Well, even with the best of intentions, the past two weeks of rehearsal have passed by in an absolute blur (and without a post from me)! I find myself sitting in the house of the John W. Engeman Theater, mic’ed and listening to the beginning of sitz probe/sound check. Half-finished set pieces are everywhere, as are actors, technicians… bagels, and packets of Emergen-C. After such a short rehearsal period, there is still a fair amount of show-building to be done in tech, and those of us with other roles to understudy are still grabbing moments on the train and in breaks to go over lines.

As a recovering perfectionist, this short rehearsal period has been a great lesson in trusting and allowing the process (I can make anything into a lesson in trusting the process, can’t I?). With so little time between a first read and opening night, things need to be learned extra quickly — but the learning process remains the same. “We should be further along; we open in a week” is as true as “Look at this great work; we only started rehearsing a week ago!” But each time through gets a little clearer, a little smoother, and as we add each layer it will all begin to solidify. (…right??)

So what an instructive two weeks, in general. I am learning so much — professionally (remembering what it’s like to be in a show, to be an actor, to not [have to] be in charge; learning how to understudy) and personally (finding my boundaries the “hard” way). There is only so much I can ask of myself before I get overwhelmed, or miserable, or sick… and no good reason to feel any of those things! One finds one’s limits, I suppose, by testing them… then the challenge is to follow through on honoring them.

Pictures, etc to follow next week when we get into costume!