Romeo and Juliet - First Cast Meeting

Well, here we are.  The very beginning of my MFA thesis project.  I have chosen, for my thesis, to put on an all-male production of Romeo and Juliet.  While this is hardly a new concept, I hope to gain some insights into the challenges Shakespeare faced in writing for an all-male company.  I'm also very interested in how an Early Modern-type cast works in a theatre that is designed to be Early Modern-esque (i.e. the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, VA).

Now that we're caught up on what I'm doing and why, let's talk briefly about our first company meeting.  I was very excited to finally have (almost) everyone in the same room to kick off the process.  It's been a very long road to get to this point and it's nice to leave it in the actors hands and let them start to figure things out.

First, here is a breakdown of my cast (in alphabetical order):
Johnny Adkins - Romeo, Gregory
Zach Brown - Mercutio, Montague, Musician 1, Friar John
Bobby Byers - Paris, Citizen, Montague Servant
Jeff Chips - Lady Capulet
Brian Falbo - Tybalt, Apothecary, Paris' Boy
Michael Hollinger - Benvolio, Balthazar, Chorus, Musician 2
Jay Knowlton - Capulet
Paul Rycik - the Prince, Peter
Glenn Schudel - Friar Lawrence, Sampson
AJ Sclafani - Juliet, Abram
Michael Wagoner - Nurse, Lady Montague, the Watch


Moving on, this meeting was basically about logistics.  I handed out scripts, words and chords for the songs we're doing, music CDs and we attempted to start to set a first rehearsal date (more on that in a moment).  Lastly, my lovely costume designer/coordinator, Carmel Clavin, set about taking folks measurements and photographs and we started having a serious discussion about what we want the general look of the costumes to be, which translates to the over all look of the show because we will not have a set or lighting.

As far as first rehearsal goes, I was intending to have a first meeting where we did a circle run of the show as a sort of kick-off to the whole process.  After speaking with Mike Hollinger (Benvolio, Fight Captain) after the meeting, I've settled on a new plan for the general shape of our rehearsal process.

Starting in December, before Winter break, we will only be working fight choreography, music, and possibly a little bit of the dance (for 1.5) between Juliet and Paris.  Consequently, no big first rehearsal, just a bunch of little rehearsals to get us going.  Everyone will go away for the break with three tasks: 1. learn your fight choreography, 2. learn your music, 3. memorize your lines.  Once folks start to get back from break in January (as early as Jan. 3), I will start working and blocking small scenes as I have the people to work them.  Once everyone is back, we will do a full Ren-style* run of the whole show.  This will give everyone a sense of the whole show and a good spring board into the last push of the process through to opening on Feb. 7. 

So, as first meetings go, I'd say this one was fairly successful.



*Renaissance Run – a run of the show where the actors figure out everything from blocking to props to costumes without the help of a director.  For my “Ren-style” run, the actors will not worry about costumes and hopefully we'll have all our props by then.  So, it's more about allowing each of them to come up with the arch of the whole show for each of their characters without my help.

The Beginning

Because this is the first post, I thought I should take the time to explain the purpose of my blog.  This is a blog of my theatrical exploits: acting, teching, and directing.  Each blog post represents a rehearsal, meeting or performance of the particular show I am working on.  Each post will be titled with the show and short description of what's happening that day. Thanks for reading!