The first meeting of the cast has us sitting around the best tables of the crappy collection of tables in the school. The desk is outfitted a color-coded bound script, rehearsal schedule, contact list, blank journal to keep notes, a pencil (that, yes, you will return each and every rehearsal), copy of the play’s reference work – On Death and Dying – and a bottle of water. Oh, and fear! – – bit of anxiety – but fear nevertheless.
All are gathered around the table to read the play with each other for the first time. I cross my fingers and listen. Words are being mispronounced. Sentences are being bungled. Clearly literary references are being either butchered or ignored – – but this is a group of kids that are alive with the words. They CARE about what they are saying. They are experiencing this play for their first and only time as an audience member. They will never be an audience member to this story again.
I survey their faces. Many are curious why I chose them to be part of this project. Many of them are doubting the reasons they are paired with others. At times, I myself am wondering about my choices – – but that wondering is always going to be there. Art is an expression of faith and an act of impulse – I’m working on both of them. All things feel good at the table. We are ready to march forward.
Apart from the reading of the play, I encourage actors to start working from impulse. Even sitting at the table reading, actors are turning their chairs away; they are pacing the room; they are being drawn to others and being repelled by others. The words are getting something stirred. What that is and what we do with it – – is all part of another day. Go home. Know all of your words and what they mean. Censor nothing. Be ready for me tomorrow.