Every now and then when I’m directing a show, there comes a magical moment in the rehearsal process. Sometimes it happens early on, sometimes it happens very late in the process, sometimes it doesn’t happen until we get in front of an audience. What’s the magical moment? It is when all the effort to make things work suddenly fall away for the actors and the play just materializes right in front of your face, as if it were happening for the first time.
That happend last in last night’s dress rehearsal for Stones in His Pockets. The two actors, Larry Dahlke and J.J. Kacysinski have been doing superb and brilliant work throughout the process on this very difficult play. Watching them work is a lesson in what this business and this art is all about. They have to play 15 characters with shifts and character changes that happen instaneoulsy without the benefit of costumes to signal the change. It demands great skill and stamina, and it is a real bear to make work. We’ve been heading to this moment for awhile, and when it all clicked last night, you could just sense that something wonderful happened.
Every play has an instance where it finds it’s life. But last night’s instance was somehow more magical than most. It was a blessing to be in that theatre last night and experience it. It will be a blessing today to see it happen in front of our first audience.
