"Harvey" in Rehearsal - Behind the Scenes!

Our next Mainstage play, the classic comedy "Harvey", is now well along in rehearsals. We tried to get a blog entry from Harvey himself, but he was unavailable. So we've got the next best thing: An entry from his best friend, Elwood P. Dowd (actually Sean Mitchell, the actor currently rehearsing in that lead role). What follows is a look at how it all comes together, from the inside!

September 17th - Designer Runthrough

We're going to go through the whole play, no stopping (we hope), with an invited audience. The lighting designer, set and costume designers, and others associated with the production will be watching, making sure that what they're working on matches what we're doing.

7:10 Starting late...Well, I was late. Costumer is here with ideas, people seem pretty revved up.

7:20 - Susanna, our director, asks us to work with the idea that *all* the men respond to Miss Kelly (played by Heather). Not that the men don't already respond to Heather... We also learn that Waylayn (who plays Mrs. Chauvenet/Mrs. Chumley) broke her wrist and will not be here tonight. Best wishes to you Waylayn - hurry back.

7:30 - And we're off.

8:30 - I think the first act went pretty well. There were a few calls for lines but not a lot. This was the first time I sat and watched the whole act. I'm afraid my timing on a couple of my entrances was off, but not by too much, I hope!

There was some really nice stuff happening; I love the opening with Veta Louise (played by Stephanie) and Myrtle Mae (Megan). I laughed, and I heard the designers laughing too. Dr. Sanderson (Ben) was a little distracted in our scene, but it still flowed nicely. Later he said he was trying to incorporate the Miss Kelly note from earlier... Also, it turns out that I missed a cue that I had always given him before. Actors: If you think something on stage is another actor's fault, it's probably yours.

I like seeing how everyone's scripts look now. We're supposed to be off book, but that doesn't mean we're not looking at them when we're off stage. Tom (as Judge Gaffney) has his lines on cards - he can be seen flipping through them during the first act when he's not onstage much. Kendall (Dr. Chumley) has his script wirebound with his lines highlighted. Stephanie has the book itself - well folded and creased. I'm still working with my photocopied script, stapled in the corner; I've lost a couple of pages, but only one of them has lines of mine on it. (And I'm supposed to know them by now, right?)

8:45 - Here we go with Act II.
Doesn't seem quite as smooth as Act I. A bit more stumbling over lines and blocking. I get confused in my scene, and argh, stop things for a little bit. There are some nice relationships happening and some unexpected surprises (Kelly and Sanderson's double kiss for example). But also some clumping and awkwardness...we have some work to do here.

10:05 - Well we got through it! The designers got a lot of good information and we have a much better understanding of what we have to do in the next 14 days.

10:20 - Off to Matador for a little celebration, then home. Good night, everybody.