This has been a very exciting and eventful week here at Endstation Theatre Company, and one that has been very much about bonding and community! This week at rehearsals, we have staged and cleaned the rest of The Comedy of Errors, worked on tightening up conventions, tediously tracked costume/prop changes, added and refined parts for the “stage hand,” and worked our way up to our first complete run-through of the entire show on Friday with no stops! This is a pretty big feat when you consider that by Friday, we had only had a total of 8 rehearsal days!
A big part of this early rehearsal process has been about inventing and refining conventions regarding “getting away with” the clear and decided “shortage” of actors that we have. For those of you that might not know, The Comedy of Errors is a story about two sets of identical twins (Antipholus of Syracuse and Antipholus of Ephesus, and their respective servants, Dromio of Syracuse and Dromio of Ephesus). Most productions identify the twins as four different actors, with each set dressed similarly. However, in our production, each set of twins are identical because they are played by the same actor! This play is already crazy as is, but with two actors instead of four, even crazier things occur! What happens when more than two characters have to appear onstage at the same time?! And what happens when, on top of that, other actors in the play are also playing multiple parts?! I don’t want to give anything away for anyone coming to see the show, so I’ll just say that it’s been a very interesting experience watching this creative process! I’ve really enjoyed seeing some crazy and sometimes abstract ideas turn into clear, “readable” actions, while also efficiently furthering the story. It’s been a neat experience to see how a somewhat confusing story can be made visually clear so that the audience can understand what’s going on even if they might not be able to understand the text.
Another big event this week was that the casts and interns moved into the dorms. Friday was the official start of the internship (finally!), so we had an intern orientation where we met the staff, and also a company picnic/cook-out later in the day. It’s nice that almost everyone is finally here, and that it’s now easier to socialize outside of rehearsals!
Endstation Theatre Company really feels like a community of people, and one that is very connected to the local community. I could be wrong, but don’t think there are very many companies that feel this tight knit! One of the great things about being here, too, is that since the company is young, all of the founders are still here, actively involved and serving as the backbone of the company. It’s exciting to hear about how much the company has grown in the last five years, and to be a part of something so vibrant and connected.
Endstation Theatre Company really feels like a community of people, and one that is very connected to the local community. I could be wrong, but don’t think there are very many companies that feel this tight knit! One of the great things about being here, too, is that since the company is young, all of the founders are still here, actively involved and serving as the backbone of the company. It’s exciting to hear about how much the company has grown in the last five years, and to be a part of something so vibrant and connected.
To get back to my duties this week, however… I also attended rehearsals at night for the Broadway in the Blue Ridge Concert, and became familiar with the music so that I could serve efficiently as “page turner.” Through this process, I actually learned a lot about the relationship that an accompanist (and music director) has with the singers, and refreshed myself on reading music and keeping a steady mental rhythm. The concert was a nice mix of Broadway songs performed by the cast of Big River, and included four songs from the show to entice the audience to come see it.
The Broadway guest artist that Endstation brought in for this concert, Tory Ross, was fun, very friendly, and extremely talented. Some of her credits include: both the movie and national tour of The Producers, as well as Wicked, 9 to 5, and the tour of White Christmas. [If you would like to see what the director of Big River wrote about her on the company blog, you can click here: http://endstationtheatre.org/broadway-star-tory-ross-through-the-years/]
The concert was a complete success and a blast! All the performers did a wonderful job, there was a great turnout, and people seemed to have a really good time! This concert served as the official kick-off of the 2012 Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival, so it was a big night for Endstation. We celebrated with a post-show company dinner!
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