8/21
AM: Every day we do scene work, a full run-through, and notes—twice. The rigor has been exhilarating, everything has gotten simpler—no, more do-able, and clearer. This is our last day of rehearsal–the tech crew heads out today, we leave tomorrow.
PM: About 40 ART graduate program students filled the rehearsal studio for our final run-through, all of this without the design elements—the set, the props, the video, the costumes. Suzan remarked that these ad hoc, quasi-audiences are much more difficult than packed audiences in huge theatres, we’re so exposed in the harsh bright lights of the studio. Here they saw only a part of the work, in a very raw state–the bodies, the bones, the music, the words. Rinde “went up” in one scene—but it was totally riveting and appropriate, cause his frustration fed the moment and made it even more appropriate. We encounter moments like this in rehearsal, we utilize them; at these times life and work blur. Nathan said that one girl, who looked as if she had been reading, was actually weeping. A good sign.
-John Kelly
American Repertory Theater 