Inside The Revel Rehearsal
Last week I had a great time sitting in on a rehearsal for House Theatre’s upcoming show, The Revel. The play is a loose adaptation of one of my favorite Greek tragedies, The Bacchae. The story of The Revel takes place in two contrasting places: in the town where societal structure is maintained and up on the mountain where a bacchanal of spiritual renewal is in full swing! It’s a classic tale of the Apollonian drive vs. the Dionysian drive, or order vs. chaos. I was delighted to find that, even in the rehearsal, these contrasting drives not only existed, but they complimented each other.
Like all House rehearsals, the evening began with cast and crew circling up. Circle is a warm and inviting ritual that gives everyone a chance to connect as a team before getting down to work. Even I was invited to stand in the circle, laughing as the actors got a little horseplay out of their system and listening with rapt attention as Director Leslie Buxbaum Danzig described her vision for the evening. When the circle broke off, the chorus left to rehearse in a separate room while Leslie, Chris Mathews, and Mike Smith stayed to do some scene work.
As soon as the chorus left I felt the focus in the room sharpen. In the scene Peter (Chris Mathews) convinces the Sheriff (Mike Smith) to go up the mountain in an attempt to squash the growing anarchy of the revelers. Chris swirled around a small scaffold on wheels, meant to represent a mobile set piece, sometimes climbing on top of it and other times ducking below, as he roused the sheriff to action. Actors’ choices changed the scene markedly, making it a thrilling process to witness. The whole while, Stage Manager Brian DesGranges sat in the corner, taking meticulous notes on his laptop and ensuring that the rehearsal remained on task.
I slipped out of the main rehearsal to see what the chorus was up to. In The Revel, the chorus is made up of women so seduced by the Deacon’s promises of spiritual renewal that they abandon their town to revel up on the mountain. I found them rehearsing in the sun-soaked Palm Room. Made up of tall windows overlooking the city, the room is so bright that many revelers wore sunglasses! While the main rehearsal focused on scene work, this one felt more like a purposeful jam session, complete with banjo, guitar, two fiddles, and an upright bass! Musicians paired off, teaching each other verses and building new harmonies to compliment the score written by Composer Jess McIntosh. One reveler stood on a chair, another practiced her clogging steps, the others were whooping and excitedly beckoning to each other. The celebratory nature of the room was so infectious that I even found myself singing along to familiar verses and laughing out loud when someone took a great swig from their water bottle as if it was a jug of moonshine.
The energy of the room felt unstructured, but we could all tell that productive work was taking place. When Leslie dropped in, she was impressed with how well the choreography and songs were coming along. As I packed up to leave, I found myself in a dreamy state of mind, reflecting on how much focus and exploration rely on each other to make productive creative work possible.
