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
