Hi there! This is Nick Perreault, promo/publicity/marketing/design guy for The Winter’s Tale Project, liveblogging the first read-through.
6:30 – The first rehearsal begins. Unfortunately, large numbers of people are not present. Fortunately, those people are all Edmonton folks who have good exuses: Major plane delays, subway mishaps, and a few us us spent 2 hours lugging a PA from Queens all the way to midtown Manhattan on the subway. (Video forth coming)
7:20 – FINALLY everyone is here… seems like folks are excited.
7:25 – The amazingly talented and beautiful cast just listed off their names and roles. This is the firist time everyone, cast and crew have sat in the same room. Chris (writer and musical director) and Bridget (writer and director) are kind of giving the initial heads-up on how the production will be run. Chris is talking about how the music for this will actually be run entirely from his laptop.
7:32 – The music has started, and Farren (Autolycus) has begun singing “All in Time”. We’re underway!
7:55 – So far we’ve heard from the majority of the cast, and everyone seems to have done their homework. It’s weird to see people singing passionately and talking to each other as the old friends that their characters, when they’re sitting in their street clothes and just met each other 5 minutes ago.
8:10 – Farren has begun shouting to the voices in his head apparently! A quick examination into his mental state reveals that he was simply reading his own lines for a while with nobody else responding. We’ll make sure he gets some rest tonight.
8:13 – Chris keeps staring at my computer to see what I’m doing. Unfortunately, it’s always in between the note-worthy action, while I’m doing something like checking my e-mail… hey, I’ve got a business to run back in Edmonton and my days have been spent doing things like lugging a soundsystem across the city on the subway!
8:20 – Jason, our videographer is here taping the whole thing for future use. Right now he’s right over my shoulder, making me more than a little paranoid. Just showed me his footage… and despite the fact that there are currently 27 people crammed into an 8′x30′ room, it doesn’t look that crowded on camera. Trust me, it is.
8:33 – We just heard Farron sing the infamous “Stuck with the Bear” song. Ah, the bear. How we have used him to our advantage.
8:40 – Because the actor playing Shepherd can’t make tonight’s readthrough, Bridget Ryan, the co-writer and director is taking care of his lines. It seems like she’s doing it as a sort of Mel Brooks / Morty Seinfeld thing… perhaps because we’re in NY? It’s starting to fade now… too bad, I liked it.
8:47 – David Demato (Clown) has entered the play, and his opening shopping-list monologue has everyone in stitches. His repartee with Farren is comedy gold.
8:55 – And now a few words from Mr. Dave Horak (Dramaturge/Publicity/General Worrying): “It’s going very well. Some nerves off the top, but now everyone is relaxing and settlng into the flow of the show. Little worried about the running time, it needs to be 110-115 minutes so it’s getting close…”
9:13 – Well we’ve officially reached the 110 minute mark… Probably due to a few technical glitches and some mid-play discussion.
9:20 – And now, the final scene. It’s very dramatic, even in the readthrough… it’s amazingly quiet here as everyone lets Kevin (Leontes) and Lou (Polixenes) read through their reconciliation scene.
9:30 – The closing number! The cast sounds great when they’re all singing together, you’d never guess that this was the first time they sang together. Applause all around!
Now a quick review from Bridget and Chris, and we’re done! Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more Winters Tale in NYC!
