Last night was the read-through. For those who haven’t done it, the first rehearsal is a read-through, with all the cast (and crew) sitting around on chairs in a circle, reading the play aloud all the way through. Well, it often isn’t technically the first rehearsal, depending on how you define rehearsal; the director may have met with cast members to discuss characters and interactions in general terms, or have even worked on scenes. But the read-through is Opening Day, the official start of the process.
The most important thing about the read-through is the stopwatch that the Stage Manager has. Click, we start at 7:12. Scene 2 starts at 7:22. The Act Curtain is at 8:08, fifty-four minutes from curtain to intermission—is that too long? We break for a few minutes (and go outside for air, because tragically the air conditioner is not working; we are assured it will be fixed soon, soon, soon) and come back, starting the curtain at 8:24 and finishing the play at 9:11. That’s not bad.
More important is my own situation: I have three character/costumes: Poor Alfie, Whiskers, and Rich Alfie. I start with Poor Alfie, coming on 26 minutes in, so I have all day to prepare the dirt and dust. Then off (at 7:50 last night) to wash and put on the wig and beard (and white tie, I imagine, and I’m hoping a big red sash). I am on when the curtain comes up after intermission, so there’s the 18 minutes (at last night’s reading) plus another ten or so for that. Not too bad. Then it’s off with me, and assuming Whiskers leaves the stage immediately after his last line, and there’s no reason why that can’t happen, I have only 12 minutes to take off the beard and wig, get out of the Ball costume and into spongebag trousers. Doable? There is a scene change there, which of course we didn’t do, so I may have an extra half-minute or so.
And, of course, once we block it all out and do it properly, some things will take longer and other things will go faster. But in a general sense, that’s my window.
GRs familiar with the play will have figured out that there are substantial cuts to get us down to two hours with an intermission. There are. And although I went over the cuts when I was onstage with a fine-toothed comb, I hadn’t bothered to look at the rest of the play, so I was listening last night for how the cuts played. I think Jane did a terrific job—I miss all the stuff that’s missing, of course, but as I said I agree that it needs to be cut, and once you decide that, you are bound to miss the stuff that’s missing. What’s left, though, reads very well, and I think will play very well.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.