The Comedy Series has officially begun. It’s extremely exciting. The rehearsal room schedule was posted this morning, and I wasted no time checking it as soon as I walked in the room. I wanted to check the cast lists to see who else would be with me during the day, but they had them moved up to the 6th floor (something about there being errors on them). Checking the schedule, I noticed first that Once A Catholic goes up on the first day of performances. Since it’s in the MM Theatre, we start at 3… meaning that we’re the second play performed in the series. Next, I check The Real Inspector Hound. I get all giddy (again) when I find that we’re the last play to perform… on June 7th at 5:00. Now, I know this means that I won’t be able to see any afternoon plays… but it also means that this is the very last play performed by first year AADA students this year. We’re the end of it all.
That’s heavy, Doc.
I head upstairs to 45 for rehearsal of Once A Catholic. Due to the nature of the play, it’s a pretty large cast, and I still don’t remember everyone’s names… but I was excited by the cast surrounding me. Sitting in the same room as me were Charlie (Zoe’s neighbor), Christy Corcoran, Maggie Packer, R.J. Lewis, Kyle S. Beaver, Leila Moore, and Kaitlyn Wagner (not to mention the many people that I didn’t know). And of course, the director, the wonderful Pam Scott (director of A Far Country). After a brief talk about Catholocism, we did our first read-though of the first Act. It took about an hour-and-a-half, after which Pam let us out early. I got a few good laughs for my monologue as Father Mullarkey… and I laughed heartily at the stuff between Leila and Christy, and Leila’s stuff with Kyle. I’m looking forward to it.
Right across the long hallway, in room 41, I met up with the cast of The Real Inspector Hound, including Joel Brady, Cary Ward, G Zhang, Adam Fajita, and Stephanie Smith, among others. We also met the director, T. Ryder Smith. Within the first few minutes of rehearsal, I get the vibe that T. Ryder is actually a pretty cool guy. He has a very chill and relaxed feel about him, and seems willing to be flexible in all aspects of rehearsal, so long as we’re willing to work every now and then. Soon after meeting him, I found out that he’s from Orangeburg! He went to TZ! We had a bonding moment in class, when we realized that we had both acted on the stage of Tappan Zee High School, albeit about twenty-five years apart. Crazy. He’s probably the first person I’ve met in the city from Rockland County — it’s a small world, I guess.
Well, anyway, we never touched our scripts in Hound… but I was still really energized and optimistic after coming out of rehearsal. Can’t wait for tomorrow.
10 rehearsal days left for Once A Catholic
12 rehearsal days left for The Real Inspector Hound
