many issues in the play - gun control, power struggles with real and perceived weapons, pacificism, human nature, the death penalty, the agendizing of war, historical context, Manifest Destiny, societal ownership and responsibility, the Civil Rights movement... I think everyone enjoyed it - I thought it was just great, excellent, wonderful (for me personally anyway). We all did not agree, but we all didn't disagree, we were starting to think as a company and see deeper into one another.
A wonderful reveletory moment was when Annie told us that she does in fact own firearms. And her challenge with her character of the 2nd Legal Aide (Diana) is to speak her monologue where she talks about an incident where she recklessly and impulsively reaches for her gun. Annie's background is that of great responsibility and respect for firearms. And even though there are the careless ones out there (Diana probably falls into that category), they are the ones who make the news and give the responsible gun owners a bad name. A very interesting POV I did not expect. (And now the cast is going to be really nice to Annie, too...)
Welcome Eric Kuritsky to the cast in the role of the Rabbi! I have had the pleasure of working with Eric's wife Natalie last year in The 1940's Radio Hour (Bay Street Players, directed by SOTR actor Jeff Lindberg and featuring Josh Geoghagan, also in SOTR). I first saw both of them on stage about a decade ago at the now-defunct Acting Studio on South Orange Avenue in a production of Paul Rudnick's Jeffrey. They were both very funny (Eric was very convincing as a queen - he played the role done by Patrick Stewart in the film version) and I enjoyed it immensely. (WHITLOCK! That's the actor's name that he and I couldn't think of! Steve Whitlock!)
Sadly, we only had a full cast for a brief moment: Bill Welter, who read so wonderfully for the Revolutionary War Captain/Korean War Vet must leave our production because he has a trip planned to visit his son up in Boston during the middle of our run. Yes, it's a shame. Bill, we hardly knew ye... but it was nice to almost work with you. We'll just have to wait until next time.
After we continued with 'sectioning' the play into rehearsable chunks, we finished getting costume measurements from folks, and Chad went over the rehearsal schedule for the next two weeks. Afterwards, some of us went and hung out at Houlihan's. Of course Jeff was the hungriest of us all and after our food took forever, he was the last one to get served. Poor baby! But hanging with him, Josh, JavaJohn (that's what I call John Bateman because during Into The Woods at VCC he was never without a cup of coffee in his hand), Eric, Chad, and Steve was fun, and I especially liked getting to know Patrick and John W. Steve called me as we were driving home and said, "We have a really cool cast!" I concurred. We definitely look forward to hanging with them some more. And the others, too! Since I already know many of the people involved, I am dying to get to know Gina and Jocelyn better, as they are still strangers to me.
posted by David Almeida at 10:42 AM
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