Good Thing We've Memorized Eveyone's Lines

Hello Everyone,

So, it has been almost a whole week since I last posted but we've had a few days off so you haven't missed much. Saturday night's performance went really well, at least that is what everyone else said. I personally did not feel like it was my best performance but even when it "feels" different to you many times it still comes across as a great performance. I had a lot of people that I knew were coming on Saturday so I put a lot of pressure on myself to give a "good" performance. Because I did this of course it didn't turn out to be what I thought was my best performance, however, my guests said they enjoyed the show very much. I think I've learned that I would rather not know when my friends are coming so I don't put extra pressure on myself. Many times your best performances happen when you are the most relaxed and focused on the world that you are playing in. All your energy can go into the show and won't be wasted on worrying what your friends think about the show. Sunday's show also went very well, and it was sold out so that was very exciting. I do think we were all glad to have a few days off to rest our voices and have a little more free time.

After our few days of rest we came back together again last night to do a run through to make sure we haven't forgotten anything. The run through before the second weekend of the show has a reputation of being a little silly and last night it certainly lived up to its' past character. Lisa (Jo) did not sing any of her songs because she wanted to save her voice for the actual show. Well, that was no problem because while Lisa stood up and acted out her part the entire company sang almost all of her songs from the sidelines. It was hilarious because we all knew every single word in her songs. I guess we've all heard them so many times that they just sort of get ingrained into your head. We also had a few missing cast members due to other rehearsals so ensemble members filled in for the roles. I have to say that Caleb Mount stole the show with all of his cameos. At different points he played Professor Bhaer, the Troll, and I think he played Mr. Brook at one point as well. He was hilarious and has a very nice singing voice. It was nice to see and hear some ensemble members that you wouldn't normally hear. We have a very talented cast all around! A personal favorite moment for me was when Jo and Beth have their goodbye scene before Beth dies. Lisa and I hammed up that scene like no other. We modeled our performance off of a youtube video Kevin Roberge found online. It was an incredibly bad version of "Some Things Are Meant To Be" where Beth actually "dies" onstage. I think my favorite part was when I just collapsed on Lisa and made her pull me off stage. Normally, that part of the show is very sad but it was fun to make light of it for at least one time. Another moment that was fun to watch was during the song "Off To Massachusetts". Emma Foley decided she wanted to play the part of Mr. Lawrence which was hilarious because Gino still provided his voice for the part but Emma was up onstage doing all of his choreography. It was so funny to see little Emma do all of Gino's movement. She was very cute. :) We also got to see Marc Bastos (Laurie) show off some of his dancing skills during the big Act II opener "The Weekly Volcano Press". All in all we had a great time making fun of the show and I'm sure we are all ready to get back into the theatre tonight to perform it for a real audience. I know I'm excited, that could also be because I get to see my parents tonight for the first time in about a month. Anyway, if you haven't checked out the play yet get your tickets soon and come see us! I believe we are already sold out tonight so you better get your tickets ASAP!

Thanks for reading,
Suzanne

"She'll have the spinotch dip, thanks."

Hello Everyone!
Opening Night went so well! A big thank you to all of the people who came to see us perform last night. You were a wonderful audience and I know that we all appreciated the support. The show just gets better and better each night. Of course, there are still a few tiny things that we need to fix but the overall picture is very effective. Mary Kathryn Withers (Meg) told us last night that her sister was coming to the show, who loves the story of Little Women. Kathryn overheard her sister telling her friend that Little Women was one of her favorite books of all time and she hoped that this play didn't ruin it for her. Well, I don't think we ruined it for her considering she came up to all of us after the show and told us how much she loved it. The praise that came from Kathryn's sister and others made all of us feel wonderful. Performing in a show is one of the biggest natural highs I think a person could get. There is so much energy and excitement when we all come out for the bows at the end, it's just incredible. I was almost in tears last night from all the joy and love I felt from the audience. It is an amazing feeling quite unlike anything else you might experience. I think that is why it is also so hard to go to sleep after a show. There's too much fire and energy inside you to just go home, which is why so many of us went to Brickhouse last night to celebrate Opening Night. We all ordered drinks and appetizers and shared stories from the night's experiences. We were really goofy and hyper, especially me. I ordered for Chrissy because she was on the phone and I told the waitress that she would like the spinotch dip. What I meant to say was the spinach and artichoke dip, but by about midnight I was obviously having trouble speaking. Chrissy and I found this hilarious, however, I think the waitress was a little less amused. :) Anyway, a great time was had by all and I'm sure the rest of the run will bring just as much excitement and fun. Well, I have to go soon to get ready for another show tonight, so I will update some more later! Thanks for reading!

Suzanne

OPENING NIGHT!

Good Morning Everyone!

Tonight is opening night and I am so excited! Last night we had our final dress rehearsal and we also had a sizable audience. It was so nice to finally get some new faces to see our work. When you perform a show after a while the people who are watching stop responding as much to what you are doing on stage because they have seen it so many times. Having an audience of people that has not seen any of your work before was great because we got so many more reactions. People were laughing and responding to the performance we were giving them. I am even told that some people were crying, which I was very happy to hear about. That may seem like a strange thing to say, but I love to hear when audience members have been moved to tears. It tells me that our show touched people emotionally and that is something that I strive to do every performance.

The show gets better every night and I'm sure tonight's opening performance will be the best one we have had yet. The more performances we do the tighter the show becomes. We get the costume and hair changes finished more quickly each time and moving the set pieces become easier with each show. Last night was the best run we've had yet and after the show a bunch of us hung out together behind the theatre on the loading dock. Then Chrissy, Aby, Melissa, Hannah, Casey, and I all headed over to Waffle House for some post-show food. I feel like I am on a very opposite schedule from most people because I stay up so late! When I do a show I become very nocturnal, but I am sure once I go home for the summer and I have to start going to class at 8am I will be going to bed a lot earlier. :)

Anyway, I am very excited about tonight's show, I hope we have a lot of people there tonight! Thanks for reading!

Suzanne

PS - The picture is of Kathryn, who plays Meg.

I need a road map!

In about an hour I will be heading to the theatre to start getting ready for our 1st full dress rehearsal tonight. I think we are aiming for an 8 o'clock start time for the run. I plan on getting there at around 5:30pm. I know that may sound early but I want to give myself as much time as possible to prepare for the show. I realized yesterday that I was not as prepared as I thought I was for all the technical additions to the show. It is somewhat difficult to remember everything you need to do for a show, especially a complicated one such as this. Today I wrote down absolutely everything I need to do during the run of the show. This list includes, exactly what I wear for each scene, what props I need and where to find them, where I enter and exit and when I have quick costume changes so I can be prepared for them. In the theatre world a list such as this is referred to as a road map. Really, every person in the cast should have a list like this. As you begin to do more run thrus of the show you need to refer to the list less and less because it eventually becomes second nature. However, when you’re just beginning the performance runs it is a good idea to have this kind of a list to help you guide you through the play. Last night I realized that my original road map was not nearly comprehensive enough to include absolutely everything that I needed to remember. I became really stressed out because I was feeling like I didn't know what I was doing! I am confident that tonight’s run through will go a lot better for me and I am sure for everyone else as well. I am pretty positive that I have figured out all the little details that I need to do in between scenes so hopefully it will go much more smoothly. I am sure that other cast members feel the same way. It is always a little stressful figuring out the timing of transitions, costume changes and the placement of props. I can’t believe that we are opening in two days!! It’s a little scary but I know we will all be very excited to have an actual audience to perform for. I must say that I really enjoy working with all the people involved with the show. Gino, the actor who plays Mr. Lawrence, is constantly making me laugh because he is so funny and outgoing during our song together. Chrissy and BJ are two of the best stage managers I have ever worked with on any show. Stage managing is difficult because you have to be in charge of so many things and keep everyone in line. These two women are not only very organized and keep the show running smoothly but they are also so nice and thoughtful! And Melissa, our fearless leader, has created a really beautiful and moving production. I don’t know how she manages to keep it together all the time, but she does. Everyone involved with this production, whether they are a part of the cast or crew or design team offers something very special, and when all of us are brought together we create a very wonderful production that I hope many people will get the chance to see! Well, I need to get ready to go to the theatre for tonight’s dress rehearsal so I will say good bye for now.

Suzanne
PS – The picture is of me and Amanda (Amy) in the green room during a rehearsal. I think we look a lot like sisters with our hair this way!

JELLO

Alright people - we are down to the wire. We are officially 4 days away from opening the show. The actors just got into the theatre, many for the first time, last night when we had a "skip-thru" of the show. Yesterday was a very long day for everybody. Many of the actors arrived to the theatre by about 10 o'clock in the morning to start working on getting their costumes and hairstyles ready. We have a large cast, so our costume designers had their work cut out for them. The ensemble spent their morning trying on all the costumes to see if things fit or didn't fit. There are a lot of alterations that will have to happen before our first preview on Wednesday night. We also worked on our hair to make sure that we looked like we belonged in the time period. Some people's hair was much easier to deal with than others. My hair for example, was pretty easy to do because it is not very long and pretty thin so there's not much to do with it. I just had to put my hair in sponge curlers when it was wet and wait till it dried to take them out, then I just parted my hair down the middle pinned it back and I was done! Other people took much more time because their hair was a lot thicker or longer or they had to add extensions to their real hair. Lisa had to spend a long time on her hair because she had to have extensions. In the book Little Women, Jo's long hair is referred to as her "one beauty" so it is really important that Jo have long hair in the show. It seems like for so many of the period plays I do, the hairstyles always seem to involve a lot of curls, and this musical is no different. Of course, the boys have it so easy because all they have to do is comb their hair to one side and they're done. They always have it easier than girls when doing hair, makeup and costumes. But I guess we shouldn't expect them to be too adept at doing their own hair and makeup, so the easier the better. (Just Kidding!) Actually, there are some boys in our cast who are very good at helping the girls with their hair, such as helping to curl.

After we worked on our hair we had the costume parade from 2-5pm. This is when all the members of the cast get into their costumes in the order that the play occurs. Melissa and the costume designer, Barbara look at all the costumes of the characters and see if anything needs to be changed or altered on the costume to make it look better. It took a while to get through all the costumes yesterday and decide what needed to be changed. There are a lot of things left that the costume people have to do for all the outfits, I just hope they have enough time and help to get it all completed. I trust we will all look fabulous before opening night. I already saw so many costumes last night that look really great and from the actual time period.

Once we were finished with the costume parade we had a dinner break from 5-6pm. BJ, our awesome stage manager, provided the whole cast and crew with a pizza dinner. It was really great... I had like four pieces! After our dinner break we actually got to go on stage and explore the set and go through all the transitions in the play. It was a lot different doing some of the musical numbers on the set because we have much more distance to travel in the same amount of time that we've been working with in the rehearsal space. It will take some adjustments to make sure that we get where we need to in the time that we have. The set is huge! It looks great in the Duke which is a very large theatre. I think we are definitely taking advantage of the space we have available. Tonight we have our tech rehearsal which means we will be adding in the lights and sounds with the run of the show. I hope it goes smoothly. Tech rehearsals are always a bit frustrating because you have to repeat things over and over again. But, as long as you keep a cool head and stay patient it usually isn't that bad.

We'll see tonight! That's all for right now, but I'm hoping to write something everyday from here on out, so you'll hear from me soon. PLEASE comment!!! :) If you're having trouble making a comment just e-mail me and I'll help you out. (sulenz@davidson.edu) Thanks for reading!

Suzanne

PS - The picture is of Aby Pagan, Marc Bastos and Caleb Mount showing off their costumes.

Paint, Build, Sing, Go!

Hello people!

We are getting so close to opening - about 8 days away. We have accomplished so much in the last few days. We have been doing run thrus every night for rehearsal and they get better each time we go through the play. Last night after we finished Melissa was giving the cast notes and she said that she thought we were in a very good place. "We have three more nights to do run thrus before it all falls apart on us when we actually get into the theatre." Hah. Very well put Melissa. Yes, actually getting into the space where the "real" performances happen can sometimes create a lot of confusion and mistakes. Many times when a cast gets their first opportunity to get into the theatre people are trying to figure out where their entrances and exits are and how long it takes them to get from one place to another. Also, it takes some time to get used to how much bigger the stage and auditorium is compared with place where we rehearsed. Since we are performing in the Duke Family Performance Hall the space will be HUGE compared to the Depot where we have been rehearsing. Then you add in the set and the costumes and the lights and orchestra and suddenly you have four or five more elements to deal with. Many times all these elements can make things a bit more complicated for the actors. Depending on the type of show, this transition from rehearsal space to the theatre can be easier than others. For a musical the transition is usually more complicated. However, I am fully confident that by the time we open the show we will all know exactly what we are doing and be raring to go.

On Saturday June 7th we had a painting call for the set pieces. I went along with many of the other cast members, including, Kathryn, Amanda, Aby, and our lovely assistant stage manager Chrissy. We actually had a good time painting. When you have good company time can go by quickly. We got all the set pieces painted and speckled to be a part of the house. It was too bad that it was so hot, we all definitely needed a shower by the time we were done. :) Really, we should all be used to the heat considering the air conditioning broke in our rehearsal space. I'm sure that room smells really great by the time we're done with rehearsal at 10pm. I always feel bad for Amanda Roberge, who plays Amy, because since she falls into an icy lake in the play we have to wrap her in blankets to "warm" her up during the show. I'm sure she is already warm enough.

Tonight, we have another run thru of the show and I'm sure it will get a little bit better each night. If anyone is interested in helping us put together our set we need as many hands as possible, it would be great if anyone could offer some time. Just call the DCP office for more information and times, ect. Hopefully tonight everyone will have their "tap step" down. Last night we all learned a little tap step for the bows of the show and we practiced it a million times but it is hard to get it perfectly in time with the music. We'll see how we all do tonight!

Until next time!

Suzanne

PS - The picture is of Amanda and Christian hanging out during a break in rehearsal.

It's CRUNCH Time

Hello People!

It's getting closer and closer to opening and we're all trying to our best to make this show the best we possibly can. We have a lot of work left to do and everybody knows it. For most plays that I have been in there comes a point in the rehearsal process when you feel like there is so much left to do and so little time to get it all accomplished. I think that our cast of Little Women is at that point. Although, I have no doubts in my mind that we will accomplish what we need to before we open the show. Last night in rehearsal, we had a "skip-thru" for the ensemble so that they could work out their transitions and make sure that they had everything figured out. That meant that there was a lot of waiting around for many of the cast members. Waiting for long periods of time is expected and almost unavoidable when working on a production. Last night there was not only a lot of waiting but the air conditioner wasn't working! We were all sweltering in our little rehearsal space, but we made it work. The cast is pretty big so it can be difficult to find places to sit or put your things down when you're not needed on stage. At one point, Jane Cain, our music director, could not hear anything coming out of the piano. Melissa asked if something had gone wrong with the speaker and unbeknownst to me, I had accidentally hit the speaker and turned off the sound. I put the wire back into place and it started working again but I was pretty embarrassed that I had turned the sound off!

Tonight we have a run through of the entire show and we will see how much people remember from last night's rehearsal. Hopefully, everyone will remember everything they need to and the run through will go smoothly. We'll see tonight!

PS -The picture is of Melissa (our director) and Lisa Smith (Jo) working together on a part in the play.