Two Gentlemen of Verona: Up and Running
Proteus (Kyle Stockdall) and Speed (Andrew Schiek) watch as Valentine departs to Milan.
The past couple of weeks have been an exhausting whirlwind. Between the usual rigors of tech, a brutal heatwave, and the particular challenges of this show . . . I think we were all ready for a few nights off. The following is my initial reflections on our process and the run so far.
Tech (Oh TECH!!!) Tech started off as it usual does. We begin with a 9:00 am call for crew and have the cast show up at 1:00 to get oriented with using the Memorial Union ballroom, working with microphones, and all the other new additions to running the show. Leading up to tech, rehearsals had been progressing, but I still felt we were a little behind. We had SO many issues with scheduling this summer, making consistent progress was often frustrating. I only had five rehearsals with the full cast until we got to tech . . . that’s a very low number and prevented me from scheduling movement workshops and as many run-throughs as I would have liked. That said, cast members maintained sunny attitudes and worked hard. But, I’ll admit I was getting a little nervous with the lack of time we really had as a full ensemble.
Brian, PJ, and I warned them repeatedly about making sure they brought snacks, water bottles, and sun screen. The cast had spent most of the summer dealing with the physical challenges of the Quad and were more or less prepared for a long day in the heat. For whatever reason, however, the crew had not taken these warnings to heart. Two of our crew members didn’t bring sunscreen at all. Luckily I come to every rehearsal with a well-stocked “Bard Bag” with no less than three types of sun screen and instructed them to slather it on. I mean . . . they knew they would be working outside all day . . . Oy.
Set up went relatively smoothly, but as always happens little things get forgotten like having enough cable or batteries or other things. I made several trips back and forth to Withycombe to retrieve supplies and we got everything up. We brought out our canopy usually used during tech for the booth which sits out in an unshaded grassy patch. But, this time we put it where the musicians would be sitting on stage since they would not have an opportunity to seek shade. You might be thinking: Why didn’t we get a second canopy? Even two weeks later my husband brings this up: “Well, no one thought to get a second canopy?” Yes. NO ONE thought to get a second canopy. Not our production manager, stage manager, technical director, set designer, or myself. No one on the crew. No one brought up getting a second canopy. So we were quite exposed in the sun for many hours. From my perspective, this is not unusual. During tech, I’m never under the canopy anyway since it’s too far back from the “stage.” I sit out there, usually in a long-sleeved shirt to stop the sun, constantly re-applying sunscreen, sweating and on the brink of heat-stroke. But, that’s just par for the course.
The run started later than usual. Although the cast was called at 1:00, between orienting them, mic checks, and other business, we didn’t get started until nearly 4:00. While the run went on without any major issues, nerves were getting frayed. With the edges of my vision blurring and exhaustion setting in, I did yell at one point about the “fucking hay bales” not being moved at intermission. Not my finest moment. Although probably not my worst.
The sunburns and long hours were rewarded at the end with pizza and beer. Tech is always the worst day. It’s a hump to get over no matter the setting, but coupled with the relentless summer sun, it becomes extra challenging. This was, by far, not the worst tech for Bard. Usually for whatever reason tech always seems to fall on the hottest day of the year. While temperatures were in the high 80s, our “hottest” day didn’t actually happen until Thursday where they peaked at 104. Oy!
Lovely Genesis Hansen as the lovelorn Julia.
Let’s Put on a Show The rest of the week progressed well although going into Sunday and Monday, I had a slightly nagging feeling that the pace wasn’t quite coming together as I had hoped. It was hot. People were tired, particularly Stuart, Kyle, and Mike who were all dressed in many layers and long frock coats for most of the play. Putting together a show is a delicate business, you don’t want your actors to “peak” too soon. You want to keep throwing little challenges in their path to overcome and keep them sharp, but you can’t overwhelm them and you don’t want to burn them out.
I felt very good after Monday’s run and discussed with DeMara and Chad giving everyone Tuesday night off for rest. Looking at the exhaustion in the actors’ eyes, particularly Kyle who was taking a constant brutal beating (scraped up knees, blistered feet, etc.) as Proteus . . . I had to make the call. And sometimes rest is more important than more rehearsal. When I announced that they would be getting Tuesday off, a couple of the cast members looked as if they were going to shed tears of relief. They had worked hard and it was showing. Everyone needed a break from the rising temperatures.
Matt and Andrew with Adonis, taking on the role of Crab for the evening.
Opening night and the weekend has gone smoothly from a performance standpoint. People are really enjoying the show and I have received a lot of positive feedback from random audience members I have run into around our humble cow town. Reflecting on this with Matt, we have both commented that this show has been hard even for Bard standards.
Matt is the most seasoned of all the Bard veterans. This is his seventh time performing in Bard in the Quad and only my sixth time directing. From his end, he says that it has to do with his role and the way the cast is broken up. Because he is also in the band, he doesn’t have much “down time” to focus during performances and during rehearsals there was very little time to work through business with other cast members. Matt loves to work things and come up with new ideas throughout the process. This is one of the reasons I love collaborating with him so much - he works hard and makes everyone around him better. He is a fantastic ensemble player, creative, and very “free” on stage. But I can see how challenging this has been for him. Launce isn’t at all the “biggest” role in Two Gents, although it might be one of the most memorable. But it has is specific challenges of having to share the stage with a live animal and basically establish a relationship with the audience primarily through two long monologues and not through relationships with other characters. He does well, of course, but it’s not without a lot of work and focus.
Kyle Stockdall and Genesis Hansen as Proteus and Julia, bidding each other farewell.
In conversations with Kyle, he expressed another set of challenges, both physical and mental. Proteus is more or less the lead in the show. He has the most stage time, so Kyle is in the position of having the carry a lot of the weight and maintaining a driving energy throughout the narrative. On top of that the physical style is extremely demanding AND Proteus is so unlikable for so much of the play. From my end, he really stepped up to the challenge and delivers an extremely nuanced and funny performance. Something clicked, apparently, during one of our rehearsals late in the process. We had both been struggling with Proteus being such a dirt bag, but he still have to experience learning and discovery. This was probably doubly difficult since Genesis is so completely charming and likeable as Julia. It’s easy to root for the character anyway, but her nuanced and hilarious performance are difficult to compete with when Proteus is doing such despicable things. Kyle as Proteus had to realize that he didn’t love Julia anymore and then suddenly give himself room to rediscover that love. It ends up working since we have set up a context where people do act like that and we encourage the audience to applaud and “boo” accordingly. We make it okay for characters to do “bad” things and then be forgiven in the next moment and the audience is willing to go along with us.
I think that was one of the hardest parts of directing this play. Early on I did what I told myself I wouldn’t do as a director and try to “fix” Shakespeare. I need to remember to just “embrace the ugly” and just create a context where it makes sense. I was on the right track with the melodrama concept, I just had to go further with it, more meta in the end and allow Valentine to attempt to “give” away Sylvia. We also created a great convention for Proteus’ decent into darkness. Proteus without a mustache = good guy/ Proteus with a mustache = bad guy. And the audience is completely with us.
Other than those script challenges, there were some other things to overcome. We had four cast members drop in the first two weeks of rehearsal - scheduling, blah, blah, blah. And I had a devil of a time figuring things out. Luckily, Stuart stepped in as a sensitive and lovable Valentine and Andrew was willing to make his acting debut as Speed. Grace was asked to pull double-duty as Lucetta and a (very nasty) lady bandit. They all stepped up to these challenges admirably and have done excellent work. We also had show-specific issues to contend with - the music (wonderfully adapted and arranged by Sedona) ended up saving a number of transitions and helped with pacing and creating extremely memorable moments in the story. This, of course, comes with a lot of work and focus. And let’s not forget the dog! I was always hoping that our local Humane Society, Heartland, would be able to partner with us so that we can feature an adoptable dog for each performance. They have been absolutely wonderful and Henry has been a much adored addition to our ensemble.
Henry. Seriously, somebody needs to adopt this very good boy!
So, that’s where we are. Smack in the middle of a run. We’re back out in the Quad tonight! I’m sure I’ll have more reflections on this process soon, but for the moment, let’s boot-scoot ourselves back to Verona!
