It’s All Happening!

Things are happening! We have one more full week of rehearsals before heading into tech down in the performance space! Next Wednesday is sneak peek, a run of sections of the show for 60 of DTC’s biggest donors. The first act was running at almost an hour and a half at the beginning of the week, so Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn (writer/director and composer/lyricist, respectively) shuffled some things around and cut others. We continue to revisit, restage, and tighten up act one while work on the second act begins. One of the biggest challenges for Doug has been figuring out how to stage the archery contest in act two, and as of yesterday, he’s got a plan! It involves Billie (Much/assorted characters) on a skateboard…

Every day I learn something new. Eric, Megan, Cheyney, and Emily are so willing to explain everything they do when I have questions. For instance, during a break I asked to see how Eric does his blocking notation. Each page of the script in a stage manager’s prompt book is accompanied by a page of notes that details what happens onstage at that moment in the show. I’ve never seen a professional stage manager’s book before, and I’ve definitely seen how I can improve my own work. Eric’s blocking pages include scene run times, costume changes, props needs, and a rough idea of cues, which makes everything easier when jumping from page to page. It helps Megan, who’s in charge of props, and Cheyney, who oversees costumes for the SM team, know what needs to be set for the sections we’re working. His pages also include little groundplans (bird’s-eye drawings of the set) to sketch movements, formations, etc. He takes blocking notes in a way that’s really similar to the way I do it – as shorthand in the margins of the actual script page. We’ve both tried a system that involves numbers in the script (it’s a little difficult to explain), but we’ve come back to the notes in the margins. I think Eric and I, as stage mangers, have very similar styles, so I’m really enjoying learning from someone whose brain is wired like mine.

On an interpersonal level, I’m still very much loving it here at DTC. I don’t mind working six days a week because I enjoy these people so much! I consider the other interns my friends. Cheyney’s birthday is today, and I was the only intern she invited to her birthday celebration after rehearsal tonight!! I’m starting to think of her as a friend and mentor. I’ve become her go-to girl for helping during fight choreography, as she’s the ASM who runs those rehearsals when we break up to multitask. And again, here’s to another weekly highlight post-blog entry!

Quote of the week: “A little more jaunty” – Bobby Bianca, choreographer, when arranging people during a song in the second act