Well, Irene meandered her way out of the Boston area by about 5pm, leaving only a trail of fallen leaves, a few branches, and a few flooded basements in her wake. Not too bad for my first hurricane, eh? At least I wasn't back in New Jersey... Because the storm died down, Jeff decided to push back the first meetings until the evening. At 6pm we had our first (well, second...) production staff meeting in the rehearsal hangar. (btw, the rehearsal hangar is that creepy looking cult barn thing between Aidekman and Pearson,
right in front of the new SIS building.)
The pstaff meeting was very exciting. Everyone was so glad to be back and get going on this project. Michelle was so excited she made cookies. They were yummy. Be jealous.
Each production staff meeting runs in pretty much the same way, with each area giving a check-in that updates the rest on their progress. At this meeting, everyone talked about their designs and the themes they wanted to include. Apparently an overarching theme of the show is "accumulation of friendships." While Cole, in his ideal theatrical world where absolutely
ANYTHING is possible, wanted to show that by having the actors sit on a MOUNTAIN OF CHAIRS, Kyle (set designer) had to shoot that idea down. Sorry Cole. Instead there will just be a lot of furniture and set dressing on the stage.
We also welcomed our new Assistant Technical Director, Eric (or is it Erik?). He will be replacing Meredith, who has left us for better things. :( Eric/k is also the master electrician, so that is very exciting as well. Wooo!
After the pstaff meeting, the actors all showed up for the design presentations and read-through. It was really nice to see the actors again, and we were all grateful that everyone made it here safely and in time to start rehearsing. There were many hugs and exclamations of "HEEEEYYY I MISSED YOUUUU!!!!"
We all sat down on the floor in a big circle, and the designers presented their design ideas to the cast. Kyle had the set design all mapped out and everything. Way to be prepared Kyle!
And then....the readthrough. Since we had some difficulties over the summer, this was the first time ANY of us, including Cole, had heard the actors read any of the roles. And, let me tell you, it was AWESOME. They clearly had already memorized their lines. In fact, I was supposed to read the stage directions (you know... Sits. Walks over to corner, picks up tuba, that kind of thing) and about a quarter of the way though the actors got SO into the script that I just kinda stopped and let them have fun with it.
Overall there were lots of laughs, especially at Tucker's New England accent, and the girls' high-pitched teenage exclamations. It really is amazing how reading a play out loud is SO much better than just reading it. (HINT: Same goes with Shakespeare, for all you haters out there.)
After we finished the read through, many of us wandered over to Michelle's house to hang out. We all gathered in her living room and watched the VMAs on MTV. It was a night of commentary on Mr. Lady Gaga's manliness and series of like 5 gestures, and Katy Perry's coolness as a factor of her cheese cube hat. We also looked up our birthdays to see which celebrities we share them with. Apparently I share a birthday with:
That's kind of exciting, right?
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