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Written by Gwendolyn Rice

Thoughts on Rehearsal of A Thousand Words, from the Playwright

Posted 1-21-12

 
The cast and crew who collaborated on A Thousand Words
Photo by Nick Berard
Front row from left:  Joanne Chaloub, Sydney Kreiger, Playwright Gwendolyn Rice, Jen Uphoff Gray, Libby Amato, Molly Rhode, Josh Aaron McCabe, Georgina McKee, Jacqueline Singleton, Sarah Marty
Back row from left:  Ric Lantz, Jen Trieloff, Frank Honts, Paul Hurley, Stacy Hicks, Nate Stuber, Kim Patch, Jason Fassl, Emily Popp, Sarah Day, Bryan Streich and Louis Kreienkamp

-As an actress, director, or stage manager, I remember rehearsals being very long. As the writer, they seem to go by very quickly.

-I think the most wonderful thing a playwright can experience is hearing a line said out loud that’s better than he/she heard it initially in her head. It doesn’t always happen, but when it does. .. wow.

-A good stage manager and assistant stage manager are like a team of fairy godmothers looking out for you. They make everything happen. They unlock the rehearsal hall when you arrive and lock up after you when you leave. They make the coffee. They build the rehearsal set. They capture every small line change, print out new script pages, and take notes on specific props that we suddenly discovered we need. They keep the schedule. They do all these things very, very well.

-It’s amazing to watch people you know assume characters you wrote. I have seen most all the cast onstage in a variety of productions – I even performed in FTC’s first production, All About Eve with Molly Rhode, Libby Amato, and Sarah Day. Watching them morph from friends into people I had imagined is incredible. Listening to the questions they ask about the things they find confusing on the page is challenging and illuminating.

-I am not, it turns out, the expert on the play I wrote. I am shocked at the number of little details that the actors and director pick up on that I evidently didn’t think all the way through.

-Dramaturgs are awesome. This may be news to some of you reading this post, since it’s a title that frequently needs explanation. A dramaturg is a guardian of the script, protector of the words, and researcher for any issues that may come up in the play or the production – similar, but much better than Wikipedia. Where did Walker Evans go to college and what did he study? Ask the dramaturg. What kind of camera was he using in 1937? Ask the dramaturg. How does one travel to Cuba in the present day? What’s the mission of the Metropolitan Museum of Art? You guessed it. . .ask the dramaturg, in this case the lovely and talented Kimberly Megna Yarnall, who is a member of the FTC advisory company, and a fabulous playwright in her own right. That means she is also invaluable when I say, “Does this line sound funny?” or “Why isn’t this scene flowing the way it should?” or “I thought that was obvious. Do I really need one of the characters to explain it?” Even better, Kimberly has been through this process herself, and knows what craziness can ensue. This is why she has also assumed the role of “playwright wrangler.” I’m not saying I’m going to need it. . .but after a long day in tech rehearsal , if I simply need to say. . . “What just happened to my play?” at the top of my lungs, she is there to comfort, reassure, and soothe.

-I am utterly surprised at how easy it is to add new scenes or lines to the play. Going back to that world for more. . . is a lot of fun.

  ~Gwendolyn Rice, playwright