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.

A Picture to Share

Hey Everyone! This is a picture from rehearsal that Cindy Rice took of all of us "sisters". From left to right is Suzanne Lenz (Beth), Amanda Roberge (Amy), Mary Kathryn Withers (Meg), and Lisa Smith (Jo). This shot was taken on Monday, June 2nd. This is right before we induct Laurie as our very own brother!

I hope you enjoy this picture...there are more to come!

Going For It

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to write a quick entry about something that I started thinking about at rehearsal last night. I had arrived to rehearsal about 15 minutes early and Melissa was working with some of the younger members of the cast on another part of the play. They were rehearsing one of the musical numbers that illustrates Jo's imaginative stories. These parts of the play are written in a very over dramatic fashion which provides an excellent opportunity for the actors to really have fun with the heightened reality. Melodrama can not only be very entertaining for the actor but for the audience as well. However, there is a danger with melodrama. With over dramatic lines and a plot that acts more like a soap-opera, it is easy for an actor to be scared to really commit to the part. For example, a character named Rodrigo says, "This is your end, villain! I've waited a lifetime to destroy you." That kind of line is not necessarily something that a "normal" person would say in day to day life but the actor has a job to really believe in the line so that the audience will believe the actor. As an actor you must fully commit to every line you have so that the audience will actually believe and hopefully enjoy the story you are telling. I have seen before that when an actor doesn't fully commit to his role then the show is much less enjoyable and sometimes even uncomfortable to watch. If the actor doesn't believe in his character and situation then why should the audience? Even if you might have a line that seems completely over dramatic if you really believe in it and commit to it fully then your acting will be believable. I think this is something that separates really good actors from okay ones: the ability to take big risks. If an actor is fearless and willing to do anything on stage, including risking looking like a fool, then that actor will be successful on stage. You end up looking like a bigger fool if you shy away from fully committing to something. That is just something that I was thinking about in rehearsal last night. Totally random but I'd love to hear what anyone else thinks about this, so feel free to leave comments if you want. Don't be afraid to take big risks!

Suzanne

Five Forever

Hello,

This past Tuesday we finally blocked and choreographed the musical number "Five Forever". In this number Jo declares Laurie as the March sisters' brother they never had. The rehearsal went well although it was incredibly hot in the rehearsal room. We were only singing through the sung to brush up on our parts and by the time that ended we were all sweating! Then, we actually started learning the dance steps and the heat only got worse. We persevered through it, though. The choreography wasn't too difficult to learn but it did take us about two hours to learn the entire song. The whole song is only 2 and 1/2 minutes; so you can see how much work goes into each little part of the show. Like I said in an earlier entry, rehearsing some scenes seems to take forever and then in the context of the show, it is only one small portion. There is some really cute dancing in this song. Right before my solo singing line there are some dance steps that we all do and as we were learning the steps we tried multiple things before settling on what we wanted. At one point our choreographer, Felicia, had me do a leap across the stage right before my line. But then, we realized that since Beth is supposed to be a more "sickly" child a leap might not be the best thing to do! We eventually settled on something else. :-) It will be interesting doing all of this dancing and singing once we get our costumes on. Having to deal with big skirts and maybe even corsets will definitely make things a little more challenging. Well, that's all for now, thanks for reading!

Suzanne

"Crash" Through

Hi Everyone!

Last Thursday we had a "Crash" Through rehearsal in which we ran through basically the entire show. There are only a few scenes and songs we have not blocked but for the most part we have worked on every bit of the musical. It is important to note that this run through was actually called a "Crash" through because there were certainly some mishaps or crashes while we were performing Little Women. This is obviously to be expected and it is very helpful because it forces the actors to realize how much work they have left to do! I certainly realized this on Thursday night. It is interesting because you can work on one specific scene for hours to get it just right but in reality that scene might only be 2 minutes of the entire production! I was talking to Mary Kathryn Withers, who plays Meg, and she was telling me how quickly scenes seemed to fly by. Many of us are still learning our lines and choreography but I'm certain we will master our parts before it is time for audiences to see us. We have a lot of time until we open and we will definitely be working very hard until then. Lisa, who plays Jo, realized how much she has to do during the show. For her, performing this show is like running a marathon! She is a very experienced performer and knows that she will need to build up her endurance to do this show every night. Overall, I think the "Crash" through went very well. Some very nice moments are shaping up and all of the cast members are giving it their all. This show offers so much to the audience. There are funny moments, heartwarming moments and sometimes sad moments, but I think people will really be able to connect to the March family. Tomorrow, we are blocking one of the big song and dance numbers called "Five Forever". This is a song in which Jo dubs Laurie as the March sisters' brother they never had. I'm sure tomorrow will be a busy and fun night!

I'll be posting more soon...

Suzanne

Rehearsals have been "Astonishing"!

Hello Again,

Finals are finally done at Davidson College and our rehearsals for Little Women have been picking up the pace. A lot has been going on since I last wrote. We had a paint call on May 10th to work on the main backdrop for the set. It was a hot and messy day but we got a lot accomplished. Our Assistant Stage Manager or ASM for short, Chrissy, was at the paint call the entire day overseeing the work and putting in many hours of manual labor. Many of the younger cast members were also there to help the painting process move more quickly. The Stage Designer wanted this backdrop to look like a forest to compliment the settings of Jo's imaginative stories. To create this effect it was made of a holey material and painted with varying colors of green with colored ropes strung through to represent vines. Once we were finished it looked quite convincing. There will definitely be more opportunities to help with these paint calls. If anyone is interested in helping out just contact the Davidson Community Players at 704-892-7953.

Meanwhile, in the rehearsal room we have been getting deeper into the blocking and choreography of the play. For those who don't know, "blocking" means deciding where and when the characters will move on the stage. Since Little Women is a musical there is much more involved than a straight play. Musicals require singing, obviously, and so you need someone to play the piano to accompany the actors. However, it is not always possible to have someone actually play the piano during rehearsals. Fortunately, DCP has an excellent solution to this problem. They have an electronic score that plays every song in the musical with only the background piano so the actors can sing along with it! I had never seen anything like this before so I found it very exciting and useful. You can start the songs in multiple places depending on where you are in the scene and you can also change the tempo of the song making the music go faster or slower to suit whatever you like. It has proved to be a very helpful piece of technology during rehearsal, it is amazing what technology can help you accomplish!

Something I have really enjoyed during this process so far is watching other people work. Melissa cast four younger girls to play the parts of the sisters when they were little. I think it will be really great for the audience because they will see Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy as their current ages as well as the girls they were when they were much younger. There is one song in particular called "Our Finest Dreams" which reveals the sisters desires for their future. The song starts with the 4 younger girls playing around in the attic and then it changes to the girls at their present age. I think it is a really nice effect and it is wonderful to see the younger girls work. They are all very talented with beautiful singing voices and lots of personality on stage! I think whenever they have performed their song the reactions from the other actors has always been something to the effect of, "Aw, they're so cute!". And they are. :)

I also remember from rehearsal watching Kim Baysinger, who plays Marmee, belting out her song called "Here Alone" and being totally blown away by how powerful and beautiful her voice was. This show is full of talented people; the audiences certainly won't be disappointed. Another cast member who has really made an impression on me is Marc Bastos, who plays Laurie. Anyone who is in the room when this guy works can hardly keep it together because they are always laughing so hard. Not only can this guy sing wonderfully, he is incredibly funny and brings a very special quality to his character Laurie. Lisa Smith, who plays Jo, sums it up right when she says to Marc, "You make me beam!"

As for me, I have been really enjoying the process of developing my character Beth. I must say it has been difficult putting the singing, dancing and acting all together! I find that when I learn my harmonies in the songs and then try to put that with the dancing it kind of all gets jumbled up! I know that I will get it; I just need more practice. Last night we blocked the song "Some Things Are Meant To Be", which is my duet with Jo and it is the last time you see me alive because Beth dies shortly afterwards. (Not on stage though, thank goodness.) I wasn't expecting it to be too difficult to do this scene, however, last night I found myself trying really hard not to cry. Lisa and I have made a good connection so far while working on this show and I think that has enabled me to really invest in the scene. It is a difficult song because I'm trying to tell Jo that I'm okay with dying I just want to make sure that she is okay as well. Hopefully, when we actually perform the song I'll be able to get out all the words without being stopped by crying!

Well, that is what has been happening lately for the cast and crew of Little Women and I am sure I will be updating you all soon!

Thanks for reading,

Suzanne

Beginning a Brand New Adventure!

Hello Everyone!

My name is Suzanne Lenz and I was asked to write this blog about the process of the Davidson Community Players production of Little Women the musical. One of the main reasons we wanted to start this blog was to illustrate for people how a theatre production is created from beginning to end. There's a lot of hard work and dedication from all sides of the theatre that goes into assembling a really great piece of work. So many actors, directors, technicians, crew members, designers, producers, and many others all come together to create a piece of theatre that is meaningful, moving and of course, entertaining!

I am a junior theatre major at Davidson College and I've had the opportunity to participate in many theatre productions over the years, but I am especially excited about this show. I have never stayed in the town of Davidson over the summer so I've never been able to see DCP's big summer musical. While I was talking to different community members about past show experiences I realized that this show was really going to be something special. So, I was especially excited for our first introductory meeting on Monday night, April 21st. The moment I walked into the church building on Armour street (that they are converting into their very own theatre!) I felt the sort of excitement you get on your first day of school. I hardly knew anyone there, so I was anxious to meet new friends. Of course, many people involved with this production have worked together before so it was like a wonderful reunion for them. Melissa Olhman-Roberge, our director, began the meeting by having every one in the room introduce themselves and say what part of the production they were contributing to. Next, Melissa handed out a bunch of papers regarding possible rehearsal schedules, contacts sheets, and DCP's philosophies about theatre and the community that it creates and builds.

The technical director of the show, Jim Nash, or "Big Dog" as he's knows in the Davidson Theatre department, said something of great importance during that first meeting. He talked about how this is the only time this production will ever be done in this way with these particular people. That is something that makes each theatre production you participate in special and unique. The fact that the company you are a part of is special and the piece of theatre you create for a finite amount of time will never happen in the same way again. It really makes you appreciate the rehearsal process and subsequent performances, because you have only a finite amount of time with the company and you want to enjoy every moment you do have.


Since that first meeting we have had two music rehearsals with our music director Jane Cain. It was exciting to hear everyone sing for the first time together because everyone sounds so good! All the cast members have different voices and qualities to offer but we are beginning to blend together very well. There are many harmonies to learn in the group numbers and I was definitely having a little trouble finding my part right away! I know I will be working on my harmony parts on my own, and I know the other cast members will as well. When working on any theatre production it is very important to go home and work on your songs and dialogue on you own time. That makes it easier on the director and you can get a lot more accomplished at rehearsal if you always come prepared. On our first music rehearsal I was feeling a little under-the-weather and coughing up a storm while I was trying to sing, and Chrissy, one of our stage managers was sweet enough to fill up my empty water bottle for me. It was very nice of her and helpful because I stopped coughing as much once I had the water.


Our next rehearsal is tomorrow, Sunday May 4th. We will continue learning songs and perfecting the harmonies, and of course, getting to know one another. This was a very long post, and I will try to post more frequent and shorter blogs in the future. It's finals time at Davidson College right now, so bear with me!



Talk to you soon!

Suzanne

Synopsis

Welcome to Davidson Community Players' blog for our production of  Little Women The Musical. By updating this blog as frequently as possible, we hope to share with you what all goes into creating a production of this caliber. Davidson College student Suzanne Lenz, who plays Beth March, has graciously agreed to write this blog based on her experiences. Below is a brief synopsis of the show. Please join us as we bring the pages of this wonderful script to the stage. 

Based on Louisa May Alcott's classic 1869 semi-autobiographical novel, this soaring musical focuses on the four March sisters — feisty, tomboyish, aspiring author Jo; romantic Meg; pretentious Amy; and kind-hearted Beth — and their beloved Marmee at home in Concord, Massachusetts while the family patriarch is away serving as a Union Army chaplain during the Civil War. Interspersed with the vignettes in which their lives unfold are several recreations of the melodramatic short stories Jo writes in her attic studio.