Early morning Hamlet
The American Shakespeare Center's touring troupe is in rehearsals for their 2014/15 Method in Madness tour. The following is a post from Tim Sailer (who plays Horatio) about Sunday morning's dress rehearsal of Hamlet.
It was 7:00 a.m. and my eyes were stinging. It'd been a long time since I've had contacts on that early in the day. But I had an early call for work: a dress rehearsal for Hamlet. Fight call began at 8:15.
Why so early? For one, the Blackfriars Playhouse is booked for performances and other rehearsals. And then, on tour, we'll be doing a lot of early student matinees.
To add to the challenge, we hadn't done Hamlet in a week. And in the meantime, our brains and bodies have been working on Much Ado about Nothing. The situation was becoming increasingly less ideal.
When I arrived, the playhouse was in a bit of a groggified frenzy. People were dodging up and down the stairs, scrambling for props, unloading instruments from their cases, and fighting the zippers on their laundry bags to get their socks. Still, I sensed a drive from everyone: let's do this.
As the house opened, we started off with a rendition of Gnarls Barkley's “Crazy” and a few folks strolled into the theatre for the show. Then we charged ahead with “19th Nervous Breakdown” (Rolling Stones cover) and the hounds were released. The American Shakespeare Center Theatre Camp (ASCTC) kids arrived! It was a race to the empty gallant stools on stage. They immediately began clapping and grooving along to the music and continued to be a generous, vibrant audience for the rest of the show.
What a gift.
It's a hectic part of the season for the troupe. We're in the middle of rehearsals, memorizing lines for Doctor Faustus, working on guitar licks, stumbling over dance moves. The details to manage are impossible to count. But that concern wipes away when a little boy laughs along with every pun and joke the Gravedigger dishes out at Hamlet. Or when a trio of girls gasp as Gertrude drinks from the king's chalice. I love stuff like that.
Now I just want to get on the road. But we have some more work to do.
-Tim
