Hi there! Tony here again – hope you enjoyed our “Guest Journaler”, Michelle DiDomenico. Michelle’s one of the finest Stage Managers in the state, and working with her is a joy. We’re lucky to have her for this, our first production!
So, it’s now Sunday evening. What a couple of days it’s been.
On Friday, the stage floor and set were loaded into the theatre.
Friday and Saturday we rehearsed for the first time with the …

Hi my name is Michelle. I’m the Stage Manager for this wonderful show and Tony asked me to write a little something.
It was great to walk in today, after having to deal with Memorial Day traffic at its peak, and see a stage, a set, some of the walls painted black, a lighting designer on a ladder, a volunteer making stands for the speakers, and everyone in just a flurry of planning and excitement. It …

Wednesday’s rehearsal was great. We had our first stumble-thru of the show, and it has a very nice shape to it. Already, before we’ve really had a chance to do much polishing work at all, there’s a very solid sense of story, growth and change. Because of the unique format of this script, there are two actors in Act I and two different actors in Act II, so the stumble-thru was nice, too, since the actors in …

Tonight we had a 5 hour rehearsal, 6-11, with just the Act II guys. We had a great time working/sketching out the latter part of Act II.
The poor actors – they’d been rehearsing in their sneakers when our Costume Designer Rachel came in with their show shoes; work boots with good soles. The guys love the boots, but it took a little while to adjust to wearing them instead of their light sneakers – they …

A little late in catching up on this rehearsal report, sorry! The schedule at the theatre is keeping us all hopping!
Monday was the day off. Well, off for actors and stage managers. The rest of us had a big cleaning/painting event, and with the help of some volunteers ‘primed’ the theatre so that next week we can paint it all black. We also did a few other things around the building, and we’re getting closer …

Another great rehearsal today.
One of the things that you worry about, when you do a comedy, is keeping it “honest”. Today we found some of those moments where this play, which can be very silly, gets very warm and honest. You can see, watching the rehearsal and reading the play, where a bad production of this would be full of charicatures – actors up there not really being real people. When you keep it honest, though, …

The second and third rehearsals have gone very well.
On Tuesday, we spent a lot of time playing with furniture placement, and letting the actors just move through the space. Since this is the first show in this space, we needed to see what some of the sightlines were going to be, and how to best lay out the furniture. Bart Bauer, our marvelous set designer, had given suggestions and said “But get in the …

Well, rehearsals have begun for our first show at Williamston Theatre. I’m Tony Caselli, I’m Artistic Director of Williamston Theatre, and I’ll also be Directing the first show.
The show is Additional Particulars, by Ed Simpson. A sweet, funny play.
The first rehearsal went well. Our cast is great – Aaron Moore, Dennis North, Emily Sutton-Smith and Brian Thibault.
Rehearsal started with the usual paperwork – handled nicely by our Managing …