On The Road: First Week of Rehearsals

Okay, truthfully, this is our second week. I came into Chicago a week early with a few other principals to lay some groundwork for the family scenes in the play.

The first week of rehearsals for a play is usually spent on tablework. A bunch of actors sit around with the director, dramaturg and stage manager and read through the play very slowly. We talk about a lot of different things, psychology, social mores of the time period, back story, structure. To an outsider it can seem indulgent. But it's actually a very important part of the process. If a play is soup, then tablework is the stock in which it simmers. It gives a subtle flavoring that might not be identifiable upon first taste. But at the end of the day, it's what makes the soup unique.

So here we are, making soup in Chicago. Which is good news because God knows it’s soup weather. At this point, I am nearly unrecognizable when I step outside the door. Bundled up in layer upon layer to protect myself from the Chicago winter, I look like a beached manatee. Although I grew up in nearby Indianapolis, I had forgotten how bone-chilling this time of year can be. The first week of rehearsal it was so cold that the snot literally froze in my nose. In. My. Nose. Perhaps I’ve grown soft since moving east, but shouldn’t there be some kind of warning on the radio or television when bodily fluids begin to freeze INSIDE the human body?

Apart from the weather, though, Chicago is different from New York only on two counts. First, the streets are much cleaner. Walking the dog on La Salle, it’s a relief not to have to scan the sidewalk for discarded chicken bones and other such canine delicacies. Secondly, people in this town actually talk to each other while waiting for the train. I’m still having trouble getting used to that -- but I’m hoping that I’ll warm up as the weather does.


And as for rehearsals. I’ve been here two weeks and the cast is amazing! Week one was spent with just the members of the Banks’ household: myself, Megan Osterhaus (Winifred Banks), Valerie Boyle (Mrs. Brill) and Andrew Keenan-Bolger (Robertson Aye), as well as the four children who alternate as our Janes and Michaels. We spent our time roughing through most of the family scenes. However, at the end of each day we would spend an hour or so learning some basic choreography to spell the letters in “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”. Five days of work and we only made it as far as “S-U-P-E-R-C-A-L-I-F-R-A-G-I-L…” Believe me, it was quite a haul.Then the second week the rest of the company joined us. That afternoon, our amazing ensemble learned all thirty-four letters in about thirty-four minutes. They are a fast, talented and game group of performers. (Don’t get me started on their morning warmups. At 10am when Geoffrey Garratt starts their warmup, that thumping club beat kicks in in the dance studio and they all seem like genetically engineered superdancers. I’ve never felt older or less coordinated in my life.)