An Intern's View

Emily Johnson, a production intern on "Harvey", has submitted her own look at the rehearsal process:

Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Work through entire show

At the beginning of rehearsal, the actors were already warmed up, in rehearsal clothes, and ready to go. Everyone was focused and free of distractions.

For about the first 45 minutes of rehearsal, we worked through Scene 10 to the end of the act. No large changes were made; we had little time on this scene the week before, so a little bit of perfecting was needed.

Just before 8:00, Susanna, our director, quickly went through some notes for us before starting our run of the entire show. Her main note was reminding everyone to breathe while on stage. As silly as it sounds, we all need reminders not to freeze on stage, even professionals.

We jumped into Act One to start the show. Scene One with Veta Louise and Myrtle May got us off to a great start; it set a good pace and focus for the rest of us.

Act One went very well, with only a few rough places. Things are starting to flow together nicely. Actors didn't call “line” nearly as much as last week. I’ve noticed a lot of improvement in the act; it is amazing to me how quickly everything is pulling together. Being in a professional environment, things move much faster then in the educational theatre I’ve experienced.

We stopped and took a quick break before starting Act Two. We re-set the stage for Scene One, regrouped, talked over a few little details, and started up again.

Act Two did start out quite as well as Act One did. Scene One was a little rough, but the three actors covered extremely well. As soon as we continued to the next scene, things went back to flowing well.

Tonight, I specifically enjoyed watching Dr. Sanderson and Ms. Kelley, played by Ben and Heather, in Act Two. They have really developed an interesting relationship in the play and they can make me laugh easily.

When the clock hit 10:00, we hadn’t finished the run of the show. Being a performance intern, I was released from rehearsal not knowing how it wrapped up. I hope it went well.

--Emily