Friday Night

Friday Night Blog

Hi bloggers!!

            As you guys know this weekend we opened Metamorphoses!  Opening night was a good experience for us to feel how the play would read in front of an audience.  We encountered moments of highs and lows.  And for Friday's show we took these moments and rehearsed them and made them even better.  A typical Berkshire Theater Friday show has the biggest audience and usually consists of 80% students and 20% adults.   Of course we wanted to put on the best show possible for our peers and teachers, but we faced some obstacles that proved to be harder to overcome than we thought.  For this show, we do not have the luxury of using microphones so projection and diction were very necessary in delivering our lines.  Due to nerves and the amount of people in the audience, as a cast we struggled to reach the audience with our volume.  All of the content of the play itself is very compelling, but it was up to us to draw the audience's attention to that very important content, and to do that we needed to be louder.  We still had a great show full of funny, happy, and sad moments, but our performance was slightly hindered by our lack of volume. Overall the performance went well. However, We are very excited to step up our game tomorrow!!!!

Thanks for floating with us,

Amani

OPENING NIGHT!!!

Thursday Night: Opening Night!!!

       

Tonight was a completely surreal experience for the cast. After two months of hard work on blocking, understanding our characters, memorizing lines, we’ve been preparing to share a kick-butt show with parents and students alike. Part of me was nervous that we might not have been able to pull it off, and part of me was excited that the show we had delved into was becoming a reality. In warm ups that night, Mr Howard pumped us up completely, while helping us focus on the task at hand. There was a fire inside of us; we were ready to jump in! The opening entrances gave us absolute jitters, for we were unsure of how the audience would respond to everything, but by the time we reached the final scene, there was a sense of joy and excitement among us. We had gotten laughs, tears, we even moved couples to hold hands and acknowledge the love that they had and the love that we shared. By the time we got offstage, it took all the robo in our bodies to not flip with joy before we got to the green room. But soon we were jumping, laughing, smiling and screeching with pride! Opening night had been an absolute success!

Swimming along happily,
Greer

     Sunday we spent the day using lighting and adding it to the scenes. It was really great to experience both Lights and sound. (Heads up, Mr Howard did a great job. Its all really intricate thus, amazing)

       Yesterday was Tech-Dress for Metamorphoses. After a regular rehearsal, we ate dinner and prepared for the runthrough. In Tech-Dress we use a many costumes, lights, sounds, etc. that we can. The main purpose of this is to fix the problems that arise from adding more complexities to the show. It was a long night, but we finished strong and we were content with our progress. 

        As I said, much of Tech-Dress is adding costumes to the show. I don’t even know where to begin with the costumes of Metamorphoses. The play is a collection of somewhat unrelated scenes. Because of this, each actor has several roles. Each actor also has several costumes. The entire cast throughout the show adds up to around 120-140 costumes, not sure by now, and many quick changes (even one underwater).

Oh yeah, and the whole pool thing. With a lot of hard work put in by all of us, especially our assistant director Annie, costumes may just work out.

Between Mr. Howards amazing job on the complex lighting and sound, Doms work on the set, and Annie's work on costumes We were ready to try a run through for tonight. 

        Today is Dress Rehearsal, which we like to treat as though we were opening. Tomorrow is opening night, at 730!! We hope to see you there!

Smooth sailing,

Riley

Load-in

Hi Bloggers!

Today is the beginning of a grand adventure here on the set of Metamorphoses.  Today is is Load-in day, which marks the first day of Tech Week.  From 3:20 pm to 5:30 pm we held a regular Friday rehearsal.  We finished blocking the Phaeton & Apollo and Eros & Psyche scenes.  We decided to take the Phaeton & Apollo scene in a new direction; Phaeton becomes so fed up with his therapist’s ramble that he acts on his irritation.  During the Eros & Psyche scene we continued on to the end of the scene and focused on the tender and hopeful relationship between the two characters.

 After dinner, we gathered and began the formal load-in. Throughout load-in, the cast and crew divide amongst our tech crews and execute our duties on the technical side of the show.  We clean and clear out the work space, place and spike all of the props, label and organize all of the costumes, hang all of our publicity posters, and focus on all final unfinished details of the play.  As this is a production with many challenging aspects on both the acting and technical side, we need to make sure that we have everything in place leading up to show time.

Looking forward to hanging out on the deck,

Amani B.

Ana Tolvo helping to create costumes

Water Rehearsals and Shipwreck Scene

Wednesday October 28, 2015

            During our second day of water rehearsal, we moved the shipwreck scene, one of the most involved with the water, into the water and began finalizing it. First, we ran through the original blocking that was made without the pool.  Then we resumed in the pool.  Our sailors set off to sea, wondering if they’d make it back from their voyage. Our trusted captain, Mr. Howard, set the sails in the right direction. Our ship was skimming on top of the water, making great pace. We learned how to properly row, after years of experience. We had learned the way of the rower. Until we reached the serious seas, filling with white capped waves and rough currents. It was our time to go down, and the dreadful sinking of the ship began.

This involved a great deal of splashing, drowning, bailing, and weeping.  Being that this was rehearsal, we repeated this scene, splashing and all, over and over again until we carried out all of the nuances to satisfaction.

Safe diving,

Amani