First Day

We have begun. After a long week of preparations, worry and anticipation, the first day arrived yesterday. Our rehearsal process for Cat is a little modified from what would be considered the norm. First days usually begin with a big meet and greet when all of the cast members, designers, technicians, theatre administration gather together to meet as a team for the first time. For this show, we are starting our first week with the three primary characters....Maggie, Brick and Big Daddy. The bulk of this play rests on the shoulders of these three characters and our director wanted to take the first week to really concentrate on their journeys through the story and get a solid basis upon which to build the entire play. On the second week, we add 3 more characters...Big Mamma, Gooper and Mae. In the third week, we will finally have all of our cast members joining us...Doc Baugh, Reverend Tooker, Sookey & Lacey who are the house servants and then the children...all 15 of `em!!



It is on the Monday of that third week when we will finally have our meet & greet and the whole team from Artistic Director on down will all be in the same room. So...it felt a little strange yesterday when the 3 actors, the director, myself and my assistant gathered in the rehearsal room to begin. But what a beginning! My present cast members are just lovely folks...I am always amazed at this life in theatre. It seems that no matter what the show, what the circumstances, we all have this familiarity whether we have met before or not. It`s like that with each production a bond is formed incredibly quickly. I have always felt that it is like a little family is formed with each show...that somehow we know what we are in for and that we need each other to get through it. I truly believe that theatre people are all cut from the same cloth. We may be very, very different with our quirks and styles but on some internal plane, we seem to recognize each other and open ourselves up to each other very quickly.



For example...I have a TERRIBLE singing voice. You will never catch me singing in public... (unless I am very, very drunk and then you would still need to work hard at getting me to just hum a tune). Yesterday, we did a read-through of the script and of course we had many parts not covered with only three of the cast in the room. The director was going to read in the other parts, but as we began, it became apparent that it was just too confusing for him to do all of them...so myself and the assistant director hopped in. I played Big Mamma and Reverend Tooker as well as some of the children. The children sing. Without even thinking about it, I sang the songs at full voice.... and I felt ok about it...completely safe...among friends. When I step back from it I realize that I had only met most of these folks hours before and here I am doing something I am totally insecure about without hesitation. For me, this is such a beautiful thing and one of the reasons I continue to do this work. Now, I did apologize for my southern drawl when doing Big Mamma...I did feel a little self-conscious about that....accents are always a tricky thing and usually I would just read it straight. But with Tennesse Williams` work, especially this play, the accent is (as I see it) crucial to the story... I guess it wasn`t too bad though. Everyone was very complimentary afterwards. As a child, my parents had friends from Memphis and I heard that drawl quite a bit during my formative years. Maybe that is one reason I find Williams` plays resonate so much with me.



Hearing the three principals put voice to the words was just magical....even with our attempts, odd as they may have been, to carry the whole story along and without any rehearsal, you could hear the absolute beauty of these tragic and deeply enmeshed characters very clearly. It is a powerful and deeply moving play... at times, hysterically funny and others, shocking and disturbing. And mostly....deeply human....real....familiar. Hmm....there is that word again...familiar....family.



This play is very much about a family. And as I sit here, typing and drinking in my caffeine to get the day started, I feel thankful. Thankful that I get a chance to join this family of artists who are gathering to tell this story, this family from the playwright`s mind and get to play with them...for a little while anyway. That`s the other thing about theatre. It is brief and fleeting and it is very important for me to savour each moment while we are all in the room together.



Thankful.