The Big Run Thru —

Just before a company takes a show to the Delacorte for technical rehearsals there is a run thru of the play for an invited audience of tech department heads, upper management and, of course, Oscar Eustis. Oscar is the Artistic Director of the Public Theatre. Oscar is a big, bearded garrulous man who is deeply committed to Theatre and who is blessed with a gift for getting others to buy in to his enthusiasm for putting on first rate shows. He was given a seat, dead center and provided with a script on a music stand that he might refer to and she leaned forward and gave our run-thru his full attention. He laughed at the funny parts, winced at the violent parts and made notes. The other department heads seemed totally caught up in the story and we all felt like it went really well.

This is not to say that we are in any way ready for an audience. No, no, no. What we have done is proved our concept and invited the technical department heads to look at what we are bringing to the Delacorte next week. What we are ready for at the moment, is technical rehearsals.

Tech Week is when the emphasis is placed on lighting, sound, stagecraft, costumes, music, transitions, props and all of the other aspects that make our story into a full scale theatrical event. It is a long and demanding process. We will be at the Theatre from 2:00PM to Midnight all week. The crew will have even longer hours. Experienced actors know that there will be hours and hours of waiting as the various tech departments craft the show moment by moment and will use this time to study lines, write, read, rehearse on the side.

Tomorrow is our last day in the rehearsal space. We will have a run thru of the show and notes and at the end of the day we will crack a few bottles of wine toast a very good week of rehearsals. Then we take two days off and on Tuesday we begin rehearsing onstage at the Delacorte Theatre.

We are primed and ready.