Today was a little different than the rest of the sessions. The star actress herself aka Sheryl was not there. So considering she’s about 75% of our act we had to make due without her parts. We actually all just played at least 2 roles and it worked out great. John who has only attended once let us know he may not be there for the performance, but we told him it won’t be a problem as we have many actors willing to take on another role! We worked on a little bit of staging where the audience will be and where people will die and when they get up and go off stage. All that type of stuff! It worked out well even though Thisbee would be dead then be Puck right after haha

Also, we worked on where the moon should stand as well with the wall. When actors should approach the wall and which side they should stand on. But don’t worry Sheryl will be back in action next week and we can continue our further development.

Last week was a really great rehearsal. We went over our lines twice and practiced staging. We had the idea that before Puck’s big speech at the end to bring all the actors from Act 5 out on stage and make them all fairies flying in the background. We also had the idea to bring all the kids out from all the other acts and anyone else who participated in the production. This means that Sheryl will have to wait a few minutes to get everyone on stage. We also had a lot of fun with the costumes. Sheryl has a lot of props and costumes. We have a few crowns, a mantel which were planning on coloring with red sharpie during the actual play. We have lion ears but are trying to invest in a better pair. They look a little mouse like and not a big scary lion. Also, we have a great wall costume and a plastic knife. It looks pretty real though! So were doing pretty well in that aspect!

Our most enthusiastic, and focused cast member was sick today, leading to a different atmosphere at rehearsal.  The three of us that were there a few minutes early had a discussion about different majors at UR and I got to learn a little about their lives which was fun.  The cast member who was dealing with a family emergency last week was back this week, however, he informed us that his participation may be limited due to his son being in critical care in the advanced stages of a terminal illness.  Hopefully he will be with us on the day of the performance, but we have a backup plan if need be.  We went through the play with the people present, and then talked about logistics.  I told them that the idea of having the kids come on stage before Puck’s final speech would have to be flexible, seeing as we don’t know how squirmy and out of control the other groups will be.  To that they jokingly said they were grateful I had confidence in their ability to behave themselves…   We also talked about the possibility of filling in for Act 4 if need be, which they were all happy to do.  To that effect I told them I would bring at least one copy of that groups script so we could go over it next week.  We decided that even if we don’t end up needing to fill roles it would still be a great opportunity to understand more of the play and get to know our characters.  We look forward to next weeks rehearsal which will be our second to last time together before the performance.