A Broadway Legend

Greetings Berkshire theatre connoisseurs, my name is Henry Thomas and I am a sophomore here at Berkshire School. While it seems unfathomable, I will attempt to recreate the literary grandeur of my blog compatriot Pratima Singh. Take it easy on me please, she is still has two years on me. This week we were graced with the presence of the Into the Woods legend Joanna Gleason. Mrs. Gleason is known for playing the role of Baker’s Wife in the original Broadway run of this show in which she won a Tony award for Best Actress in a Musical. Her vast knowledge of all things theatre related was thrilling to our entire cast. What struck me personally was her descriptions of life outside of the theatre. She taught us how to prepare for auditions and how to deal with rejections. She also spoke about what it took to maintain balance between work and personal life. She said in life one must plan and have no expectations but onstage one can never plan but should have endless expectations! She said she can always tell when an actor “plans” on stage and that's when the audience  disengages and stops being interested. We ran some of the scenes we've been working on with Mrs. Gleason. She showed us techniques for boosting volume and authority on stage. One exercise involved one of one characters singing a song with several other people around that character providing support and energizing the actor performing. Exercises such as these, really empowered us to sing out and put more feeling into our songs. With opening night coming up in 12 days things like these are welcomed into our regimen. Our meeting was extremely informative and on behalf of Berkshire Theatre, I would like to thank Joanna Gleason for visiting us. Make sure to come out to see our show Into the Woods!