The Rehearsal Process: Arcadia (Installment 2)

Our series of posts from behind-the-scenes continues. Here again, is Alex Wiles.  Down at Richmond Shakes, we think you'll soon see why she's won us all over.

Alex Wiles as Thomasina Coverly

Over the course of the last four days, the 1809 cast spent 14 hours together.  When you spend that much time with a group of people, it’s either going to result in disaster or the best 14 hours of your week.

I can’t speak for the rest of the cast, but my opinion falls in line with the latter possibility.

Since Arcadia shuttles between two time periods--1809-1812 and 1993--the rehearsals--and thus the cast--naturally break into two groups.  While the focus of last week’s rehearsals were 1993 (as our own Jonathan Conyers--playing Septimus, my tutor--performed in the opening week of the Firehouse Theater Project’s phenomenal Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), we 1809ers got our own chance to dig into the play over the past few days.

Fourteen out of 96 hours may not seem like a lot, but it’s surprising how quickly one gets to know one’s cast mates when the emphasis is on play.  As we develop our characters and relationships even as we flesh out the blocking (where we move and when), you pick up on bits and piece of personalities--even of people you thought you already knew well.

Take Julie Phillips, Richmond Shakespeare’s Education Manager.  I’ve had the pleasure of working with her through my work as an intern and a stage manager over the past couple of years, and my impression of her was that she is one of the sweetest, gentlest people I know.  Then I watch her play Lady Croom (my mother) in rehearsal and get to meet a whole new side of Julie: still sweet, but with an imperiousness, power, and sensuality that is absolutely Lady Croom--but also still very Julie.  It’s an absolute delight.

Then somebody flubs a line, and you can’t help but smile or laugh.  Tom Stoppard has endowed Arcadia with beautiful language, but it’s not all easy to get through in early readings.  For example: someone else (who we won’t name) accidentally says “guinea pig” when the script says “guinea,” as in the piece of currency.  (My claim to fame is running into stationary objects.)  Rehearsal has to be a safe place where it’s okay for actors to make mistakes--because we all do.  A lot!  That’s part of what rehearsal is for - trying things out to see if they work or not.  Sometimes they don’t, but sometimes you try something on the fly and it sticks.

You know the “family ties” of the cast are beginning to take hold when the prop letter that’s being passed to you is covered in doodles of everything from explorations of Fermat’s last theorem (which figures prominently in the first scene) to tic-tac-toe boards to be filled out during the next break, to quick sketches of particularly vivid descriptions in the script--like Mrs. Chater’s drawers (and no, we’re not talking an armoire!), waltzing, geometrical solids...you name it, it’s somewhere on those prop pages.  

In a way, it’s quite fitting for this play.  So much of the interplay between the 1993 and 1809 action is the 1993 characters’ discovery and wrestling with letters, drawings, and diagrams written and left behind by the 1809 characters.  As rehearsals shift to focus on the 1993 cast for the next few days, they’ll have more than a few surprises waiting for them in those hundreds of sheets of paper that we spread across the table during rehearsals.

As Septimus so eloquently states in one of his lectures to Thomasina, “we shed as we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind...”

It’s not that rehearsals aren’t productive, or that they don’t involve hard work; they do.  Time constraints increase the pressure to move efficiently, to take direction and “get it right” the first or second time, not the fifth or sixth.  

My accounting professor, Dr. Hoyle, jokingly remarked that he hoped I would say that everything I learned in accounting came in use in working on this production.  I don’t know about everything, but here’s a metaphoric connection: the ideal balance sheet in a financial statement is one that, well, balances--assets, liabilities, and stockholder’s equity, that is.  To me, that’s not so different from a good rehearsal: it’s a balance of task and relational behaviors--between getting through the work at hand and building relationships with your cast members.  (Are you impressed yet, Dr. Hoyle?)

Maybe this is my amateur status showing through, but I’ve always loved rehearsals for this reason.  I’ve been blessed to work with a lot of wonderful people in theater, and I love this incubation period every bit as much as I love performing.  Not only are we creating a wonderful story to share with audiences, we’re in many ways creating a family.  Perhaps that sounds corny, but it’s how I honestly feel.  After all, what else is a group of people with whom you’re comfortable enough to open yourself up to being vulnerable, to spending a lot of time together, to creating something bigger than the sum of its parts?  Sounds like family to me.

The Rehearsal Process: Arcadia

We spend a lot of time talking about events, performances and reviews.  As an audience member, it may be the final product, the "magic" of the theatre that draws you.  But for the staff at Richmond Shakespeare, and the hard-working actors and crew, the work behind the scenes is "magical" too.  The entire process of creating a production has its rewarding and difficult moments (and sometimes downright terrifying moments) before everything comes together on opening night.

We wanted to invite our audiences to experience a little bit of that process we work on Tom Stoppard's Arcadia. We've asked actress Alex Wiles to share her experience with you. 

For her first blog, Alex shares her experience leading up to (and at) the very first read through of Arcadia, our first show of the season, opening October 15th. (with a 1-night preview October 14)   - Sarah Cole

              *                *                *

“We’d like you to play Thomasina for us this fall in Arcadia.”  Those were the words that, for the first time in my life, left me completely and utterly speechless in the best of ways.  Luckily I came to my senses within the next 24 hours and found the one word I needed: “Yes!”

It was the best kind of shock.  Two years ago while volunteering in the Richmond Shakespeare offices, I snuck a peek at the planning board, deciphering the acronyms for the plays that would comprise the next four or five seasons.  “12N” clearly stood for Twelfth Night, “A&C” for Antony and Cleopatra...but what’s this? “ARC.”

Not wanting to appear ignorant about Shakespeare in the Richmond Shakespeare office, I spent a good five minutes contemplating the acronym.  Unable to match it to a play, I gave in and asked Grant.

“Oh, that’s Arcadia, by Tom Stoppard.  Have you read it?”

“Not yet.”

“Here’s a copy.  I think you’ll like it.”

As he handed me his copy of the script, Grant had made the understatement of the year.  It was love at first read, particularly with Thomasina Coverly: too intelligent for her own good, witty, at once young in experience and old in wisdom, and she gets to waltz with a gentleman that gives Mr. Darcy a run for his frock coat?  Yes, I think I do like that.

Here I formally apologize to everyone with whom I have spent any time in the past two years for talking their ears off about this marvel of a play.

It wouldn’t leave me alone--I found myself researching things that I never would have touched before.  Deterministic chaos theory?  Thermodynamics?  Iterated algorithms?  Fractals?  I loved it all, even if my understanding was entirely elementary.  I loved the way Stoppard used these concepts and theories to weave the fabric of the play itself.

It’s been said that if we have a contemporary equivalent of Shakespeare, it’s Stoppard.  I am by no means an expert on either of the two writers, but I believe that Arcadia supports that claim.  It may not be in verse, but it’s poetry nonetheless.  The beauty of the speech, the endless puns, a liberal peppering of double-entendres, the comedy, the romance, the existential questions...Arcadia offers so much at every level of enjoyment.  I truly believe it has something for everyone.

Two years of researching, reading, and dreaming were validated in one short moment on June 1 when that offer was made.  I thought things couldn’t possibly get better.  How wrong I was!

After a summer of more research and memorizing those beautiful lines, most of the cast met for a read-through this past Wednesday, August 1.  There were faces both new and familiar to the Richmond Shakespeare scene, all bringing their talent, enthusiasm, and fabulous British accents together, over boxes of Chex Mix, chocolate chip cookies, and homemade Rice Crispy treats from our fabulous stage manager, Brittany Dilliberto.  

After all, we must set our priorities.

As we began our work, something magical happened: it felt as though I was experiencing the play for the first time.  As an actor (or, more to the point, someone who just really enjoys theater), I sometimes find myself hearing the characters’ voices as I read to myself--particularly since Stoppard did such beautiful work in giving each character a truly distinct voice.  Hearing the cast read it aloud brought those voices to life more wonderfully, hilariously, and poignantly than I ever could have imagined--and that was just the first read!

It is a joy and a pleasure to embark on this adventure with such a talented, wonderful group of individuals.  I can’t wait to experience all that the coming weeks have in store, and hope that you’ll join us on our journey to Arcadia.

Speaking of the Court (1 of 2)

Or rather to the court....

Several of you have been kind enough to inquire about a mid-day, luncheon series talk I gave this week at the Richmond Circuit Courts building, and to post my remarks. We began, at the request of my host, with a little overview of what it means to be an actor as well as serving full time with a theatre company. What’s it like? It’s amazing. How so, they asked? And come to think of it, why Shakespeare? What's the big deal with Shakespeare? (A frequent question, and a good one.)

A little illustration served, just then, with explanations of vested engagement in "play," by the audience, in the moments that happen when we share a common space together. (Benedick and Macbeth)

"I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much another man is a fool when he dedicates his behavior to love, will, after he hath laughed at such shallow follies in others, become the argument of his own scorn by falling in love!" and,

"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more..."

But one main thing, you learn about people. From the plays, and in meeting so many audience members. You know inherent things about where people are from, mostly by how they sound. You know, instinctively, when you’re being lied to. Maybe not about what, but you know. Actors know acting when they see it.

That all seemed a useful jumping-off point for a talk on acting, Shakespeare, and the courts:

Acting, Shakespeare, and the Courts

After as many performances as we've given, both locally and touring twenty-three states, you also begin to get a feel for what life must've been like for Shakespeare’s acting company: to tour, to visit towns repeatedly and see familiar faces, to be that traveling actor, is all very exciting. Perhaps we even vicariously felt a little bit of what it must've been like to be Shakespeare. A little bit.

Can you slide that understanding now, of a writer, an actor, the keenest insight of his day, perhaps, into the world of justice and the courts? Shakespeare was no stranger to the English court system. But can we know his views on justice and the courts through biographical record?

His father, John Shakespeare was bailiff or constable of Stratford—more ceremonial than we think of it, but a prominent member of the town. As bailiff, it’s possible John Shakespeare would have welcomed traveling players to town--one theory of how young William became so interested in players and playing…Were some invited to the Shakespeare's home?

….John eventually fell on tough times, some of his own making---he dealt illegally in the black market for wool, at the time highly regulated. Three courts were involved, from the Court of Common Pleas in London at Westminster, to the Court of Queen’s Bench, (representing her perhaps, but not quite as regal as it sounds) —to the Court of Record in Stratford-Upon-Avon. John once presided over the last of these, and now faced it as the accused. But I’m sure that would never happen today...

John's opponent? His brother-in-law, Edmund. Who having loaned John a bond to help him in lean times, later refused payment and kept John's inheritance. Here’s what’s interesting here: John had once so loved his brother-in-law that he named his youngest son (William’s brother)----Edmund. In William’s play of King Lear, an evil character named Edmund steals the preference, patrimony and even the love of their father. Further, he steals it of the King’s Court itself! Autobiographical? Maybe. But interesting! Bailiffs, constables, judges, witness and testimony. The Shakespeare family even had a lawyer, between 1588 and 1590, arguing one case in London. (It was settled out of court.)

By the way, Shakespeare’s siblings all together? Anne, Joan, Edmund, Richard, Margaret! …..and Gilbert. Well, five out of six isn’t bad. In fact, the plays are full of references to people William most likely knew, and who are mentioned in surviving legal documents.

The Mountjoy’s, from whom he rented an apartment, and whose father was sued by his son-in-law for not paying a dowry. Shakespeare is recorded as giving testimony. Montjoy is a reputable character in Henry V. And on and on. Familiar names from William’s life, some of whom end up legal trouble. Montjoy’s case with his fellow French? Too long to debate here.

Court references are also interesting when we recall that Shakespeare’s plays were performed at the law schools themselves, likely with the playwright in the cast.

But what about the playwright’s views on justice? Many of you know “the quality of mercy is not strained.” It of course comes from The Merchant of Venice.

Which we'll turn to that most famous of legal speeches in installment two. (It was an hour-long talk)

8-9-10----1100! Twelfth Night Posts RS Record

One week ago tonight, Richmond Shakespeare hosted its largest ever single-performance audience, with 1,100 patrons attending Twelfth Night at Dogwood Dell, helping to round out this year's Festival of Arts. The tally was reported to us by the Dell's staff, and Festival legend Lou Dean remarked that behind the 4th of July and the musical Pippin, it was the best-attended night of the summer. It was a lovely night for those patrons, and the cast found it exhilarating.

At right is a quick image of the arriving audience.

We were carrying on a tradition that dates back to the fifties, in fact. For more than two decades, from the mid to late 1950's through the 1970's (and possibly into the early 80's), a community theatre troupe called the Richmond Shakespeare Players performed each summer at the Dell.

What's in a Name?
Richmond Shakespeare is a completely different organization, officially created by University of Richmond alumni as the Encore! Theatre Company in 1984. We created the Richmond Shakespeare Festival after another company tried for two years in the mid 1990's.

Our Director's Own History
Many of you on 8-9-10 heard me tell the story of Molly Hood, the terrific young director of Twelfth Night. For those who couldn't attend: the last time Shakespeare was performed out at Dogwood Dell it was 1996, with the same play. Cynde Liffick and I were fortune enough to be in the cast. (Just prior to joining Encore!) We recall a rainstorm bringing the audience very close to the stage. In the crowd that night, sometimes standing, sometimes sitting, was a very young.......Molly Hood. It's been a privilege to help bring her splendid production of Twelfth Night back to that Dell stage. Follow the tags for other tales of Molly and her own fan club, the Hoodwinkers--whose founders were both in attendance Monday night, along with Molly and most of her family.

Many, many thanks to all involved, from the tremendous Twelfth Night company of actors, designers and crew, to the very helpful Dogwood Dell staff and volunteers. More folks participated in bringing this about than I'm able to thank here---but do know that you're a part of this adventure, and that we're grateful to be sharing it with you.

Season Subscriptions and ticketing information

Dear friends,

It has come to our attention that due to a glitch in our ticketing website an "error" message has been appearing during the ticket purchasing process. We have been in continual contact with tix.com since the problem was brought to our attention want to ensure our patrons that our ticketing system is and always has been 100% secure. We apologize for the inconvenience and this glitch has been fixed. We thank you very much for your feedback and for bringing this error to our attention.

Please continue to contact us with your thoughts and concerns.

We look forward to celebrating the summer with us at Twelfth Night and Antony & Cleopatra !!

Click here to purchase tickets.

To All the Audiences, Supporters, Artists, Staff, Trustees, Fans and Volunteers of Richmond Shakespeare:

The time is now.

If you haven’t yet contacted your legislator, please, take a moment and do so now---today.

I’m writing today to ask each and every one of you who follows the work of Richmond Shakespeare to act, not on the stage, but by faxing, e-mailing, or phoning your Virginia delegate and senator a letter.

Who to write? Easy: http://legis.virginia.gov/1_cit_guide/contacting_my.html

What to say? Also easy: Virginians For the Arts talking points

The plan is simple. Communicate the support of all our many constituents who reap the benefits of the arts in the Commonwealth. In addition to the 20,000 jobs and the $300 million economic impact of the arts organizations, Virginians have, for more than thirty years, known the value of supporting the Commission.

Now, without equivocation, is the time to remind our representatives of that heartfelt belief.

If you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me from the RS website, or to phone our offices at 804-232-4000. We’re happy to help in any way we can.

Catching up: Romeo and Juliet Without Words

I've known and loved Prokoviev's Romeo and Juliet score for more than fifteen years, but until last month, I'd never seen the ballet. Films, musical theatre adaptations, puppet shows (in miniature and well, puppet-sized), directed the play twice (three when you count a staged reading); I've performed the text, all seen and done. But never the ballet? How's that possible?

The opening night included sumptuous costumes (by the dozens), outstanding dancing, and an absolutely perfect take on the tragedy. A couple of favorite moments: Richmond Ballet master and, on RJ, choreographer Malcolm Burns allows Igor Antonov and Vallerie Tellmann the time needed to fall in love through prolonged eye contact---such a rarity in any theatre. He also even has the chorus land one dance in which bodies stop moving a second before dresses settle around the dancers, to the last notes of the moment. Simply brilliant.

It was a gorgeous treatment throughout, delighting small children, adults, everyone, and had me a little choked up. At Mercutio's wounding, a man two rows in front of me leaned over to his wife and whispered, with a big smile on his face:

"A scratch, a scratch."

Richmond's terrific offerings include outdoor folk and Shakespeare festivals, performances by symphonies on piers beside the river, (in RJ the Symphony seemed so delightfully comfortable with the dancers---how cool to see their collaboration with the ballet grow with the advantages of the new home), but the ballet company, from design and conception (ages ago, with sets refurbished and looking great), to the astounding artists on stage, I was just thrilled to call myself a Richmonder.