Leaving on a Jet Plane

Thursday I get on a plane and fly to Charlottesville, VA to start rehearsals for Camelot, which I'm directing at the Paramount Theatre for Ash Lawn Festival.  It's their VERY first production inside a theatre (and not outside in the backyard of James Monroe's estate), so the pressure to have a fantastic production is intense - sets, costumes, props, sound, everything...

The first day on the job I'm expected to show up at a Guild cocktail party - directly from the airport. Then the first week of rehearsals will focus on staging any and all scenes withOUT Arthur (who is coming in a week later).  Staging a show out of order has its challenges - most of all continuity of exits/entrances - but also it presents a focus challenge for both the director and the cast.  We'll see how it goes.

Looking ahead, it'll be an interesting few weeks. Rehearsals running from 9:30am to 4pm at a local high school, and then moving to a different rehearsal venue for evening rehearsals 6:30 to 9:30pm.  I'm hoping to get in a ton of work preparing for design meetings for another show I'm directing in January of 2010 during the two and a half hour break, but usually that means I'll go out for dinner and chat away and not get anything done.

Charlottesville, for those who don't know the town, is a TERRIFIC city.  The mecca for DMB, it was voted "Best City in USA To Live" about 5 years ago.  It has an amazing downtown pedestrian zone (the Paramount Theatre is right on the mall there), with tons of great restaurants and coffee shops.  I like the city alot.  It's about a 1 and 1/2 hour drive to DC and sits below Monticello.  If you get a chance to visit, you should.

I'm hoping the cast is prepared on their dialogue - I've cut pages and pages, but it's still WAY too long I think.  I'm hoping to tweak scenes in the evening rehearsals once I hear how everyone does.  That's most of my worry - that and figuring how to make the "Jousts" number interesting.

Must pack for my three weeks in Charlottesville AND then my five weeks at Brevard.  More on Brevard later!

Patrick